Late rifle bull success!!

[PowellSixO]

Well guys, I finally made it to a computer. Time for the story. So............. After finding out that my buddy and I drew out for a late rifle bull tag, the preparation for the hunt started. I purchased my first ever camper trailer this year, which was wonderful (especially considering the snow and wind we got). I also purchased a new map of the unit to start getting myself familiar with the unit. Starting in September I started visiting the unit and started putting miles on my boots. This continued through October, and November. On 17th of November I left a week early to head up to setup camp. I spent the first weekend with my family and my friend and his family. Sunday around lunch they all packed up and headed home. I stayed by myself for the remainder of the week, until my friend showed back up the night before the hunt. I walked, glasses, and scouted me butt off for this hunt.

First night at camp with the families.

It decided to rain while I was up there by myself, and my truck paid the price.

So any who. Opening morning my friend and I jumped in his truck and headed out for our first spot. We arrived to our spot an hour before first light and setup our tripods and binos, and waited. Within 5 minutes of light, we spotted 2 small rag horn bulls. We let them pass. Then 2 bulls walked behind us. We got up and went after them, but they had smelled us and the gig was up. After getting back to the binos, we kinda figured our spot was buggered up. As we started to clean up, I spotted 2 more bulls moving across an opening. We got our rifles and headed down the hill for a shot. We got to the last vantage point we could find before completely dropping off the hill, and set up for a shot. I tried to range the 2 bulls, but I was too shaky to get a reading. So I took a guess and guessed 550 yards. I dialed my rifle for 550, and squeezed one off. It was perfect left to right, but 3-4 feet low. Lol. So I get my rangefinder again and hold as steady as a guy with buck fever can, and get a readying of 775. Both bulls are still standing there confused to where the shot came from. My friend wants to shoot, so I give him the range and he pops one off. But this time we hear the WHAPP. He hits his bull and it comes running on a dead sprint right for us. It stops right at 500 yards from us and starts to wobble. I give him the range, and WHOPP he hits him again. This time the bull drops dead in it's tracks. At this point I'm pretty excited, and ready to take another crack at the bull I had missed. I find him, and I take off down through the thick stuff to cut him off at an opening. Just as I get to the opening, sure enough there is my bull running 150 yards from me. I drop down and put my scope on him, but something isn't right. My crosshair looks like and X rather than a T. Lol. I walk back to my friends elk very disappointed, and kinda mad. I figure at this point, my hunt is over. I figured I blew my one and only chance, and now I'm stuck with a gun that is worthless. But I put my happy face on and go help my buddy.

We get my buddies elk in the truck, back to camp, skinned, and hung in a tree. We have a little bite to eat, and go back out for the evening hunt. Luckily my buddy said I could use his rifle for the remainder of the hunt (which was very nice of him, but still didn't give me much confidence since I had no experience shooting it). We drive down to another area I had seen some bulls in and start walking some canyons. Right before dark a great bull walks out at about 500 yards. He was a big 6x6 (340-350 bull) but both of his swords were broken. I get rocked up for a shot, just as he went back into the trees to never return. This concluded the first day of our hunt.

On day two we wake up and head back to the spot we had started on day one. We get there and there is nothing happening. Right before we decided to leave 9 cows and a spike come walking right in front of us. I drew down on the spike at 25 yards, and couldn't pull the trigger. After letting the spike walk, I started to get this gut feeling that might have been a bad mistake. Lol. So after glassing to 11 am, we head back to camp and get a bite to eat. We go back out for the evening hunt, and come across just a few cows.

On day 3 we wake up to about an inch of snow. We get excited, and start to drive around trying to cut a fresh track. Well we find tracks, and plenty of them. We probably did 6 different walks that morning, and found elk on everyone of them. But they were all cows or spikes or very small bulls. We go back to camp to warm up, and get a bite to eat. At this point the snow is starting to come down pretty good. We get back in the truck and start looking for tracks. We don't cut any fresh tracks, but we see a single track that is pretty big heading into a draw. We drive past it and park the truck. We walk out about a .6-.7 miles for the truck, and start to cut back with the wind in our favor towards the elk track we had seen. At this point the snow is really coming down and we can only see 60-70 yards tops. As we're walking along my friend stops to look at a fresh bull track. Just at that time I see antlers ahead of me. I drop to my knee, put the crosshair on the bull, and squeeze one off just before he runs (50-60 yard shot). He was quartered away from me. The bullet went in his last rib on one side, and came out his front shoulder on the other (taking out both lungs). He ran 30 yards and started to wobble. I can see blood and steam come from both the entrance and exit wound. Within 5 seconds he hits the ground. Yeah!!!! As I walk up to him there is no antler shrinkage. The closer I get the more I can finally see his rack. Hes a perfect 6 on one side with good mass and length. On the other side his rack is a bit weird, and he has a broken 3rd. But he still has mass and length.

