S
springbear
Guest
Haven't posted on the site for awhile, but I have been reading the forums most days... Figured I would try and help some of you guys from scratching each others eyes out over silly topics and post some pictures and the story of a bull I killed on sunday. At the risk of ofending sombody on here; which seems pretty damn hard not to do, I better get the entire story out before I put the photos up.
The Bull is a 9 by 6.
I consider him a trophy, however I have seen and killed bigger.
I AM a trophy hunter. I have not scored him, don't much care. But if sombody just has to know or want to guess his score, I will score him and post it on here later. My Guess is about (278) gross.
I have also killed about 20 does in my life, and some were mule deer... I also have killed several cow elk. Not all of these gals were "dry", and I don't feel one bit sorry for it either; in fact I will likely kill another doe and possibly a cow this fall if I can get close enough.
I did not use a "chute plane" to spot him, I didn't even use binoculars, range finder, spotting scope, food plot, salt, elk piss in a bottle. However, I do own some of that stuff and about a truck load of other gear except a "chute plane".
I did use a release, carbon arrow, compound bow with fiber optic site, set at 74 pounds with 65% let off, muzzy 3 blade 100 grain, face paint, camo pants and shirt and a double reed mouth call with a grunt tube. I also used a lighter to test the wind direction... I can hit an eight inch circle at 60 yards with my broadheads on, 5 out of 6 times; of the 15 or so animals I have killed with archery equipment the longest shot was 23 yards.
I did drive my toyota to the area at 4 in the morning, and I stoped and called from the road, twice. He answered my second call about 1/2 mile away.
Hopefully that passes the morality and "full disclosure" test and now I can get on with the story...
Like I said he answered my bugle, I figured him to be down the ridge in a small saddle on the edge of an old clear cut. I went back up to my truck to get my pack and bow and wait for it to get a bit more light out. I got my gear and headed back down the ridge to where I had heard him the first time. By now he was fired up on his own and tearing the hell out of the trees and possibly another bull in the saddle. I got on a jammer road and worked in on him without calling. I set up on the road as it was the only area without ten foot brush and trees around it. I figured he must have a few cows in the area by the way he was carring on... I sent as soft and seductive cow call as I could make his way. He responded, and started my way on the road. About the same time I could hear some cows below me in the cut running around and calling. I peeked over the edge of the road and saw a few of them in the brush. I had to decide weather or not to hold my position or make a move into the brush with the cows. In my experiece, elk are pretty damn noisy and don't get to worried about the sound of something walking if the wind is right, as long as they are moving. I decided to make a move into the heard and try and find some kind of opening to shoot in. I just didn't think he would come all the way n with the rest of the elk down in the cut. Alos I thought it was possible that I was calling in a satilite bull and the big boy was down withthe cows keeping to him slef. I kept kind of low and jumped in line with a few cows and calves and followed them into a samll draw. The wind was not perfect, but I did have a pretty good crossing down wind and most of the elk were out in front and a bit above me. I figured things would happen pretty quick and if a shot presented itslef it would be close. I came into a small opening with a slight trail running along the top, which I was standing on. The farthest part of the opening was aobut 20 yards, but most of it was a lot closer. I could hear the bull glunking and raising hell up in the draw, I figured he was about 40 yards up, but moving my way, or at least moving somewhere. On the far side of the opening there was some ten foot brush, but another opening about ten yards wide that went across the small draw. By this time I had taken a knee and was at full draw waitng for things to unfold. I could see an elk or two in the other opening, but knew that if the bull came into that opening, I would not have any kind of a shot from this position. About 18 inches to the right on down-hill side of the trail that I was on there was an old stump from the logging. I figured if I stood on the stump, the added elevation of me standing plus the height of the stump might afford a shot into the other opening, at least the top part of the opening. I let the bow down and steped up on the stump. I was correct, in that I could at least shoot a small part of the far opening unobstructed by the brush tops, I figured the range at 32 yards to that spot and all other opportunities were 20 yards or LESS. So far, I had been passivly calling and aggressivly moving on this bull. I decided to make my stand here and force the issue a bit. Now standing on "my" stump, I drew my bow and let out a longer and louder cow call followed very shortly by the wimpiest bull squeal and some half assed grunts. A calf followed by two cows came busting out of the draw on the trail in the near opening. At least two cows also poped out into the far opeing and looked my way, I could not be sure because the bull was right on the hind end of the last cow in the close opening. I put my 20 yard pin on him over the head of the two cows, but of course they were headed my way and moving; I have learned the hard way aobut frontal shots on elk, so I held the bow. The calf peeled off to my right and came to a stop about one foot below me, the two cows stopped directly behind her and the bull came up and hooked them out of the way and bugled directly at me at a range of five feet. I thought shurly he would see me and wirl away. I decided that if he did, I was close enough that I could shoot when he turned to go. But he didn't. The calf nibbled on the Nine-Bark sprouting from the base of "my" stump and the cows were looking back at the other cows in the far opening. Me, I just stood there at full draw five feet away thinking that "pushing the issue" might not have been the best option.... Then he made his move; not away like I thought he would but towards me and up the hill, back onto the trail.
