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Shedhunteraz

My First Bull

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First of all I have to truly thank god for the success of this hunt. Also my best friend in the world, the love of my life my wife holly, and my brother in law Jason aka( averagejoe) who with out any of them none of this would not have been possible. Well as some of you know my wife is addicted to shed hunting and just enjoys being outdoors, so when we found out that my brother in law and were drawn for bull tags in the same unit, me rifle and him archery we all knew it was game on. We have been watching and waiting, glassing hiking and running trail cams for the last 6 months. Had bulls in our front yard, during the rut so we knew it was going to be a decent year for bull in our unit. Well rut comes and goes scout some more, check trail cams. Low and behold everything we have been seeing is broke, on top of that the rut ran way late in our unit. Jason's (bro in law) hunt starts, make a good plan to get him on a bull. First day does not go as planned. Found good one, spotted him. Stalked the most amazing stalk, over 2.5 miles in the nastiest terrain gets to 87 yds, wind shifts bull runs off. Not seeing any bulls due to the awesome snow storm we got a week prior and just messed everything up. So plan b. Go to where we have seen them for weeks now. Needless to say he walks in not expecting anything, peaks over the ridge and heard of bulls 40 yds from him. Arrow flys, bull down. So far 1 for 2 on our bull hunts. I take off home for the thanksgiving holiday have dinner, come right back up thanksgiving night with the family. Wife and I head out next morning to do some scouting. Found few bulls, not what we were expecting. Lots of cows no bulls. Do the same sat and sun. Head back home sunday. WIfes bday on Monday. Decide I need to go to range Tuesday on way out of town. Didn't want to but just had feeling god wanted me to make sure all is well. Meet Jason there. FIre a couple of rounds, everything looks good. Bam. Gun wont load or extract. I look up and said are you serious? Everything happens for a reason. Run over to Accuracy Speaks. Talk to marty there. Extractor is broke on a very new gun. Ok says he can have it done by weds. I say ok. Take off to cabin, Jason is going to pick gun up on way up. Weds rolls around. gun still not done. Thinking I really don't want to shoot my 270 on an elk hunt. Thurs rolls around gun finally done. Jason grabs on way out of town. So I scouted from Tuesday till Thursday night. Saw tons of bulls. Some good, some busted. I knew if I wanted to fill my tag i'd have to get down into the canyons where they are hanging out. Finish up glassing Thursday night with my father in law that came up to help. Spotted good looking 6x at about 4 in the afternoon. Decent spot to get to him and get him out. Watch him bed, ok have a good night buddy see you in the am. Friday morning rolls around off and running opening day, 400 am head to our spot hour and half drive in 30 min walk. Myself and Jason on one side of the ridge and wife and father in law on the other side. I thinking ok, this should be over with as soon as the sun pops up. I have been watching this area for weeks, and the prior 2 days glassed up 30 plus bulls a day. Sun comes up, nothing. Heard about 4 shots around us. Nothing close, few miles each way. Glass and Glass, still nothing. Wife and dad head off to same spot I glassed up the bull night before. Nothing. so its 1030 anything that was up is surely bedded by now. I failed to mention the AWESOME full moon got the pleasure of having right at the start of the hunt. With no overnight cloud cover to help. Anyways Jason and I take off up this ridge, me dragging my tail up, Jason running up like a crazed maniac. He told me ill get up there glass take your time. Of course I took my sweet old time, found a spike shed on way up. Thinking this must be a sign. Get up to top. Found the most amazing glassing point on rock ledge. (pic below) Got set up, took turns glassing and taking cat naps. So at this point we are just to left of a water hole (dry one) that the bull we glassed up the night before. Well around 2pm Johnny road hunter decides to drive right up on the water hole gets out, looks, parks his ranger right on the edge of it. Gotta love AZ hunting. Watched him walk into his spot the whole way. Man it is funny the things people do when they have no idea someone is watching them a mile away. Anyway. Sat and glassed for rest of day. Nothing. Get ahold of my wife, Jason and hike back down the mountain. Wife picks us up and head back to the cabin. At this point I am pretty disappointed. Between my wife and myself. We have been scouting for the better part of 5 months. I guess this is why they call it hunting and not catching. Well day two rolls around. We wake up have some coffee. Kiss the wife. Then she tells me I had a dream last night. I think oh great I know how this one goes. She says no not like that. Your going to get you bull today. I had a dream you would. You will see three bulls and take the six point. Well hun I hope you right. Make a little later start. Made a somewhat plan with Jason the night before. We get to the spot that we are going to hike in. Holly and dad go one way, Jason and I go the other. First mile wasn't bad, knee deep manzanita, off a ridge. Down through a creek for half mile or so. Then strait up again. Then the familiar voice (Jason) tells me, hurry up I am going to run up and glass try to hurry this time. Im like great, the last thing