I suppose we better get back to the bull in the spotter.............
So last day we had available to hunt was Saturday night. On friday night, was a bit down on the luck of no shot opportunities yet for me. Well, it was closing in on last light of the day and we notices a group of elk about a mile and a half away. We threw threw the binos up and notices what appeared to be a very big bull trailing 16 cows across a nasty hillside. No time to get there but was cool to see him anyway. We figured we would come back in the am and see if we could find him.
We actually found the 16 cows at about 10 am headed into a little bench that was timbered pretty thick. I figured they would lay down in there for the day and we could make a stalk over there but I hadn't seen the bull yet. It was too rugged and nasty of a hike to just go on a hope so I wanted to see the bull before I went. At about 1 pm, I noticed a couple cows coming out to do their mid day stretch and get a little bite to eat. after about an hour of staring into the timber edges, I finally got to throw the glass on some horn............hence the pictures we began this thread with.
I guessed that bull would probably go over 375 and started getting pretty damn excited. We made a stalk plan that would require us to not only hike the 2 mile hike down nearly vertical and up the other side nearly vertical, but have to go an extra bit and come in around the other side to get the wind right...
I took a picture of the entire hillside so we could use it for reference when we got over there, don't know how many times I thought it would be so easy to pick out a spot on another hill and it all looked different. This proved to be essential to getting in the right place.
We figured we knew exactly where the elk would feed out of the timber so we got in place and waited. Sure enough, after a short time, the cows started slowly working our way and feeding out exactly like we had thought.
Love it when a plan comes together perfectly and you play your cards just right............The bull ended up following them out just as we had thought and I had to do everything possible to quit looking at his headgear as he came our way...........I was focused on the shoulder and all I can hear over my right shoulder as Fiver is looking though the binos is "Holy #$&#@^ that thing is friggin enormous"!! He said he thouht that SOB was over 390".......
Well, he fiinally presented a good shot after the 4 minutes that seemed like 40..........and about 200 yards later we were walking up to the little pipsqueak
My legs were like jello, I could barely stand I was so excited!
I told Zach I agreed with his assessment and thought he just might sail the 390 mark... And actually would eventually find out that he would hit the 400" mark........
I never thought I would see a 400" bull on a public land DIY hunt let alone kill one.
I have to say, I think my ol buddy Dan Drazan, that passed away this spring after his fight with Cancer was helping me out on this one! Thank you Dan for talking the elk gods into throwing me a bone
all 400" of it...
ALso, couldn't have shared this hunt with a better guy! Thanks Zach for going along and sharing this once in a lifetime experience and being there to be a great pack bitch
LOL
By the time we wrestled this set of horns off the mountainside, I had chipped off about an inch or so of his tips but we finally got it done!
Didn't always go as planned, had a few wipeouts too
I will thank my beautiful and understanding wife for allowing me to spend this kind of time in the mountains. I know she is stuffed to the gills with stuff going on with our four kids but I hope she knows it was so worth it on this one!!!
By the way, going to take the next few weeks off of hunting to get back in good graces with her
Sorry for the short story, but got to get too much done.
Final tape says 399 1/8"...........Not that it makes a crap bit of difference to me.
