I just got back from my Utah elk hunt and want to share it with all of you.
After applying for the limited entry Utah elk hunt for 12 years I finally drew a tag. This is truly a trophy hunt as Utah has done a good job of managing their elk herd. The tag I drew is one of the most sought after tags in the country.
Since this would the best chance I will ever have to hunt trophy elk I wanted to give it my best shot. I got together with fellow Proffesional Bowhunter Society member and traditional bowhunter Aram Barsch(pronounced: r am). He operates Wolf Hollow Outfitters. He would be my guide for a twelve day hunt on Boulder Mnt. in south central Utah. Our hunt would be on foot in the nine to ten thousand feet of elevation range. Aram knows this country like the back of his hand and is gifted with a fantastic sense of direction. On any given day we would cover at least seven miles and often more than ten. I can't begin to to tell you what a joy Aram was to hunt with.
Main camp was at 8800ft. and was about one quarter mile off of the main paved road making it easy to access, but yet very private. Main camp consisted of a couple wall tents for guides and hunters, another tent for the ladies, and a very complete outdoor kitchen. Aram also had a spike camp set up three and a half miles up the mountain from the main camp. We used this camp twice which saved us a lot of walking and got us back into the elk early in the morning.
On any given day we would get into at least two to three different bulls(5x5 or better) and often more. Hunting methods consisted of calling(cow call and bugling), stalking, ambush, and just plain bumping into them.
Although we had seen many bulls I didn't get my first shot until late on day nine. It had rained in the afternoon making stalking easier. In the evening we located a couple bulls that were bugling about two hundred feet above us on a bench. After the thermals changed direction and were going down hill it made it possible and surprisingly easy to stalk them in the low light. I managed to miss both of them(6x6s) on steep up hill shots. Those shots will forever haunt me. Oh well, I had my chance, and two good ones at that. We went back to main camp that night intending to hunt close to camp in the morning then regroup and go after those bulls again in the evening since I hadn't spooked them too bad. We hunted across the road the next morning. Aram drove in on a logging road about a mile, and then we walked in a couple more stopping to cow call and listen occasionally. It was a very quiet morning, not one bull had bugled. finally about 8:30 we stopped on a high spot I think mostly to enjoy the view and cow called again. After a few minutes with out a response I took off my pack and pulled out my bag of TP and went up hill to find a private place. No sooner had I found it, Aram came running up, told me to grab my bow, a bull was coming fast. The bull was about two hundred yards down hill from us to the south. I quickly moved down hill a bit and found a spot on the north side of a pine tree about eight feet in diameter. Aram took up a spot up hill and north, north west of me to pull the bull past me.The bull continued to come with a little coaxing from Aram. When he was about forty yards down hill I could see him through the tree and now Aram could no longer see him but he could see me. I readied for the shot by crouching down and getting my bow up and in front of me so all I would have to do was draw and release in one easy motion. When the bull cleared the tree he was down hill about twenty yards away angling towards me. He spotted me and looked right at me, the stand off began. After nearly a minute he forgot about the cow and turned and made a loop away from me and back to where he came from. When he was facing away from me I rose up a bit and moved to my right in case he would give me a shot before he left. Seeing me move like that Aram thought it might be a good time to call again and that stopped the bull now about thirty yards out but facing straight away. Aram called again and now the bull turned to his left giving me the opportunity I was waiting for. I quickly picked a spot, drew and sent the arrow on it's way. The arrow penetrated to the fletching. I hit him high behind the liver with the broadhead angling down and forward into the center of the chest cavity. Two steps and he was gone.
After a good half hour we took up the track. Blood was sparse, but thanks to the rain the day before we could follow his tracks in the dirt. He went down hill in a fairly straight line plowing through the oak brush. Three hundred yards from the shot we found him in the oak brush. He is basically a 5x5 with an extra point on the right side. After many pictures Aram made quick work of skinning, quartering, deboning, removing the head and hanging all of the bagged meat in the shade to cool. That all took only a bit more than an hour and a half.
All in all I could not have asked for a better hunt. I saw many big bulls and lots of elk(over seventy five on day three alone), got to hunt for ten days in some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen, had chances at big bulls, got a nice one, and met many fine people I now consider friends.
On a side note, I used my homemade recurve and aluminum arrows with Woodsman broadheads.
Topic: Daily Hunt Pics and Stories 2008 (Read 8649 times)
