Bro’s Late Wasatch Bull Hunt

Stubaby · Nov 12, 2023

It’s been a rough year for big bulls. I’ve only laid eyes on about 5 that would score over 340. There were three that I thought made it through the mid hunt but once they left the cows, we haven’t been able to turn them up. Here’s some bulls that we saw this past week-ish that didn’t make the list.

goforbroke · Nov 13, 2023

Looks like you are putting in the effort. Hopefully you find that big one!

Stubaby · Nov 13, 2023

We found a bull that had some decent tine length that had been in the same spot on Thursday and Friday mornings. My brother decided that if he was there opening morning that he’d pull the trigger.

At first light we located the bull. He was with a rag horn and by 7am the hunt was over. I looked over around 75 bulls last week and this past winter really took its toll on both older age class mortality and antler growth on the mature bulls that did make it through. He’s happy and that’s all that matters.

elkhunterUT · Nov 13, 2023

Congrats-that's a great bull! I certainly agree on the down year - we hunted hard on the Wasatch mid-season hunt for my boy and didn't see a bull larger than 320 and very, very few at the 300" mark.

desertpointbrian · Nov 13, 2023

The Wasatch is a horrible unit these days if your looking for a big bull. Spent 15 days helping on a cwmu this year biggest bull we saw was maybe a 330.

FixedBlade · Nov 13, 2023

We saw the same caliber of bulls during archery and only 1 we think was 350+, it was a tough year finding good ones on public.

Congrats on an awesome bull!

Cam@strawberry · Nov 13, 2023

The unit took an absolute beating with regard to inches.

Great bull this year.

treedagain · Nov 13, 2023

Nice bull.

hossblur · Nov 13, 2023

berrysblaster said:
The unit took an absolute beating with regard to inches.

Great bull this year.

Did you expect that? The general consensus, myself included, was that all that snow was gonna mean an explosion of feed =huge growth.

The bulls I saw on the Manti all looked like they didn't "finish" or wre stunted vs where it looked like they could be

JBunn · Nov 13, 2023

Way to get after it!

twdjr · Nov 13, 2023

Nice Bull, Congrats!

wapitiman · Nov 13, 2023

Great bull

copple2 · Nov 14, 2023

hossblur said:
Did you expect that? The general consensus, myself included, was that all that snow was gonna mean an explosion of feed =huge growth.

The bulls I saw on the Manti all looked like they didn't "finish" or wre stunted vs where it looked like they could be

I noticed that on both the wasatch and the Manti

Outdoordan · Nov 14, 2023

Great bull! Congrats to Brother!

Founder · Nov 14, 2023

Sweet! You guys did really good, I'd say. Congrats

BradA · Nov 14, 2023

Good work and congratulations

elkassassin · Nov 14, 2023

Is That A CAN On The End Of That Gun?

Stubaby · Nov 14, 2023

elkassassin said:
Is That A CAN On The End Of That Gun?

Yur Darn Tutin!!! It was also a 6.5 Creedmoor!!

You gots to ease that heavy recoil!!! ?

HntHrdr · Nov 14, 2023

Stubaby said:
Yur Darn Tutin!!! It was also a 6.5 Creedmoor!!

You gots to ease that heavy recoil!!! ?

I thought you couldn’t kilt an elk, especially a big bull with a 6.5

love it! Congrats on a really nice bull and sweet shooting iron

littlebighorn · Nov 14, 2023

From my experience, there is nothing easy about late season elk.
I suppose a few get lucky, but most earn every inch of bone.
Congratulations to your Bro on a nice bull.

Cam@strawberry · Nov 15, 2023

hossblur said:
Did you expect that? The general consensus, myself included, was that all that snow was gonna mean an explosion of feed =huge growth.

The bulls I saw on the Manti all looked like they didn't "finish" or wre stunted vs where it looked like they could be

I’m not sure what I expected, but it sure wasn’t this.

It’s been pretty wild scratching and clawing to kill 280-320 bulls.

From what I’ve heard the entire northern half of the state took a 40~” hit on antler size, I’m really curious to see what that means age wise.

DaveD · Nov 15, 2023

berrysblaster said:
I’m not sure what I expected, but it sure wasn’t this.

It’s been pretty wild scratching and clawing to kill 280-320 bulls.

From what I’ve heard the entire northern half of the state took a 40~” hit on antler size, I’m really curious to see what that means age wise.

