My 2017 Elk

[charlie_horse]

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I’m terrible with pictures so I let my partner take video and pictures, however his SD card shit the bed and all of the scouting pics and video with him are non existent anymore. So there isn’t a tonne of pictures to go with the thread as I’d hoped and you can only write and read about aimlessly pushing bush and devils club so many times. So apologies for all the writing with lack of pictures and I’ll try and be descriptive as I can without dragging on and on.


So bear season 2017 rolls around and comes to a finish and untilthelastbeat (Joel) and I are impatiently awaiting for the LEH results to show their faces to start planning our year. We both were really hoping for our goat draws as they were the best odds and I know the area fairly well. Moose we got drawn last year so little chance. Just forget about Rosie elk or the sheep pipe dreams. Thursday June 15th comes and I look at HBC as I do everyday looking to see a thread saying draws are out and what do you know, draws are out! Now we all know that feeling of anticipation when they come out, it could be the best day of the year in my opinion. I’m trying to log on the the website to check before it gets bombarded and crashes. I get through right away and hit draw results…..something is seriously wrong they’ve made a mistake…Indian Arm what?...uhhhh yeah right....ROSIE DRAW IN MY BACK YARD. Now it’s pretty awesome being born and raised in Squamish and getting to see the herds grow, shed hunt for them and just see them expand into town and beyond so to get this particular Rosie draw was awesome.


Immediately I text pretty much everyone I know whether or not they are a hunter, because they need to know. A couple buddies had this draw 4 years earlier and had some awesome tales on top of the monster that came out of there the year before so planning is set in motion immediately to meet for beers, get some info. Saturday June 17th I wake up and pack up the day gear, load the dog and girlfriend into the truck and head up Indian Arm hoping the snow has cleared at the summit. Two weeks previous it was impassable with anything but a snowmobile when I went for a check for bears. Start hitting the summit everything seems fine and then snow. Shit. Well I’m to pumped to turn around even though were about 20km from where the elk start hanging out. Screw it I’m walking in, the dog needs a walk and I need to start bugling. Finally Emily starts questioning how far we need to go to get into elk….”uhhhh a little ways”. We got to an area about 5km in where I’ve heard of them hanging out but I knew that isn’t where I wanted to be neither then nor on opener so we let the dog run for a bit while I’m pointlessly screaming bugles and cow calling like I’m a moronic herd of elk and start walking back to the truck.

[srupp]

Breaking out the popcorn...epic...
Thank you for sharing.
Srupp

[brownmancheng]

ooh ya buddy stoked! remember to try data recovery on the card should be able to get the info off

[charlie_horse]

Fast forward a few weeks later into July. I had planned to go for an overnighter after work on Saturday so I had driven up a couple nights before to make sure the snow was passable and it was. So I finish my day at work on Saturday and go home load up my overnight gear and grab the dog and start heading up. I then realized well what if I get past the snow and there is a washout or something. So I decide I’ll rip to my parents and see if they still have my bike from high school, The Mongoose, just in case. Go digging through the boat house and find it in the back, flat tire, air it up and hit the road. I get to the summit and start heading down past the snow and hit a minor washout. It was easily passable but the creek was flowing through it and looked like it could washout worse over night. Out comes the old trusty piece of crap Mongoose and down I start riding along with my pooch Vito. At this point it is all down hill so I’m covering ground pretty good until I realize that it’s entirely up hill to get back. Well eff it, I could use the exercise anyways so I kept going about 13km in and decided thats where I would start pushing bush for sign, new or old, to maybe start setting up some cams. By the time I got there I didn’t have long before last light so I just hiked around for about 45 minutes and spent the last half hour sitting on a transmission line and had dinner and read my book. The next morning Vito and I zig zagged from the transmission lines to the Indian River for about another good 5km and spent most of the day doing that, only coming up with old sign and old chewed up sheds. So we start making the hike back to the bike to head home. Jesus Christ did I wish that I didn’t bike so far in, I could hear vehicles going by so I knew the creek was fine which pissed me off but oh well. Vito and I started are long jaunt back which for the most part was just pushing the stupid mongoose and finally reaching the truck and head home well after dark.

https://i.imgur.com/Sl1ZNlU.jpg
thats the piece of crap mongoose

[charlie_horse]

https://i.imgur.com/QXMjYwm.jpg
driving up with buddy

https://i.imgur.com/USufVp4.jpg

[tomahawk]

everyone has been waiting for this monster to be revealed, lookin forward to reading this amazing story and seeing all that bone once again!!

[srupp]

Lol good choice for Co pilot...
We know it's well worth the wait. .don't rush it.
Steven

[835]

ok where the frick did you go????!!!
lol....

[j270wsm]

It's about time.......!

[nazarow]

Heard a lot about it but still have not seen any pics!...

[charlie_horse]

The next bunch of scouting trips right through to pretty much September don’t bring anything of interest other than more old sign, while fighting smoke from all the fires in the province so I’ll leave those trips as is.


So the next time I get out its the weekend before Labor Day and my buddy Evan and I decide we will go check it out see if we can get any elk talking and hike around. So we head up first thing and check out different areas along the river and other side of the river where there aren’t any vehicles. Makes sense right? Bugling and cow calling brings us nothing, hardly any sign in areas where we’ve been told other than bear sign. Hiking km after km up and down the river before we would get bluffed or boulder fielded out and still nothing. We get to some areas in the middle of old growth where there is just serious boulder fields and it makes no sense, I slipped a couple times and nearly broke my leg and decide its time to hobble back to the truck and take a dip in the river and head home. At least it was hot out.


The next weekend is Labor Day and of course untilthelastbeat has MY goat draw so trying to go talk to the elk was out of the question as I had to hold his hand up the mountain, but it was an awesome hunt that took my mind off elk for a bit and its own thread.


Now after Labor Day I’m hitting Indian Arm hard. I’m going up every weekend obviously on top of 3 or 4 nights a week. I grew to hate that road, everyone says “oh its not that bad”. Well actually shut up it is. Now I’d like to point out that by this time, I had already made a thread here on hbc about the hunt and any helpful tips would be awesome. So my inbox was flooded with tonnes of great info, updates from people that were doing day trips out there and everything. I started off getting this draw telling myself I was going to be damn near willing to eat tag soup and hold out for a big bull. I say damn near because at the end of the day ifs the last few days of the hunt if need be a spike bull still puts an elk in the freezer. I was able to be confident like that because I was able to take a lot of time off work and living in Squamish. So by this point even though I haven’t seen a single living elk and nothing but mostly old sign and sheds and haven’t got a response to anything during what I would think would be peak rut (yes I can bugle properly and cow call) I’m still confident with my resolve to hold out for a big bull.