I want to do is let him down. He has busted his butt up to this point to help me out. Half way up the hill I wanted to give up so bad. i have asthma and i should have been in better shape, but at this point i was not going to give up. Finally make it to the top. Jason is glassing not seeing anything. He tells me lets go let hit this last ridge which was like strait up again and glass like we discussed. In the back of my mind i am saying oh heck no am i going strait up in the air again. I turn around looking while he is putting his 15s away. I see a yellow dot. Hey Jason what is that. Glasses them up. Three bulls. In my mind i am over joyed. On the other side i am thinking how in the world did my wife get this one right but failed to get the correct numbers for the powerball on wensday? Something the good lord just wants you to have more than the other. So we glass them up 1200 yds three bulls. 6x, 5x, and long rag horn. He turns to me, you gotta go run up there and get on them and i will watch as you stalk. Well in between me and the ridge i need to be on was a nice little canyon. We pack up take off down the hill, i am sliding down on my butt using my foot as a ski. Hit the bottom, rest, and then take off up the hill. Now this one was about 10 times worse than the one i hiked up the previous day and the one an hour before. Once again Jason says take you time but you need to hurry, we haven't seen anything for two days and they are going to bed soon. I struggle to get up there after Iron man blazes a trail up the mountain and finds a spot. I finally get up there half dead, hitting my inhaler about five times. Ok where is he at. Knee deep in manzanita, Jason says he is right there with the others. Get your pack off and get set. Mind you this is my first elk hunt. I only shot my first muley last year. My wifes family got me into hunting, now i hooked. Anyways, Im struggling to find a spot. Throw the pack down. Jason says 625 yds. I say what? I have never shot over 300. In my mind i am thinking don't blow this. You have hiked you tale off, Jason has done everything to make it happen. Just done screw up. Ok got him in the scope. Then oh my gosh, the adrenalin set in my heart was pound so hard i honestly thought i was having a heart attack. Scope is shaking, gun wiggling i almost peed my pants. Jason's yelling shoot him, his broad side. Lost him in my scope i was moving to bad. Got him back in there. He decides to bed down. Awesome. Its 930. So with Jason behind me glassing, takes a digiscope pic (see below) i am laying prone bull in scope we wait. 20 mins go by. Jason decides to find a better spot. Comes back, he says ok i found a closer spot. I say ok how good. He says its 600 on the nose. Awesome, right in my wheel house, not. So we move, set up and wait. I sat on the ground for 2 hours prone (pic below) for him to pop up. At this point i have taken the shot in my head 500 times. Slow steady breaths easy trigger pull. 1130 rolls around. Rag horn behind decides to get up walk around so my bull pops up. Jason barks at me he's up. Shoot him. I say ok here we go. Set cross hairs 2 in back from shoulder about 5 below spine. Click boom. i don't see anything because i am sideways on a hill and gun jumped. Jason watched shot whole way. Vapor trail streaming across the canyon and right into the bull. Hit him square in the lungs. As i peak up all i see is bull fall down, trys to get up and falls again. I jump up, scream and yell, hive five Jason so hard about knocked us both over. Little did i know my wife and dad were on the ridge down the way and heard the shot and saw the bull go down, having no idea where we were. Having no radio communication or phone service i had no way of tell them. Sent a text to my wife bull down. We take off to recover what i call our trophy. Back down the canyon (pic below) to another ridge we make it there in about an hour. My wife and dad see us walk up to him and begin yelling across the canyon. Long story short they got the radio on wrong channel. They high tail it back to ranger. get to where we are at an begin to hike down. When i got to see my wifes face and hug her it was the greatest close to an amazing hunt. We get him all quartered out and start the nasty pack out strait up the hill. One or two more nasty trips up and back and it would be over. Finally we get him all up and in the ranger and head home from a well deserved bull. I cannot thank my brother in law enough for all the hard work and crap he had to put up with of me on this hunt. I can honestly say he may be younger than me but the best hunter-sportsman i know. I love him to death and would not have been able to do any of it with out him. And my wife, the love of my life. One her first hunt, absolute lover of animals i didn't know if she could handle it. I will be the first to say i was dead wrong and under estimated her. She has been my biggest supporter of all the time i spend in the woods out hunting or scouting. There is something about the woman you love in camo helping you pack out your first elk in some of the hardest country in the state. I have a new level of respect for her and want her by myside on any hunt i am on. Thank you again Holly and Jason i love you both, i could not have not have accomplished any of this with out you guys and a little help from god. Thanks againpost-8631-0-10317400-1354496465_thumb.jpgpost-8631-0-34261400-1354496486_thumb.jpgpost-8631-0-56296600-1354496503_thumb.jpgpost-8631-0-75535500-1354496977_thumb.jpgpost-8631-0-15524400-1354496998_thumb.jpgpost-8631-0-73770100-1354499743_thumb.jpg