Now I know what ya'll are thinking and I sware if one of you refernce this as a "CASS" story I will respond like "THE ONLY BOBCAT OFFERING FREE TUNE UPS"..
The bull did not offer a shot when he turned ever so slightly to step up on the trail and all I had now was his front shoulder anyway. He actually tillted his head to get his horns around me as he went past. I put all my weight on my right leg and shifted that way to get the hell out of his way. I never did take the 20 yard pin off of him, but by now I really did not see the point in using the damn sites anymore. As his horns cleared my top bow limb, I pivoted the bow into the space between his antler and shoulder, waited for the front leg to lift foward and punched the release trigger. As you might imagine, all hell proceded to break loose on "my" stump and in the little opening that we had chosen to do battle in. Yes, my arrow did clear the rest, but only because of the penetration and the slight quarting away angle of the shot. What did not clear was his left antler, and specifically the ten inch kicker that sticks straight out. I don't know if he did it on purpose, or just reacted to the shot, but I ducked and pushed my left arm and bow up to take the brunt of the hit from the antler. In reality, he didn't hit me that hard, but I was already off balance from shifting over to let him by. At any rate, I ended up on the ground directly in front of the calf that was now quite shocked; her eyes looked a lot like that little bouncy girl on 257Tony's signe off..
The Bull took off around the corner with my arrow sticking out of his side, and the cows and calf all hauled ass the other way. Some how I had not swallowed my elk call and knew I should cow call to try and settle things down. My cow calls were not that good any more, but the other cows had grouped up across the draw and were calling. I could hear the bull which went the other way crashing around and moving down the draw. I moved around and just got up on "my" stump and sat down. Then I started to shake. a little at first, but it got worse. I tried to take a chew, but could not get the can open. Lucky for me I had a camel back water system on, so I did not have to open any water bottels to get a drink. Eventually the shaking slowed down and I got my snuff can open.
I could hear him down in the brush making a sound like somebody dry heaving after too many beers. Which in reality is kind of what he was going through. I hated to sit there and listen to him, but knew I could not possibly sneek up on him. We sat or stood there in full view of each other, forty or so yards from him seperated by a wall of brush and trees and listened to him die. After five or so minutes the only sound I could hear was some slight gurgling and the cows would mew every once in a while. Soon they moved up and over the ridge out of sight and hearing range.
I have killed enough to know better than just assume that he was dead, even though I was pretty confident. I was a bit worried because when I had last seen him, a good deal of my arrow was sticking out of him. Also since I did not use my "site" and things had kind of went to hell on me, I was not 100% sure of my actual shot placement... So I started to look for blood. I found none. I snuck over to where I last saw him, still no blood, but pretty good tracks were he tore up the ground going down the hill. Some of the brush was also broke up where he exited the opening. About five feet into the brush I found the fletching part of my arrow. My arrow is 29 and 1/2 inches from knock to back of the broadhead. This broken part was about 12-15 inches long, I was not expecting to find a two sided blood trail. Hell, I was just hoping to find a blood trail that this point. I lost the tracks in the dirt, so I started on my hands and knees small back and forth zig zags in the general direction where I had heard him. About 15 or 20 yards down the slope I finally found some blood, a lot of blood. I followed it back to my flagging where I had found the arrow and flagged it to get a line of travel and started following blood. He was laying on his belly with his side propped up against a stump about ten yards farther; dead. The words and feelings I had and shared with him for the next few minutes are for me and me alone.
It was pretty smokey out and that was blocking the sun a bit, but it was getting warm. I fully gutted him, getting the bung hole and wind pipe all the way out Propped him open. I figured if I hurried I could get back to town before my wife and the kids headed out to the parade. I made it back to town by 7:30 and got my wife,kids, my sisters kids and a few meat packing "friends" and we got him out after a few hours of packing.
