wife and I 1st bull hunt

[flyphsr]

This had to be one of the best summers I have ever had. My family and my friends family spent almost every weekend for the last three months scouting and just being away from home and out of the heat. We had three tags, my wife, me and my friend, we all got drawn on seperat tags this was my wife and my first bull tags. The plan was to get my wife a bull first, she has a bad leg and was limited on how much she could walk. We had a good spot I thought, all summer we had elk in front of her blind never any huge bulls but she was going to shoot the 1st one with antlers and let me chase bulls the rest of the hunt. We had a few other good spots and we felt good about the hunt. At last the day was here and we got to the blind about an hour before the sun came up, we sat there till about ten only seeing one cow, all summer the elk were all over that hill from 7:00 till around 8:30 but not today. As we were leaving we seen four other trucks and who knows how many people were walking around, we spent alot of time there and never seen another person. Back at camp my friend had the same experince, people, people, and more people. With so much presure on all the spots we planed on hunting we went to plan B. The next morining got up and drove to a spot close to camp and there was about six bulls bugleing, my wife sat a stick blind and my friend and I took off up the hill. At first light we were in to elk right away seeing cows running past us up the hill as well. The bulls seemed to keep moving and so were we, I thought if we could get in front on them or in the middle of them we would have a chance. Our first encounter was with a small rag horn and he busted us, it seemed as if the elk split up after that. My buddy went to the top and I walked down the hill a bit still chaseing bugles. About an hour later the bugles had calmed down and had stoped to eat, after breakfask I gave a cow call and got a responce he sounded like he was on top of me, a few minutes passed and I saw a 5x5 with two cows about eighty yards they were feeding and just moving along. I watched them for five minutes and then I noticed that above me there was two elk at about fourty yards a cow and a decent bull but I could only see one side of his rack. I could see six points on that one side and pretty good mass, not quite the bull I wanted but at fourty yards I decided to take the shot. The bull was behind some trees and the cow was staring at me I nocked an arrow and got up, when I moved the bull steped out I drew and shot, the hit looked good the cow took off down hill and the bull uphill at thirty yards I gave a cow call and he stoped looked back and fell over backwards. Wow I couldn't belive he droped in front of me.

 

With me getting mine on the second day and all of our spots having lots of hunters I had time to find a good place for my wife to hunt. On sunday night my wife and I sat a water hole that I had seen a nice bull leaving one night during the deer hunt. The water hole was almost perfect it had two meadows leading to the water from the east and south but there was a road to the west. We got there at 3:00 and set up between to baby pines and put a camo net between the trees. At 5:30 I noticed some cows coming out of the trees and then a real nice bull steped out they fed there way down the meadow the bull was pushing them and all I could think about was I hope nobody drives down the road. It took them thirty minutes to get to the water the lead cow was a little spoked but started to drink and the rest did the same, the bull came in about three minutes later as he started to drink I wispered for her to pull back. On her movement he took off I was able to stop him at fourty yards but when he spoked my wife didn't come to draw and she tried to draw again and he was gone. That was her first encounter with any wild animal at that close and it just happened to be a 360 class bull. The next day I put a ground blind up and we sat hoping he would return. He never did but a different bull with fourteen cows did four days later and he pushed his way to the water she took a shot at 35yards and hit him in the front shoulder. We looked for him that night and found no blood but did find her busted arrow she didn't get much penatration. We returned at first light and followed tracks with no blood for 500 yards and about 100 yards up the hill he must of stoped running and we found some blood, a small blood trail for 200 yards then nothing, we looked till 1:00 only to find a few sheads and a single drop of blood in a track like it was running down his leg. We never found the bull and she got another shot and missed, we hunted till the last day and she didn't get one. She had a great time and some awesome experinces and I think she is hooked. My friend ended up taking that 360 bull on a different tank four days after he came in on us.

[mje1]

Congrats on some nice bulls, any bull for a first especially with a bow is great.

 

 

Mark

[mcelkhunter]

Congrats. those are some very nice bulls.

[Elkaddict]

Nice bulls! Lots of memories. Nothing like hearing an elk bugle to get your heart pumping!

[Chef]

Congrats!

Love your buddys bull.

Nice to see your wife got to see some action too.

[CouesWhitetail]

Wow, congratulations!! I really enjoy it when people take the time to write up their hunt experience and have some good pics. Thank you!

[azpredator@work]

very nice - congrats to you and your buddy. Thanks for sharing the story.

[tjhunt2]

Thanks for sharing your story and congratulayions on your bull. Sorry to hear your wife didn;t get a chance to tag her bull but sounds like she had a good time. That's what it's all about. Your buddy's bull is real nice.

 

TJ