MuggyMan Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Finally, at the age of 55, I've tagged my first bull! After 25 years of being busy with other things, I started hunting again. in 2009, my friend Steve was telling me about his elk hunt, and it sounded so awesome. I started asking him all kinds of questions and he looked at me and asked "You want to go?" I harvested cows in 2009, 2010 and 2013. In 2011, we got drawn for late season bull in 4B. Did a lot of scouting in a unit we never hunted before, found some elk and was encouraged. Then the day after Thanksgiving, the elk had all moved. The only bull we saw all week was in the back of some gals truck as she drove up and down the road showing it off. Good for her. I swore I was done with late season bull, but then last year a friend at work told me that getting a late season bull in 5B was very doable. So we put in. I knew, that at least in some units the elk moved when the weather changed, so I did some scout trips in June, August and September just to get the lay of the land, but also went up the week before our hunt started to see if I could find them. Figured that would help our chances. Found bachelor groups in 3 different places and was encouraged. Here's a bull we found Monday before our hunt. I set my sights on a big bodied 5x5, but come opening day there were hunters all over the place. Some guy even managed to park his truck right where one bachelor group had been crossing the power lines. My 5x5 was no where to be found. Watched a group of 9 muley does work their way from about 400 yards out to just over the ridge. That made the morning interesting. That evening we went to a different area where we'd seen several bachelor groups 4 days earlier. Nothing. Day 2 I decided to hunt a ridge where a big group of cows with a spike were traveling to their bedding area. there were 3 of us total; Adrian, a rookie, my friend Kevin who's been hunting 3 years but has yet to tag anything, and myself. I figured maybe I could get Adrian a spike that morning. I set him up where we'd last seen the herd go through, Kevin to the south of him, and me a ways to the north. I honestly thought I had put Adrian in the best spot, and was I surprised when this guy showed up. To be continued... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Will K Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Nice. Congrat's. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
capoeirajosh Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreeneMachine Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Awesome bull! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jimmyc Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Awesome. Congrats. Not everyone can say they have done that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mattys281 Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Congrats! If you need help uploading pics, you can email them to me and I'll see if I can post them. Mattys281@yahoo.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KidBowHunter Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Sweet! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mattys281 Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Nice bull congrats again! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MuggyMan Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Congrats! If you need help uploading pics, you can email them to me and I'll see if I can post them. Mattys281@yahoo.com Thanks, but I got it working Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couestracker Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Nice bull! Congrats on finally tagging your first bull. Come on, want to read the "continued" part. ☺ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pine Donkey Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Very nice. Congratulations! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shedhunteraz Report post Posted December 14, 2014 Nice job great bull. Congrats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Willyhunts2 Report post Posted December 15, 2014 Good job, congrats on the bull. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MuggyMan Report post Posted December 20, 2014 Continued: Between work and my son hogging the computer to do his schoolwork, this is the first chance I've had to finish this. Wish I could say I made a great shot and he dropped in his tracks, but that's not what happened. So at 8:45 this nice bull comes up the ridge to my right, and I thought, “There’s my bull.” Before the crosshairs are settled, my rifle fires! I was wearing thick gloves – it was 22 degrees and the wind was blowing on that ridge – and I never felt the trigger. A clean miss! The bull ran 30 yards and stopped behind a clump of oaks. I tried to squeeze in a shot through the oaks, but the bull jumped just as I squeezed the trigger. Another miss. The bull turned away and I fired once more trying for a neck shot. The bull disappeared into the forest. I had shot 1.5 inch groups at 200 yards at the range, and now I didn’t know if I had hit the bull or not from 130 yards! Went over and found blood, and so backed out and texted my buddies that we had a bull to track. Gathered my gear, sat down and ate an orange while I tried to calm down. We waited another 30 minutes and then started tracking. We had good blood at first, but the trail got thinner and the blood stopped completely after less than 100 yards. Started following tracks at that point. I could see the bull was dragging his feet a little, so I was hoping he was hit well enough that we would find him down before long. Then I lost the trail completely. We started walking circles and grids trying to pick up the trail. I found a single drop of dried blood in the creek bed below the ridge; thought it might be old, but there were fresh tracks going up the far bank. We searched that opposite ridge for a while – nothing. Kevin and I went back to where we lost the trail to see if we could pick it up again. By this time, we were all getting discouraged. The thought that I had wounded an animal and might not recover it, that this magnificent bull might go off and hide, possibly suffer for days and die without ever being found had me feeling sick to my stomach. I was literally ready to puke. I just started praying, “Lord please help me find this bull. Please don’t let this animal go to waste.” The guys were getting tired and hungry, and I could tell they were ready to give up. They headed back to camp to get some lunch. Told them I was going to move further down and walk back up the ridge and search where we hadn’t looked yet. I walked 50 yards south, turned and headed back up the ridge. Less than halfway up I cut tracks – bull tracks, fresh! 100 yards later, 4 hours after I’d shot him I found my bull! He’d traveled about a half-mile before dying. I started thanking God right there for not letting me give up and for helping me. I texted the guys to eat lunch and bring me a sandwich because we had work to do. To Adrian and any other new hunters reading this, I’d like to say that taking the life of an animal is no small thing. When we shoot an animal, we take responsibility for that animal. We have a duty to make the most ethical shot possible, and if we wound an animal to end it’s suffering as quickly as possible and do everything possible to recover that animal. We need to respect God’s creation and all His creatures. Really, isn’t this appreciation why we hunt in the first place? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MuggyMan Report post Posted December 20, 2014 More pics. First sunset on first day scouting new unit Next morning after heavy rain -- elk tracks going down middle of road Had to stop a couple times to clean sticky mud out of wheel wells Some cows in the burn area below mesa Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
