Hunt4more
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You know how elk hunting can be, when you feel like your doing everything you know to do but it’s not working, it’s really easy to get discouraged - Especially for a 14 year old kid, 7 days into a hunt that hasn’t been victorious on a elk hunt before. Then when it comes together all the sudden and it’s almost, easy… he shot the bull in the pounch angling forward. He didn’t know where he hit the bull and I didn’t see the shot, Just the bull going over the ridge - but couldn’t see the arrow. When I found a little blood we backed out. Gave him 4 hours, then went in. Very little blood mostly just on his track. About 600 yards (straight line OnX - maybe 3/4 Mile of real distance) later, feeling defeated, i stumbled upon him. Good thing my dad was there he found a track or two that I would of never found and we stayed in the game a little longer, eventually we caught up to him expired. The bull never bedded just went on a walk until his demise. Pretty lucky to have found him.
REWIND TO THE MORNING OF DAY 7 (last day)
The last morning we heard a bugle on top of the ridge and I had an idea of the direction the bull was traveling so we ran up the ridge as fast as we could. About half way up the hill he bulged again and that was all I needed to get on his line. Once at what I believed was the right elevation, I set Brody up by a pine tree and dropped back about 60 yards. I bugled, and heard a bull about 300 yards out or so in his direction. I thought that didn’t seem right a I thought we should of been much closer based on the last time he bugled. I waited another couple minutes, bugled again and then he ripped off, just out in front (there was two bulls) . By the time he bugled he was in already in sight of my son and walked on a line 25 yards above him. The bill stoped between two trees and Brody was already at full draw. (He said he held for about 30 seconds as the bull walked in).
I couldn’t see any of this from my position but heard some limbs break and watched the bull skirt out to the top of the ridge just above me. I could only see the top of the bull and I let out a small bugle. The bull stopped, looked my way for a second, then looked around for about 10 seconds, then proceed to walk slowly over the ridge out of sight. I was thinking to myself when I could see the bull “go down, go down” . As the bull went out of sight, I proceeded towards my son who was knocked and creeping his direction.
I looked over at my son and gestured “did you shoot, did you shoot”? He said yes. I asked him did you hit him and he said, I don’t know. (He threaded the needle between two trees) We creeped up to the location of the shot, looked for the arrow, nothing. Looked 20 yards down the trail and found a few drops of blood. At that point I got really excited and Brody said “yeah I hit him”. At that moment I said a quick prayer and backed out. I knew it was gonna take a small miracle but I knew we had a chance. We drove to garden city for breakfast.
He’s in a small pool of kids his age that have tagged a bull like this with his bow. Total celebrity when he gets back to school on Monday ?
REWIND TO THE MORNING OF DAY 7 (last day)
The last morning we heard a bugle on top of the ridge and I had an idea of the direction the bull was traveling so we ran up the ridge as fast as we could. About half way up the hill he bulged again and that was all I needed to get on his line. Once at what I believed was the right elevation, I set Brody up by a pine tree and dropped back about 60 yards. I bugled, and heard a bull about 300 yards out or so in his direction. I thought that didn’t seem right a I thought we should of been much closer based on the last time he bugled. I waited another couple minutes, bugled again and then he ripped off, just out in front (there was two bulls) . By the time he bugled he was in already in sight of my son and walked on a line 25 yards above him. The bill stoped between two trees and Brody was already at full draw. (He said he held for about 30 seconds as the bull walked in).
I couldn’t see any of this from my position but heard some limbs break and watched the bull skirt out to the top of the ridge just above me. I could only see the top of the bull and I let out a small bugle. The bull stopped, looked my way for a second, then looked around for about 10 seconds, then proceed to walk slowly over the ridge out of sight. I was thinking to myself when I could see the bull “go down, go down” . As the bull went out of sight, I proceeded towards my son who was knocked and creeping his direction.
I looked over at my son and gestured “did you shoot, did you shoot”? He said yes. I asked him did you hit him and he said, I don’t know. (He threaded the needle between two trees) We creeped up to the location of the shot, looked for the arrow, nothing. Looked 20 yards down the trail and found a few drops of blood. At that point I got really excited and Brody said “yeah I hit him”. At that moment I said a quick prayer and backed out. I knew it was gonna take a small miracle but I knew we had a chance. We drove to garden city for breakfast.
He’s in a small pool of kids his age that have tagged a bull like this with his bow. Total celebrity when he gets back to school on Monday ?
