First bull elk with my recurve UPDATED WITH NEW PICTURE -Pg. 4

[bohuntr]

After 10 years of accumulating preference points here in SD my buddy Tom and I finally drew archery elk tags. We were very excited to draw the tags because we knew it would allow us to do our own scouting and it would allow us to hunt for alot more days than normally is possible on our out of state hunts. Tom and I and another buddy named Leon have bowhunted probably 8 years previously in Colorado and one year in Montana. 3 of those hunts were guided hunts ... the sum total of our elk harvests was one cow I shot back in 2001 on an unguided hunt. Other than that cow the opportunities for shots were few and far between.  Tom and Leon currently hunt with compounds but I have got each one of them to buy a recurve and I am working on getting them into trad hunting full time.
   When we found out that we drew the tags Tom and I each had a little different goal in mind. While Tom obviously wanted to shoot a nice bull he really wanted to get his first elk with a bow no matter what the size of the elk. I felt like this might be one of my best chances to shoot a good bull and I resolved not to shoot a small elk even if it meant going back elkless. We had an absolutely awesome hunt getting into elk almost every day. I had over a dozen opportunities on cows and smaller bulls.We met some great local guys who were elk hunting nuts and had them hunt with us when they did not have to work. Tom  ended up shooting a spike after about 14 or 15 days of hunting. Needless to say we were both jacked up when Tom got his spike. Tom had to go back to work leaving me to hunt on my own for most of the next week. So lets fast forward to the day in question.Monday September 25th. I arrived at my hunting spot about 45 minutes before sunrise. I had barely gotten out of the truck and gotten organized when I heard one of the deepest growling bugles I have ever heard. I slowly worked my way towards the bugle waiting for shooting light before trying any calling. The tempeture was 26 degrees and there was a layer of crunchy snow on the ground. When it finally got light enough to shoot I let out a series of cow calls. The bull screamed back and I could hear him running towards my position in the crunchy snow. He was in bow range almost immeadiately and it was then that I discovered that instead of elkzilla he was a raghorn 5 point. In the places we have hunted in Colorado this little guy would have been a herd bull and I would have definitely shot him but this was not Colorado. I let the 5 point walk and started heading up the ridge toward another bugle that sounded just as big. I tried cow calling again in a little while and the same 5 point came back into bow range again. After finally getiing away from the 5 point I moved in as close as I dared on the other bull. It was obvious the other bull was working himself up into a frenzy. When I felt I couldn't get any closer I looked for a place to set up and call. I could see a trail that looked like an obvious way for the bull to come if he responded to my calling. I got about 25 yds upwind of the trail and let out a series of cow calls and then immeadiately snuck downwind to a spot where I would have a 15 yd shot if the bull came down the trail like I hoped. The bull responded immeadiatley with a booming growl of a bugle. I could tell from the breaking of branches and the crunching of snow that he was charging straight in. It was lucky that I moved downwind after calling or he would have come straight in on me giving me no shot at all. Unfortunately he was not coming down the trail that would give me an unobstructed 15 yd shot. Instead the bull was coming in at a stiff trot 25 yds away in a spot with thick vegetation. As he was coming in the bull was laying back his rack and shaking it back and forth. I suppose he was posturing to let the cows know what a good looking bull he was and to let any rivals know that he was one bad dude!!! All I can say is it was an amazing sight and something I will remember the rest of my life. I had been kneeling but I knew I was going to have to stand in order to get a clear shot. I also knew I was going to have to try to stop him in the one small opening which he was fast approaching. When the bull went behind a tree I stood up and brought my Robertson recurve to half draw. Just as he was entering the small opening I made a cow call with my voice. The bull put on the brakes and turned to look for the cow. At the release of the arrow the bull took a half step forward but the arrow still buried to the fletch in the vitals. After the shot the bull took off running ... it was easy to follow his progress by the crunching snow and breaking branches. Within 7 or 8 seconds I heard a loud crash and then nothing. Up until that point I had been remarkably calm and focused. When I realized that I had just killed a nice 6x6 bull with my recurve I was overcome with emotion. What should have been any easy track job did not turn out to be even though the bull only ended up 100 yds from where I shot him ... but that is another story all together. The bottom line is I found him and I got the meat and the cape out. He is not the biggest bull I saw in my 20 days of hunting but you better believe he was more than big enough for me. I cannot wait until I can get him back from the taxidermist so I can look up at him everyday and relive that incredible experience. I am not computer savy enough to post any pictures with this thread. If someone else is and is willing to post some for me let me know where I can e-mail a couple of pictures to be included with this thread. Thanks for listening to my story.Dan

[Charlie Lamb]

Congrats Dan! Good shooting bro!!  

[vermonster13]

Awesome.

If you go here  http://photobucket.com/  you can set-up an account for free and post pictures to your heart's content. Need help with the actual posting and I'll walk you through it if you like, pretty easy and a good skill to have for here.

[IB]

Very WELL DONE   Dan      

[kennym]

Congrats Dan!!            If you dont get photobucket goin mail em here and I'll see if I can post em-  [email protected]

[razorsharptokill]

Awesome story! One of my dreams!

[bohuntr]

Thanks for the congrats guys. I am still pinching myself to make sure this was not all a dream. Afterall it is the same dream I have been having for the last 10+ years but this time when I wake up and walk into my garage I can still see the rack laying there waiting to return to the taxidermist! I sent a couple pics to kennym who will hopefully get them posted on this thread. Dan

[Got2strum]

Congrats . Great story.

[denny]

Excellent story and thank you for the telling, I have little experience but I've already learned calling solo and acoomplishing the close in shot is pretty challenging. How close do you think you were before you first cow called to the bull you shot. I will type my story soon looking for suggestions as I struggled with closing the deal without a calling partner. denny

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Congrats. I can't wait to see the photos.  

[Guru]

Congrats Bud...looking forward to the pix as well.

 Not a better feeling in the world....

[Pinecone]

Fantastic story! Kudos!

Claudia

[just_a_hunter]

Great story. It does my heart good to see deserving people end up with stories like this. GREAT JOB!!!!!!

Todd

[kennym]

Dan!!! I didn't get the pics.Come to think of it ,a buddy sent me elk pics and I didn't get them either,don't know if my internet provider is kickin em out or what.Still tryin to find em!!

You have a PM

[AZStickman]

Congratulations......    There's absolutely nothing better than September in the Elk woods...... Terry

[cdi3d]

Nice story - Sounds like an awesome trip of a life time - Thanks for sharing -

Mike

[bohuntr]

Hey guys kennym was not able to post any pics for me do I have any volunteers? Let me know. If you can't tell I am real proud of my bull and would like to show him to you guys (and gals). Thanks for any help you can give me. Dan

[the Ferret]

Dan send them to me at [email protected]. I'll post them for you.

[the Ferret]

[the Ferret]