Sorry was trying to update on the hill but service was terrible there so we go… may be a touch long
After the first day missing the nice bull my dad was down in the slump feeling like he let me down. We had such a good day, missed that nice bull and seen 21 mountain goats. Had a few drinks that night and he explained how he just really had buck fever and wanted to execute the plan we had. No big deal we moved on. Explained to him we need to not beat up our bodies doing 10-12 mile days and find a spot so I can set up the spotting scope to find something we want to make a move on.
Next morning (yesterday) I had a spot in mind. We got situated half hour before daylight and I set up the spotter. We had 4 maybe 5 bulls bugling around us. As the sun came up I glassed up two herds that had 6 point bulls. I explained to my dad these bulls were not BIG by any means, respectable but we should maybe think about passing. He wasn’t having it. Kept asking, “do you think we could kill one?” I confirmed yes but this would be a death March for both of us. We are talking all day and night if this happens. He didn’t hesitate, “I’m in if you are”. So we draw a make shift line on OnX. No trails close by. Took us 2.5 hours to go .9 miles with dead fall. We make it to where I thought elk bedded and there was no elk. We tip toed into it the cut we last seen them and nothing. We agreed let’s play this right and sit down and wait til they start moving for the evening since we have high ground on them. I kept checking the wind. 30 min after we sat down bull bugles in his bed at about 12:30. Every 10-15 min he would bugle which confirmed he was still there. He did that all day long. We locked in to our spot and figured best not to try to sneak in know he has cows we could bust first. We couldn’t have been more than 100-125 yards away from this bull but couldn’t see him in the thicket. We sat there for 6 hours. Pretty soon I catch some cows moving and hear some mewing. The bull finally stood up and was working the cows our way. We were talking through the whole thing working out the scenario. By the time we could see clear vitals bull came to 55 yards straight downhill. Last words I said was “make sure your happy with him…” click BOOM. Rolled him! High shoulder shot. Dad got his first ever bull! We hugged and agreed this could be the dumbest thing we will ever do. Actually dad said “We are F’d”. We both knew this was gonna take me and him all night to get this bull out. We took the pictures and started breaking him down. By the time we boned him out and had him bagged up it was nearly 10pm. No service to make calls or text. We commence our first load. Anybody who has done it knows it’s almost comically how much pain we put ourselves through for something. We laughed. Got to the truck worn out, hungry and ready for bed. This morning we hands and knees back to the top and make our final load. Numerous times we stopped and lay on our sides with heavy packs, that you can’t even stand back up with, and laugh. “This is so dumb… WE are so dumb… but this is awesome!” We got the last load to the truck at 1pm today.
Dad got his first bull and the adventure was complete. We had so much food, supplies and propane to last the whole duration of the tag. It was over fast but so worth it. I’m back home now and Mt whole body hurts but my mom texted explaining that “your dad won’t shut up”. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Thanks for the couple guys on here that messaged me with advise and pointers. We took all your advise and utilized everyone. Really appreciate the people on this site that step up. Dad appreciated the extra encouragement and pointers. Thank you!
