23 Bull

[kadillackountry]

My first hunt summary post. What a great trip this year. Got drawn again for Unit 23 late rifle hunt after hunting hard last year and missing out on filling my tag.

 

Started with a scouting trip weekend before Thanksgiving. Found a nice point with 270 degree views and glassed up about 10 bulls. Mostly spikes and smaller bulls but three definite shooters. Decided to set up camp relatively close to this location and glass this point on Thanksgiving to find one of the shooter bulls.

 

Went in on Wednesday night and got all set up. Woke up early on Thanksgiving and got to our glassing spot. Almost no activity to start the morning, so I got a little worried that the bulls had moved out during the week. Then about 8:30, I spotted one of the big bulls that we were hoping for. He had moved over one finger, but was still hanging out.

 

We kept eyes on him all day and put him to bed at night and went back to camp to wake up way before light and get back into position.

 

My grandfather passed away this year, and he always wanted to go on an Elk hunt. Being from Pennsylvania he had always wanted to hunt for Elk in the American west. He was incredibly excited last year for my hunt and we couldn't get it done. I'd like to say that he was here with me this year, through the draw process and guiding my hunt.

 

So, we woke up early to get into position. We hiked up, and my hunting buddy, who never gets lost while hiking. Never. Got lost heading up to our glassing spot. We ended up in the saddle of the point we were heading to, and decided to alter the plan a little bit. I think this was my grandfather doing some guiding here for us.

 

We decided to pop out of the saddle towards where we had put the bull to bed the night before. We went about 50 yards down the backside of the hill and spotted the bull on our side of the hill. He had moved up to feed a little bit. We set up at 340 yards, but the bull spooked and ran back through the canyon to the other side where he had bed down the night before.

 

We ran down to this area and set up for a shot across the canyon. We spotted the bull at 661 yards and set up my gun on him and waiting for him to move broadside. Took one shot over his back, and then plunked him with the second shot. He went about 10-15 yards and started thrashing some manzanita, and then no more motion. We were 60% sure he was completely down. I stayed on him with the glass, and my hunting buddy went to retrieve the ranger and move into the canyon for the pack-out. I met him down in the creek bottom and we started the look for the downed elk. Sure enough we found him in a thick patch of manzanita that he dropped in.

 

Field measured at 348 1/4"!! So incredibly excited. Glad my Pap could be there to watch. He definitely helped on the hunt.

[chico]

Congratulations on a very nice Bull.

Glad you were able to get it done.

Was up there week prior scouting and saw some nice bulls.

Again congratulations.

[jim]

Great bull. Congratulations.

[PelaPapas]

Awesome bull, congrats!

[kadillackountry]

Thanks chico, jim, and pelapapas. Everything went according to plan (minus getting lost a little bit on opening day, but once again, I'll thank my Pap for that one...).

[bgshooter]

Congrats on a great bull!!!

[pwrguy]

Very nice, great job.

[Zeke-BE]

Congrats

[Redman]

very nice bull!! congrats

[Will K]

Awesome job.

[Big Browns]

Great job, congrats!!!!

[Wyatt Earp]

Great bull! Congrats!

[iloveguns]

Nice!! Congrats man!!

[Mocha1545]

Nice Bull! Congrats.

[StraightTequilaNight]

Great bull, congrats! Thanks for sharing.