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Wow! Congratulations!

Great write up and thanks for sharing with us.

You seem to be blessed with many great people in your life.

 

Nice shot and I'm glad you remembered the trophy pics before you butchered him up completely! LOL!

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Congratulations. You and jason scout hard and hunt harder. You both earned your bulls. 2 for 2the on these late hunts is normaly unheard of but with you two as the tag holders i figured it was an inevitability. Ps that pack looks great with .

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So proud of my hubby

 

 

post-8631-0-85991000-1354506416_thumb.jpg

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Great story! We have had some great writeups this year and yours in up there for me because honesty and the contrast between you and the iron man athlete! Thanks for sharing!

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I am very thankful to have been involved with your first bull elk hunt. Every bit of your bull was earned and you are the one who made the great shot and spotted the bull. I knew you could make that shot. All those hours at the range paid off. 600 yds, one shot, and the bull dropped in his tracks like a ton of bricks. Normally they will swagger or run off a bit but yours dropped and thank God he did or we might have had to pull him out of that canyon. Yuck!!! Again great job and you worked as hard as anyone at getting your bull!

 

Very proud of you and I look forward to many years to come of exciting hunts...

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congratulations!

very proud of you!

I'm glad all your hard work paid off!

great write up!

 

now put those monster coues on lock for january! LOL!

 

James

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Great Story and a GREAT Bull. Glad all the hard work paid off. Fun memories with the family!

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Awesome bull pix story congrats..hope y dont mind me askN what rifle and cal?a new gun that failed where y shooting reloads do y know what caused it? Thanks fr sharing,again congrats :)

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Brand New Remminton 7mm mag Sendero. Shooting the hornaday sst 162 grain. Love the gun and ammo now i got the extractor fixed and barrel polished. Gunsmith said remminton has issues with all thier new extractors. So i put in a Sako. Thanks

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Congratulations on a great bull. Really enjoyed the write up and the thoughts going through your head, made for a great read. Awesome job.

 

How do you like the Kryptek Camo?

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pm sent

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