At this point it was around 2 or 3 o'clock. We started to break him down and get ready for the pack out. We did the pack out in 3 trips, and we got him out by just after 7pm. We were cold, wet, but still on a high from the events of the hunt. We got back to camp and celebrated with some beers and whiskey.

The next morning this camp now with close to a foot of snow.

The elk nice and hung in a tree.

We packed up camp and hooked up to our trailers and headed for home.

Back at home we finally got a picture of both bulls side by side. You can see better how this one bull has a weird side.

Well I hope you guys enjoyed the write up. I pick the meat up this week sometime. I dropped the head off at Mountain View Taxidermy, and won't be seeing my bull for 10-11 months. It will be my first mounted animal, and I'm pretty excited. Can't wait for the next time I draw a tag!!!

[lancetkenyon]

Great write up and great bulls. Any photos of the pedicle location? Looks like it is growing out of his forehead.

 

What scope failed on your rifle? That stinks, but you have a good buddy to let you use his rifle.

 

Euro mount or shoulder mount? And what will happen with the cape if a shoulder mount?

[SO I HUNT]

Great write up and couple of nice bulls... congratulations!

[PowellSixO]

Great write up and great bulls. Any photos of the pedicle location? Looks like it is growing out of his forehead.

 

What scope failed on your rifle? That stinks, but you have a good buddy to let you use his rifle.

 

Euro mount or shoulder mount? And what will happen with the cape if a shoulder mount?

 

It was a Vortex Viper HS-T 4-16x44. I'm pretty sure that I fell on the rifle coming down the hill to chase after the bull. It was my fault. This is the closest picture that I have of the weird antler. A few guys I talked to said that it's call a 90 degree bull. If you look close, the antler is lower than the other side, comes out and makes a 90 degree turn. He actually has 3 antlers growing from his front on this side. All 3 are pretty short though. I thought that maybe he got hit by a truck when he was young or something, but they said that sometimes they just grow like that. It's weird and unique, that's for sure. Lol.

 

Oh and I'm going to have a shoulder mount done. I originally wanted to just do a European mount, which is why I didn't cape him. So now I get to pay a little bit extra for a new cape. Lol.

 

[StraightTequilaNight]

Great story... thank you for sharing. Congrats on 2 nice bulls!

[azhornhunter]

Congrats Jake your bull is way cool. And for a late rifle you should take what you can. Tell Jasons congrats also. Good write up as well. Hope to hunt with you again sometime.

-Preston

[PowellSixO]

Congrats Jake your bull is way cool. And for a late rifle you should take what you can. Tell Jasons congrats also. Hood write up as well. Hope to hunt with you again sometime.

-Preston

For sure bud. All I had to do was beat a 4x4 I got a few years ago, and I would have been happy. I told everyone if I got one over 300 it was going on the wall. So I'm stoked, and I'm getting one on the wall finally.

[AZHog]

Congrats on a couple of nice bulls! Thanks for the write-up and pics.

[PowellSixO]

Here's a zoomed in picture of his weird side. I'd take a better one, but the bull is at the taxidermist.

 

[PowellSixO]

[PowellSixO]

Thanks for the comments. Already looking forward to the next tag. Haha.

[buddydog]

Great job guys!! Way to get it done!

[MuggyMan]

Your campfire is too small

[PowellSixO]

Your campfire is too small

I know right. Hahaha. We made camp in a spot the wood cutters had been in. They left a huge mess (all the little branches, and whatnot ). So we gathered as much of it as we could to clean up the area and burned as big pile of it to get things started. After it was cleaned up we made smaller fires. It made for a good picture though. Lol.

[naturebob]

Congrats. Lotta hard work................BOB!