SirRoyal Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Wow! This civilian life is tough after 2 months of elk scouting and hunting.in unit 8 and unit 10. Here's a few points I observed during my time in the field! 1st. The top ends of most of the bulls was effected by the lack of early moisture. 2nd. The elk were very scattered. 3rd. The rutting activity kicked in good early archery and then slowed down as it warmed up and kicked in again as it cooled down again. 4th. Where I was in unit 8 average night temp was 58 degrees and in 10 a few weeks later as low 32 degrees . 5th. A lot of Hunter pressure in what I consider lesser known areas, oops not anymore, hmmm internet ? 6th. Monster bulls not with cows early on in season . This is just 1 elk hunters point of view others may have seen it different. In fact one of my buddies did in another unit and when we met for lunch in town I was blown away by the monster they took ! We started out in unit 8 archery hunting . Although we did not kill it was not because we did not have ample opportunity. Sometimes when your trophy hunting you have to wrap your tag around a juniper tree and walk away! Knowing you did your best! On to unit 10 for the early rifle hunt. My uncle had drawn this tag . Wow did we scout. I have helped kill alot of bulls on this unit and it is not a walk in the park ! You have to work for it!!!!!! We found 4 bulls that would be close or at the Mark! We hunted very hard and passed numerous bulls with either broken horn s or they were just not big enough. Finally after 6 and 1/2 days and down to the last hour of the hunt, we decided to knock down a 360" bull I had been watching for 3 days . He was near where I was also watching a 390" but we ran into a encounter of the human kind and This gentleman wasn't quite as careful with that bull as we tried to be! That 's public land hunting Needless to say that bull is available for the next hunt . My uncle was happy although after seeing those other bulls , it left us wondering what might have been! God Blessed us with a great hunt and a great bull and we were very grateful to even have had this opportunity!!!! 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Congratulations and thanks for sharing your thoughts and your hunt with us! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tjhunt2 Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Congratulations on a awesome bull and thanks for sharing. TJ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adicted Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Dang nice bull there Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirRoyal Report post Posted October 12, 2013 I forgot to mention a neat story! After our first morning of the early rifle hunt I was headed out to meet someone and I passed a guy standing by the road waiting for someone. I probably would not have stop ,but I saw 2 kids with him. He was pretty disappointed with his morning no elk , no bugling and his boys only had the weekend to hunt with him. He really wanted to kill his first bull elk with his boys! I hem hawed around for a few minutes and like a good catholic at confession I told him we had passed 6 bulls that morning the largest being 330. I told him where to go and how to hunt them all the while knowing this could come back to haunt us. Sure enough The last evening of the weekend we are setup in a meadow where Mr.Big was expected to make a showing and guess who drives up with the whole family. And of course the little bulls show up first. He shoots once then twice and 3,4,5,6,7 times but he got himself his bull. A nice 6 on one side and a gnarly horn on the other. We congratulated them and walked away feeling good about it! We did that last year in 10 told a lady right where to go and sit so she could kill a bull we had passed. A couple hours later I got the text picture! It is very fulfilling helping others. Try it sometime! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle Eye Report post Posted October 12, 2013 May not of been the bull you were lookin for but that is one heck of a back up bull! Nice job! Wonder if that other bull will break 400 next year if he makes it.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirRoyal Report post Posted October 12, 2013 May not of been the bull you were lookin for but that is one heck of a back up bull! Nice job! Wonder if that other bull will break 400 next year if he makes it.. I believe so. They certainly have the genetics. That bull we killed was just a young bull maybe 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 years old. he was a 400 in the making. He had a 20" whalestail, his main beam was 57.4 long . Boy did he look good when he throw back his head and herded those cows around! He just did not have a lot of huge mass. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6ANut Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Great bull thanks for sharing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diehard Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Congrats on a hellava Bull... thanks for sharing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elkslare Report post Posted October 12, 2013 very nice bull Congrats to you and uncle, and hats off to you in helping other people. Its awesome when we can all work together in a positive way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pine Donkey Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Great bull. Thanks for posting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Meyer Report post Posted October 12, 2013 Awesome Bull....Congrats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mountainman99 Report post Posted October 13, 2013 Nice bull! Way to help people out! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
singleshot Report post Posted October 13, 2013 Thats a really nice bull. Great of you to offer advice and help others out. It seems that tags come so rarely that keeping hot spots to yourself doesn't work out to be so fruitful when you happen to finally be the lucky one. "Bull karma" it's what's for dinner. Believe me it works. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
out2hunt Report post Posted October 14, 2013 Nice Bull!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
