My 2010 Archery Bull

[liontracker]

Some guys asked me to share this, so here it is. I managed to get 4 days off from work to chase Elk with a stick and a string. That was not enough time to pack in camp and pack it back out, so I could only day hunt. Between the drive up the mountain and the hike back in there, it took until noon each day to get to my spot. On day 1, I was sitting behind my spotting scope when around 3:30 a bull bugled off in the distance. It was about a mile and a half away and 1700 vertical feet below me. He was near a historic wallow in a small meadow in the timber next to the creek. I sat there until dark to get the situation figured out. There were actually 3 big bulls and 1 cow down in there. By the actions of the cow, she appeared to be bred already. I put them to bed and drove home. On day 2, I set up in the same lookout spot until about 2:00 and then hiked down in there to within 400 yds of the wallow and waited for the thermals to change before going the rest of the way in there. About 4:30 I heard a dandy bull bugle about 600 yds above me. I thought that was strange, because I did not cross any fresh elk sign on the way down. By dark I was skunked. On day 3, I set up in the glassing spot and waited until about 5:30, without so much as one bugle and there was nothing that showed up at the wallow, except a 265” 5x5. At this point I knew that the big bulls had pulled out to find more cows. The ridge I was on starts at timberline and runs down toward a big river several miles away. I knew the hunting pressure had been high up at timberline, so it made sense that the bulls were down ridge somewhere and they had to cross it to get to some cows. So I was losing daylight and had to act fast. I headed down ridge and watched for their tracks, hoping to cut them as they crossed over, heading for the cows. After a few miles, I heard a familiar 2 note bugle with deep aggressive grunts at the end. There was a series of 7 small meadows down there, strung out like pearls on a necklace. As I got to the next to the last one I saw a small group of elk. It had been awhile since I heard the last bugle, so I figured the bull was trailing up this band of elk. I made my move and got to within 15-40yds of them and waited…no big bull, only small ones. Then I heard him bugle again and he was in the lowest meadow. I backed out of there undetected and made my way to the sound. As I neared the meadow, I was still in the timber, when I heard him bugle again, then he thrashed a tree. He sounded to be about 150 yds away. We were coming together at an acute angle and I had the wind, setting sun and cover in my advantage. I got to the edge of the meadow and had still not laid eyes on him yet. I eased up behind one of the small scattered spruces that lined the meadow and took a peak. There he was in all his glory and what an impressive sight he was! I was looking at the number 2 King of the Mountain, but he would do on such a short schedule. He was locked on to the elk in the meadow above me and came on like he was on a string. I never called to him at all. It was too perfect. I just crouched down, never making eye contact and waited. At 30 yds I sent a 750 grain arrow with a 180 grain snuffer on the end of it into both lungs. He whirled and came right for me. He passed at about 20 yds and crashed to the ground about 40 yds into the timber. I sat there waiting for him to give out for a few minutes, but it was getting dark. So I snuck up to within a few feet of him and his chin was still on the ground. I knew he was still alive and knocked the second arrow. He came unglued and tried to bolt, but I put another one in the zone, about 2” from the first. It angled forward enough to do the job in seconds. When I walked up to him I stared in awe. He had 50” main beams and scored 340”. After looking him over, I realized that I had arrowed his 335” brother in this same meadow, not 100yds away from this spot, 3 years prior.

Little did I know of the death march that was to come. I got up at 4:oo am the next day and left the house with the horses. I did not get back home until 5:00 am the following day.... 25 hrs straight with no sleep and very little food and water. I got caught in a freak high country storm. When I got out of the truck at the trailhead, I put on my rain suit and did not take it off until I got back to the truck. It rained all day and turned to sleet/snow at dark. Just before the snow started, the fog was so thick, that I could not see more than 6 feet in front of my face. The rain was so heavy that it erased my tracks going in, so I could not backtrack my own horse tracks. I spent hrs in the dark timber, in the middle of the night, finding a way back out of there. By the time I got back to the trail, I could not hold onto the wet lead rope any longer. So I threw the rope over the lead horse's saddle and put my hands in my pockets and never touched it again, the whole 5 miles remaining, back to the truck. The lead horse followed along like a puppy dog in the narrow sections and would come up to my elbow and nuzzle me as we walked. The lightning was just overhead and luckily was going sideways, not down to the ground. The flashes were so bright, even in the fog, that the horses had to stop for a few seconds and get their vision back. The smell of ozone was everywhere and the hair on the backs of my hands and arms was standing up from the electrical energy. Up on top, we were walking in 4" of wet slop. I was hypotheremia'd so bad that I almost drove off the road 6 times on the way home. After I put the horses away and fed and watered them, I crawled into the hot tub for an hr, but was still shaking from the cold, so I put on some polar fleece and crawled into a subzero down sleeping bag. In about 2 hrs my core temp was back up and I was good to go until about 3:00 pm and then I had to sleep again. I am getting to old for this! LOL....but he did score an even 340 B&C. He has 50" main beams and 19 1/2" royal tines. The inside spread is only 38" or he would have been a 350 B&C bull. The best part is that he was with a 370 B&C bull that I could not relocate that day. So now that I took this aggressive breeder out, the King of the Mountain can spread his genes around. Trust me, this one earned a solid place on my wall...

[Amonty]

Nice bull , Congrats.

[cmogi10]

Good Story, enjoyed the pictures. thanks for sharing Tim.

[houndnem]

Dam good story, reminds me of most of the elk hunting I have done, thanks for sharing.

[ferjr]

nice damn elk! liontracker. congradulations.

[pegleg]

nice bull Tim. the country in the background brings back the memories and a slight tinge of jealousy

[JasonBB]

wow what a wicked bull-congrates man!!!

[kenny]

That's a really nice bull. congrats I hope mine is any where as nice as that one if I even get one that is. But if I don't I'll be back out there next year.

[007pennpal]

Good job. Looks like the last big one I got. I was lucky enough to have a rancher go scoop mine up with a tractor and drop it in my truck. Easiest pack job ever.