wifes first bull!!

younguns · Sep 28, 2013

my wife was able to close the deal Wednesday morning on a bull we have been scouting and watching for a couple weeks. we scouted as many days as possible, but with fires in the area most of the summer, it really limited access. When the fires were finally under control, we were back in business. we were locating bulls, and making notes on the best way to get her on to them. we found 2 bulls that we set our sites on, in a fairly accessible area, and were 2 better bulls we had seen. Tuesday night we were un-able to locate either of the bulls. A little skeptical, we stuck to our plan, and headed into the area we had been seeing both bulls in. we left camp that morning as it was giving us a little taste of what the weather was gonna be like the rest of the day. Snow, rain, fog, wind, COLD!, everything but sun, that's for sure. We took off well before light with high hopes, and we weren't let down. We immediately ran into elk, and was forced to lay low for a few minutes. After not locating a bull with that bunch of cows(which we thought was mind boggling) we started chasing bugles. We could hear screaming bulls in the next canyon, so that's where we headed. upon getting there, the elk had made their way to the next canyon. a little worried this was going to turn into a game of cat and mouse, we kept pursuing. The weather was really making a point to let us know it didn't want us up there, it just didn't realize we had a hard headed women with us, and it wasn't gonna hinder her moral. Getting to the next canyon, where we were sure there was gonna be elk everywhere!!! Unable again to locate the bulls we had been listening to all morning. We picked it apart as well as we could, then let a couple cow calls and a bugle. With no response we tried it again after a couple minutes. Low and behold a bull gave himself away as he came over top the ridge directly across from us. we put some optics on him and quickly decided it was the wide bull we had been watching. A split second later a raghorn bull stepped out of the trees up the canyon to check out what was going on, needless to say we sat and waited as the raghorn bull called the big bull directly down the canyon to us. Our first sight of the bull he was 616 yds., my younger brother then ranged the bottom of the canyon and said 315. as if a string was pulling the bull to the bottom of the canyon, he pushed his cows directly to it!! 25 minutes later I flipped the scope caps open for her, and made sure she had her ear plugs in. 1 shot at 315, and 3 at 350, thru the 300 rum, all perfectly placed in the bread basket we couldn't believe he was standing, but it wasnt for long. this is her 3rd elk in 3 yrs. and her first bull. she was completely blown away at the shear size difference between these big bulls and the cows. thank you to all my family that was there to help us! special thanks to my younger brother, my two brother-n-laws, and my father-n-law. A huge thank you to my wife for freezing her keaster off and still shooting like it was just another day.