[charlie_horse]

Enter Russ into the picture. So I had my 10 year reunion a few weeks before draw results were out. Now I knew at this point untilthelastbeat wasn’t going to be able to pull off a trip longer than a weekend outing until our muley trip in November and Russ was sort of in the same boat with his hunting partner having a kid to start off hunting season. So we were drinking beers at my reunion and drinking more beers and more beers and talked and had tentatively planned a kootenay elk trip together as we are both pretty flexible with the time we can take off, but to be honest I really wasn’t sure if the conversation actually took place or if he would remember. Turns out we did, but we decided to just wait it out to make sure our main hunting partners couldn’t get the time off and to wait and see for LEH results. Another important piece to the Russ history is, well, he had the draw 4 years ago and dropped a beauty typical :). So obviously we were going to connect before for him to give me a run down of where he was seeing elk and all that good stuff. However he was already committed to a kootenay elk hunt this year with someone else by this time, so I was really expecting to do this hunt mostly solo with help on the weekends as I couldn’t find anyone that could commit at least for the first week of opener. So by this time we had been talking more and something ended up happening to his other partner and his kootenay hunt got cancelled and being the opportunist that I am, guess who has an open spot in the empty wall tent. ^^this guy. With a supposedly guaranteed takeables draw and equal splitting of pure salmon fed elk meat, Russ was in for at least the first week of opener.


The weekend after the goat hunt Russ and I head up first thing and make the summit for first light and he is showing me all the areas where he had seen elk on his hunt. They seen a lot more than I did. It seemed like every 100 yards it was “seen bulls here, seen bulls there…”. So we go for a couple good hikes and hike up this creek a ways and get to this area where we finally cut some fresh sign. But it is thick with devils club and blow down alders all the fun stuff. So we fight our way through impossible to be quiet and but we were actually catching the occasional whiff of elk which was promising at least. We spent a few hours in there then hike back up and across to the gas lines. Fresh sign everywhere, finally. We decide this is a good place to set up 4 more cams on different trails that were clearly recently used. Over the next week I head up almost every night to sit on the gas and transmission lines where lots of info was given to me where the elk like to be and sit there until last light and I didn’t see a damn thing all week on primetime.

https://i.imgur.com/YMe5gcX.jpg
One of the trail cams being set up with russ. Lots of sign in there.

https://i.imgur.com/wwNzQix.jpg

[835]

Sounds like you have more time in scouting than most guys get to hunt! A+ for effort so far... but just keep typing ok

[charlie_horse]

So the next weekend Sept.17th I head up first thing in the morning so I borrow my brothers quad and I’m up for first light and I know where I want to go, right into the shitbox where we were smelling the elk and seeing sign and I wanted a cam put up in there. Fighting the deadfall and devils club in the pissing rain I am pushing on and I get into some nasty big rotten deadfall and I slipped pretty bad trying to get over a log and as I’m falling over alls I see is a tanned body with horn off his head! Finally! I get up and start asking myself did I just see an elk? SNAP CRASH SNAP…yup. So I let out a cow call to the bull to see if I can get any answers or just get him to stay put so I can get a better ID on his “trophy calibre”. No response but I can hear him casually walking off so I let a bugle rip, stops for a second and it all goes quiet, I can feel he is still there in the thick but no response. I go in after him and just catch a glimpse of his ass and a little bit of bone as he walks away. Decent bull, but ultimately not what I was after with this draw. So I decide after a bit to just let the area rest and head back to the truck to head farther into the valley and hike into an area I wanted to check out across the river. I get to the area and start hiking and immediately find sign, fresh rubs all over the place and a well used trail in and out of the timber, up goes the cam. I cruised the timber a bit to see if I could bump anything but no luck and after trying some calling I decided to let the cams do the work for me. By this time its getting later so I decided to go hit the cams before Russ and I put up the week before. I check them and nothing, no elk. Wtf seriously? I think. So I take two of them and set them up on different spots of the gas lines and head home.
https://i.imgur.com/9Lv7r6f.jpg
This is the spot that had that morning looked like what had a herd go through there and A LOT of rubs so I was pretty sure this was going to be a good cam and I knew I would have to let it sit for 2 weeks.


I head up a few times this week after work to sit on the river with no luck, but I was unable to make it out this weekend and I guess with good reason. Took the girlfriend camping for a long weekend and put a ring on her as I was expecting to go completely MIA over the next couple months with this elk draw and muley hunting didn’t want her to forget about me!

[DeepJeep]

you sure know how to tease people... come on now!

[Blainer]

Epic thread, the pictures are going to open some eyes. Great effort = FANTASTIC BULL
I shall follow along.
This thread has been long awaited friend

[charlie_horse]

October 1st I’m back out there with Ev after another week of unsuccessful nights after work and I decide to try a different approach. There are some old deactivated roads and cut blocks on the road side of the river that I haven’t checked out to much yet and thought wtf this isn’t working. And see if I can find a different area to set up my cams. So I pick a spot on the road and we start heading straight up, and we just keep going up, through thick deadfall, nasty dried up washed out creeks and canyons and steep old growth. It was hell from the beginning and we really weren’t seeing much. So Ev likes to come out to the bush to shed hunt/bear hunt/deer hunt with me and I’ve just sort of started to get him into hunting and he is getting more and more into it. But he really isn’t used to the make your own trail approach, and last year he came on his first hunting trip to a region 3 moose and deer hunt and unfortunately he didn’t get to be there for our moose but he was with me when I dropped a decent 4 point so that was his first trip and got to be a part of what turned out to be a pretty exciting deer kill. I mostly just mention this stuff because it seems like whenever I take him somewhere it always turns into what seems like a hike from hell and I can’t help but laugh at it every time. So we fight our way up for hours just straight up and we really weren’t seeing any sign whatsoever…typical…So we just keep gaining and gaining before finally just say eff it and start zig zagging our way down. At this point I’m mostly worried about finding sign, as nice as it would be to find a living elk I figure the sign is more important so I’m not too worried about noise and were a bit more talky now. Also Ev thinks he is hilarious, and to prove that I got to hear about 10times on the way down that I should actually be paying attention in the tree tops as thats where elk like to hang out and feel safe ???? Funny? So we are heading down and we eventually cut one of those deactivated over grown roads that the gps was showing and decide to give ourselves a break and take the easier way down. Were going down the road and just blacktail and bear shit. Old BT rubs, BT track BT heaven apparently. No elk. We continue down until we end up a lot closer to the road and sure enough we start seeing some elk sign, nothing super fresh but it didn’t look super old either. The lower we got and closer to the road we got the more sign we were seeing, which was actually kind of a piss off as I didn’t want to end up having road hunting as our best bet and I’m a glutton for punishment so I think I secretly wanted to shoot an elk on the top of the mountain. Anyways were about 400 yards up this spur from the mainline and there is a fork and clearly elk were in the area so up goes the cam to let that soak for a week.

https://i.imgur.com/7neXE10.jpg
checking cams with Ev

https://i.imgur.com/PbZDbhf.jpg

Finally an elk on cam, even if it was a dink but I didn't end up seeing any elk on cam where I seen all the track and rub which actually really surprised me for being out there for 2 weeks.

https://i.imgur.com/pJhZwh1.jpg
same elk different cam. I had another elk on cam but I can't find the pic.

