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Hey guys, got this guy last Sunday on day 10 of a tough hunt. The rut was sporadic at best with some days having almost no bugles during daylight hours. I've been getting caught up at work so haven't done a full write-up, this guy came in screaming with about 10 cows at 7:15 am when it had been quiet all morning. I had to wait at full draw for what seemed like ever for his cows to clear out from between us, but managed to make a heart shot. He only went about 30-40 yards before tipping over. I'm super exited. He's my biggest bull to date, and broke my drought. It's been a few years since I've put anything bigger than an turkey or javi on the ground.

So I cashed in on some points and decided to go to Colorado for a Mule Deer muzzy hunt. I tried my hand on the Elk hunt there a couple years ago but a early season snow storm threw me off and I left empty handed. One thing I decided this time I was going to buy a lighter rifle and to bring a pair of llamas. This past year, a friend and I pulled the trigger on some llamas, but I will have to write up a new thread on those. Fast forward to the hunt, I showed up a day later than I wanted, due to life issues. I rolled into camp at mid night and as I proceeded to park, my alarm on my truck goes off, declaring my presence to everyone in camp. I thought, great, an awesome way to start a hunt. Over the first 2 days I spent my time just day hiking and hunting with the llamas trying to adjust to the thinner air. Which i didn't do very well. The first couple days I didn't see much, other than spectacular views, does, fork bucks and tons of hunters. I was going to adjust my plan to take the llamas in deep, and spend a few days doing that. But one of the guys in camp convinced me to try another area first, but due to the access in getting there I wouldn't be able to take the llamas. At this point I was happy with a decent 3pt. The next morning we were in our glassing spot. As the sun came up, this new area proved to be better than anywhere I had been the previous days of the hunt. We located a few bucks that peaked my interest and began to see which one would give us the best play. I about had my mind set on a buck we called the miner, until he walked over a ridge and out of our lives. Soon after, one of my buddies, who seemed to be struggling behind the glass, calls out a doe on a ridge across from us that we had all seen. Shrugging it off we laughed and said, yeah we've all seen that doe. But as we all look were he is describing we see 2 awesome bucks, in the chutes below her. We waited till they both bedded. Which happened to be in one of the gnarliest places I've ever seen. But off I went. I had to decend 2k ft and then climb 3k ft to get above the bucks. Then come down 500ish ft to get into a shooting position. I was stoked. It took me almost 2 hours to get into position but I finally made it. I settled in and could see this buck was an awesome 3x4. At least 30" wide. I was positioned directly above him at 42 yards on a cliff over hang. I couldn't see the other buck, but I knew this was the one I wanted. I ranged him several times, and I knew couldn't miss at 42 yards. I kept calm but was excited. I leaned over to make the shot, I am in and squeezed, POP, the muzzy misfired. The buck looks at me and I slowly lower out of sight. I think ok, he's not leaving. I add a new primer to the rifle, wait for the buck to look away, hang over the ledge again, aim, fire, POP, another misfire..... the buck looks up again then away. At the point I can't believe this is happening. I decide to lay on my back, pull the breech and kick the load. I have never been under such reloading stress. I grab some grass and clean the breech hole. Reassemble the rifle and reload. I reprime a 3rd time, take aim, squeeze, POP, again no ignition. This time the buck gives me a hard look. He must have stared at me for 15 minutes. Now I'm panicked. I'm only carrying 5 primers, and I'm down to 2. Reprime one more time, not knowing what to do. Aim, POP! Again! At this point he knows something is up. In a panic I decided to kick the load again and add a new one. Its at this point I finally remembered that I could add powder in front of the primer in the breech hole to get a stronger ignition. As I hurried to reload and set my primer, the second buck i had forgotten about stands up, and we are both terrified, staring each other eye to eye about 20 yards apart. Now I know I'm in trouble, he then breaks running down the chute towards the other buck. I pop up to see if I still have a shot. And there they are, both standing there broadside, I take aim, squeeze, BOOM! Clean miss.... both bucks run off and out of sight. I couldn't believe it. When I got back to the truck I restocked, this time with stronger 209 primers. And shot a practice shot, dead center. That night at camp I was disappointed, but I had no one to blame but myself for missing a great shot opportunity. But we decided to head back to the same spot the next morning to see if we could turn up another buck. The next morning we hadn't been glassing 30 seconds, when my buddy says, "Got him!" Sure enough, there he was, the wide buck on the same ridge, 300 of yards from where I missed him. Today other hunters were around, so we made no delay and went after him. We figured he would bed in the same spot again, so we were gonna get close and just wait till he bedded. As we watched from a closer location, we watched as a trail hiker passed under the buck and the buck was having none of it. He bolted over the ridge and gone. We decided to climb up a separate ridge and get eyes on him again. We did a huge circle, another 3k ft climb, but it paid off. We saw him walk back over the ridge toward the chute were he was bedded the day before. This time we were already positioned above him. So we gave him some time and made our move. Once we got above the chute I began to climb down, I looked back at my buddy and told him to stand by here as I stalked lower. The wind was constantly shifting and we weren't 100% sure he was in the same bed. I crept down the side of the chute periodically looking down to see if the buck was in there. It wasn't until I got to where I missed the day before that I finally found him in the same bed as yesterday. This time facing away from me and dead asleep. This time I took my pack, rested my gun against it, peered over the edge. I ranged him 41 yards this time. I said a little prayer and took aim. Due to the swirling wind, I knew I didn't have much time to shoot. The angle was an almost straight down shot. I aimed in on his spin in-between his shoulder blades. Slowly squeezed, BOOM! Perfect shot. The bullet broke his back and straight into the boiler room. He death rolled into and down the chute, stopping inches from the edge and 1,000 ft drop. I was beyond excited and in disbelief. I turned around to yell at my buddy to start the climb down, but to my surprise he was already there. He said he got selfish and had to watch it go down. We slid down to the buck, broke him down and made our way out. 6 primers fired at a single buck. Later looking back, I practiced using blackhorn 209 with Triple 7 primers. In practice the gun went bang everytime. But at higher elevation I figure the lack of oxygen was reducing the flash of my primer. When I switched to shot shell primers it went off everytime. Inside spread was 30 7/8 and outside was 33 7/8. Gross 170.