I have heard that through many areas that were hit hard this past winter. I personally believe the animals that survived came out of winter in worse than normal shape so they didn't grow as big of antlers.

slamdunk · Nov 15, 2023

hossblur said:
Did you expect that? The general consensus, myself included, was that all that snow was gonna mean an explosion of feed =huge growth.

The bulls I saw on the Manti all looked like they didn't "finish" or wre stunted vs where it looked like they could be

Great Hoss, there goes the moisture and genetics theory.......?‍

Deerlove · Nov 15, 2023

Hard to build antler growth when you're nearly dead in the spring

hossblur · Nov 15, 2023

slamdunk said:
Great Hoss, there goes the moisture and genetics theory.......?‍

Yeah, I bought that, and spread it like gospel.

HuntToLive · Nov 21, 2023

hossblur said:
Did you expect that? The general consensus, myself included, was that all that snow was gonna mean an explosion of feed =huge growth.

The bulls I saw on the Manti all looked like they didn't "finish" or wre stunted vs where it looked like they could be

In general the explosion of feed would mean great growth. What most people are missing is that the winter did a huge Toll on the bulls bodies. The problem was too much snow for too long of a period. They didn't get feed for atleast a month later than normal, and I was watching about 50-60 bulls winter. They were Super skinny, ribs and spine showing, and super weak. So I did some research and they have to build back their body before any real antler growth happens.. So if feed wasn't available for an extra month, and they needed a few weeks to start to build back their bodies, their real good antler growth was delayed as well. So there was an influx of bulls that finished 5pts and barely 6pt bulls. There were a couple diamonds in the rough where bulls wintered just fine, but the majority on the Wasatch struggled which delayed their good growth period.

Stubaby · Nov 21, 2023

ludacris13 said:
In general the explosion of feed would mean great growth. What most people are missing is that the winter did a huge Toll on the bulls bodies. The problem was too much snow for too long of a period. They didn't get feed for atleast a month later than normal, and I was watching about 50-60 bulls winter. They were Super skinny, ribs and spine showing, and super weak. So I did some research and they have to build back their body before any real antler growth happens.. So if feed wasn't available for an extra month, and they needed a few weeks to start to build back their bodies, their real good antler growth was delayed as well. So there was an influx of bulls that finished 5pts and barely 6pt bulls. There were a couple diamonds in the rough where bulls wintered just fine, but the majority on the Wasatch struggled which delayed their good growth period.

Based on what I’ve been seeing—-this has to be the case.

Cam@strawberry · Nov 21, 2023

HuntToLive said:
In general the explosion of feed would mean great growth. What most people are missing is that the winter did a huge Toll on the bulls bodies. The problem was too much snow for too long of a period. They didn't get feed for atleast a month later than normal, and I was watching about 50-60 bulls winter. They were Super skinny, ribs and spine showing, and super weak. So I did some research and they have to build back their body before any real antler growth happens.. So if feed wasn't available for an extra month, and they needed a few weeks to start to build back their bodies, their real good antler growth was delayed as well. So there was an influx of bulls that finished 5pts and barely 6pt bulls. There were a couple diamonds in the rough where bulls wintered just fine, but the majority on the Wasatch struggled which delayed their good growth period.

I think it might even go a bit further, and if it’s correct, next year could be really fun.

We had significant drought conditions in place which meant that even at lower elevations bulls had no feed. Just compounded a bad winter.

This year? There’s ample feed right down to the valley floor. Bulls should be able to winter exceptionally well.

That could translate to what was sort of expected this season, exceptional horn growth fueled by healthy fat bodied bulls. Couple that with perhaps lower success rates from hard hunting conditions season…well if a guy was a gambler the northern half of the state could produce some bomber bulls this coming season.

HuntToLive · Nov 21, 2023

berrysblaster said:
I think it might even go a bit further, and if it’s correct, next year could be really fun.

We had significant drought conditions in place which meant that even at lower elevations bulls had no feed. Just compounded a bad winter.

This year? There’s ample feed right down to the valley floor. Bulls should be able to winter exceptionally well.

That could translate to what was sort of expected this season, exceptional horn growth fueled by healthy fat bodied bulls. Couple that with perhaps lower success rates from hard hunting conditions season…well if a guy was a gambler the northern half of the state could produce some bomber bulls this coming season.

That is my guess as well. If we have a normal winter that isn't long, I think it will be phenomenal for the Wasatch. Plenty of elk on the Wasatch, over 10,000.