We arrived at the edge of the basin and I let out a friendly locater bugle which was immediately answered by a bugle from far below. We looked at each other and before a word could be spoken there was a bugle from high above us across the basin. Quick inspection of the far rim revealed a nice bull skylined on the horizon
.
Ridge where the bulls skylined and hillside with hyper elk activity
Before the morning was out the opposite hillside was covered in cow elk, spikes and a weary 6x6 bull that was chasing satellite bulls, trying to keep his cows and fighting a loosing battle. He screamed and bugled and grunted and chuckled. He paraded across that hillside with his tongue hanging out. He disappeared into the timber below us and did battle with another bull.
We could hear the other bulls calling getting fainter as he was pushed down the valley. The tired bull returned to the wallow and laid up with some cows. While all this was going on I was also calling. I was able to draw some cows up to our side of the canyon. There they were, about 25-30 yards from me, staring right at me. They were standing broadside, about 5 yards from Al, who had positioned himself just off the trail they were using. They were oblivious to his presence, as they were fixated on me and my calling. Al declined the opportunity to shoot a cow at point blank range. I also declined to shoot from 25 yards. I guess we were not going to let those bulls go unhunted. The cows bugged out and went back down to the wallow. Another bull appeared on the skyline. This is probably the same bull my son Jacob had at short range last year. He came into a wallow and caught him by surprise unable to get off a shot from 9 yards. That bull left him as a trembling lump of jello, unable to move. This was a huge bull, extremely wide, likely 12 inch whale tails, 18 inch dagger points and long sweeping brow tines. I would guess this bull to be 380 minimum, likely larger based on the extreme mass. He looked a lot like this bull Al photographed at Ole's Big Game Lounge later in the week:
We also stopped at Cabelas in Sidney Ne. on the way home and agreed that this bull was as big or bigger than most of their mounts. Truly a tremendous bull. We had to decide what to do with the rest of our morning. The big monster bull called to us for half an hour before disappearing over the opposite mountaintop. The big 6x6 was still calling to us from a fixed location. I guessed he was bedding down for the day and we had a good chance at him. Al agreed and we elected to pursue the big bull another time. Al would have an encounter with him later in the week.
This is the bull we were after. I had several minutes to inspect him from inside 20 yards and I think he is a 300 class 6x6 with moderate mass, a decent trophy in my book. Picture was taken as he was parading on the hillside opposite our hiding spot. We descended into the canyon and held up until the wind was right. There were many boulders, large ones as big as dump trucks, that were left by the last glacier to recede into this valley. I took a position on top of one of these big rocks to watch and cow call and sent Al in to stalk this bull. Things don't always work out as planned. I had been sitting on the rock for about 5 minutes after Al left and I spotted antlers to my left. That sneaky old bull was trying to get upwind of me and was trying to find the source of my cow calling. I slipped off the rock and positioned myself for a shot. The bull would have to pass between a big boulder and a tree. Probably an 18 inch wide shooting window and 18 yards away from me by my leuopold range finder. I directed a soft cow call away from me over my shoulder. The bull came around the boulder as if on a string. I had about 2 seconds to pick a spot and release an arrow. The winds are extremely shifty and fickle in these high mountain basins and it is just a matter of when the elk will smell you, not if they will smell you. If you dawdle for an instant your target can disappear quickly. I shoot around 70 pounds of shrew classic hunter with a 730 gr carbon shaft and STOS broadheads. I released the arrow and it disappeared into the base of the bulls neck right at midline. I had a full 30 inches of penetration right down the middle. The bull crashed off down the mountain rushing past Al below me. We had to search for the blood trail and when we found it we sat and waited for 30 minutes. We tracked the bull for nearly 3 hours. Halfway down the mountain we found half of the arrow and large amounts of arterial blood. The bull had obviously stopped here for a while and then went crashing off through the nastiest spruce thickets that were nearly verticle falling off the mountain. The spruce trees looked like they had been painted with arterial blood wherever the bull had brushed against them. We trailed him to the creek. He did a peter pan, disappearing into the waterfall. We had blood at the edge of the creek but could not find where he went. I spent the next two days searching for him, looking for crows and magpies but never did recover him. I have killed an elk, an antelope and a whitetail with this shot and it has always been lethal. I am certain this bull is dead because he could not survive with that broadhead ripping him apart internally through all of his visceral organs. The mistake here is you must let frontal shot animals or any animal with a marginal hit lay up for at least an hour or two before you pursue them. This bull laid up until we pushed him too soon. I am disappointed in losing this elk but I would take the shot again in an instant, maybe aim a couple inches lower, but wait before trying to track him down.
Topic: A hunting we shall go, 2009 Colorado elk (Read 5878 times)
