GreyGhost85 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Well, our hunting "party" was fortunate to draw 5 tags in the same unit for late bull. Getting two bulls on the ground and taken care of is daunting, five seemed downright crazy. Out of the 5 hunters, 2 of them would be happy to just get bulls on the ground (both guys around 70 years old) and the other 3 were were going to hold out for good bulls. With all the snow on the ground, it made access to some of our spots impossible but it did push a LOT of bulls into some other country that seemed to have basically zero hunting pressure with much more forgiving terrain. The first morning started with spitting snow, fog and wind. My dad called us pretty early and said the two older gentlemen in our party had both knocked down bulls and they needed some help. The rest of the day was spent trying to get two bulls broken down and into the trucks through a blizzard. The storm put down a lot of snow fast. we had to get out of the country soon before the roads were impassible. I didn't take any photos of these bulls because we were in such a hurry to get them taken care of and the amount of snow coming down would have made it tough anyways. One of them was a broken 300" type 6-point, the other was a raghorn 5. Nothing too impressive but they were happy. We woke up to about 8 degrees and around a foot of snow on Saturday. We headed back to the same area the two bulls were taken at the day before and immediately started seeing bulls. We spotted 8 or 10 on a near ridge (500 or so yards away) but nothing too enticing. I swung and started glassing the opposite direction and found a bull that needed a closer look. Just when we were packing up i took another look at the near ridge and suddenly there were a lot more bulls that were standing up. 3 of them would have been shooters. I just got a look at the tops of what i thought was the biggest bull and we decided we need to kill him. He had a 340" type 6-point, and a 350" type BEAUTIFUL, palmated 7x7 with him. I had to talk my brother out of shooting either of them because the one looked to be bigger. It was hard watching those two bulls walk away. The biggest one bedded after all the other bulls left the country and we could just see his tops. We decided to sneak in a little closer and ended up getting to about 410 yards where we'd wait for about an hour for him to stand up. He finally stood and walked through a very narrow shooting lane and my brother was able to knock him down. When we made it up to him, we found out that his eyeguards were extremely short. He probably doesn't score as high as the 7x7 would have but he is an ancient bull with incredible tops and main beams. I've been around a LOT of bulls on the ground and this one was probably the oldest. Hunters throw around the term "past his prime" "he's digressing" or "he wouldn't have made it through winter" FAR too often, but this bull was most likely all of those. He was bony, hips protruding, his spine looked like a razor back and his teeth were in BAD shape. Now that my brother was tagged out, we decided to bring Forest and Heather into the same area the next morning. Right away we found a bunch of bulls including the 7x7 that was running with my brother's bull. they were on the move and Forest had to shoot fast. He hit the bull and it bolted. we figured with the fresh snow it would be easy to locate. 5 miles and just some pin pricks of blood is all we found, until our buddy got on a high knob and was able to glass him up again. He made a giant loop and ended up in the same spot he was when he hit him initially. It looked like he basically just burned him and top of the shoulders, he'll be fine. After relocating him and realizing the wound was extremely superficial, we decided that we needed to get Heather on a bull that we had glassed up while pursuing the wounded one. He was in a great spot. We made our way around to him and got to 475 yards and waited for him to clear the other bulls. Heather made a fantastic shot through the middle of the shoulders. The bull didn't even twitch. He has great main beams, wide and good tine length on everything but his left G-5. Heather was thrilled, as she should have been. We spent the rest of the day taking care of this bull. The next morning we went back at it trying to relocate the 7x7 or find another good one. We glassed up a LOT of bulls again, including the one he killed later that day. We made a move on a 340" type 7x7 but he busted us. On the way back to the truck, I glassed a few bulls that were BIG. There was really no way to get withing shooting distance as they were bedded in a big PJ flat. We decided to try to push them off the thick flat and into the open flats. I made a loop around them so my scent would push into them and they SHOULD have left the country the opposite direction as my scent. Well, they didn't read the script and ran the wrong direction into some country that that would have been impossible to hunt. This was definitely not their first rodeo. There were around 10 bulls in the heard and 5 of them were no-brainers. The biggest at a glance looked to be a 380"ish bull that was busted past his 4th on one side. At this point the day was winding down and we decided to get a better look at a bull that Forest passed earlier that morning. We were able to relocate him and we decided he probably shouldn't have passed him. we worked our way into position and Forest shot, hitting him a little far back. All the bulls in the heard headed north. We looked around for an hour or so and scattered in all directions, not finding any blood or a sign of a hit. The smart old bull button hooked the rest of the heard and headed the opposite direction. Forest glassed him beddded under a rock outcropping about 250 yards away and put him down for good. He had 8-10" busted off his left fourth is why he decided to pass him earlier. This elk hunt was a blast. I've been on a lot of them and i don't think i've ever seen so many good bulls. We probably saw around 150 bulls in four days. Till next time 27 1 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eddielasvegas Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Wow, just wow. What a great story. Thanks for posting. Which unit? I missed it if you mentioned it. Eddie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZBIG10 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 That’s a lot of fun and work! Good job Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Redman Report post Posted December 16, 2019 sweet!! thanks for posting Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coues7777 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Awesome. .. Thanxs for sharing. ... What unit did you have ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beaton Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Those are sweet bulls! Congratulations Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mattys281 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Outstanding work. Congrats to all! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1denogean Report post Posted December 16, 2019 what unit 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost85 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 3 minutes ago, 1denogean said: what unit 37B near Picket Post. The snow in the Superstitions got so deep that it pushed all the bulls across the 60 and into that country. 6 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Markleo21377 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Awesome hunt👍 As usual, good things come to those who put the time in. I always say 80% scouting, 20% hunting=100% opportunity! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHT_MTNMAN Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Great bulls, I saw a lot more big bulls on the late hunt than on the early archery hunt in that unit. Way to go. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1denogean Report post Posted December 16, 2019 well buddy they gotta go somewhere Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Holy Molly!!! Wow congrats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted December 16, 2019 1 hour ago, GreyGhost85 said: 37B near Picket Post. The snow in the Superstitions got so deep that it pushed all the bulls across the 60 and into that country. Some nice bulls in there!!! I love when the bulls come off the Superstitions 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Browns Report post Posted December 16, 2019 WOW, Those are some great bulls!!!! Congrats!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
