Suzy's First Elk

[singleshot]

Suzy was fortunate enough to draw her first choice elk tag in our favorite unit after ten years of applying. I know some of you are groaning about it only being ten years to get an early rifle bull tag but we actually talked to two other ladies who had drawn the same tag after three, and four years of applying.

Our good friend Harry had drawn an archery bull tag in the same unit and we set up camp the Wednesday prior to his hunt and kicked it until opening day of the archery hunt. The first morning we got on a really nice bull we nicknamed stickers because he had an extra point on his right fifth, and fourth. It eventually fell apart when Harry got busted by a cow and that kind of set the pace for the rest of the hunt. We got rain, lots of rain, almost every day, and when it rained the bulls were bugling all day. We would hunt the mornings, come back to camp and eat a big breakfast and be back out before noon until dark. We had a couple of slow days here and there, but overall it was a really good season for bugling bulls and Harry had opportunity at several really BIG BULLS but was unable to connect. He could shoot four inch groups at camp at 60 yards but was unable to draw blood in the field. Harry has a great attitude though and was thankful that all the misses were clean and that no bulls were poorly hit.

Another good friend Brian, also accompanied us and took some video of a really nice bull the second week of archery season. The video showed a pretty strong right side and a heavy left with a short fifth, but the bull seemed to constantly make right turns and we never could get a really good look at his left side in the jackpine cover he seemed to favor.

The first morning of the rifle bull hunt we parked in the same area we had been hunting the previous two weeks and listened to a few screaming bulls until it got light enough to start our hunt. We honed in on a bull that had a bugle that we liked and the chase was on. Actually we parallelled him until we had the wind right and then cut him off by angling in. The bull was screaming often and a couple of satellites were keeping him busy as his cows fed out in front of us at 45 yards. Suzy was down on one knee and was having a really hard time containing herself as the bull bugled and carried on just out of sight in the pines. I told her a couple of times to "don't move" but she looked like one of those bobblehead dolls to me, and apparently the cows as they bolted just when the herd bull stepped out.

We ran and circled, caught our breath and ran and circled some more, passing up three smaller six point bulls as we tried to stay with what we thought was the largest bull bugling. I saw some cows in the trees and threw up my glasses only to see a dink and for a second thought that we had lost him, but we heard a bugle in the distance and continued our pursuit. Eventually we climbed out of the flats up onto what we call "Bull Rim". Four different times in the prior two weeks we had climbed this rim to have a nice bull standing within 100 yards. It seemed that once they reached their bedding area they would relax. I know you are not supposed to hunt the bedding areas but we found different bulls in there each time and even if we busted them they would be back in the same area in two days, so what the heck.

I caught antlers in the sunlight and got a quick look at him before he disappeared in the jack pines. I recognized him as the bull from the video but his fifth looked shorter on his left and something about his left side seemed odd. Of course in the few seconds I had to look him over he always angled to the right. I told Suzy that she should probably take this bull if we got the chance, but he quickly disappeared. We moved up about ten yards and had a bedded cow lock us up. The cow eventually got up and moved deeper into the jack pines and a couple of minutes later a cow bolted through the trees. I cow called to try and calm them down and Harry bugled from behind us. Between Harry's bugling, and Brians cow calling the bull hung up and barked at us about 10 times before ghosting out of the thicket at about 150 yards. A 150 grain Nosler Partition backed by 57 grains of 4831 leaped out of Suzy's 270 and the bull just sucked it up. The second shot kicked up dirt as he bolted for cover but the third shot hit home again.

We found him layed up not far away after giving him some time. A little ground shrinkage at recovery when we first viewed him but he is a really nice solid bull grossing 322 at basically a 6x4. Suzy was really excited, but saddened that the hunt ended on the first morning. The rest of us felt the same way.

Special thanks to Harry and Brian for the help and the you cant beat a Ranger for getting them out in one piece.

 

[jakehaffey]

Great hunt! Thats a really cool bull! Congrats!

[tjhunt2]

Congratulations to Suzy on her beautiful bull. Great story and thanks for sharing.

 

TJ

[Coues79]

Cool deal Bruce. Congrats to your wife! Looks like you had a sweet couple of weeks in the pines.

 

Jeff

[azryan]

That is a fantastic bull. Congrats to your wife and the crew for killing a great animal

[Snapshot]

Excellent!

[Kilimanjaro]

Great bull!

[Arizona Griz]

Congratulations on her elk.

[Mangum]

Great write-up. No matter what the bull looks like, sounds like you had an awesome hunt.

[bustedknuckleinc]

Very nice bull. Congrats.

[SO I HUNT]

Great looking bull Congrats!

[hunterdude]

Very nice Bull!