2011 Archery Success

[Hunting6]

This hunt was an awesome experience, as they usually are.

I have accrued several thousand miles on my truck learning 2 hunt units that I was drawn for this year. The first was for the Antelope hunt, and second… was the archery Elk hunt.

I had never been in either unit, so I had to cover a lot of country over the next few months.

After a successful Antelope hunt, I had to hurry and get back home, wash clothes, get a couple weeks of food, ice, and water ready to go again, then organize and load everything up for the Elk trip and hit the road.

I basically missed opening day, but I wasn’t too concerned, because I had a couple of weeks to try for a good Bull.

The first 7 days were filled with rain, rain, and more rain….. mostly thunder & lightning drizzle storms. Most of the water sources were dry in that unit despite the constant drizzling, and few tanks took on water, but not that much.

I was able to get on Bulls just about every day for the first several days, some were great bulls, and some were mid range 340-350 class bulls. Of course, most people with that tag, and in that unit would like to obtain the 380 mark, and you can’t blame them. I came very close on a couple of occasions… hoping and trying to create shot opportunities. That is when a hunt like that can teach you how difficult it actually is. A lot of us try to utilize many different techniques to make that happen, and you can ultimately use the wrong technique and push the elk away from you. Some of those techniques may have worked in the past, but each lead cow, or herd bull may react differently.

 

I had a few friends show up on this hunt, and I am extremely grateful they did… Camp would not have been as exciting if they were not there, and the help that each of them provided was invaluable to me. For the first 10 days of the hunt, each of my friends would alternate and go with me for the morning and/or evening hunts, and by the 10th day I was down to one friend who planned on going home, but he ended up staying because a guy from another camp shot a bull in the morning and had no help to recover his Bull.

 

Before Mark left to help the guy, he mentioned to me a location where he heard bulls screaming earlier that morning. I decided I would go there for the evening hunt. I left camp about 4 pm and headed out, hiked into the area and sat for a while waiting and listening, hoping to catch any sounds of elk. As I was sitting there, I noticed the breezes were basically swirling in a few different directions. 1 minute it’s hitting you in the side, the next in your back, and the next in your face. The worst enemy you could have while hunting elk, other than a crazed PETA maniac running around, is the wind. I basically did not have any direction I could go, even if I did hear something. And sure enough….about 45 minutes of laying low, I hear a quick “Hey… I am out of my Bed” Bugle a few hundred yards away. I waited to hear him again to see if he was going to be stationary, or move off. He was moving off, and he was becoming more and more vocal along the way. I heard a couple of other Bulls reply back to him, but he sounded like a pretty good bull.

 

Now, I had to decide what the heck to do about the ever changing breeze. My decision was based on the “Just Go For It” adage, because anything can happen. I tried to work the wind as best I could while trying to play catch up with this Bull. After about a half mile from where I first heard him, he finally hung up on a small ridge. I was below him, with no way he could see me and I knew with evening approaching, the breeze would begin to die down, which it was, and he would not be able to smell me. I began the slow sneak up to the lip of the ridge where I thought I might get a look at him. I saw the tops of his antlers as he moved a little deeper into the cedars at about 80 yards out. The current breeze was in my face…. Perfect !

 

Now, I am approximately 55 yards from him, he appears to be a decent bull…. Good enough for me… I have committed myself to shoot if the opportunity arrives. I need to step around 2 trees to my left to get a shot…I get there…. And…. CRAP….I feel a very very slight breeze shift to my back, directly toward the Bull. He whiffs me and walks off with no way I can keep up with him. As this all was taking place, I could hear two other Bulls Bugling about a half mile North East of me, and they sounded really good. I could tell these two guys were slowly converging on each other, and I thought, I may as well give it a chance and try to hot foot it to them before it became too dark to shoot.

I took off… not running or jogging, but walking as fast as I could go. These bulls were actually angling away from me and I knew I had to make up a lot of ground. As I was moving closer to them, I noticed these two Bulls are now hung up in front of me and getting furious with each other. I was only about 200 yards out when I heard the first hint of Antlers clashing together. Now I am stoked, these guys aren’t going anywhere too soon.