So now for the pictures? Last time I just sent them to Brian and he put them in the photo gallery.... If somebody wants to post them for me under this post, I will email them to you right now.
thank's
Josh.
The Bull is a 9 by 6.
I consider him a trophy, however I have seen and killed bigger.
I AM a trophy hunter. I have not scored him, don't much care. But if sombody just has to know or want to guess his score, I will score him and post it on here later. My Guess is about (278) gross.
I have also killed about 20 does in my life, and some were mule deer... I also have killed several cow elk. Not all of these gals were "dry", and I don't feel one bit sorry for it either; in fact I will likely kill another doe and possibly a cow this fall if I can get close enough.
I did not use a "chute plane" to spot him, I didn't even use binoculars, range finder, spotting scope, food plot, salt, elk piss in a bottle. However, I do own some of that stuff and about a truck load of other gear except a "chute plane".
I did use a release, carbon arrow, compound bow with fiber optic site, set at 74 pounds with 65% let off, muzzy 3 blade 100 grain, face paint, camo pants and shirt and a double reed mouth call with a grunt tube. I also used a lighter to test the wind direction... I can hit an eight inch circle at 60 yards with my broadheads on, 5 out of 6 times; of the 15 or so animals I have killed with archery equipment the longest shot was 23 yards.
I did drive my toyota to the area at 4 in the morning, and I stoped and called from the road, twice. He answered my second call about 1/2 mile away.
Hopefully that passes the morality and "full disclosure" test and now I can get on with the story...
Like I said he answered my bugle, I figured him to be down the ridge in a small saddle on the edge of an old clear cut. I went back up to my truck to get my pack and bow and wait for it to get a bit more light out. I got my gear and headed back down the ridge to where I had heard him the first time. By now he was fired up on his own and tearing the hell out of the trees and possibly another bull in the saddle. I got on a jammer road and worked in on him without calling. I set up on the road as it was the only area without ten foot brush and trees around it. I figured he must have a few cows in the area by the way he was carring on... I sent as soft and seductive cow call as I could make his way. He responded, and started my way on the road. About the same time I could hear some cows below me in the cut running around and calling. I peeked over the edge of the road and saw a few of them in the brush. I had to decide weather or not to hold my position or make a move into the brush with the cows. In my experiece, elk are pretty damn noisy and don't get to worried about the sound of something walking if the wind is right, as long as they are moving. I decided to make a move into the heard and try and find some kind of opening to shoot in. I just didn't think he would come all the way n with the rest of the elk down in the cut. Alos I thought it was possible that I was calling in a satilite bull and the big boy was down withthe cows keeping to him slef. I kept kind of low and jumped in line with a few cows and calves and followed them into a samll draw. The wind was not perfect, but I did have a pretty good crossing down wind and most of the elk were out in front and a bit above me. I figured things would happen pretty quick and if a shot presented itslef it would be close. I came into a small opening with a slight trail running along the top, which I was standing on. The farthest part of the opening was aobut 20 yards, but most of it was a lot closer. I could hear the bull glunking and raising hell up in the draw, I figured he was about 40 yards up, but moving my way, or at least moving somewhere. On the far side of the opening there was some ten foot brush, but another opening about ten yards wide that went across the small draw. By this time I had taken a knee and was at full draw waitng for things to unfold. I could see an elk or two in the other opening, but knew that if the bull came into that opening, I would not have any kind of a shot from this position. About 18 inches to the right on down-hill side of the trail that I was on there was an old stump from the logging. I figured if I stood on the stump, the added elevation of me standing plus the height of the stump might afford a shot into the other opening, at least the top part of the opening. I let the bow down and steped up on the stump. I was correct, in that I could at least shoot a small part of the far opening unobstructed by the brush tops, I figured the range at 32 yards to that spot and all other opportunities were 20 yards or LESS. So far, I had been passivly calling and aggressivly moving on this bull. I decided to make my stand here and force the issue a bit. Now standing on "my" stump, I drew my bow and let out a longer and louder cow call followed very shortly by the wimpiest bull squeal and some half assed grunts. A calf followed by two cows came busting out of the draw on the trail in the near opening. At least two cows also poped out into the far opeing and looked my way, I could not be sure because the bull was right on the hind end of the last cow in the close opening. I put my 20 yard pin on him over the head of the two cows, but of course they were headed my way and moving; I have learned the hard way aobut frontal shots on elk, so I held the bow. The calf peeled off to my right and came to a stop about one foot below me, the two cows stopped directly behind her and the bull came up and hooked them out of the way and bugled directly at me at a range of five feet. I thought shurly he would see me and wirl away. I decided that if he did, I was close enough that I could shoot when he turned to go. But he didn't. The calf nibbled on the Nine-Bark sprouting from the base of "my" stump and the cows were looking back at the other cows in the far opening. Me, I just stood there at full draw five feet away thinking that "pushing the issue" might not have been the best option.... Then he made his move; not away like I thought he would but towards me and up the hill, back onto the trail.
