Almost back home as I sit in Dillon, MT on our way home from Utah and blew a bearing on trailer. Utah was fun, but I’m unsure if I’d ever do another late elk hunt. It kinda of reminded me of glassing for October muleys feeding. The 0 to -5 mornings and 3 am alarms and hiking 1-2 hours before light 6 consecutive days was beginning to wear me down. Finding bulls wasn’t hard and you could shoot a rag horn everyday if you wanted. I laughed with my wife as we are glassing and it’s “ there’s another 5” if I were in Idaho we would be bombing off the mountain to shoot it. This hunt wasn’t about filling a tag it was a great opportunity to find a big bull. My goal was to hopefully turn up a 340+ I held out for 6 days saw 53 different bulls. I coulda shot 6-7 bulls bigger, but that’s the game you play when holding off. I learned on this hunt that if you glass a bull you either pass or go after it now! The next day they are likely to be nowhere around. Everyday we would glass up new bulls on the same ridges . Day 3 I found a nice 6x6 3 mi away. He was busted on his 5th but was near 330-340. Day 2 I thought I’d hike around into them and look closer. I never saw him and hiked out day 3 I glassed across again and he was in the same spot and I realized I didn’t hike down ridge far enough. This was the only group of bulls that stayed in same drainage for 3 straight days. Day 5 I now had a perfect plan, I hiked up from below and was right in there basin, gone! Found their tracks from early that morning they went up and out and continued higher.
Day 6 I was running outta time plus still needed days to pack meat off mountain and the 12 hour drive. Day 6 had me climbing 45 min before light to a mountain top in 12–18” of snow and bitter cold to only be greeted by 15 mph wind on top. My hope was to see some bulls on backside in canyons nobody could glass unless you hiked up and over. One thing I was told and learned is Utah hunters rarely hike
never saw a dude hiking or cut a single boot track! They all drive and glass then hike to shoot. As I hit the top I glassed a herd of elk 4 ridges away and noticed cows which isn’t good on this hunt . If you see cows late in the year there’s a low percentage there’s a decent bull. I kept moving closer and as sun hit the herd I looked at them and noticed there was 3 bulls and 1 looked pretty good and good enough for almost last day. My wife was on road watching with spotter and said the one looks big. Well 4 hours later and 3.8 miles I was set up across canyon from them at 585 yards. I was then told someone was stalking from the bottom and coming up the ridge they were on! Well I better get ready they are going to blow them wtf are they doing wind is blowing up hill at 10 am. Sure enough they spook! Run up hill and to my advantage they moved 500 yards up hill and were now 400 yards from me. The 2 biggest bulls were still over a ridge and fed over. They both were 6x6’s both pretty equal in size , but one had a busted 4 so the decision was made to shoot the other as he only had about 3” broke off. 1 shot with a 215 Berger dropped him.
The work started as I broke the bull down and deboned and bagged everything I made my way down 1,300’ in elevation and hit road with about 30 min of light left. Next day my wife and I hiked up and brought down 230lbs in 1 trip. Thanks to her I didn’t have to do 2 loads. Overall cool country ,lots of elk and had a blast in Utah.
