Author Topic: NE WA OTC Bull (Read 4704 times)

cougforester · « **on:** September 20, 2020, 01:03:27 PM »

My hunting partner and I got it done last Sunday on a nice 4x5 out of the NE. Knew we were in for a challenge with small herds, low elk density and high predator numbers and in country we'd never been in before.

This bull cracked off to us having a cow party and throwing out some advertising bugles, and came in on a rope. I dropped back, Josh got set up next to the decoy and waited. The bull saw our cow decoy, and heard me mewing and breaking sticks/brush and panting and trotted in drooling, bugling and all sorts of excited. Josh drew when he was at 25ish yards, and the bull kept coming until Josh finally released the arrow at 11 yards while he was slightly quartering to. Arrow hit high lung, and the bull ran about 25 yards and stopped when I barked at him. Another arrow got sent and dropped him in his tracks and he never moved again.

Total time elapsed from the first bugle to him dead was under 5 minutes. Crazy how fast things happen. So glad I could be caller and put together such a great opportunity for my buddy to take advantage of. Shout out to @Elknut1 for all the great calling techniques and knowledge.

Some more takeaways:
1) Wow there needs to be more elk up there. The amount of amazing habitat without elk in it, or habitat that they just move through and don't spend much time in blows my mind. I'm reading up on the Selkirk herd management strategies and will be asking some questions of WDFW and I'll start another thread with those questions.
2) I believe we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We kept checking country that appeared to be right and happened to find this bull all lonely and wanting company. We ended up putting about 700 miles on my truck (and I live in Spokane) and 85 boot miles between Saturday and Thursday. We continuously found poop and tracks ranging from a day old to a couple weeks... just couldn't get anything else to crack off. For those who want to hunt up there, lace up the boots and get ready to cover miles.
3) Some of those areas are truly overrun with wolves. I knew it was bad, but the amount of wolf sign, especially east of the river, is pretty nuts.
4) We saw 5 moose through the week which was pretty cool. 2 bulls, one lone cow and cow/calf pair.
5) We built our arrow set up specifically for elk, and knew it was a thumper, but wow it's nice to see it perform. After a complete passthrough, we found the arrow about 55 yards behind where it went through the bull. The arrow when farther after hitting the bull than the bull did after being hit. The set up is a 528 grain Easton Axis 5mm going 275 FPS with a 100 grain QAD Exodus up front. I don't think we'll be changing anytime soon.

Anyways wanted to give those of you hunting up north a boost knowing it can be done, and we got it done in our first year of hunting up there. Lots of lessons learned that I'll be applying for the rest of my multi season tag!

@JBMAK

cougforester · « **Reply #1 on:** September 20, 2020, 01:05:49 PM »

Here's the bull

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Bango skank · « **Reply #2 on:** September 20, 2020, 01:19:28 PM »

Awesome, getting an elk in this part of the state is no cakewalk. Not near as many as there could / should be. Congrats.

Tracker0721 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 20, 2020, 02:01:36 PM »

That’s awesome! There’s tons of great country where you’d expect to find em but it seems the herds haven’t got the memo. One day hopefully! Until then that’s a great trophy!

sjhgraysage · « **Reply #4 on:** September 20, 2020, 02:05:21 PM »

Congrats
Persistent hard work that paid off.

bustedoldman · « **Reply #5 on:** September 20, 2020, 02:17:26 PM »

Great Job....

HUNTINCOUPLE · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2020, 02:30:11 PM »

Good team work guys!

KFhunter · « **Reply #7 on:** September 20, 2020, 02:41:37 PM »

Congrats!

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pianoman9701 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 20, 2020, 02:52:08 PM »

Beautiful! Well done!

Brushcrawler · « **Reply #9 on:** September 20, 2020, 05:31:33 PM »

Nice work! Love the color of that bull.

cougforester · « **Reply #10 on:** September 20, 2020, 05:36:44 PM »

Quote from: Brushcrawler on September 20, 2020, 05:31:33 PM

Nice work! Love the color of that bull.

He seriously reminded me of a Rosie with the black belly!

Birdguy · « **Reply #11 on:** September 20, 2020, 06:02:33 PM »

Always like to hear of a guy or two pulling an elk out of the NE! Congrats to the both of you on a great animal!

Taco280AI · « **Reply #12 on:** September 20, 2020, 06:07:39 PM »

Nice work

Rutnbuxnbulls · « **Reply #13 on:** September 20, 2020, 08:14:07 PM »

Great story and congratulations!

hunterofelk · « **Reply #14 on:** September 21, 2020, 05:52:41 AM »

Right place, right time. More than half of the elk hunting luck has to be that. Great bull!

antlerman · « **Reply #15 on:** September 28, 2020, 08:24:48 PM »

Alot of Miles & very few elk! It used to be better. Seeing very few calves which is not a great indicator of how the hunting may be in the future..Hmmm! Wonder why so few calves!

gee_unit360 · « **Reply #16 on:** September 28, 2020, 10:08:53 PM »

Great job! Why marker out the face??

huntnnw · « **Reply #17 on:** September 28, 2020, 10:55:20 PM »

congrats! not easy killing elk up there

If you think its hard to find elk today try 20 years ago up there. Elk herd really took off about 20 years ago in places and I can find elk in many places now that elk never or barely existed

Wanttohuntmore · « **Reply #18 on:** October 09, 2020, 10:36:58 AM »

I'd like to know why the wdfw seems to want elk gone north of I90 in general. I agree the terrain up there is perfect.

salt n sage90 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 12, 2020, 02:56:11 PM »

Nice work hoss.

Gonehuntin01 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 14, 2020, 09:32:47 AM »

Great work and great write up. Gotta luv those lonely bulls. Good team work. I have always enjoyed calling bulls in for others.

Sutherland · « **Reply #21 on:** October 14, 2020, 09:57:04 AM »

Great success story! Well done!

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Author Topic: NE WA OTC Bull (Read 4704 times)

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