Kicking off Our 2019 Fall Season - My Bull Hunt (Our Epic Fall Part 1)

[FirstBlood]

Nice Job...

[Flatlander]

Congrats Sean. Glad you got it done on a beast of a bull.

Just curious, what do you think AZGFD should do about the blind bull?

[mrodri30]

so cool man! bull of a lifetime!

[stanley]

Way to go, Sean!!! Outstanding!

Can't wait to hear about Draysen's hunt!

S.

 

 

[rossislider]

Here is what I know and believe about the blind bull.

• It was definitely blind. We stood within a few yards of it and watched it stumble into many things, including a parked truck.
• I do not believe it has been blind long. It was definitely getting skinny. I think the blindness must have occurred recently given his condition. He was still very aware of his surroundings via smell and hearing
• I was not the one to call AZGFD and report it. A different member of our party did that. So I do not know what was going to happen. He should have been very easy to find. He was staying right on a heavily used road in the unit. He hadn't moved more than a few yards over the course of a couple of hours. I do not believe this bull would live long. He was not very mobile and I believe it would be short amount of time before he fell and broke a leg. He would also be very easy pray to predators. With the right wind we were able to walk right up to him.
• I think AZGFD would probably most likely put him down and do some testing. Shane said every few years they come across a few bulls like this in the unit. It appears there is some sort of disease in the area (maybe genetic or environmental) where a small number of bulls develop blindness. Definitely something AZGFD would most likely want to test or monitor. It does not appear to be related to CWD.

[pwrguy]

Thanks for the great write up.  Awesome bull!!!

[AZbowhntr]

Well done on an excellent bull.  You are one of very few that can say they passed a 400" bull.  Quite the distinction.  Good luck to Draysen on his hunt.  Look forward to the story and pictures.

[WHT_MTNMAN]

4 hours ago, rossislider said:

Here is what I know and believe about the blind bull.

• It was definitely blind. We stood within a few yards of it and watched it stumble into many things, including a parked truck.
• I do not believe it has been blind long. It was definitely getting skinny. I think the blindness must have occurred recently given his condition. He was still very aware of his surroundings via smell and hearing
• I was not the one to call AZGFD and report it. A different member of our party did that. So I do not know what was going to happen. He should have been very easy to find. He was staying right on a heavily used road in the unit. He hadn't moved more than a few yards over the course of a couple of hours. I do not believe this bull would live long. He was not very mobile and I believe it would be short amount of time before he fell and broke a leg. He would also be very easy pray to predators. With the right wind we were able to walk right up to him.
• I think AZGFD would probably most likely put him down and do some testing. Shane said every few years they come across a few bulls like this in the unit. It appears there is some sort of disease in the area (maybe genetic or environmental) where a small number of bulls develop blindness. Definitely something AZGFD would most likely want to test or monitor. It does not appear to be related to CWD.

I have seen 3 or 4 of them in the 3c area over the last decade. My dad tells of a story of tackling a blind bull that ran into a water catchment fence and subsequently almost gored him to death.

[Flatlander]

5 hours ago, rossislider said:

Here is what I know and believe about the blind bull.

• It was definitely blind. We stood within a few yards of it and watched it stumble into many things, including a parked truck.
• I do not believe it has been blind long. It was definitely getting skinny. I think the blindness must have occurred recently given his condition. He was still very aware of his surroundings via smell and hearing
• I was not the one to call AZGFD and report it. A different member of our party did that. So I do not know what was going to happen. He should have been very easy to find. He was staying right on a heavily used road in the unit. He hadn't moved more than a few yards over the course of a couple of hours. I do not believe this bull would live long. He was not very mobile and I believe it would be short amount of time before he fell and broke a leg. He would also be very easy pray to predators. With the right wind we were able to walk right up to him.
• I think AZGFD would probably most likely put him down and do some testing. Shane said every few years they come across a few bulls like this in the unit. It appears there is some sort of disease in the area (maybe genetic or environmental) where a small number of bulls develop blindness. Definitely something AZGFD would most likely want to test or monitor. It does not appear to be related to CWD.

They don’t need to study why they went blind, my Mom told me that when I was 12.

[catfish campbell]

Nicely done....congrats!

 

[olmos1010]

Very nice, congrats buddy. Bull of a lifetime right there. Good write up.

[Lazy-H98]

On 10/1/2019 at 8:06 PM, Coffeeman said:

Awesome bull! Never used Berger bullets. Accubonds have always put bulls on the ground in short order. Again congrat, can’t wait to hear how your sons hunt went!

Great Great bull.

 

+1 on Nosler Accubonds.  One shot dropped my bull at 400 yards (7MM 160g), broke a rib on entry and took out both lungs.  

[rossislider]

Hey all, another hunter asked me a few questions about this hunt and it got me to thinking that I never did a follow up report on a few thing I have learned and have transpired that relate to this hunt. Here is a brief update:

I mentioned the bull that Shane and I snuck up on and recorded the night before my hunt opened. He was a beautiful bull that I had determined would be by top choice for a back up bull if my hunt got down to the final days. We never got a really clear look at him as we filmed him racking a tree from 60 yards away. But he was gorgeous and we estimated him to be a 360-370 class bull from what we could see. We were WAY off. He was killed by an A3 archery hunter few weeks later and was tapped out around 407. Who knew?!?! It turns out A3 had trail camera pictures of my bull from back in June and so a swap was worked out. Their pictures for our raking video. I was really excited to get to see him with the intact G1 and confirm it was a symmetrical as we thought.

 

[PRDATR]

6 hours ago, rossislider said:

Hey all, another hunter asked me a few questions about this hunt and it got me to thinking that I never did a follow up report on a few thing I have learned and have transpired that relate to this hunt. Here is a brief update:

I mentioned the bull that Shane and I snuck up on and recorded the night before my hunt opened. He was a beautiful bull that I had determined would be by top choice for a back up bull if my hunt got down to the final days. We never got a really clear look at him as we filmed him racking a tree from 60 yards away. But he was gorgeous and we estimated him to be a 360-370 class bull from what we could see. We were WAY off. He was killed by an A3 archery hunter few weeks later and was tapped out around 407. Who knew?!?! It turns out A3 had trail camera pictures of my bull from back in June and so a swap was worked out. Their pictures for our raking video. I was really excited to get to see him with the intact G1 and confirm it was a symmetrical as we thought.

 

A buddy of mine took a 423 archery bull back in the 90's after passing on quite a few others and he also thought it was smaller but to his fortune it taped out bigger.

[cmbbulldog]

Great bull, congrats!