[brownmancheng]

guaranteed takeables... lol classic!

[DeepJeep]

U r online Charlie_horse, so I am hoping you are typing the rest of the story. :-P

Can't wait

[charlie_horse]

Now it is thanksgiving long weekend and 5 days before opener and by this point I’m a bit depressed. I have seen one elk and had two elk on cam a small 5 and 6 point. I started this hunt with so much confidence that I was going to shoot a big elk. Horn size was priority until closer to the end of the draw in my head. I had been talking to my partners and a few guys on hbc and was kind of venting my frustrations with the very minimal sign I’d seen for how hard I had been hitting pretty much everywhere in that valley. I was getting to the point where I was thinking maybe the herds aren’t doing good, I underestimated this draw and should never go into it thinking its a guarantee. And I was just thinking it would be hard to pass the first bull I seen with how much I haven’t seen. But I have the entire long weekend ahead of me to go as hard as I can with opener on the Tuesday. I had untilthelastbeat all weekend plus opener on Tuesday and Russ wasn’t going to make it until opener. I also talked to a biologist the week before who had a hand in transplanting the local herds and still watched and kept tabs on them for his work. He told me that scouting this draw was a bit of a waste as the elk don’t start moving in until closer to opener. So that made me feel better about my chances at least.


Now Friday night I head up after work with Ev and drop off a couple weeks worth of firewood. Saturday Untilthelastbeat and I go for a couple casual strolls but it was more just to show him the area where I figured we would be seeing elk based on the sign I’d seen and previous hunters with the draw. It was pretty casual driving and minor hikes which was a pretty welcome change, we have to head back to the summit by 2 and set up the wall tent so he can make it back to Langley and watch his kid. See you first thing and I head back out scouting on my own again.

https://i.imgur.com/CWobIeB.jpg
Joel pretending he's a shark or something.

https://i.imgur.com/oSgbADP.jpg


Sunday Untilthelastbeat and I hit it hard. We walked a lot into the back spurs of Indian arm where the biologist told us they migrate in from and we went up this creek to see if we could maybe intercept some elk moving in. We did end up hearing some cows chirping away with no visuals and I found myself a nice 5point shed from this year and lots of rubs. After a few hours we decided to head closer to the ocean, and see if there are any elk in those areas. I hadn’t scouted this area too hard as I was told it gets hit hard with FN so the elk are hard to find down there. Were hiking different areas and trying our luck with calling and just enjoying the salmon run in the river. After a hard day we head back to camp and have a couple beers and call it a night.

https://i.imgur.com/PWMu8ka.jpg
checking cams on Sunday

[charlie_horse]

Monday, the day before opener, we decide to head back closer to the ocean for first light and start hiking timber and same routine. After the first couple hours I call it a morning and just say screw it, lets go bear hunt and catch some pinks and have another casual day. So we get to the river and just creeping along sitting around waiting for a big salmon bear to poke his head out as Joel was looking for a big big bear. We bear hunted for a few hours with no luck surprisingly with the amount of bear sign around I thought for sure we would be on a bear in no time. No luck with even bears. We have to head back early again to get Joel back to his truck so he can head back to Langley to watch his son. I decide I’m going to have a nap after that. I’m half asleep and I hear a bunch of commotion down the way and I just decide to ignore it and then I hear a couple dirt bikes stop outside the wall tent and apparently some guys decided to take their jeep “off roading”. I was warned that they would be heading my way soon to ask for help and that it was a hopeless venture and they would need a helicopter to get them out and not to waste my time. I go back to the cot and about 15 minutes later I hear a nervous “hello hello we need some help anybody in there”. Well shit, I hop out of bed and go see who is out there. Couple of high school kids who wanted to have some fun. So I throw in a big lip full of Copey Wintergreen and grumpily drive up to their jeep “which should be easy with a winch”. Jesus Christ the damn thing is sunk, have to crawl in through the windows or the cab will flood opening the door. Stock 90s jeep Cherokee with a jack all on the roof. Its a jeep so you can go anywhere. what in the hell were they thinking. They weren’t but we’ve all been there and I’ve got the winch so I’ve got to try and help them. They have the jack all on the top and they have no idea how to use it so there I am in the mud showing them how to run a jack all and trying to get just enough length of the winch to see if I can pull them out. I jacked up as much as I could and I slipped into the mud pit and sprained my ankle pretty good, hobble back to the truck pissed off and tried again to pull it out with the winch. Burn the winch out…shit. Well boys can’t help ya, use my inreach and get some help on the way and go hang out in the wall tent and stay warm until they get here I gotta go look for some elk. Again no elk just a seriously swollen ankle and a depressing night at camp until the wife to be decides she wants to come up with the pooch for the night. Fine. She gets lost and there I am at 10:30 on the quad going up the mamquam FSR looking for her because she’s missed the turn off to Indian Arm. I finally get through by texting and she says she’s going home and I’m heading back to camp. An hour later a car pulls up and she decided after all to come up anyways. I’m too tired at this point to be annoyed so make room for her and call it a night.

https://i.imgur.com/fiiH8AW.jpg
Hoping for elk on the gas line

[charlie_horse]

TUESDAY OCTOBER 10TH OPENING DAY:


4am rolls around and I’m up making bacon and eggs waiting for Russ and Joel (untilthelastbeat) to arrive. They both show up about an hour before first light, get the gear on the quads, throw in some chew and head down. Turns out the night before Joel did a bit of reconnasaince and talked to someone who I had previously been messaging and got a rough idea of where a good 7x7 bull and another were seen the week before. We get there as first light is quickly approaching and start hiking into where we think we need to cut in. Fresh sign from that morning about 5 minutes in!!! So we keep going until we cut a creek and start walking the creek tonnes of sign, all hours old we must have just missed a herd. We stop for a minute and hear a couple branches crack so we stop and get ourselves set up behind a stump. Now Joel and I never seen it but Russ says a bull walked out at about 25 yards from us in the thick, didn’t figure it was a real big bull but a bull nonetheless. We decide to carry on down the creek to meet up with the Indian river. The sign is getting more and more fresh, it reaks of elk, adrenaline is going any moment we could see our bull walk out. We find a good area with lots of visibility along the river and decide to just post up for the entire day. Talk about a long miserable day in the torrential downpour, thank god for rubber. Now Joel and I haven’t ever actually hunted with Russ before so you know what its like when your not sure. “Like how much does he actually like hunting” or “Is he a friggin tool in the field” or “is he having a good time”. Nothing worse than being with people that are miserable. I look over and russ has made himself a bed under a log and has gone to bed while Joel and I keep watch. We stay here till dark, no elk were spotted after the morning bull. Quad back to camp, doubling Joel and listening to him whine…”its so bumpy” “my shoulders hurrrrttttt” “they should pave this” non-stop I tell ya ;)

