Let me explain myself,I hunted all 9 days. On the afternoon of day seven we located a bull( and the biggest bull I had seen to that point a decent 5X5) at well over 1/2 a mile away on an open hillside. We stalked in and got as close as we were gonna get as it was wide open with not a tree on the hill. I got set up and ranged the bull at just over 600 yds. I am very sorry for the wounded bull I hit. Was it far? Yes, but when it came to preparing for this hunt I shot my rifle over 250+ times.We have a range that my family shoots at and the farthest range that we shoot is 600 yds. Now when I go to the range I shoot from 100 all the way to 600 yds focusing on 300-600 range. So with that being said, I know where my gun shoots and where to hold out to 600 yards. The one thing I didn't ever shoot in was the wind, and on this day the wind was blowing. Thinking I knew where to hold to ajdust for the wind took a couple shots hitting him far back, stillto this day I am not sure where. Let me tell you I was sick to my stomach to watch this bull go up and over the hill and out of sight. Right then we made our way over to find some blood and sure enough there was blood on the ground so I knew we would have to let him sit over night and go in and find him the next day. I called reinforecements who drove all the way from las vegas in one night to help me find this bull. So, on day 8 at daybreak Five guys made our way up to where I shot and then on to the blood. As we made our way up the hill the blood started to get sparce and soon became a speck or two everytime he would stop. Most of the time we were in the snow so tracking went farely quick. As we made our way to where he bedded for the night the blood started to thin out and soon he stopped bleeding and even got back with his harem and was not seen the rest of the day. We seriously tracked our butts off(he bled for the first half mile and then nothing for the next 2 miles) all day going back and forth and backtracking just to try and find him we literally spent all day looking for this bull and to come up empty handed made sick to my stomach. Searching all day until dark and not finding anything to us signalled that the shot was not fatal, do I know that? No, but when I have five guys who are putting forth the effort to try and recover a wounded bull and not even turnign up another speck of blood after 1/2 a mile and following the whole herds tracks up and down hills and not seeing a track go in a diiferent direction says to me it was probably a flesh wound. If you havn't figured out I am a non resident who spent alot of money to hunt a bull elk and to have this roller coaster of a hunt go on was the last thing I wanted to do.Seriously I hunted my a@$ off. But having good friends who were there to help keep my hopes up was all that I will remember. Am I sorry for the wounded bull? You better believe it I never want to wound anything. But having put forth the money, time and effort to accomplish this I could not go home empty handed but that reality set in that night. To be honest that last moring I wasn't planning on seein or even pulling the trigger as I had seen only a handfull of elk. That last moring we went to a different area and right off the bat we found a spike. I didn't want to shoot a spike but my buddies informed me that I had spent well over $2500+ in food, fuel, lost wages, license and tag and that he will taste tons better than tag soup. So I made the treck to shoot this spike. The rest is what you saw on the video. I am sorry if I offeneded everyone it was not my intentions at all, I am truelly sorry for wounding a bull I truelly tried to locate him all day, and for not acting remorseful, well that was where I was caught in the moment of finally being able to put my hands on a bull. It was bitter sweet because I drew an elk tag in 2007 in NV and on the last day of the hunt I missed a 350 class bull due to bull fever and on this hunt I connected on the last day at 220yds. I am very sorry and have come to the realization that I need to make better judgments before taking that long of a shot.
My appologies
Larry Staley
