The whole time the bull did not move. He was just steadily gazing in my direction. As I continued to try to regulate my breathing and steady myself for a shot, I silently hoped he would turn his head just a little so that I would have the larger target of the side of his head and/or neck. Then all of a sudden as if reading my mind he began to slowly turn his head to the right to look uphill, and likely an escape path. I knew then it was now or never. As he started to turn his head, I slightly lowered the cross-hairs to position them on the now bigger target area. As soon as his nose was about 90 degrees away from me, my hands steadied a bit, the cross-hairs found my target and I squeezed off a round from my .300 WinMag. I saw the creature drop in his tracks and begin to flail a bit. I quickly chambered a fresh round and found him again in my scope. He was moving his legs slowly, but he didn't appear to be getting up. I took this opportunity to close the distance between the two of us. I quickly scaled the remainder of the bank and nearly jogged up the skid trail, getting to within 20 yards of the bull. I leaned up against a tree so as to get myself very steady and trained the cross-hairs on him again, but I didn't need to. Within less than a minute he was dead. I waited several more minutes to catch my breath and study him for any signs of life. "Whew, this looks like a decent sized bull" I thought to myself. Still not thoroughly convinced, I looked around for some sticks I could throw at him. I bounced a few small pieces of firewood off of him, but he didn't flinch. Finally, I found a much longer stick and I circled around to his top side, stretching it out to gently touch his eyeball. Nothing. "Thank you Lord!!! Big Bull Down!!! Whoot whoot!!!". I cut my tag, took some field photos, and called my hunting partner and texted my son. My hunting partner was working but was not busy (he has one of those positions that sometimes offers him a certain amount of flexability), so he and his co-worker/boss set out to come give me a hand getting the bull out. I also gave my dad a call and made his way up too, so lots of helping hands. A few hours later we had the bull loaded in the back of the truck and headed out to the butchers.
So there you have it. A successful conclusion to a 2 moose LEH! A 2x2, and a 39 1/4" wide 7x8!
Even though the freezer (and a new one) was very full, I still went out looking for mule deer. Wouldn't you know it, I came upon yet another Unicorn! A different 2x3 this time. 3 Immys seen in one year! And I've only seen 3 Immy's ever prior to that and not able to put one down. As far as mule deer are concerned, the early snow impeded efforts to find one. I did get into a few spots where the deer were, but every time I turned one way, I should have turned the other instead, and I missed walking right into them. I did see a couple of smaller bucks during Octobers any buck, but I let the first one walk as I was holding out for a larger one in that region, but the second one I was going to shoot because I stepped over into a different region that I don't often hunt, but that buck made a quick escape before I could get a shot.
I went out yesterday with my bow in Reg 8 for muley, but I found a small 5x5 Whitey instead. Since I was already tagged out on White tail, I simply took a few pictures and notified a family member of the buck and they went up after I had left and found the buck and harvested him.
All in all my very best year to date! Some firsts for me too. My first bear. My first moose. My first getting 3 big game animals in a season. Plus several tasty grouse were taken with my new, yet trusty .17HMR rifle. The 2x2 is amazingly tender. While I am done for the year, every day I look out the window at the mountains while there is still time left in the season and wish I was out there hunting still. But I am content to stay at home, for now. I wish you all the best for the remainder of the season, and very happy Christmas and New Years!
God bless Y'all!
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