[charlie_horse]

DAY 2, WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 11TH

The day starts off much of the same as opener, minus Joel who had to be back to work. Russ and I start checking out the area from the day before and no fresh sign. We start making our way up river slowly, still hunting timber as we go covering ground very slowly. Fairly boring day but at lunch time we find all the fresh sign again. Blood, scat, stink everything. The elk are moving up river right now we realize so we feel like were going to catch them sooner than later. We decide to walk back to the packs and get the quads and head back to this area for the evening hunt. Now this area where we seen all this sign had one part of it that was completely bluffed out so if the elk wanted to move through this opening they had to come out in the open. It was away from the mainline and sheltered it just felt right. We get back there and hunker down around 4pm and once again it’s been pissing relentlessly all day. At about 530 the first animal of the day walks by, a black bear and we watch it come through a tiny patch of gravel, walk through the timber and walk right through the bluffs like we thought the elk would have to. Perfect. Now we just need elk.


10 minutes go by and I look the opposite direction on a tiny patch of gravel that comes out to the river. Is that….Can’t be…wtf. ELK. Two monstrous cows, now I’m not trying to exaggerate but these two cows specifically were enormous. I’ll get more into them in a bit. Out walks a bull perfectly broadside. Huge body in all his glory just standing there. Horns…those can’t be real can they? “Russ is that thing for real”…”Yup”…”Russ that bull dies”. So what do you do when you see the biggest bull elk you’re probably ever going to see in your life and its standing perfectly broadside at a cool 300 yards for 5 minutes with a perfect rest in front of you? I’ll tell you what you do. PANIC. I still don’t really know what happened but I experienced the most severe case of buck fever I think I’ve ever heard of, I’m a pretty patient and calm hunter this was definitely out of character. There I am running up and down the river (I had enough sense to stay out of sight) trying to find the most magical of shooting spots I could find. 100 yards. Perfect. Put the scope up….No elk. Gone. So I creep my way back to Russ and absolutely disgusted with myself to see if they walk through the patch of timber to the bluffs. After 15 minutes of nothing out walk a couple more cows in the same spot, this time I throw in a lip full of Copenhagen, settle down and get set up. If he walks out again, he dies. Just a few cows and a couple spikes hanging out poking their heads out. Then up river about half a click there is a bunch of cows and a really nice bull in the middle of the river. Binos up, its not my guy but still a very, very respectable bull. They walk into the timber up river. Nothing exciting happens for a little bit I’m just praying for my big bull to walk out while Russ is keeping an eye on the pinch point. Out comes the other big bull, turns out he is a really heavy, beautiful typical 7x7. Just standing there, but no way was I pulling the trigger after what I had just seen. Off he goes and nothing other than spikes and cows are peaking out and the herd sets up their sentinels and bed down right across from us so we have to sit there until dark now. We wait for pitch black and were about to start quietly leaving and then splash splash splash…Elk running across the river to us in the dark. Dammit, so we have to stay silent and still until they bed down and we can crawl out of there, we leave a bunch of gear there overnight not to make any noise on our evacuation. We head back to camp, have dinner and beers, go over our plan in the morning. I had a tough time sleeping that night knowing how bad I royally effed the chance on the bull of a lifetime and then passing on another very respectable bull, thinking those crowns would haunt me forever.

[RShields]

This foreplay is torture! Keep it coming.

[tomahawk]

This is an epic effort Kyle, more then most and maybe more then all would make. The effort put into this hunt is amazing and is only topped by the result.

[Pinewood]

Great read man. Keep it up.

[srupp]

Hmmm onto my second bucket of popcorn..great read..thank you
Steven

[DeepJeep]

Damn it.

U r still online. I hope u r typing the rest of the story..hehe. By the way, Thanks for putting in this much effort in writing the story. LOVE IT.

[835]

Wholly fack...... lol seriously riveted..... like scrolling down slowly to not see a pic before I read...... making sure to memorize where I left off and for frick sakes don't hit " go to last post" ....

Though I have generated 2 questions....
1) why no pic of the jeep???? that would have been awesome!
2) more importantly WHY THE EFF DIDNT YOU DRILL IT AT 300!!!!!!

you probably asked yourself that question a lot as well....... but since all the hype of this,,, im thinkin you got him!

[Blainer]

Many waited months for this thread, and you are proving it was worth the wait. Well written, don't be hasty bringing this thread home. This will be an epic HBC thread. Cheers

[835]

I waited months!
x2 Blainer....... your on "epic level"
wording is great,,, not all one paragraph, easy reading.... pics in there .... except the jeep,,, lol...
writing a book not a magazine... magazines you just look at the pics.... books you read.

[Salty]

Nice pooch c_h ;)
Awesome write up bud I'm going to be on the road for a bit, and will be eager to come back to this and read it all when I've got lotsa time. Just what we need here this time of year!

[DeepJeep]

charlie_horse is online again... getting the popcorn out.

[charlie_horse]

DAY 3, THURSDAY OCTOBER 12TH


Russ and I wake up extra early and get breakfast made, coffoatmeal. Coffoatmeal saves time and is more efficient according to Russ. I hate oatmeal so I think this could make it a bit better. Nope. So we gag that garbage down and head back down towards the ocean on the quads to the same spot we put the elk to bed the night before. We’re there and sneaking in almost 2hours before first light as quietly as we can. Once again it’s Rosie hunting so its pissing, fresh snow above us on the hills and cold…easy to be quiet in that monsoon, so count our blessings??? It made for a very cold and still and wet wait for first light. First light comes and nothing is moving, I can see through the Swaros before I can see with my eyes and nothing is moving. Finally start hearing some birds for some life. We sit there for an hour and nothing is moving, then all of a sudden about a km up river. ELK. Cow and spike standing in the middle of the river. I tell Russ what I’m seeing. “Well we’re not gonna shoot them from here”… “Lets go”. Refill my lip and we’re off.

[charlie_horse]

I waited months!
x2 Blainer....... your on "epic level"
wording is great,,, not all one paragraph, easy reading.... pics in there .... except the jeep,,, lol...
writing a book not a magazine... magazines you just look at the pics.... books you read.

