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Awesome hunt and great bull. Sounded like quite an adventure
KHunter ‘21 archery elk semi-live
- Thread starter Khunter
- Start date
duckhunt
Well-known member
Exciting hunt
Shortbowshot
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2021
- Messages
- 295
Excellent work! Enjoying the follow along.
Khunter
Well-known member
This, to me, is a beautiful sight…especially when 9 miles from the truck! Play with sound on
Llamas packing out my bull.
Llamas packing out my bull.
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MTLabrador
Well-known member
Great bull, congrats!
Pahoundsman
Well-known member
I really enjoyed following this one. Congratulations on a great bull and a great story.
brownbear932008
Well-known member
Congrats, you guys really sucked every ounce out of that adventure.
MarvB
Well-known member
Great work there, congrats!
Love the lama pack out
Love the lama pack out
Crossbowguy
Well-known member
awesome bull! congratulations!
Khunter
Well-known member
The day after I killed my bull was pretty well swallowed up by sleeping in a bit after our getting back to camp at 1:30 am and then going back up with llamas to pack out the bull the two miles to camp.
We then were focused on hunting for a bull for ABQBW. We got into some elk and most notably after chasing bugles on what we deemed the "last morning to hunt this pack-in spot so we could break camp and pack my bull the 7 miles off the mountain" we had a great close encounter.
We ended up chasing down one good sounding bull on a timbered flat below us. We could see the cows walking around pretty good a few hundred yard away and 200 feet below us on that flat. but the bull that was responding to calls we just barley got slivers of a look at so could not size him up. Wind was not good to drop down to them and realistically it was getgn kinda late if we were going to break camp and make it to the trailhead in one trip with my bull and camp.
In a last ditch effort to make something happen after my brother, ABQBW, wisely said "let's call it and get moving so we can get off the mountain today", I tried that same hyper excited cow call that fooled my bull and darned if the 6 point and a 5 point bull did not start heading right to us. I alerted ABQBW, who was not watching and organizing his gear for the hike out to grab his bow and get set on the hillslope. Initially I wanted to video the encounter so I was about 30 yards from my brother. I could not see the flat below where the bulls were waling toward us, but based on the bugles it seemed the bulls were hanging up somewhere just below by brother so I moved back 80 yards further from my brother where I could not see anything to continue that hyper cow calling hoping the bulls would come up the slope to my brother. It worked perfectly and the two bulls ended up coming within 10 yards of him and just about circling him in easy range for a couple minutes before coming on over toward me to also hang out looking for the 'cow' before moving on.
My brother passed on easy shot opportunities on the 6 point as he was not of the caliber we were looking for and VERY WISELY knowing we had our hands full with one big, heavy bull to pack out 7 miles with just two llamas. Still, it was a cool encounter and it is ALWAYS better to call in bulls to close range and pass than to not see or hear bulls, so it was a pretty cool wrap-up encounter on our 8th day packed in to this area. Anyway, it was cool to walk away from a bull that could easily be had than to walk away without an opportunity.
Here is a video that 6 pt bull as he came by me after ABQBW already had him at 10-20 yards for awhile and passed on the shot. My original Video was 7.5 minutes long so I just extracted this short snippet of him bugling and looking for me. There was a 5 pt with him as well that may or may not show on this clip.
We then were focused on hunting for a bull for ABQBW. We got into some elk and most notably after chasing bugles on what we deemed the "last morning to hunt this pack-in spot so we could break camp and pack my bull the 7 miles off the mountain" we had a great close encounter.
We ended up chasing down one good sounding bull on a timbered flat below us. We could see the cows walking around pretty good a few hundred yard away and 200 feet below us on that flat. but the bull that was responding to calls we just barley got slivers of a look at so could not size him up. Wind was not good to drop down to them and realistically it was getgn kinda late if we were going to break camp and make it to the trailhead in one trip with my bull and camp.
In a last ditch effort to make something happen after my brother, ABQBW, wisely said "let's call it and get moving so we can get off the mountain today", I tried that same hyper excited cow call that fooled my bull and darned if the 6 point and a 5 point bull did not start heading right to us. I alerted ABQBW, who was not watching and organizing his gear for the hike out to grab his bow and get set on the hillslope. Initially I wanted to video the encounter so I was about 30 yards from my brother. I could not see the flat below where the bulls were waling toward us, but based on the bugles it seemed the bulls were hanging up somewhere just below by brother so I moved back 80 yards further from my brother where I could not see anything to continue that hyper cow calling hoping the bulls would come up the slope to my brother. It worked perfectly and the two bulls ended up coming within 10 yards of him and just about circling him in easy range for a couple minutes before coming on over toward me to also hang out looking for the 'cow' before moving on.
