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CouesSlayer

Brought Him Down

By CouesSlayer, in Bowhunting for Coues Deer

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RAM   

RAM
Posted

cool looking bull. Is their a story to go with him?

 

As for the score, I am not the best but I will guestimate 315, give or take a few.

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CouesSlayer   

CouesSlayer
Posted

Just got home ready for a story? haha ok here it goes

 

I had not been able to scout at all prior to this hunt due to me being in Boston and other parts of the east coast for all of July and most of August. Then we couldn't go in September due to some emergency surgery. I was feelin' a little like I probably didn't deserve to take a huge bull due to lack of time and effort put in on my part, so I kinda just went with low expectations, but I knew one spot that no one would ever walk to so I figured it would come down to that. First night we camped on a mesa with a big tank on it hoping we would hear bugles all night, but all that we heard was a single bugle from a hunter up the ridge. We got up at 4:00 and busted it to a little park next to the tank and tried to get one to answer us but not a single bugle was to be heard all morning...We ran into two hunters by another tank farther down that said they had seen a bunch of elk during the first hunt when they were scouting(it was now the third). It was obviously time to find somewhere where minimal hunter pressure was being applied.

 

We walked back to camp and got in the truck to look at the rest of the country and just kinda relax. We found a lot more promising areas, that is they looked promising... we talked to a few frustrated hunters like ourselves...apparently no one had heard a bugle at all opening morning! It was September 19! I couldn't believe it. I was down on the very first day thinkin my elk hunting record was going to be 0-7.

 

We had decided that we were going to check an area up the ridge, way past any camp, in the wilderness. There was a burn right above it so we figured it was worth a shot. We walked about a mile and bugled(about 5:30 PM opening day) into a big, deep, nasty canyon...nothin... walked around to another finger that extended into another canyon and bugled again, again nothing. Another mile later we crossed into the park below the burn. One last ascension and we found ourselves in what looked like a very promising little hidey hole. Just one of those places you know that a bull takes his cows to bed... I let out a pretty nasty bugle and not two seconds later we hear a soft little bugle about two hundred yards across a draw. Hearing that was like being lost in the Sahara and finding an ice chest full of dr. pepper haha! I got set up about seventy yards in front of my dad, who was calling. The bull had absolutely no interest in a cow call, so he went to work with the bugle. By the sound of things the bull was running back and forth trying to herd his cows and keep them from coming to us. Shooting light was about gone so we made the decision to back out and not push the bull out of the country.

 

5:20 am- We are booking it to where we last located the bull, which we marked on the trusty GPS. It was a cool morning, one where they should be lighting up all around you, but they weren't all that we saw were bones. We reached our mark within 1/8 of a mile from where we last heard him and let out a screamer. He immediately answered no more than a tenth of a mile past where he was the night before. We immediately cut the distance to half, bugling as we went. The hill we were on dropped into a little park that the rose again on the other side. He was on that other side. He answered every single bugle we let out, and if we wouldn't answer his he would let out another one to make sure he knew where we were. We decided the best thing to do would be for my dad to stay there and bugle and rake trees to provoke a fight while i snuck in closer. I walked at a slow pace scanning through trees trying to catch a glimpse of fur moving. The bugles were getting more intense now, from both sides. Each one from the bull seemed to be more of a growl than a squeal. I continued for about seventyish yards til I finally saw the hillside in front me open up. The bugles were so clear, I knew he had to be on that hillside somewhere. I picked up my binos and instantly saw a big rack sticking out from above a small juniper, they tilted back and there came a bugle. I had spotted him finally! His cows were up above him feeding nonchalantly giving no mind to my dad's bugles. The bull seemed content with that and started to make his way up the hill to them, in an effort to stop him i let out a cow call from my mini sceery, at that exact moment my dad let out a bugle. For some reason this seemed to persuade him, almost like he was thinkin, "hey I've had enough, I'm going to whip you AND take your cows." He turned and made his way towards my dad with conviction, you've probably seen it before, that point where you know you're going to get a shot. I had already ranged the area around me and I pretty much had up to sixty yard lanes 360 degrees around me, he took the way to the right of me, which happened to be the clearest with a log that was 35 yards away. He disappeared behind some small pines that were right before he would cross into the lane. He emerged from behind the trees, but something seemed different, he looked farther than 35...I quickly ranged the bull himself, and sure enough, 42. He was about three steps from walking behind a tree and I didnt know if I would have another shot or if he would wind me, so I quickly drew back. I cow called with my mouth to try to stop him, no dice. I quickly settled my forty pin on his chest and waited for his front leg to come forward to clear his vitals. THWACK! I don't even remember pulling the trigger, but I heard that arrow find it's mark. He whirled and gave me another shot opportunity at 63 yards, I hurried the shot and sent one high, shaving a little skin and hair off his back. He blew out and i saw the exit wound, it looked very good to me, but I am still paranoid about making a clean kill, I hate to see an animal like that go through unneeded suffering. I made a big mistake of only waiting about ten minutes before picking up his trail. I found him still alive about two hundred yards from the first shot, but he was double lunged, and not going anywhere. Five minutes later he was expired.

 

We walked up to him and I knew I had outdone myself, he was the bull of a lifetime for me! I feel truly blessed to have been able to finally harvest a bull, and a dandy! This was the only bull we saw or heard, and the feeling of not deserving it faded away with all those miles we walked ( especially the pack out ;) ) and I feel like it couldn't have gone better. This will be my last opportunity to hunt elk for a couple years as I will be serving a mission for the LDS church, the excitement from this will surely carry over two years and have me ready for more!

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