I really wish I got pictures of the jeep. It was up there for about a week. I seriously think they might have needed a helicopter to pull it out hahaha. It was hilarious. "Why aren't you using your Jack-all". "whats a jack-all" "the thing attached to your roof rack". "ohhhh"

[charlie_horse]

THE STALK


So we start heading up river to catch up to the elk, and other than where we put them to bed we went slow and made sure we glassed the hell out of that timber for a bit hoping that Trex (Thats what Russ has now called the big bull). We’re moving at a pretty good clip to cover that km to where we last seen them and the wind was perfect and the River and pissing rain covered our sound. Things were looking good. All of a sudden we are moving too fast, I damn near walked right into a cow feeding away from us. Like literally 5 feet away, how she didn’t bust us I’ll never know. At this point I’m mouthing to Russ to keep quiet and not move a muscle. He peeks around a bush and just a big smile on his face. That was seriously fricken cool. Then another cow right there, and all of a sudden they just start chirping and mewing away as they were feeding. No bull but vision was so limited and it was so thick we just ducked out of sight and prayed the wind didn’t swirl so we could let them get ahead and try a different approach. So we start still hunting behind them catching a white ass here and there and constantly scanning the timber and shitbox bush for horn or bull at the back, figuring he has to be at the back. He has to be at the back right? Why haven’t we seen him? Is this the 7 points herd?


So the cows start moving around a big bend in the river, which puts them completely out of sight. So instead of creeping right to the bend, I decide to start wading out into the Indian river, so I can peek around the corner and still keep some distance. At the point it is still monsooning so Russ is my personal scope defogger, he no sooner hands me my rifle back before I have to give it back to him so I can see out of it and being in the middle of a river really didn’t help on that front. So I am half way sitting in these rapids when all of a sudden out on the sandbar about 100 yards ahead of me the two BIG cows run out. At this point I immediately just sit in the river keeping binos and rifle above water. Pro-tip: Rubber pants are still a poor substitute for waders. The cows know something is up immediately and just staring in our direction on edge. They just stared at us in our direction didn’t move for a solid 20 minutes. We’re soaked, we’re both in the river at this point and we’re both wondering why the hell we do this and more why the hell we enjoy this and no sooner does that thought leave our heads when out he comes. TREX. Holy shit he’s here, he walked right out to the cows for a quick second, scope is fogged, dammit no shot and as fast as he was there back into the shitbox he went. I wasn’t too mad at not getting a shot off as I was happier to see that he was here and that circumstance was out of my control, just not the right time. Cows have loosened up a bit but you can still tell they are weary and start feeding off out of sight, which was the best thing to happen that morning so now we could both get out of the damn river.


Rinse and repeat, we let them get ahead again before we start making another move on them after nearly being busted before. We start slowly creeping our way around the bend and there is a dried up creek bed there. Out walk two cows and start feeding, so we sit there and watch them, while we’re crouched down in the bush constantly handing my rifle back to Russ to clear the fog from my scope. I’m not sure if the wind swirled or we made a sudden movement but once again the two cows (not the big two) go from calm and feeding at 30 yards to weight on their fronts ready to sprint and eyes locked on our position. DONT MOVE A MUSCLE, doesn’t need to be said! After what felt like forever the cows go back to feeding and move up river some more. A couple more cows cross the creek bed and I set up for a shot if he walks across the creek bed. Cow, cow, calf, cow, cow cow all start slowly making there way across the creek bed. Spike, fork cow calf cow cow cow more and more elk start moving across this creek bed. It took forever, every 3 minutes or so one or two elk would present themselves and move across my narrow shooting lane at 50 - 70 yards. Where is he? At least 30 elk have passed through. He has to be at the back, there is no way he’s at the front right. Out walk the two big girls, across the creek bed they go. Jesus those cows were unmistakably big. Up goes the rifle, I know who’s next. I feel calm, I’m ready.


BOOM

[DeepJeep]

Here it comes.....

[tomahawk]

the best is yet to come............................................ epic story continues

[charlie_horse]

As expected, the dinosaur walks out, solo, no cows in the way. Smoked him, but I didn’t feel super comfortable with the shot I knew I hit him a bit further back not too sure what happened. I figured liver. Russ and I, trying not to get too excited and discuss what we should do. Its pissing rain so we decide instead of giving him time, we need go see if there is blood and we figure we will just check out the area where he was shot and then give him some time if need be. We walk the 70yards to where I hit him and just walk around the corner. HOLY SHIT, there he is in all his glory just standing there. Russ and I just look at each other in disbelief at the biggest elk we have both ever seen standing at 10 yards. Up goes the rifle, behind the shoulders goes the cross hairs. BOOM, hit number two. Off he runs. I was comfortable with this shot, I figure he’s done for with this one so we give it a bit of time before starting our search but we never heard him pile up. But it was hard to hear out. We search and search and nothing. No elk, no blood. We’re trying to follow his track but there was just a herd of 30 plus elk going through there, it was tough to stay on him. We thought he went up towards the road and the other side of the valley, and we were going to start heading that direction and I hear Russ yell at me. One small piece of blood on a rock right beside the river. Shit, he went across the river.


We wade our way across the river and just hit the other side and look in the bush and there he is bedded just inside the tree line. He stands up and I throw up the rifle. Fogged out and he turns and run. So at this point I realize he isn’t going far, before stopping or bedding so Russ and I give him a legitimate 40 minutes or so. Long 40 minutes, cold and soaked. So we figure enough time has gone by and it’s time to begin our search again, I’m a bit worried because I’m certain it was a liver shot and I clearly didn’t hit lung on the second shot or I’d have a dead elk and when we walked up to where he was bedded there was hardly any blood at all.

[.308SLAYER]

Ahhh I love elk hunting...this is good stuff mate keep er Coming I'm hooked

[charlie_horse]

So were in the shitbox and devils club again and you can’t see your nose and we decide to split up. I go left, Russ goes right. I get out of the thick stuff and now I’m in the old growth and I hear some commotion to my right so I run up this little knob and I look and there is Russ and the elk standing face to face at 5 feet! I can see Russ is in a what the hell do I do moment and I can’t shoot. Elk does a 180 and runs into the old growth and starts running right by me at about 30 yards. Cross hairs on him, I can barely see through my scope and I’m following him. BOOM. Elk down, he buckles from a full run. Russ catches up and we’re sitting there certain he’s done and it seems after a couple minutes he starts getting a bit more energy and posturing like he’s going to get up and go again. Russ and I look at each other in disbelief, so I chamber another round and plug him again while he is bedded. He gets hit with shot number 4 and 3rd one behind the shoulders, what does he do? Stands up and starts walking away like the last couple hours never happened. What the hell. I hit him again for a 5th shot, solid hit again and he keep walking away and eventually beds down and dies. I’ve never seen an animal so tough in my life. I was told by a few people afterwards that elk lungs are set lower down so I was probably shooting just high? I’m not sure. Not the first elk kill I’ve been apart of but the first one I’ve shot. I’d say not bad! All in all, finding him and not losing him was beyond relieving. We were both just dumbfounded by the size of him both body and horns. We tried not doing any exaggerated shots, he was absolutely enormous body wise we were in just complete disbelief. He dwarfed the two BIG cows and those two cows body wise were every bit as big as that big 7point. What a relief finding him though, Jesus. I’m telling you the worst goes through your head.

https://i.imgur.com/Ge4i1zr.jpg
Once again bad with the camera and never got any as he lay pics.

https://i.imgur.com/WvieCb5.jpg
Russes turn

[charlie_horse]

https://i.imgur.com/qsA3shq.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dYG0G2U.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hauP26m.jpg

[LBM]

Congrats great looking bull.

