The Rest Of The Story
Ok, get your popcorn, junior mints and diet Coke's, this is good.
I won't bore you with the events leading up to this grand finale, and although there was never a dull moment, i don't have time to write a weeks worth of events, i'll just give you the whip cream off the top.
My hunter who will remain annonymous, was a great guy, full of life and character, very enjoyable guy to be around and constantly cracking jokes, yet could be very serious when the situation called for it.
He was a little overweight for what i liked to see out where we hunted, but he assured me he could get wherever i would take him, he would just get there a little behind me, no big deal.
Well on our last day there, and after missing a couple "easy bulls", we had one last chance at a giant 5x6 that would easily go 380" (noone else wanted this bull because he was missing a 5th point, but still went 380....go figure!).
He was a hawg of a bull but was hanging out in a pretty dang tough place to get too, way up high.
We looked at the bull from camp and knew we could kill him if we were able to get to a certain spot on the mountain.
You could almost set your clock to this bull coming out in the evenings in the same spot, same time.
My hunter agreed to the game plan and we headed out early that afternoon knowing it was going to be a hell of a hike to get to the killing spot.
Well we parked the truck and i pointed up to where we need to glass from. It's only about 400yds up....but STRAIGHT up.
He bocked a bit, wiped his brow, tightned up his belt and headband and said "ok, let's go"..............
ONE hour later, he got up to where i was at and said to me..."Sorry man, i had a quadruple bypass last year and i'm a little slow".
WTF!!!!!!! i said!!! "Are you serious???" "You chose NOW too tell me this?"
Well we both calmed down, i was freezing to death from sitting there so long and he was pouring sweat, but we had a sip of water and a snack.
I had been sitting there a while and had a few bulls picked out but not the big 5x6 we were after, it wasn't time for him yet.
I was watching this gorgeous 360" bull all by himself playing in a wallow and i was picking our trail to get up to where the big dog was when my hunter asked me, "so where do we need to get too?" I said "see that last quaking aspen tree up there that's still yellow....we need to be right there and you can kill that bull."
He looked at me with this look of death in his eyes and very calmly yet sternly said "F-U"!!!, there is NO flipping way i can get up there, no way in hell!"
Well after reasessing the situation, a 380" bull simply wasn't big enough to get this guy up that hill the rest of the way.
He said as he looked at the other bulls starting to come out of the timber, "What's wrong with these bulls?" i said "they are just bulls (pisscutters in Bessy's words) and we didn't come all the way up here to kill, just a bull".
Well after much pondering i showed him the 360 i had as a "back up plan".
He loved it and said, "what's it going to take to get him?"
I told him "if i can get you to that rock pile, that bull is yours".....he agreed he could do it and we proceeded forth.
Well we finally made it to the rock pile and the bull had a suicide not taped to him apparently, cuz he was out in the wide open, with absolutely NO obstacles or trees withing 500 yards from him. We ranged him at 310yds, the bull was ours.
I got him all set up to shot across my big Leica scope mounted on a sturdy Bogen tripod, solid as a rock, he assured me the shot was easy for that .300 ultra mag.....YEAH RIGHT!!!
1st shot....the bull didn't even look up, let alone flinch.
2nd shot, same thing, bull just bugeling away like there's no tomorrow.
3rd shot (WTF!!!) now panick is setting in with the shooter, same thing, not even close.
We're so far off we can't even see dirt fly for God's sake!!
I try my hardest to calm him down, he's pissed now and wondering what's happening!!
I tell him, "calm down buddy, that thing aint even scared, he aint going nowhere, we'll get him! Just buckle down and hammer him."
After reloading...
1st shot (now fourth) i see dirt fly....12 feet BEHIND the bull, but perfect heighth.
I told him what i had seen, he adjusted forward and fired, same thing....12 feet behind.
Ok guys, i'll try to shorten this story, this scenerio happened for the next 4 shots, leading up to shot number 10, the bull hadn't moved 3 feet the entire time and still totally unaware he was even being shot at.
How i kept my hunter from having ANOTHER heart attack is beyond me....but i was about too have one, i just didn't want HIM too know it!!
I continued to act all kool like nothing was the matter, yet i think i wet myself twice duringh this time, i just rolled in the dirt so he couldn't see it. Lol
Well he FINALLY had the side to side figured out on where he needed to aim, but there was one problem.....he told me he only had one shell left and he said, "what should i do now?"
You can't even guess what i'm thinking right now!!
I'm asking myself, "who goes on a $17K elk hunt and only brings 11 shells???" Hell i brought more protein bars on that excursion that he brough bullets!!
So as we are sitting there thinking about what to do, i'm KNOWING that i'm about to tell him, "we're done, we're not even going to chance wounding this bull and not have a way to finish him off"........ i hear a loud, BOOOOOM!!!!!
"I got him, he's hit".....
I'm thinking to myself, "Oh sh*t my worst nightmare scenario just turned into reality!!"
The bull is hit high in the back, no power to his back legs and he's crawling down the hill towards the trees and we're out of freaking bullets, not too mention it's getting dark!!
I'm sitting there with the deer in the headlight look and he's looking at me like i have all the answers (i'm supposed to though right, i'm a guide!)
So i start thinking how i'm going to make a spear out of my longest knife and a long stick while he's fumbeling through his pack looking for some tape to tape the knife to the stick when all of the sudden he shouted out with glory...
"I found a loose shell in my pack, OMG!!"
Well he didn't notice the tears rolling out of my eyes and down my face, not sure out of sadness or happiness, but it really didn't matter at that point what the reason was, we were done!
Well folks, i now beleive in Jesus Christ, because HE put that extra shell in there for us and we were able to finish this story with a happy ending.....other than i got to pack that bull out By MYSELF the next day in five seperate trips!!
Eelgrass.....now you are REALLY impressed that i'm still guiding after all these years aren't ya!!! Lol
Wheeeeew, glad that's over, my fingers are cramped!!
