3 bulls and over 1000 inches of bone……

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

I have been wanting to post this for a while, but have been slackin'.... I know it is not coues, but bone is bone... Right?

 

 

It all started on Thanksgiving Day….. We all gathered around my big screen TV looking at video of bulls that my son, Colton, or I had videoed in the previous couple of weeks. Colton had found and videoed the same Thumper bull two weeks running in my nephew’s unit. And I had been watching a dandy bull myself in a unit that my hunters, Justin and his Grandpa (Bill) had tags. Our hopes were high and we were stoked to have a pair of “plan A” bulls like these two Jokers! As soon as the T-day meal was over Colton and my Bro-in-law (Larry) headed for their spike camp with their hunter, Larry’s son, Clayton. And lucky for me the bull we, (Justin, Bill, and I) were going to hunt was only about 45 min. from my house so we would hunt from home!

 

Opening morning was abound with anticipation… and lots o’ fog!!! Neither group of hunters could find their bulls…. The elk were bedded by the time the fog lifted and the wait continued…. Both groups saw and passed on other bulls as the day progressed… but both boys were willing to wait. That evening my big guy showed himself, but was too far to try a stalk before dark so we waited and watched. Colton’s Thumper was a no show… but he and Larry knew the big guy was there…. somewhere.

 

Day 2… By 8:30 am Justin had my big bull in his rifle scope at 185 yds broadside.... Justin was not comfortable with the shot and the bull bedded. We wait… As we waited… and waited… and waited…. I got Text messages from Larry. the boys are sitting on him 400 yds, bedded! Colton and Clayton had been playing cat & mouse with “ol’ Handle Bars” all morning and now Clayton had him in the cross-hairs of “the Tradition” and she was dialed at 400!!! Colton even got video of the bedded bull through my Huskemaw scope as Clayton sat behind the gun!!!! In my mind it was a done deal….. after all Clayton was sitting next to the Golden Ticket! …..And we were still waiting…… at like 1:40 pm, I get another Text from Larry…. BBD!!!! Clayton folded the bull at 400 yards! Larry said it was crazy to watch from over a 1000 yds away!! The bull just collapsed and then there was a BOOOOM-WHAACK!

Whoo Hooo…. they worked their tails off for that bull and got to ground check him!!! Clayton, Larry, and Colton got it done in a HUGE way!! Clayton’s first bull and a whopping 368” Gross with over 10” broke off!!! His Handle Bar beams are 53+ and 55+ and Mass to die for!!!! Way To Go, Clayton!!!! Amazing Bull!

 

Day2… continued…. Our bull never shows from the thicket…. We had a long and dark hike out of there without the bull……

 

Day 4… I find my bull again! Justin and Bill had to run home to Phoenix that day and all I could do was watch the ol’ boy…… I called Colton- “I need you and my gun (the Tradition) if we are going to get this bull killed tomorrow.” His reply- “I’m There!!!”

 

Day 5… I felt that I knew where the bull would be but I needed Colton (the Golden Ticket) to watch the “back door” in case the bull was not where I had expected. At day light Justin and I had a mile plus of ground behind us and were perched on a rock outcrop, looking. Bingo!! There he was at 800 yds!! Justin and I made a move… 700….. 600….. 550…..525…. 500….. and the bulls were showing signs of hearing our progress through the 8'-10’ tall brush. Colton could see us but the bull was hidden from him in the cut below, and it was a solid wall of brush in front of us. At 500 I pulled out my Leatherman and cut a hole in the brush so that Justin could shoot through, as the bull started moving away up the other side of the cut below us. We dialed up 500 and Justin put it on him… and….. Missed! The bull Froze… and then Justin hammered him twice as fast as he could run the action on my ol’ 300 Wby….. Mortally hit twice the bull covered 10-15yds downhill before he crashed! And the Text went off my phone as fast as I could type: BBD @500!!!

Whoo Hoo!!!! We got-r-done, too!!!!! Another well deserved bull! And my Golden Ticket was with me! Justin and I had pictures done and all the meat hung in the shade before Colton and his buddy Chris could even get to us. We shot the bull at 8:30 am and got back to my truck with the first load at 7:00 pm! Justin’s Bull grosses 344” with over 16” broke off! Another Fantastic 1st Bull!!! For all you Antler Junkies the right horn on this bull scores 170” and has 4+ broke off the 3rd!

