PEAX Equipment

Great Bull! Even Better Wife!

COEngineer

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Jul 6, 2016
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Warning! Long post!

My hunting buddy, Mike, was deployed to the desert this year so I had resigned myself to archery elk hunting by myself. My wife offered to join me, but I know it's not really her thing (she doesn't like being cold...anything below 70 is cold) so I figured she would come along once or twice at most.

Opening weekend we hunted a new area I had scouted and we found some great habitat, but no elk.

We tried the same area again Labor Day week and found tons of sign including rubs and a new wallow, but still didn't find any elk and then got rained out.

My wife was being a trooper (and was a little afraid of me breaking a leg and dying alone) and said she would come with one more time. I decided we should go back to the area where Mike killed a cow last year even though it is a long (6 mile) hike. My wife knew the hike because she had been with last year and helped with the pack out.

At the trailhead there were 9 trucks and 4 llama trailers, which is more than I had ever seen at that spot. I almost drove away, but decided we would give it a try despite the crowd. We passed two groups that were heading out on our way in, so that was some relief, but there were still 7 trucks and 4 trailers worth of hunters and llamas out there somewhere. When we got to our camping spot we quickly set up the tent and I went to get water to start filtering...then found out that the drought was for real. There was not a drop in the creek that a year ago had a healthy flow.

We got ready to hunt for the evening and headed back down the trail to the last spot we had seen water. As the water dripped through the mini Sawyer, I walked back up the trail 50 yds or so to glass what I could from there. Within 10 minutes I had spotted a small bull and hustled back to tell my wife. She was incredulous and came up to have a look for herself and spotted another, bigger bull coming out of the trees (sorry, no telephoto lense on my camera). I was thrilled to have two legal bulls in sight, but with only an hour of daylight I knew there was no way I would make it over there in time to get a shot, so we watched them until dark and then got back to camp. Just as we crawled into the tent we heard the faintest bugle.

The next morning we got to a glassing spot hoping to see the bulls again and discovered a half dozen cows were now with the bigger bull and the smaller bull had either been run off or was staying out of sight. Again, I contemplated our best approach and decided that racing over there, although really tempting, was probably not a great idea with that many eyes and ears waiting to set off the alarm. I decided to wait until they bedded and then we would take our time and hike over there and get in place for the evening hunt. Keeping our fingers crossed that all the hunters from those trucks and trailers wouldn't stumble through before then.

The wind was terrible and blowing straight up the mountain, so we stayed in a deep ravine as we made our way up to the clearing we had last seen them in. About 2 hours before dark we tucked into the corner of the clearing hoping to not get busted before they even started moving around. A few minutes after we were set-up, we heard a faint bugle. My wife thought it was a bad hunter; I knew it was a bull because even the worst hunter couldn't screw up a bugle that bad. We listened to his terrible bugle every 5 mins or so hoping the wind would settle down so we could move in. About an hour before dark he started sounding further away and I felt like we had to make our move. We moved using the ravine next to the clearing to conceal us and just as I was about to pop up to take a look I saw a cow standing 100 yds up the ravine staring at me. I stood perfectly still thinking it was over and she would bark any second. Luckily it was now shaded on this side of the mountain and the thermals going down the ravine kept her from smelling us. After what seemed like eternity, she slowly turned and walked off. I peeked into the clearing and made a dash for the only cover that would give me a shooting position next to a pine tree. I waited for the bull to bugle and then bugled right on top of him. His bugling went from the faint high whistle we had been hearing to the most intense guttural scream you have ever heard. I got ready, thinking we was coming fast. But I was wrong. He just stayed 100 yds away in the treeline above me screaming and raking trees until it was almost dark. Then I saw two cows making there way through the trees down the other side of the clearing heading down the mountain. I backed out and said we needed to get out of there before those cows got below us and winded us. We started down the ravine as fast as possible, but in the dark we were stumbling and making a racket. I guess one of the elk (maybe the bull) came over to see what we were and in the dark all we heard was elk crashing off through the woods. I figured they were over the ridge and we would have to find a different herd to hunt the next day. We turned on our headlamps and made the 2 hour slog back to camp.

That night (I don't sleep well, especially not while backpacking) I heard another faint bugle, but it seemed close. We got up early again and just as we were leaving camp we heard a bugle but couldn't tell which direction it was. We waited a few minutes and the next one told us he (I'm pretty sure it was the same bull) was now on our side of the valley. We had accidentally chased him closer to camp! We hurried to get below him as the thermals were steady downhill. When we got to a point (about 400 yds from camp) where I thought he might be straight uphill from us we stopped and listened again. He was just above us so we quickly got to a pine tree for some concealment and I let out a bugle. He screamed back again and then I figured we were in the same situation as the night before. But after a few seconds my wife heard something coming (she didn't grow up shooting guns and can hear a lot better than me). I got ready and sure enough, he was coming down the hill to our left. I think he was going to get downwind of us, but there was a pretty steep drop-off behind us, so he turned and came cross-wind to us. I laser-ranged a tree at 50 yds (my max range) and when he passed it I drew. He was walking with his head down licking his nose like a blood hound. I had no shot until at about 20 yds he stopped (my wife later said it was probably because he saw her legs shaking) and he turned his head to his right. All four of my sight pins were on his chest, but I put the 20 yd pin slightly to the right (his left) of centerline and released. As he wheeled away, I saw a few inches of the arrow with the fletching protruding from his chest. He ran about 80 yds and breathed his last.
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The celebration was very short-lived because the contrast of his size compared to the yearling Mike killed last year was stunning. I was immensely sad, proud, thrilled, and then mortified. Could we quarter and carry this massive bull 6 miles in this heat (highs in the 70s at altitude, 80s at the trailhead) without losing a ton of meat to spoilage and flies? Where were those llamas now (I would have paid a week's salary for a couple llamas with empty pack frames at that moment). We got to work and 29 hours and 18 miles (one trip down and one round trip) later we got the second load of meat to the ice-filled coolers in the truck. On the 2nd trip, my wife carried a 59 lb bag of meat (more than 50% of her body weight).
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I love elk and elk hunting, but this trip strengthened my marriage more than I ever thought possible. When we eat this elk meat and share it with our friends and family and when I look at those antlers on the wall I will be reminded of the time my wife and I suffered together and supported each other to meet a challenge.

Did I mention she's not a bad butcher either?
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Very nice! Great bull 6x with some mature tines, based on the photo! Grats to you and your wife for the great experience!
 
You shared a couple of nuggets of truth with your story telling. You didn't push in when the moment was not present. Patience, science (knowing and using the wind) and your fortune maker (wife) brought it all together. Congratulations
 
Just when I think Hunttalk is turning into Eastman's a post like this comes along. Great hunt, wife and recap. Thank you for sharing that experience.
 
It’s truly great to have a bonding experience like that. I could feel your pride and closeness in your words. Thanks for sharing.
 
Great write up and great memories for you and your wife. Nicely done.
Thank you for sharing your story.
 
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