Now I know what ya'll are thinking and I sware if one of you refernce this as a "CASS" story I will respond like "THE ONLY BOBCAT OFFERING FREE TUNE UPS"..
The bull did not offer a shot when he turned ever so slightly to step up on the trail and all I had now was his front shoulder anyway. He actually tillted his head to get his horns around me as he went past. I put all my weight on my right leg and shifted that way to get the hell out of his way. I never did take the 20 yard pin off of him, but by now I really did not see the point in using the damn sites anymore. As his horns cleared my top bow limb, I pivoted the bow into the space between his antler and shoulder, waited for the front leg to lift foward and punched the release trigger. As you might imagine, all hell proceded to break loose on "my" stump and in the little opening that we had chosen to do battle in. Yes, my arrow did clear the rest, but only because of the penetration and the slight quarting away angle of the shot. What did not clear was his left antler, and specifically the ten inch kicker that sticks straight out. I don't know if he did it on purpose, or just reacted to the shot, but I ducked and pushed my left arm and bow up to take the brunt of the hit from the antler. In reality, he didn't hit me that hard, but I was already off balance from shifting over to let him by. At any rate, I ended up on the ground directly in front of the calf that was now quite shocked; her eyes looked a lot like that little bouncy girl on 257Tony's signe off..
The Bull took off around the corner with my arrow sticking out of his side, and the cows and calf all hauled ass the other way. Some how I had not swallowed my elk call and knew I should cow call to try and settle things down. My cow calls were not that good any more, but the other cows had grouped up across the draw and were calling. I could hear the bull which went the other way crashing around and moving down the draw. I moved around and just got up on "my" stump and sat down. Then I started to shake. a little at first, but it got worse. I tried to take a chew, but could not get the can open. Lucky for me I had a camel back water system on, so I did not have to open any water bottels to get a drink. Eventually the shaking slowed down and I got my snuff can open.
I could hear him down in the brush making a sound like somebody dry heaving after too many beers. Which in reality is kind of what he was going through. I hated to sit there and listen to him, but knew I could not possibly sneek up on him. We sat or stood there in full view of each other, forty or so yards from him seperated by a wall of brush and trees and listened to him die. After five or so minutes the only sound I could hear was some slight gurgling and the cows would mew every once in a while. Soon they moved up and over the ridge out of sight and hearing range.
I have killed enough to know better than just assume that he was dead, even though I was pretty confident. I was a bit worried because when I had last seen him, a good deal of my arrow was sticking out of him. Also since I did not use my "site" and things had kind of went to hell on me, I was not 100% sure of my actual shot placement... So I started to look for blood. I found none. I snuck over to where I last saw him, still no blood, but pretty good tracks were he tore up the ground going down the hill. Some of the brush was also broke up where he exited the opening. About five feet into the brush I found the fletching part of my arrow. My arrow is 29 and 1/2 inches from knock to back of the broadhead. This broken part was about 12-15 inches long, I was not expecting to find a two sided blood trail. Hell, I was just hoping to find a blood trail that this point. I lost the tracks in the dirt, so I started on my hands and knees small back and forth zig zags in the general direction where I had heard him. About 15 or 20 yards down the slope I finally found some blood, a lot of blood. I followed it back to my flagging where I had found the arrow and flagged it to get a line of travel and started following blood. He was laying on his belly with his side propped up against a stump about ten yards farther; dead. The words and feelings I had and shared with him for the next few minutes are for me and me alone.
It was pretty smokey out and that was blocking the sun a bit, but it was getting warm. I fully gutted him, getting the bung hole and wind pipe all the way out Propped him open. I figured if I hurried I could get back to town before my wife and the kids headed out to the parade. I made it back to town by 7:30 and got my wife,kids, my sisters kids and a few meat packing "friends" and we got him out after a few hours of packing.
So now for the pictures? Last time I just sent them to Brian and he put them in the photo gallery.... If somebody wants to post them for me under this post, I will email them to you right now.
thank's
Josh.