[charlie_horse]

https://i.imgur.com/gCDIvk5.jpg

So we do the picture things, hike back to where we dropped all our gear first thing that morning, then hike back to the quads and make our way back to the elk with our gear to start cutting him apart. He dropped about a km away from the road and we had to cross the Indian which was starting to get higher. Things went fairly smoothly a lot of laughs going over the days events. On the last trip out I had the cape and head in my pack, soaking wet it was easily the heaviest pack out I’ve ever experienced. All of a sudden Russ goes “Elk”…”where?” “Over there, holy shit look at the size of that bull you shot the wrong one!” “WHAT???Your joking”. Turns out he was joking, about the bull at least. A bunch of cows and I think a smaller bull came walking up to us at about 50 yards. We packed all the meat to the river and then the cape was the last to get to the river so I just went for it straight across the river and about half way across I slipped and fell and I’m up to my neck with my loaded pack on. Russ has to help me take the pack off and get the head and cape across the river. I was hoping for some pack out shots crossing the river but Russ figured it was too sketchy. We get everything to the other side of the river and hidden beside the road and quad back to camp to get changed and get the truck. By the time I got back to camp I think that was the coldest I’ve ever been, soaking wet on the quad and temps dropping down close to freezing. We get back and change and warm up and crack open a celebratory beer and wait for Joel and Russ’s hunting partner Mark to show up. We all hop in the truck and Joel drives us down to the elk, Russ and I are a few beers deep by this point. We get to the elk and more cheers are had when a couple of fresh sets of eyes see it.

https://i.imgur.com/LF9ZtLG.jpg
cutting it up

https://i.imgur.com/YAWfrhV.jpg
Meat waiting for us at the river.

https://i.imgur.com/IHUHlxk.jpg

[charlie_horse]

https://i.imgur.com/epTok5g.jpg
getting ready to go across the river, was hoping to have some shots of me packing across the river.

https://i.imgur.com/Fx12per.jpg
Joel made the trip back up to camp to check out the hog

[Pinewood]

Wow. Ain't that something. Nice Bull and story.

[charlie_horse]

We get back to camp unload everything, beers and more beers. We bring out the tape and Joel green scored it at 447”. Friday Russ and I take down camp, load up and go pick up my trail cams. I’m not sure if it was the funniest or worst camp take down, The night before Russ made this drunken assed Brussels sprout, old chili, 67lbs of garlic and possibly coffoatmeal Gulash. I’ve never heard or smelled things that came out of a human body like that until the next morning. Head down the mountain and find a cooler to hang the meat.

https://i.imgur.com/mnmNzrG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/veuO8Vj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uJ31IXP.jpg

[charlie_horse]

https://i.imgur.com/fKtumly.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sXqZ7Lu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fDxMbx9.jpg

[walks with deer]

wow.......



....

[charlie_horse]

We get back to camp unload everything, beers and more beers. We bring out the tape and Joel green scored it at 447”. Friday Russ and I take down camp, load up and go pick up my trail cams. I’m not sure if it was the funniest or worst camp take down, The night before Russ made this drunken assed Brussels sprout, old chili, 67lbs of garlic and possibly coffoatmeal Gulash. I’ve never heard or smelled things that came out of a human body like that until the next morning. Head down the mountain and find a cooler to hang the meat. The Saturday I head to the interior to take horns and cape to the taxi. Which was quite the sight in itself. I had my neighbour help me load up the head and cape into the girlfriends little Subaru sideways, which I think was the last thing he expected to see and help with on a Saturday. we had quite the looks in our complex. Going down Highway 1 with me and the gf, dog in the back seat and elk antlers sticking out the window since that was the only way it could fit in. We got a lot of honks on the way out of town. I laugh at that little Subaru since seems to become the method of choice for delivering my game to the butcher and what not. We get to the taxidermist that evening and he measures it in the mid 440 inches but it was more of a quick rough measurement and Joel was a lot more thorough with his measurement. Taxidermist got a measurer there to measure him after the drying period but he got half way through and decided he wasn’t comfortable measuring it so stopped so he has yet to be officially scored yet.
https://i.imgur.com/Jcwwl5l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oGRlgbA.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WSIN74s.jpg


And i’d just like to thank everyone that helped me with the hunt, the amount of private messages and helpful tips, texts and emails was unbelievable!

[charlie_horse]

https://i.imgur.com/YyhVCCg.jpg

the three of us on the drive to the interior for taxidermist barely making it fit in the little Subaru.

Thanks for reading!

[Rattler]

Wow, epic adventure!! What a beast of a bull.

Congrats on a bull of a lifetime. Thanks for sharing.

[nazarow]

Great story and bull to go with it. Thanks for sharing!

[JoeSixPack]

Wow. What a bull! Great story as well, thanks for sharing!

[silvertipp]

Wow great read thanks for taking us along for the ride
that is one hell of an old warrior congratulations
how many points does he have in total

[goathead]

wow what a great elk. congrats and thanks for sharing great story.

[charlie_horse]

Wow great read thanks for taking us along for the ride
that is one hell of an old warrior congratulations
how many points does he have in total

He was a legit 10x9 but there were a couple little kickers that could have made him a 11x10 joel counted one and maybe the other as legal but I don't think they count so I'll stick with 10x9 and crazy mass.

[Squire]

Great job on the hunt and the story! You're helping make HBC great again:D

[jamfarm]

Been looking forward to this story. I got a pic of you and the bull after you shot it from my cousin in squam who knows a buddy of yours up there. I had the bull draw up skwawka last year and didn't connect but some other hunters that were also up there from powell river found a shed that was similar sized to yours. There's some big bulls up these watersheds. Congrats

[tinhorse]

I can only hope for a draw of my own one day......awesome hunt and outcome! Well done!