The light is getting duskier by the minute and I had to move more quickly if I wanted to get a shot at one of these two. Finally, I could see them and some cows.

Now I had to slither carefully to get close enough for a shot. I knew I could move a bit more freely between the trees because these two were entirely focused on each other, plus the herd Bull was trying to keep an eye on his cows at the same time.

These two would run around each other screaming “Bloody Murder” then start glunking, and then…face off for another quick attack. All I can say is that this scenario was Extremely INTENSE to the bone !!! These two Bulls were “SERIOUSLY” Pissed off. Finally, the other bull ran toward the cows, broke them up and pushed one right out in front of me. I knew then, one of those Bulls had to go back to that cow, and I was beginning to see my chance slowly disappear with each second of lost light. Then, FINALLY………The Herd Bull wanted to come around and get that cow. He moved around the trees to get to his cow, and as he was getting close to a broadside shot, I drew back, he ended up perfectly broadside to me at what I thought was 20 yards (no time to range find). I can barely see my pins. The Bull turns his head towards me due to the movement from drawing the bow, he stares, I settle the pin, pull the release and “P-Heeeeeeew” ! the arrow took flight and I hear the smack ! The Bull ran 20 yards away and he was somewhat broadside to me with a tree blocking his midsection. I pull my bino’s up and look at his side. I see the arrow buried to the knock about 8-9 inches behind the point of the shoulder and just a little low. The Bull suddenly drops his head, and begins to make a slight coughing noise. I was a little worried the hit might have been a hair too far back and low. The other Bull is still completely worked up and running around. He decided to make an attack on the Old Herd Bull with his head still down, and when he did this, the Old Herd Bull took off with the new suitor on his rear. They ran across and In front of me a few yards away, where the Old Herd Bull ran to a big pine tree about 35 yards away and bedded down while the other bull circled back to get his new Brides. The new herd bull rounded up his cows and stayed about a hundred yards out yelling as loud as he could, he was the winner. It is now way past shooting light and I pull up the bino’s again to look at the Bedded Bull, he is laying there with his head up, I don’t hear him make any coughing type noise and begin to wonder if my shot hit the vitals.

I decide to back out and make a huge loop back to the truck and come back in the morning to re-locate him in the light.

It was a sleepless night to say the least, I kept going through the whole shot process over and over…. One second saying, it was good, another… maybe not……

Morning arrives and Mark tells me he will help to recover the Bull, he is sure the Bull has expired, I still am not. I have been in this position before only to lose a great bull because of my lack of patience.

As we walked back into the area, Mark goes to the beginning of the blood trail and I went to the last place I had seen the Bull. I slowly moved forward at a Snail’s pace, glassing as I inched my way forward, and then I see the reflection of an eye, I do a double take and see the Bull expired in front of a big Juniper tree. Man…. What a relief that is…. To see this really cool Bull in front of you… the whole incident from beginning to end is a surreal experience. Turns out, the shot took out the lower aorta, a slice out of the liver, and a small incision into his lung. He most likely died within a couple of minutes after I left him the night before. Now the real work begins and I am glad Mark was there to help me out, it made a huge difference with 2 people there. The Bull’s Antlers are full of mass from bottom to top, irregular main beams, where one side is a short 46” and the other at 54”, inside spread is pretty good at just over 40”, just a really super nice Bull. I am lucky to get one like this. He was a pretty old bull judging from his lower jaw.

 

Mike

[stanley]

AWESOME!!!!! Congrats on your hunt!

 

Thanks for sharing with the site!

 

S.

 

[kennyazman]

awesome right up!! That is a heck of a bull. great mass and real good thirds and swords. i can only hope to have a bull like that someday. way to get it done!

[azcouesfanatic]

Wow really nice bill.

 

Brian

[Apache7mm]

Sweet 3rds! and check out the clubs on them royals too

 

DAN

[Younghunter]

Great bull! I love how those old bulls really put on the mass.