Well last night I broke my Bull Elk slump. The last one I bagged was in 2013 and have had no luck since. My friend told me he saw some Elk on his land. Next morning my son and I made a plan in the hopes to catch them in the field again. We bumped a couple cow elk in the dark on our way out. Saw a small whitie buck and our morning was a wrap. With a cold 10 year old, we went home.
I made a plan to get out again. Headed out at 2pm. The wind was wrong for my plan but still I Edged up to the field behind some small spruce in an area that might work for an ambush and waited. At 3:55pm a saw a 4 or 5 pt bull come out of the trees. I tried to get ahead of him but was concerned he may wind me, but I had to go for it. I backed out sown a hill and headed south. I saw him, he was further south. Again I prodded south. Again he was ahead...then I realized there was a herd of cows and calves....where did the buck go? With just over 20 minutes of legal time, I though screw the wind I am going to the south end of the field. I crawled up to the fence line. there they all were...close to 20 but all cow calves....sigh. then some whities came in the picture with a buck dogging some does but I focused on the Elk I scanned each individual, and then I saw a Bull. I figured it was the 4 or 5 point...of course my optics were fogging now. Long story short, i verified it was the Bull and took a shot with the 7mm. I watched it drop and saw a big kick of dirt. Excitedly I backed off, went and retrieved my gear as I left it all over during my stock and headed to the truck. Unloaded the quad and headed in. I figured it was a good hour by the time I near the last location of the Elk...lo and behold he was standing on wobbly legs. But this looked like a non legal bull? WTH? I could not make out any points, did I shoot the wrong one? The Elk pushed to the fence and I heard him crash through the wire and into the bush. I left and went home, called my nephew who was an hour away to ask for help in tracking and retrieving the animal in the dark. We headed out hours later in a rain/snowstorm. There was no blood found but we stumbled upon a track that looked odd as dirt was kicked up here and there....sure enough I slowly followed it and was rewarded at the sight of my bull. 5...almost 6 points on one side and the other side basically broke off. No wonder i was confused about if it was legal or not...sigh. Character or what. Finished gutting and dragging him out, loading him up, heading back out to get my quad in the snowstorm and skinning him out...finished at a whopping hour of 4:30am. Man I am tired but so happy for the outcome....was pretty worried i was not going to find it.
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