Wednesday, we didn't see a thing but more wet cold weather that cleared for another nice sunset.
Thursday morning, our last day to hunt ( I had to be home on Friday), we heard nothing. We did see a spike. We stopped for lunch on a log.
We wandered a bit more, the sun came out and we found a nice place for a nap. After hunting hard all week it felt great to get a good nap. We were tired and after waking we were trying to figure out what to do for our last evening of hunting when we heard a bugle in the valley west of us. Decision made. We split up and Steve went high and I went low. The bull continued to bugle every 10-15 minutes and I was getting close. I finally spotted a small bull and figured he was a loner out looking for cows. I lost track of him and then heard a bugle up higher again. I continued to move in until I was on a small bench right off the bottom of the drainage. I knelt down in a good shooting location. I spotted cows and calves and thought there was no way that little bull had cows. About then a cow starts coming my way and I would have no problem shooting a cow. She comes by at 8 yds but never looks away and is too close for me to move/draw without beeing seen. She goes down below me. The wind is perfect. The rest of the herd slowly starts to follow and I finally see the herd bull. He is not huge but a decent bull for an OTC unit. They keep coming and before I know it the bull is broadside at 25 yds, of course the only branch around is going right across his vitals. They continue to move and I'm thinking they are going to get by me without me getting a shot. Then the bull turns back up to circle around the last couple of cows. When he turns back down he stops broadside at about 28 yds. I hardly even remember drawing my bow. What I do remember was seeing the flight of the arrow and watching it disappear about 2 inches behind the shoulder crease. They all busted out of there. Now I start shaking (I am lucky in that I usually don't start the shaking until after the shot). The questions start, did I really see what I thought I saw. I go look for my arrow and it looks good.
I call Steve on the radio and tell him the good news. It takes him a bit to get down to me which was good because it made me wait. We start to follow the blood trail which is not a gusher. I hit him about mid body up and down so I knew most blood was staying inside him. We went about 70 yds when I spotted him. Woo Hoo! Finally a traditiional bull.
I was a happy camper. I don't know why but after I saw the bull the thought of shooting a cow just vanished. Since it was getting late we just gutted the bull, got it about 2/3 skinned, opened it up to cool and cut the head off. I carried the head and antlers out that night.
The next morning we deboned a little better than half of the bull and carried that meat out and then came back and carried the last two quarters out bone in. It was about 1.5 miles down to a road so we got him out in two heavy trips each.
I shot him with my new TD Super Shrew 56# @ 28" (53# at my draw), carbon arrows, brass inserts, woodsmen head, total arrow weight of 525 gr. and got a clean pass through.
When I look back I am always amazed at how many things have to go right to get off a shot at close range. We hunted hard all week and we hunted until the end and it payed off.
Steve may have some more pics to add.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Topic: ANOTHER Elk Story w/Pics (Read 1446 times)
