Tines Report post Posted December 1, 2007 Well, Lance had a late night last night so he asked if I'd post the pictures of our latest hunt. After playing with some cows yesterday in the wind and rain all day and packing one out, he's ready for some sleep (the baby). All together, we got to play around with 5 tags in 3 different units. The only unit with much luck on opening day was with a boy named Brent who was from Minnesota and part of the Hunt of a Lifetime program. Brent was a blast to be around. Brent has suffered from brain tumors most of his life, has left arm deficits, is wheel chair bound for the most part, and is blind in his right eye. We knew we had our work cut out for us. Brent managed to see some bulls that day but our game plan had to change quickly if we wanted him to go home with what he called, "a huge elk". Regardless, day 1, nothing hanging! Day 2 found myself on a point, glassing two units (sort of in the middle of two we were hunting). At first light I glassed up two bulls, one being a rag-horn and the other a beautiful, long-main beamed 6-point. I got a hold of Lance and told them to get over to me ASAP. In the mean time, our other two tags and Russ were sitting on the other side watching all of the action. About 3 minutes later I glassed up a third bull that seriously got me pumped up! A big 6 point with a huge whale-tail! I tried not to get Lance too excited when I described the third bull but I don't think I did a very good job at that. Here is the bull, about a mile away through the 15's. Lance and Mark got above the three bulls and I walked them in. The bulls ended up being a little closer than I thought and they started to get a little nervous. The bull started sneaking his way out but Lance happened to catch him heading for the back door. I watched the bull after the first three shots but the bull never flinched!!!! I thought that they were shooting at the other long beamed bull but come to find out, Mark just had a serious case of "bull fever" going on and he was missing by quite a bit. After the bull ran around and out of sight of Lance and myself, Russ and the other two hunters managed to pick him up from the other side. Amazingly, the bull came running back to us! How lucky were we to have this happen?!?! Lance stopped the bull between 200-250 yards and Mark's next shot hit it's mark. How cool is that? The 3rd day we found ourselves glassing in the same general areas. We found two bulls and after a long, hefty hike, we got real close but the wind changed and the bulls didn't hang out for long to see what the party was about. What a bummer after such a long hike! That afternoon we had a little easier hunt. That day, our Hunt of a Lifetime kid pulled the trigger a few times on a bull but didn't make it happen. When we all got back to Lance's house, he couldn't quit telling us the story. On the 4th day, Lance found 4 bulls at first light and the game was on! A short time after Lance found those bulls, I heard some shots not far from me. Sure enough, another buddy and tag #2 was filled! Sorry for the bad quality picture but this was with a cell phone. Shortly after bull #2 was down, I headed over to Lance to help keep an eye on the 4 bulls he had spotted. En route to the bigger bull we were after, a couple of hunters on horse back bumped the bull down a little further. It turned out to be better because we could get tag #3 in a better shooting position. Oh yeah, by the way, tag #4 got some serious blisters from the day before so he took a nice easy break at the truck all day. It took them about 3 hrs from the time they were notified about the bulls until they got to their shooting position. By this time the bull was in some thick trees and we knew it was going to be a LONG day waiting for this bull to stand up. About an hr later, Lance had to go help with the pack out of bull #2. I held the fort down on tag #3. Finally, about 2:30pm, the bull stood up and Jimmy (tag #3) was ready to shoot. The shot was 450 yards but it was pretty steep down-hill. He felt good about the shot and squeezed the trigger. Just over the bulls back! The bull looked around for a little too long because the 2nd shot went right through the top of his lungs! After waiting for a while and intentionally bumping up the bedded bull for a finishing off shot, Jimmy filled his first elk tag with a 60 yard shot! What a day! The right side of my face is still recovering from a serious sun burn. Here are a few pics of the pack out. Luckily we had some friends provide us with the four-legged mules! This bull was actually packed out on Day #6 but the weather and processing the meat before-hand allowed for us to do this. Day #5 found us with a recovering blister covered hunter (tag #4). With some serious team-work, we managed to get Jim Sr. to drop the hammer on a rag-horn bull. I don't have a picture of this bull but when you're not able to move very fast, let alone far, you can imagine how big the smiles were on all of our faces to get this done! While in the midst of shooting bull #4 (seriously, while we were shooting the bull!), we got a phone call from good friend Ryan to let us know that Brent, the Hunt of a Lifetime hunter, had filled his tag. Ryan happened to find a bull about .25 mile from the road. The bull was still about 300 yards beyond that point. Brent was an animal! With a little help from his father, Brent made the tedious hike. If I recall the story correctly, he was carried on his fathers back for a little bit also. They got everything set up and the bull was 350 yards away. Because of Brent being blind in his right eye, it made it difficult, or basically impossible, to find the bull in the scope with his non-dominant eye. Ryan had Brent get next to him while the rifle was rested in the fork of a tree limb. Ryan shouldered the rifle, lined everything up until it felt solid and told Brent to reach in next to him and slowly squeeze the trigger. Brent did just that and then "BOOM!" The rifle went off, the bull reared up on his hind legs and fell over! Wow. The only dissapointment that I have of this trip was that I couldn't be there to witness Brents hunt. Here's Brent, his father and all of the friends and family who made his hunt happen. What a bull to cap off a fantastic hunt! Here's Lance, Russ and myself with 3 out of 5 of the bulls at the taxidermist. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed! Jake Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted December 1, 2007 Nice work guys! Congratulations to all those hunters! Love those Hunt of a Lifetime stories! Amanda Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coues7 Report post Posted December 1, 2007 Great job guys. Thanks for helping out the HOAL! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TEAM TOAD Report post Posted December 1, 2007 What a great story guys!!! WOW....you guys are awesome!! Absolutly awesome. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Snapshot Report post Posted December 1, 2007 Well done, great pics and nice bulls. Gotta love it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GameHauler Report post Posted December 1, 2007 Well done guys great job for the shooters. Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jim Report post Posted December 2, 2007 That's some awesome hunting. You guys do some great work with that hunt of a lifetime. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lance Report post Posted December 2, 2007 Don't forget a big CONGRATULATIONS to Michael Mowery Jr. (also of Hunt of a Lifetime) For shooting a nice 4pt buck in the Kaibab the same week! Sorry, I havent gotten the pictures back yet. But he is a great young man that would put a smile on anyones face! Tines- yea I may feel like a baby right now but I did pack out 2 more than you did Great week with great people I think I'll sleap tell Christmass eve! Lance Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
longshooter Report post Posted December 2, 2007 Awesome bulls Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hunterdude Report post Posted December 2, 2007 Great story and graet Bulls! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
257wby Report post Posted December 2, 2007 That was a really good story, couldn't have happened to a better kid. Hope my story, which will start friday, ends that good. Congrats again. Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azpackhorse Report post Posted December 2, 2007 Very nice Jake!! It's good to see the HOAL stories, Lance and yourself did a great job!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lance Report post Posted December 2, 2007 The Country we packed out of was soooo steep that Jake couldn't stand to watch where he was going!!1 He had to turn around and ride down backwards! So I took some pictures of him while he was gripping saddle leather with all he had! Lance Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tines Report post Posted December 3, 2007 I still have to wipe the tears from my eyes when I look at that picture. "Hey dog? Did you see the size of that chicken?" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
COOSEFAN Report post Posted December 4, 2007 Great bulls! Huge congrats to all involved and especially to Brent........outstanding bull with all the memories to go along with it! JIM> Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
