RAM Report post Posted September 23, 2009 I just returned on Sep. 20 from my 2009 archery bull elk hunt which I left for on Sep 8. This season started with alot of scouting between my brother and I, who took turns traveling up north to find bulls worthly of our tags. During our scounting trips, we found some great bulls in some great looking county. We found some areas that we wanted to focus on as the hunt drew near, but when the hunt started the rut was not cooperating. We spent the first few days of the hunt trying to find new areas that held talkative bulls and cows, leaving only my brother finding 2 maybe 3 bulls talking. After a few days of searching, we found some bulls acting the way they should be. Sep. 15 will be a day I won't soon forget. We got in the area that we found to be promising, but had no bulls bugleing at first light. We began to slowly work the county, and ended up jumping an elk out of its bed. I cow called to calm the elk, and ended up getting a bull to bugle about 250 yards away. I quickly checked the wind and discovered the wind was blowing right at him. We decided that the bull sounded like a good one and chose to make a big circle trying to get the wind in our favor. As we got the wind mostly in our face, we set up and began calling. The bull would answer us but did not want to investigate our calling. I heard the bull and his cows walking about 100 yards in front of me, but they were paralleling our set-up. The bull ended up pushing his cows down to a lower elevation, moving away from us. With the bull still bulging, we quietly followed. No more than a couple of minutes passed and I could hear the bull thrashing a tree. Hearing that, we got into stalk mode and went right at him. We closed the distance to approximately 150 yards. From that distance, I saw 2 or 3 cows about the same distance, walking to my right. Knowing that the bull was still to my left and his cows to my right, we slipped between both. Once we got within 80 yards of the bull, we began calling. After a couple of minutes of calling back and forth to the bull, I could hear him start to close the distance. I was kneeling down and could see the bulls legs walking through the trees. As the bull walked closer, I could see he had great fronts and was a solid 6x6. The bull got within 25 yards and was headed straight for an opening to my left. Not having a shot to my left, I quickly moved about 5 steps to my left and set back up. The bull was almost to walk out into the open as I drew my bow. Once at full draw, the bull stopped behind a tree, bugled, and began to search for the cow he had heard. I couldn't shoot with the bull being behind cover, so I sat at full draw for what seemed like 3 minutes. I started to get fatigued and could not hold my bow anylonger. I thought to myself, if the bull walks out I would be shaking so bad that I may miss the shot, but if I let off he will probably see me and run away. I chose to let off my draw and to my fortune, the bull didn't do anything. The bull stood there for another couple of minutes and began to get nervous. With the bull not seeing the cow he came looking for, he turned and began to walk back the same way he came from. I saw a 6" opening through the tree he was behind and realized the bull was headed straigh for it. I drew my bow and the bull picked me off, the bull broke into a dead run and we let out a cow call to try and stop him. The bull heard the call and slammed on the brakes. The bull stopped in the only other window I had, which was 18 yards away. With the bull now standing to my right side, and me being prepaired to shoot to my left, I had to turn my whole body the opposite direction from were my knees were pointed. With my lower half of my body pointed to the left and my upper body pointed at the bull, I put my 20 yard pin on his shoulder and released. I saw the arrow slam into that right shoulder blade, and burry down all the way to the flechings. The bull took it hard and ran only 20 yards. I never moved from my shooting position and watched the bull fall. Knowing that my hunt was complete, I was full of emotions and could not believe that I just harvested my second bull in two years. This years hunt was tough, but I will admit this encounter was the most exciting I have ever had with a bull elk. Just to add, during our hunt we were fortunate to meet "GodisGood" and "Outtohunt" one evening as they stopped by our camp after seeing my coueswhitetail sticker on my truck. Ken and Kurt, we all really enjoyed meeting you guys- we had a great time around the camp fire! We hope your hunt was successful, and anytime your near feel free to stop by! In closing, I would like to thank my beautifull wife Kelly, without you I would never have been able to make this hunt possible. You mean everything to me and I am truely blessed to have you. In addition to my wife being in camp, we had both our boys in camp for 8 days and my oldest had his 2nd birthday in elk camp, just like last year- his 1st birthday in elk camp. PS. My brother ended up harvesting his bull about 250 yards away from mine, the very next day. Special thanks to Josh, great job on calling bro. As he was Showing shot placement Me with my bull Kelly and our youngest Keegan The family on Jackson's birthday Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BigWave Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Huge congrats on a dandy bull! Those pics are awesome!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azryan Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Congrats on a sweet bull Great story as well Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Non-Typical Solutions Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Now that is a birthday........congrats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaffer62 Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Great Bull Congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
111 Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Wow awesome bull and pics, Congrats!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Birddog Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Great story and a great bull! Congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
palivs2hnt Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Great story and a sensational bull! Huge congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Snapshot Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Great bull and great family! Congratulations on both! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZWildcat Report post Posted September 23, 2009 wicked bull.....great job!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
luvdemcoues Report post Posted September 23, 2009 I love the fact that you can get your wife and kids out there with you. Thanks for sharing! Any pics of your brothers bull? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jakehaffey Report post Posted September 23, 2009 100% AWESOME!!! Congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilentButDeadly Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RAM Report post Posted September 23, 2009 I do have photos of my brothers bull another big 6x6, but am waiting for him to post them. I just got word that our sgt. just filled his tag on a nice 5x6 this morning. If I can get my hands on his pics I'll post those as well. -Ryan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bonecollector Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Nice job! beautiful elk. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