Well the first hunt was over and our group had scored! Two bulls whose combined gross was over 710”!!!! Colton still had one hunt to go!!! Colton’s other Dad, Mark, had the 2nd hunt in the same unit that Colton, Larry, & Clayton had hunted, so back to the “spike camp” they went….. They were looking for a couple of other Big Bulls that were in the area, but severely sloppy hunting pleasure in the final days of the first hunt left the big guys nowhere to be found… Saturday night I tried to lend a hand by over-nighting into a different glassing point hoping to turn up something they could not see from the other side….. Nada…. Where were the Big Bulls??

They stayed after it…. On Monday afternoon, Mark decided that he really liked a 6x7 that he and Colton had been watching all day and the stalk was on! They looped around and came out on a rock outcropping…..

Mark Hammered his bull three times in a row at over 500 yds, all fatal shots! Then the work began! They got the first load back to camp that night and packed the rest at first light. What a great hunt! And Mark had the same Golden Ticket that the other two hunters had!!! I think that almost guaranteed him a good bull!!! Marks bull scores 330” Gross and has a ton of mass, with only a few inches broke off. Another great late hunt bull!!

All in all… our little group was very blessed with three great hunts and three great bulls! A ton of time and effort was put into finding and harvesting these bulls. And for Colton, what an outstanding way to spend the first 2 weeks of December…. ground checking 1042 inches of bone with family and friends!!! He truly is the Golden Ticket of the late elk hunts!!!

 

I really have to send a Huge Congrats to the handfull of people that were involved with these hunts! A fantastic time had by all, among Family & Friends and 3 Great bulls to go with them!!!

 

 

NOTE: All these bulls were taken without the aid of radios, airplanes, or other “unethical” methods. You don’t need any of that when you have the Golden Ticket!!!

[Mr. Jonathan]

Since I don't have a golden ticket can I keep using my satellite powered thermal readout gps to find animals? It actually uplinks me to an expert who can pretty accurately determine what animal the thermal sensor is picking out but they have to route the call through india so it can be hard to understand the difference between coues deer and cougar...

[Huntn coues]

Hey what unit were those bulls wacked in?

 

Also what bullet do you use??? Federal?

 

[tjhunt2]

Great story Gino and them bulls are bigger than anything I saw this year. You did your hunters very well. I can imagine there was alot of hard work and long hours involved. Thanks for sharing with us and congratulations to you, your helpers, and to the hunters who harvested them bulls. Awesome!

 

TJ

[Lance]

Nice! Way to go! And thanks for the pic's!

[Coues Sniper]

Freaking awesome, congrats guys

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Wow what a great group of bulls, nice job and great pictures.. VLD's keep working well huh??

[luvin huntin]

Congrats on 3 dandy bulls!!!!

 

And late season too......wow.. that's really impressive.

 

Great story. Great pics.

 

Congrats

 

Greg

 

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Hey what unit were those bulls wacked in?

 

Also what bullet do you use??? Federal?

 

 

 

Yeah... but you already know what units they were taken in...

 

And Yeah.... those 168 gr. Berger VLD's are Wicked!!! 9 critters have hit the dirt with them out of my rifle in the last year. Can't say enough good things about that bullet.

 

Thanks for reading and the replys!

[desertbowhunter]

All I can say is WOW!!!! That is unreal. Late bull hunts are not easy. Congrats to you guys and all that were invovled.

[SpotNStalk]

Congrats! Way to get it done!! Thats a lot of "bone"!!!

[Chef]

Way to go guys!

I was happy to hear Mark got a nice bull.

[CouesWhitetail]

Awesome!! Thanks much for the write-up and pics. You guys scored big time!

 

Amanda

 

[Huntn coues]

Hey what unit were those bulls wacked in?

 

Also what bullet do you use??? Federal?

 

 

 

Yeah... but you already know what units they were taken in...

 

And Yeah.... those 168 gr. Berger VLD's are Wicked!!! 9 critters have hit the dirt with them out of my rifle in the last year. Can't say enough good things about that bullet.

 

Thanks for reading and the replys!

 

 

I just had to do it

 

Yup way to get it done Bro and Colton sure has taken what you have tought him and ran with it.

The mass on that one bull was just amazing and sure drew a bunch of attention the other weekend.

 

 

BTW- When I get up there I want Colton to come out with us to move some stands around and all you two

need to do is just put the (big buck)mojo to my site and climb the tree to put up my stand

See you in a few day's.

[Elkaddict]

Very ,Very, Nice, Congrats!!