But a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then...

This bull is going to have a tough life. Would make an interesting Euro mount.

Ttt. 👍😀

Fantastic bullet for the 7-08. I load this bullet for my rifle as well as three others. Kills out to and past 500 yards. Three cow elk as well from 80 to 250 yards. They have always exited too. They actually have a stouter jacket than the 140 gr BTs. my understanding is that Nosler uses the same copper blanks for the 120s and 140s. The 120 don't need to be extruded to the length the 140s do. This gives them a thicker jacket. If you do load them in your 7/08, I have found that Varget is a fantastic powder for the combo.

Prolly a PSE bow.

The secret to getting so close is failing miserably a bunch of times...lol Realistically I drew a decent tag, spent a ton of time looking over a number of goats. Found a couple of really good bucks and decided that I would make a play on them with the longbow, knowing I could switch to a rifle in a few weeks and shoot a grande, so there was no pressure to fill the tag. Failed on a few stalks and while doing so, turned this buck up, which would have been a no brainer even with a gun in a few weeks. Had I known this buck existed I would have brought the compound or held off completely until the rifle opener. Really it just worked out that was the only thing I could hunt him with at the moment in time... I botched a bunch of stalks on him during the day and eventually I caught him dogging a doe that I know was headed to water. I caught them traveling in a wash and ambushed him in a brushy spot about 35 yards out, which is about as far as I feel comfortable shooting. Shot was a little forward, but managed to get enough penetration to get the job done... There's a long winded play by play on another site, but that's the short of it. Ironically enough the largest I've ever taken with any weapon... I knew he was big but stunned when I walked up on him...

Spent the last few days up north chasing bugles. I’ve killed a bull before with a rifle and killed a cow with a bow so not necessarily a stranger to elk hunting but far from seasoned. Lots of failed attempts, long hours sitting trails, miles walked. In the end it came down to me and an ancient bull mixing it up one on one in the timber. Our paths so happened to cross and a single arrow put him down quickly. I believe he will easily qualify for P&Y, making him the first “book” animal I’ve ever taken. Couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out! Side note - I knew he was “old” but after getting a look at his teeth I was hoping maybe someone with more experience could chime in with an age estimate!

