2014 Muzzleloader Bull (Updated with story)

[6ANut]

Nice looking bull and that like a great spot to quarter an elk up.

[AZkiller]

Congrats again Ammon! Let me know the score. Mine ended up at 331.

[Big Browns]

Great job & nice Bull! Cant wait to hear the story.

[Mesabulls]

Nice!

[ElkyG]

Nice bull, Congrats

[Little Creek Calls]

Very nice! I'd love to know your points? With almost 20 and 3b being my second choice I didn't draw.

 

I might be mistaken but I think the bonus pass only works on your first choice. My dad made the bonus pass with 15 points. According to my calculator the bonus pass should have been around 13 or 14 points. I got lucky and drew with 4 points.

 

Love the blood on both antlers, very unique!!

 

Sorry about the blood, it started spraying after the final shot to finish him off after a long tracking.

[deere tech]

Nice bull. Congrats

[PRDATR]

Great bull... rough area

Congrats!

Yeah that looks pretty steep. Congrats, looking forward to the story.

[Non-Typical Solutions]

Let the packing begin...nice looking bull congrats.....

[massamino]

Great bull! What was your load recipe and cleaning process between shots? Fouling shot first? Maximum range and zero range? Bullet drop? Any info will help. I have a NM muzzy mule deer hunt and I would appreciate a load to try out. BTW I have an older .50 cal TC Black Diamond so Blackhorn 209 is not an option(that bites). I have a bunch of T7 pellets and 245 powerbelts and 250 hornady SST.

[kwp]

Very nice! I'd love to know your points? With almost 20 and 3b being my second choice I didn't draw.

Bonus pass is both first and second choice. G&F has the draw data online.

For 3b muzzleloader, max points was 16 and 2 people with 16 were in the bonus pass. 2 people with 15 and 1 with 14 were also in the bonus pass totaling 5 (20%) in the bonus pass.

[Born to hunt]

That's awesome getting it done with a muzzleloader congratulations

[Little Creek Calls]

My dad had built up 15 bonus points hoping some day for an early rifle tag in unit 1 or 27. When I ran the odds on the calculator I told him he would probably wait over 10 more years for one of those tags or he could make the bonus pass for 3B muzzleloader this year. Being over 70 years old he told me he didn’t want to wait any longer and to put him in for 3B. He did make the bonus pass and I got lucky on a separate application and drew with only 4 points. With my parents and my wife’s parents both living with in the unit we were able to do a lot of scouting for this hunt. Early on we saw some nice bulls in velvet but they all seemed to disappear just before the archery hunt started. One morning after spotting two nice bulls scouting during the archery hunt my Dad suffered a major heart attack and was flown down to the valley to have two procedures done on two separate days. The doctor limited his physical activity for 3 months. We began to explore all available options for his tag (signing it over to my nephew under 18, applying for a CHAMP license, trying to get his bonus points reinstated and surrender his tag) but after waiting over 15 years to draw this tag he wanted to find a way to complete this hunt. This put a lot of extra pressure on us trying to find a water hole and a blind on a fairly smooth road where he could sit and wait without having to hike. The day before the hunt my wife’s little brother and one of his friends turned us on to an often overlooked area that was holding a lot of nice bulls this year. Opening morning we spent trying to figure out how best to hunt with my dad’s condition. Even walking just a few yards had him tired and worn out unable to go out in the evening. I took my wife out for the evening hunt and just missed a shot under a bull at 199 yards. This would be the bull that I ended up harvesting 4 days later. The rain came on Saturday and Sunday and I missed on a primer that didn’t ignite the powder. After the first one and the elk had gone I fired 2 more primers before the powder finally went off clearing the barrel. Monday morning we had my dad set up on a meadow just off a main road that had a decent bull and cows frequenting it. Things just worked out perfect and he was blessed with a 80 yard one shot kill. I think he enjoyed sitting in a chair watching everyone else do all the cleaning and loading of his elk. It wasn’t the biggest bull we had been seeing but for him and his condition it was the best opportunity we could find. It made me so happy that we were able to help him hunt and fill his own tag without endangering his health any more. After working on breaking down and processing his elk all day we took a break that evening to go out and hunt our #1 bull we had been seeing. We were able to call in one of the satellite bulls to his heard and just before dark moved in and almost got a shot at him but he busted me with just one or two seconds to spare. It was tough watching him trot off into the sunset. The next morning we got set up on our #2 bull (the one I missed a shot at on day one) and this time I didn’t miss. In fact I hit him twice but he was a tough bull and took off with his cows. After finding his tracks and blood the tracking began. When we caught up to him he was still alive and had started down this canyon. I put a few more shots in him to make sure he wasn’t going any farther but he still managed to roll a little deeper down into the canyon. My wife’s little brother climbed down near him and said that all the shots looked like kill shots to him. He was one tough elk to go that far. We then tried the gutless method for the first time and packed the meat and head out of the canyon with the help of a few friends.. My bull had long main beams with lots of length up top and on his fronts. He had lots of mass too. He wasn’t the widest bull we saw (that was bull #1) but still had decent width. The tracking made it fun and rewarding, glad we stuck with it and found him. It was a great end to a great hunt.

 

I am still trying to gather photos and videos from friends and may update again later.

 

My dads Bull

 

 

 

Where we caught up to my bull

 

 

 

picture showing mass (sorry I cant get it to turn right side up)

 

[cvw789]

Nice bull Ammon ! Congrats !

[randyolson]

CONGRATS on a nice bull!