[markomoose]

Good stuff charlie-horse.Super intense getting a bull like that!Congrats

[canucks6]

Best story I have ever read. Congrats on a bull of a hundred lifetimes. Most badass thirds on an elk ever. Ps get off the Copenhagen. Let me tell u nothing is as scary as looking at ur hunting partner with half a face.

[Ourea]

Some funk going on there.
Love the trez's.

[twoSevenO]

Best hunt that has been posted on here in 2017 by far. Congrats. That is an incredible elk.

Can someone explain what is it with these Region 2 monsters? I saw a pic of the one that got taken out of the Upper Pitt River and thing was insane too. Mass and points all over the place. Where'd they get the genetics for these reg 2 elk?

Edit: Where does this sucker rank in the BC book now? I'm no elk hunter but 447 has got to be up there, right?

[tomahawk]

Best hunt that has been posted on here in 2017 by far. Congrats. That is an incredible elk.

Can someone explain what is it with these Region 2 monsters? I saw a pic of the one that got taken out of the Upper Pitt River and thing was insane too. Mass and points all over the place. Where'd they get the genetics for these reg 2 elk?

Edit: Where does this sucker rank in the BC book now? I'm no elk hunter but 447 has got to be up there, right?

If he scores at anywhere near 440 or 447 this my HBC friends is the NEW WORLD RECORD Record for Boone and Crockett and SCI and BC Record books. Kyle any idea when a Master Scorer who can measure TREX will happen??

[.264winmag]

Well done sir. You definitely put your time and effort into that bull, congrats!
His thirds are unreal...
Thanks for the great story.
Cheers

[WKCotts]

Best hunt that has been posted on here in 2017 by far. Congrats. That is an incredible elk.

Can someone explain what is it with these Region 2 monsters? I saw a pic of the one that got taken out of the Upper Pitt River and thing was insane too. Mass and points all over the place. Where'd they get the genetics for these reg 2 elk?

Edit: Where does this sucker rank in the BC book now? I'm no elk hunter but 447 has got to be up there, right?

if that score is close to accurate, that bull will be the new World Record Rosie.

Incredible bull. Congrats. Enjoy it

[srupp]

Hmm find a official qualified scorer. .do it Now..just saying. .
I already knew the bull was wicked awesome..
But my friend so was the account...he sure soaked up the lead.
Well done.
Steven

[twoSevenO]

if that score is close to accurate, that bull will be the new World Record Rosie.

Incredible bull. Congrats. Enjoy it

Well I just looked it up. It seems B&C have just one category for Rosies and the world record is listed at at 404 6/8 .... at 447 taping in camp he would've had to make a lot of mistakes if it's not a new #1 lol.

Damn, is that ever a nice elk.

[WKCotts]

IIRC the world record was broken in 2016 by another British Columbia bull scoring in the 420’s. That bull is currently awaiting panel scoring before it can be officially named the new world record. There are plenty of B&C scorers in this province.

http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/13293b_e7927db4193147c38f515a37ee0100ed.pdf

[charlie_horse]

I won't even pretend to know about scoring but from what I understand is it is quite possibly the new #1 SCI but I don't think it will be first in B+C due to differences in scoring method but should still be top10 if they scored it right. Big bloody elk regardless!

[twoSevenO]

You mentioned you enjoyed shed hunting for these elk over the years. Have you found any sheds of this bull ?? What do you guys figure for age on him .... Curious how long he took to get that big.

[charlie_horse]

I don't spend any time up Indian arm really outside this hunt and I venture up there a couple times for bear season. I mostly shed hunt the Squamish herd and we've only found 5 point sheds and smaller and dead heads. This year I might be more enticed into shed hunting out there though haha. Whoever gets the draw next year is gonna have a chance at another real stomper ifthat 7 point lives.

[todbartell]

nice bull congrats

[monasheemountainman]

Beautiful bull congrats big time!

[Blainer]

It doesn't get any better! Plenty of reason to feel proud, not just a GREAT Bull, but a huge accomplishment.Great effort paid off!

[TexasWalker]

Wicked bull man, tons of character and big, gotta love it!!

Who is mounting him for you?

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Loved the entire story. Really captures the highs and lows of lows of hunting.

Your never give up attitude payed off in a huge way!

Wicked, wicked bull!!! Never seen splits on thirds before.

Huge congrats and thanks for making this story capture what it's all about!!

SSS

[Rattler]

What are some mass measurements? Also what caliber rifle did you use? I know from experience that elk can really soak up the lead...just incredible how tough they are.

[Bighorn hunter]

What an absolute beast! Huge congrats

BH

[Thunderstix]

This whole thing really left me speechless and has made my dreams chock full of elk.... Come on elk season!!! Well done Charlie Horse!!

[guest]

Great share ........ Finally another good story on here!

Congrats to you and buddies on your perserverance and determination.

I bet bet your taxi charges you extra for taking up too much room. Lol. Lots of terrific meat there.

CT

[835]

What a wicked bull.... just wicked.... make damned sure you ket us know what it scores when it gets done...

You certainly earned him and did him justice in every way..... except missing the jeep pics lol....

[835]

Im kinda all messed up now from reading that! Lol..
The anticipation of loosing the bull got me lol

[silvertipp]

After all the smoke cleared
how many times did you hit this guy

[charlie_horse]

What are some mass measurements? Also what caliber rifle did you use? I know from experience that elk can really soak up the lead...just incredible how tough they are.

I just texted Joel and he the only one he can remember is 11 1/4 bases. And I was shooting 30-06 shooting ttsx

Silvertipp he ate 5 rounds by the time the dust settled. 4 behind the shoulder and the first one liver

[rocksteady]

Beautiful bull

[325]

Great story and awesome bull! Those antlers are incredible! Lots of great eating too!

[kennyj]

Great story!! I really enjoyed it. That is the COOLEST Rosie rack I've ever seen.
Congratulations, and thanks for the story and photos.
kenny

[~T-BONE~]

You sir are the luckiest SOB out there! That is the hunt I dream of most! We all appreciate you sharing this hunt, thank you! Congratulations!!!!!!

[avadad]

Incredible story! Congrats.

[DR.DOUG]

Awesome Bull and the story telling really did it justice! I know from experience that yes they sure can eat up lead even in the lungs. Your presreverance was epic and paid off HUGE.. haha. Great job. Curious to know who is looking after the taxi work for you

[Rattler]

Dear lord those bases are massive!! TTSX are great bullets and what I have been using on elk. Like you I keep shooting until they drop.