When my buddy Jake and I drew our tags, we assumed they were rifle tags. Imagine our surprise when the tags turned out to be out first choice, early archery bull tags! That meant new strings, new arrows, lots of gym time and upcoming 3D shoots in Flagstaff! Unfortunately, the family cabin in Pinetop sold right before the 4th of July Sunrise shoot. On to the hunt. Jake and I were able to get the entire hunt off from work, and we were both pumped! First few days were a little rough, full moon, etc you know the drill. On September 13th, we followed a huge train of elk with many bugling bulls for a few miles. We never truly caught up to them, but we marked the area on the GPS and decided to beat them to the area the next day. As some of you will remember, in 2014 my grandpa passed just a couple days before opening morning. I killed my bull 4 days later, on my moms birthday, September 14th. The next morning (the 14th) Jake, his brother Tate and I headed in to the area where we followed the train of elk, with the idea of beating them to their bedding area. As we approached the area, there was another truck where we wanted to be. We backed off a couple hundred yards and changed our strategy a bit. As we walked to our ambush point, I found a spot that gave me shooting lanes above and below my position, asked Jake his opinion and he said it looked good, so I settled in. After doing a little landscaping, I settled in for the wait. After an hour or so, I hear a bugle right behind me. I grab my bow, turn around, and glass a elk behind me. As I am looking at what appears to be a spike, I see a small 5x5 below him in shooting distance. I went in to this hunt wanting anything 5x or better, as I am not a dedicated archer and the idea of tagging a 5x5 or better on our own sounded plenty fulfilling to me. After assessing that his bull met my reasonable standards I ranged him at 56 yards. As soon as I snapped on to the string, he took a step and exposed his vitals. One Slick Trick Magnum to the top 1/3 of his lungs and he was dead in 75 yards. A quick look at the phone and he was shot and dead at 7:13 Am on 9/14. 56 yards: my sons football number 7:13, my birthday 9/14: my moms birthday. The hunt was fantastic and one of my best times in the woods ever. Fourteen days in the woods is a long time, even in a comfortable trailer! elkhunt1.jfif elkhunt2.jfif elkhunt3.jfif elkhunt4.jfif elkhunt5.jfif elkhunt6.jfif

I'm wondering if this was due to an injury or birth defect.

Great price and a great gun, I bought my 13 year old lefty one and he goes out to 800 with no problem. For the price you can't beat it I believe.

I have killed coues and coyotes. But I didn't have enough terminal ballistics past 500 for me. I did destroy a pair of lungs on a coues at 420. Looked like a horror movie.

I have seen a few Bucks with good potential both mule deer and coues in 36a already.

The 120s are tough, been using them for over 10 years in the 708 exclusively. Elk, muleys and coues, no problem shooting an elk in the shoulders with it, drt, I've yet to catch one in an elk through the vitals always exit, like a tsx. 2 years ago my brother killed a cow elk one week and my wife a nice muley the next week, one shot no tracking kills. Kent

Reticle is BDC type. Has three hash marks below crosshair and three to the right of cross hair and three to left. As for the zero stop I’m not too familiar with this scope since it was never used. I’ve attached a close up photo of the turret. Pretty sure it’s zero stop.

Yes, this is correct. 120g is a little bit tighter than the 140g in the 7mm

Thanks very much I loaded 5 rounds with staball 6.5 and had all 5 touching so they look promising I will try varget to see I how it works in my rifle I just didn’t know how they performed on game.Thanks again.

I live in mesa and have size 9 boots, quite a few extra pairs in the garage, free to kids. Starting next tuesday I am starting a concrete job in central phoenix and will be there morning to very early afternoon for around 5 days. Rocky size 9, Lowa 9 but are tight so more like 8.5, Merril 8.5 that are more like 9s, a couple new balance warmer weather size 9. Will need footbed inserts. I may have some pants and shirts that fit. Kent

Aside from wounding this bull, is there more to try story?, you caught up to him and killed him?

Here on from the other day

Congrats on a fine bull!

We found this buck 2 months from opening day, then we found him a month later in the same spot. Night before the hunt he was back. Opening morning we had a little trouble finding him, coyotes were chasing the herd all around, one lone doe seemed to be following us, then she started running and 23 ears and 1 set of horns appeared over a knoll- dropped then crawled about 50 yds, an old ant hill provided a shooting lane without grass in the way. Shot was at 7:01 am - hunt over. I don't now much about antelope - I am very fortunate to have good friends help me - The hot scouting trips and helping the day of the hunt. Also appreciate all the help CWT members shared and offered! Great time- need some draw luck to have another tag in AZ- can't wait for Wyoming / Utah and New Mexico someday.

I wish I knew how important good "in the field" pics were when I shot this one. My first buck in 1985.