2012 archery bull hunt, 17 bonus points for a great hunt

[DCMHunter]

Well were do I start? I guess I will start 16 years ago when I drew a muzzle loader cow elk tag and after that hunt I decided I wanted to hunt the early bull hunt and that started my adventure. For elevan years I put in for the Early rifle hunts in unit 1 and 27 without success. I picked up several left over cow tags during that time so I was not completely with out elk hunting. six years ago after going on several deer hunts with my brother-in-law I decided to split my points with him and started concentrating on the early archery Bull hunts. When putting in this last January I felt like we had a very good chance at getting a tag. The bonus point pass for the previous two years was 11 for Unit 27 and 12&13 for unit 1. With my 17 bonus points and my brother in laws 5, giving us an average of 11 we felt that the non-resident tag was with in our reach. The real adventure started the week after learning that we did indeed draw a unit 1 early archery bull tag. I set out a few trail cameras in an area that I felt would be good and started exploring new areas . As the summer progressed and I found more and more areas that I liked I bought more and more cameras. Then the elk started getting an itch and decided to use some of my cameras as something to rub on to scratch their itch. At one time I had out 13 cameras not counting the four that the elk and bears destroyed. I know have lots of camera parts to make one myself! It was a weekly chore to go out and check cameras and explore new trails and areas. I found lots of enteresting areas and got lots of good picks. I even had someone putting salt out in front of one of my cameras. I got pictures of deer, elk, turkey, coyote, bob cat, bears and people. And I had regular incounters of all of these during my exploring. It came down to the last few days before the hunt and one last round of checking cameras before we set a plan for our hunt.

 

The first day of the hunt was fun with getting busted by a bunch of cattle that moved into the area, calling in other huntes and ending the day with a scream off with a big bull that was flat tearing things up but would not come in. As we decided to try and advance on him we found a deep draw between us and think that is what stopped him from coming any closer. The next day found my brother-in-law not feeling good with some high altitude sickness. Comeing from 300 feet above sea leval to 10,000 feet can take the energy out of you. I went up to set a Blind i had set up and ended up busting the cows as I approached it. I went ahead and set there that morning and had a couple of small bulls and cows come by and listened to some screamers work by on both sides of me to a trail that dropped off the top down into an area that was realy rough to bed down. The third day we had acouple of close encounters but could not close the deal on anything. That evening we decided to hunt our third area and as we got to our area I found that someone else liked my camera more than I did and broke it out of its mount. That evening I had a cow and calf come to with in 15 feet of me and my son and a big bull about 20 yards away in the furs not allowing for a shot. My BIL tried to do a stock on a bull in a wallow and got to about 40 yards before being busted. The next day was more of the same with several close calls but un able to close the deal.

 

On the fifth day We had some close calls in the morning and then decided to go back to the stolen camera. I was sitting a small blind area by were the camera was and my BIL dropped of to the wallow to set up a stand. I had a nice bull coming into me with some cows when another bull came in and ran him off. The new bull kept coming into me. He would send a cow ahead of him and then he would advance. I quiet calling and let my BIL do the calling down below me. The cow and bull finally worked there way down to in front of where the camera was when I decided to take the shot. I had to adjust by possition a little to get lined up and every time I moved the least little bit the cow and bull would look at me. My BIL would then call and draw their attention back to him. I finally got turned and drew when the bull went behind a tree and waited for what seemed to be forever for him to step forward. I finally ended up leaning forward enough to give me a shot and at 30 yards my G5 did the job. I saw an instant spot as my arrow hit him. he wheeled and turn and there was no spot on the other side. I started making funny calls too get my BIL's attention and waited the dreadded 30 minutes. As we started looking for him we could find no blood and no arrow for some distance then we got to were I saw him fall and get up again and that is were we first found some blood.He didn't go more that 70 yards and piled up.

 

 

My son packing the head out.

 

 

It was after midnight before we got him off the mountain and the next day was spent getting him into a cooler and resting up. The adrinalin rush with getting my first bull and with a bow no less can wear you out. The little over a mile hike out didn't help either. With it being night time I did not want to go get the horses.

 

More to come later with my BIL's first bull'.

 

DCM

[Coues Kid]

Congrats on a good bull.

[papa]

Very nice bull! congrats.

[DCMHunter]

Sorry for the break but had to go to work for a little while. As mentioned earlier the day after I got my elk we pretty much took the day off and took care of my meet. That afternoon we went over and checked out an area rite on the state line and only had one bull talking to us but not coming in from the New Mexico side of the line. The next morning we decided to go up to a area where we had already had several close encounters and try it again. We get up and set just above a wallow and at first light we had bulls talking all around us and we started trying to get one to come in. First thing off the bat we have a big sounding bull just above us answer and start our way. Him and his cows start working down to the right of us and as they get to about 40 yards my BIL reaches up and breaks a branch out of his shooting lane and guess what?? The cows bust him and off they go. My BIL sets his bow down and reflicting on what just happened when another bull and some cows come down to our left just across the draw at about 45 yards. I was trying to keep the bulls interest and get him to come in closer not realizing my BIL did not have his bow in his hands and every time he reached for it I would call and they would look our way. Yep you quessed it when he finally got his bow up they saw us and they were gone. At this point my BIL is feeling like it is just not going to come to geather for him and was really reflecting on what has happened over the last week when all of a sudden from the aspens just 30 yards above us this bull turns loose with a deep growling bugle that just about makes us jump out of our pants. When we get turned and see this Sevan By working straight towords us and just trashing anythimg that get in his way with his sevan by three rack. Yep thats right his right side is broken off just below the third point and he is having a bad day. Well we thought we were about to have a bad day as this bull comes straight at us with an attetude when at 15 feet he turns a little to the right and walks past us. As the bull gets about 20 yards below us I cow call and he turns offering a perfect quartering away shot. My BIL lets loose and punches this bull with what looked to be a high shoot. The bull turns and runs across the draw and stops to my cow calls and looks back at us while my BIL is trying to get another arrow. The bull turns and on his second step does a face plant and is down for the count. Because of the elivation we had on him the shoot was a double lunger. Three bulls within less than an hour and the last one down 40 yards from us. Talk about excitement!!

 

 

 

Well with this one I called in the horses. I may be biase but I think I have some of the best looking wranglers of any outfitter.

 

 

It was a great hunt and I can't waite for the next one.

 

 

 

[AZbowhntr]

Congrats on the great bulls. I enjoyed the story(s). Hopefully the next tags don't take so long. It looks like you had quit the setup for camp.

[tjhunt2]

Finally, after all them years of building up those bonus points you hit the jackpot. You certainly deserve that bull after such a long wait. Thanks for sharing your hunt with us and congratulations on a very nice bull.

 

TJ

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on a couple of very nice bulls! Love the write up and pictures, looks like you guys definitely put the work in and it paid off! Sorry about your stolen camera, just hate thieves!

[DCMHunter]

Here are some live pics that we think are our bulls.

 

Mine

 

BIL,s

[Willyhunts2]

Sounds like a fun hunt. Congrats on 2 nice bulls

[Mocha1545]

_{Nice Elk. You really put in the homework. Congratulations. Thanks for the great story as well.}

[trophyhnter]

Sounds like a good time had by all! Keeping putting in and you might get lucky and drawn that tag again soon. My friends hunted in there with you this year with only 4 points!

[200"mulie]

Congrats all around on the success and thanks for sharing