My brother passed on easy shot opportunities on the 6 point as he was not of the caliber we were looking for and VERY WISELY knowing we had our hands full with one big, heavy bull to pack out 7 miles with just two llamas. Still, it was a cool encounter and it is ALWAYS better to call in bulls to close range and pass than to not see or hear bulls, so it was a pretty cool wrap-up encounter on our 8th day packed in to this area. Anyway, it was cool to walk away from a bull that could easily be had than to walk away without an opportunity.
Here is a video that 6 pt bull as he came by me after ABQBW already had him at 10-20 yards for awhile and passed on the shot. My original Video was 7.5 minutes long so I just extracted this short snippet of him bugling and looking for me. There was a 5 pt with him as well that may or may not show on this clip.
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Khunter
Well-known member
The pack out the same day as the prior post where ABQBW passed on the bull took longer than expected.
It was a 7 mile trip and we only made it 3.5 miles before we reached the long and steepest downhill stretch as it was getting just dark enough to need a headlamp and started spitting rain and snow. This is where we learned the hard way that LLAMAS DO NOT TRAVEL IN THE DARK. Period. Would been a good thing to have known in advance but the llama provider never mentioned it during training or on his provided long list of 'things to know'. We had just dropped off a relatively flat stretch where bivying for the night would been a lot easier and more comfortable than sleeping in the rain on a steep incline with our feet against a tree to keep from sliding downhill (which happened anyway every time we dozed off).
We made the best of it by unloading the llamas and tying them up on the trail and pitching a tarp in the rain between trees on the steep slope. Rained and sleet/snow pretty good for a few hours before letting up but we stayed dry under a tarp so worked out pretty well under the circumstance.
Bivy camp
The view that next morning from our bivy camp. The trailhead is down below the cloud bank up against the base of the mesa you see in the distance
It was a 7 mile trip and we only made it 3.5 miles before we reached the long and steepest downhill stretch as it was getting just dark enough to need a headlamp and started spitting rain and snow. This is where we learned the hard way that LLAMAS DO NOT TRAVEL IN THE DARK. Period. Would been a good thing to have known in advance but the llama provider never mentioned it during training or on his provided long list of 'things to know'. We had just dropped off a relatively flat stretch where bivying for the night would been a lot easier and more comfortable than sleeping in the rain on a steep incline with our feet against a tree to keep from sliding downhill (which happened anyway every time we dozed off).
We made the best of it by unloading the llamas and tying them up on the trail and pitching a tarp in the rain between trees on the steep slope. Rained and sleet/snow pretty good for a few hours before letting up but we stayed dry under a tarp so worked out pretty well under the circumstance.
Bivy camp
The view that next morning from our bivy camp. The trailhead is down below the cloud bank up against the base of the mesa you see in the distance
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Crossbowguy
Well-known member
Awesome hunt congratulations!
Wallydeuce
Well-known member
Nicely done. Congrats again!
Khunter
Well-known member
We hunted a couple more days till day before season ended, in a couple spots that were conducive to walking in for day hunts. Bagged it when the real crap weather moved in without killing a 2nd bull. Overall a great and memorable season and now a big fan of hunting with llamas. Look forward to hunting with them again.
Cooking fresh backstraps in camp.
I am headed north and home in Colorado and ABQBW is headed south to his home in NM after this parting shot. Some guys headed into the unit for early rifle stopped on side of road to check out the bull and took the photo.
Llamas in the back of my truck on the way home.
The rear view all the way home was pretty nice!
Wild strawberry haul
Powell
Magellan
Cooking fresh backstraps in camp.
I am headed north and home in Colorado and ABQBW is headed south to his home in NM after this parting shot. Some guys headed into the unit for early rifle stopped on side of road to check out the bull and took the photo.
Llamas in the back of my truck on the way home.
The rear view all the way home was pretty nice!
Wild strawberry haul
Powell
Magellan
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Crossbowguy
Well-known member
looked like an amazing trip, congrats!
targetpanic
Well-known member
What a great write up!! Congratulations on a beautiful bull!