[.264winmag]

Maybe that's the problem, no lead in them bullets;)
Curious CH what ttsx were you running? Did you retrieve any of them? How did the lungs look? Elk are imo the toughest ungulate, and the Rosie's even more so, but to keep on trucking with 4 in the engine compartment and one in the filter is not great performance out a bullet imo. What ever happened to bullet+lung=dead HA. Long live lead core :twisted:

[ursus]

Thanks for taking us all along! A Rosie draw is most everyone’s dream LEH to get! You took a Fantastic bull!
Congrats!

[Moose63]

About as good as it gets...... Congrats and thanks for sharing.

[Red_Mist]

Absolutely terrific bull ! Sharing your adventure has sure brought some life to HBC.

[Knute]

That is the most impressive bull ever posted here. And that's saying something as others in the past have posted some beauties!

Cold and wet. Colder and wet. Coldest and wet. The Region 2 elk hunters lament ;)

Congrats on persevering and your buddies too.

Great share, awesome pics and story. Thanks....

[whitespringer]

Epic story! What a brute! Congratulations!

[Brez]

Well, a bunch of other have already said it but I'll say it again. WOW!!
An absolutely fantastic bull and a story to match. Congrats and good on you. You certainly earned that bull.
Thanks a lot for posting and giving this site a good kick in the ass. This is what hunting and hunting forums are about.

[The Hermit]

Oh dude that whole adventure was awesome! Thank you for sharing it with us! Great way to spend part of my Sunday morning... Huge congrats. Please let us know what he scores at the end of the day.

[Magnumb]

Congrats CH. What a great story! Lots o size and character in that rack. Great pics! Gives a great visual of the terrain the Rosies hang in...

[northof49]

WOW!! That think is a beast. Well done. Thanks for sharing the details and pics

[Buck]

Congrats what a specimen and all that fantastic meat wow !!

[DeepJeep]

JUST INCREDIBLE! WOW... great story writing and just an awesome bull. thanks for sharing.

[REMINGTON JIM]

Congrats ! Great Storey and Hunt - AWESOME Bull ELK :smile: RJ

[BC Cruiser]

Thanks for sharing this great story

[Salty]

I feel like I'm dreaming and I only read about the thing. lol
Awesome write up man and it goes without saying just a crazy huge bull. I've been lucky enough to see a few very big Roosevelt bulls no draw luck tho :( but the mass on thing is just nuts. You earned it bro no two ways about it congrats!

[j270wsm]

.

https://i.imgur.com/fiiH8AW.jpg
Hoping for elk on the gas line[/QUOT

joel.....why so grumpy?

[j270wsm]

Congrats again on an amazing bull. Write up was worth the wait. Hopefully you can get it officially scored soon.

[Shikari300WSM]

Congrats on a bruiser. Probably one of the most anticipated write up and pics ever!

[hunter1947]

Great wright up and great picture congrats on getting this fantastic looking Roosevelt elk ,,this thread is what HBC is all about..

[Sundown]

I already loved hunting elk but this story has made it all the better. Thanks for sharing and.congratulations on a beauty bull.

[Leaseman]

Hell of a story and hell of an animal....lifetime of memories for sure!!:cool:

[wrenchhead]

What was the final outcome on the score after drying?

[Bugle M In]

Firstly, thanks for the write up, and for posting it for all to see and read.
Definitely a lack of that stuff on here at times.
On top of that, a big congrats....sweeeeeet bull!
Love the junk those Rosie's have around here.
Good job....a nice share!

[RyoTHC]

I have no idea how I missed this.

Nothing short of amazing, this is the kind of thing that keeps us all hunting !!! Yes it's great to fill the freezer every year, but who wouldn't want the opportunity to connect with such a bruiser !?

Would love to know the score.

[Fella]

Wow what a hog! Congrats, well earned!

[HarryToolips]

What an incredible bull, congrats.....

[835]

I still think this is HBC's #1 story....

Did you ever score it?

[Fella]

I still think this is HBC's #1 story....

Did you ever score it?

Gotta be some sort of record no?

[Bugle M In]

we have had records taken for rosie's here in bc for sure.

Also, wasn't there another member who is believed to have taken a new record bull on the island?
Wasn't he just waiting for the dry out period, and then ws going to post up pics and info??

Anyways, not to take away from the OP here, as far as I am concerned, that is an epic hunt and certainly
a record elk that everyone would like to have on the wall, and to reflect back on all those memories one day.
Awesome job, again.

[twoSevenO]

Gotta be some sort of record no?

It was scored. It didnt go number #1. Dude said "still a 400" elk, though".

Current record in the 7th edition of the book is 419 6/8 ..... FN harvest from Pitt Lk. #2 is 396 5/8, so I assume this Indian River bull will sit at #2

[Bugle M In]

It was scored. It didnt go number #1. Dude said "still a 400" elk, though".

Current record in the 7th edition of the book is 419 6/8 ..... FN harvest from Pitt Lk. #2 is 396 5/8, so I assume this Indian River bull will sit at #2

yup, last I heard about the Pitt lake Bull is that they tried to sell it to Cablea's/Bass Pro for something like 80g's.
but due to it being an fn harvest, the sale was not allowed.
it now is sitting in a yard somewhere, all chewed up by rodents etc :shock:

[RyoTHC]

yup, last I heard about the Pitt lake Bull is that they tried to sell it to Cablea's/Bass Pro for something like 80g's.
but due to it being an fn harvest, the sale was not allowed.
it now is sitting in a yard somewhere, all chewed up by rodents etc :shock:

I'm sure they found some rich sob to buy it legal or not.

[Bugle M In]

I'm sure they found some rich sob to buy it legal or not.

Nope, from my contacts, it was sitting there, just rotting away.
A local taxidermist wanted to do something with it, but took one look at it, and said it was a waste of time.

[twoSevenO]

Pardon my ignorance but why is it illegal to sell it because it's a FN harvest?

If its mine I can do whatever I want with it, no?

[835]

Dont wreck this guys epic thread with FN crap.

[untilthelastbeat]

Final score on the bull was 382 I believe after deductions because it wasnt very symmetrical. 400 gross. Was hanging out with the OP on the weekend and sounds like pictures of the mount may be soon to come aswel.

[Fella]

Final score on the bull was 382 I believe after deductions because it wasnt very symmetrical. 400 gross. Was hanging out with the OP on the weekend and sounds like pictures of the mount may be soon to come aswel.
Well 300, 400, 500, who cares in the end, that’s an unbelievable bull and it’s awesome to see something like that! Definitely a once in a lifetime bull.

[835]

Score is a score, but that animal is way way more impressive than any number

[silvertipp]

Score is a score, but that animal is way way more impressive than any number
X2 well said

[PeakSeaker]

Great story. Thanks for sharing!
guy I work with got the Squamish River tag this year. Going to try and help him out if I get the time

[Tim Tam Slam]

Great story! Another for the ol catelogues of HBC!

thanks for sharing :)