I will keep it as short as I can but what an epic adventure! I know people will say it doesn’t count hunting private and paying an outfitter and to each there own…I got into the whole hunting late in life and those that know me well know that it’s the one thing I have the most regrets about…I wish I had found it earlier in life and I am doing my best to ensure my kids don’t have the same experience in their lives! That said, I hunted hard and got an opportunity that I will never forget!!! We also got extremely lucky that the rut was a little late this year as it was in much of the country. We were blessed to witness what it like in prime rut when elk are not being pressured! We had close to 500,000 acres and only 16-20 bulls are taken per year. Even then, the elk are still extremely cautious.
We saw tons of activity but honestly, a lot of the bulls we spotted were young. I wasn’t going to be picky but my goal was to take a mature bull.
The evening I was able to close the deal was nothing short of magical! We set up on water and were there for 20-30 minutes when we heard what sounded like two bulls bugling about a mile to our east. We got within a thousand yards but all we saw were 3-4 cows. We backed out and put the wind to our advantage circling around and taking cover in some dense oak brush. That’s when the magic started!
We quickly realized we had wondered into a large herd of elk that were completely oblivious to our presence. Immediately, I started glassing up bulls. By my estimation, we had close to 150 animals with 20-30 of them being bulls. The first bull I saw was close to 500 yds away but I could tell he was big with the naked eye. He ended up being a large and heavy 5x5. What I originally thought was 2 bulls bugling ended up being close to a dozen!! Absolutely epic!! Quickly scanning the herd, we could see several large bulls by most standards. Needless to say, I was getting excited. Honestly, I would’ve been stoked with the heavy 5 but Jason, my guide whispered to me “ there are more elk in here that we aren’t seeing and they have no clue we are here, let’s be patient and just watch .” Of course, he was right.
We stayed put for a solid 30-40 minutes and I kept hearing a raspy bugle from below but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. During this time, we spotted two extremely dominant bulls, one unfortunately had his left main beam snapped in half and the other head his 3rd and 4th broken in the left and his 3rd on the right snapped down to a nub.
Watching these two bulls I realized they were marching to a different song but the mystery bull was screaming right over the top of them. I watched two young bulls sparring as if they were practicing for next year as another thrashed through the water. As I scanned back and forth, I caught a bull walking out from behind a large group of oaks and immediately realized this was the bull we were hearing. It only took a second to see he was the one! The angle of the shot wasn’t right so I worked back to a small clearing in the brush and extended the legs on my tripod as I was going to have to take a standing shot. I clipped my rifle into the tripod and my buddy gave me the dope of 250 yds and .5 mils. As he turned from straight away to quartering away, I put the crosshairs about 8 inches behind the crease and let the 30 Nosler eat! I saw the blood spout from the shot and watched him pile up about 15 yds away.
Just like that, I had competed a goal I’ve had for years! All the other Elk didn’t seam to care one bit and went right back to what they were doing as if nothing happened. The first thing I did was text my wife to let my daughter know I would be back in time for her ninth birthday!!
We saw tons of activity but honestly, a lot of the bulls we spotted were young. I wasn’t going to be picky but my goal was to take a mature bull.
The evening I was able to close the deal was nothing short of magical! We set up on water and were there for 20-30 minutes when we heard what sounded like two bulls bugling about a mile to our east. We got within a thousand yards but all we saw were 3-4 cows. We backed out and put the wind to our advantage circling around and taking cover in some dense oak brush. That’s when the magic started!
We quickly realized we had wondered into a large herd of elk that were completely oblivious to our presence. Immediately, I started glassing up bulls. By my estimation, we had close to 150 animals with 20-30 of them being bulls. The first bull I saw was close to 500 yds away but I could tell he was big with the naked eye. He ended up being a large and heavy 5x5. What I originally thought was 2 bulls bugling ended up being close to a dozen!! Absolutely epic!! Quickly scanning the herd, we could see several large bulls by most standards. Needless to say, I was getting excited. Honestly, I would’ve been stoked with the heavy 5 but Jason, my guide whispered to me “ there are more elk in here that we aren’t seeing and they have no clue we are here, let’s be patient and just watch .” Of course, he was right.
We stayed put for a solid 30-40 minutes and I kept hearing a raspy bugle from below but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. During this time, we spotted two extremely dominant bulls, one unfortunately had his left main beam snapped in half and the other head his 3rd and 4th broken in the left and his 3rd on the right snapped down to a nub.
Watching these two bulls I realized they were marching to a different song but the mystery bull was screaming right over the top of them. I watched two young bulls sparring as if they were practicing for next year as another thrashed through the water. As I scanned back and forth, I caught a bull walking out from behind a large group of oaks and immediately realized this was the bull we were hearing. It only took a second to see he was the one! The angle of the shot wasn’t right so I worked back to a small clearing in the brush and extended the legs on my tripod as I was going to have to take a standing shot. I clipped my rifle into the tripod and my buddy gave me the dope of 250 yds and .5 mils. As he turned from straight away to quartering away, I put the crosshairs about 8 inches behind the crease and let the 30 Nosler eat! I saw the blood spout from the shot and watched him pile up about 15 yds away.
Just like that, I had competed a goal I’ve had for years! All the other Elk didn’t seam to care one bit and went right back to what they were doing as if nothing happened. The first thing I did was text my wife to let my daughter know I would be back in time for her ninth birthday!!
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