An old Elk tail about the Avatar picture.
A member asked me to share the story of the bull in my Avatar or a link. After some searches I realized that I never had one to share, so I though I would oblige him and share a short one.
As I reflected back on that day I quickly ended up with some fond memories and a medium size tail that I best just share with the hunters on the forum as that is real reason some of us are here. Here goes.
Hi, thanks for noticing the bull. I have shared the story a time or 2 over the years and a few pictures but never in its own thread.
It is a good mature bull but not a monster. He is gimpy on one side( 4x6 ) from possibly being wounded the year prior. ( A buddy took a long poke at him in the fading light). The photo makes him look big, don’t get me wrong its was a herd bull with good mass and tine length and he was a good adversary for the 3 years I hunted him, his weak side just made him not a wall hanger to me.
This bull lived in an area that was fairly accessible in the you could drive near the top of the range he lived in and just hike up and over into the valley that he called home. I hunted him on and off over the years but unsuccessfully. He would call for an hour or so ever morning and evening back and fourth but never come out before dark or he would just push his cows off to another feeding area for the night. Every time I hunted him I could see and hear the hunters on the road systems in the valley bellow stop and bugle from various landings and view points. The bull would respond with a bugle and move another direction. He had patterned hunters. I tried to get in close with cow calls and it would just make him pick another way back to the bedding areas. The thermals kept me from hunting the bedding area that they often used. I didnt ever fully commit to hunting this bull exclusively as I had other spots and spent most of the elk season looking for a good mature high mountain mule deer, I should add.
One night while lying in bed being very frustrated with the mountain of effort I had put in for the mulies with little to no return, I couldnt sleep because I had the day off tomorrow but didnt know where to hunt down a good mulie. I had already checked everywhere.
I decided I need to work with what I have, not what I want.
“Tomorrow, I am gonna go kill that big bull in _____ creek. I am goona get between the feeding and bedding area in the over grown cuttblock via the deactived logging trail and intercept him. I will not make a sound, no matter how much he bugles. “
The snow was falling steady when I was in position on a stump in the over grown pine regen. I had heard the bull sounding off in the dark in the meadows below. I had heard the other hunters bugling from bellow attempting to lure him to their easy access locations. He started heading my way already before legal light began.
He knew exactly what he was doing. He got into the mature timbered valley bellow the block and bugled and bugled, naturally the cows were in front slowly feeding and picking their way up the mountain through the over grown block. I could just make out the odd bit of elk fur or body parts as they headed my way. The bull came to edge of the block and bugled and bugled daring for any kind of unauthentic response to turn him a different direction. It seemed like forever and I like a few other times thought a cow call might speed things up for me but stuck to my plan. No calling today.
Finally he felt safe about the mornings route and headed my way to join the cows and calves. I could often only see part of his antler from time to time ( the legal side) above or through the trees but every now and then I could see neck or body parts. The next time I saw part of his antlers, and then neck I traced it down to where the vitals should be and let him have it.
The whole cut block exploded with elk running everywhere. They were only about 30-40 meters away when I shot. The bull ran for the dark timber and tried to bugle but I could here him gurgling a bit. The cows milled about on a knob above me trying to regroup and decide what was next. They didnt know exactly what had happened yet. I didn't want to pack him out of that black hole so I finally decided to let a bugle rip in hopes that he was incoherent at this point and might have thought an other bull stuck him and was taking his cows. Thankfully It worked and he limped his way up and out into the block and I let him have it for good. I guess I broke my decision to not call but you can see why.
Its was a good adventure and a satisfying day. Sorry for the photo quality, I had to pull them from the photo album on here as photo bucket has a bunch of my old photos held hostage because I don’t want to pay their
rip off monthly fees.
Happy hunting.
Last edited by Husky7mm; 03-29-2021 at 01:07 PM.
If the world is warming why are there so many new snowflakes?
If we are all equal why do you demand special treatment?
You can not comply your way out of tyranny.
Fire them ALL!
Reply With Quote
