The Blood Moon Bull-
This was a solo, public land, hunt of a lifetime for me. I returned to the mountains where I first learned to bow hunt at age 12, 34 years later. I hunted for 22 days, passing smaller bulls and biding my time. I hunted this specific bull for several days before I was finally able to trick him into presenting a shot.
I began the hunt in the light of the Blood Moon on September 7/8, about 3:45 AM. Using a few well timed location bugles, I was able to shadow the bull in the dark as he cruised across 3 drainages looking for cows and intimidating smaller bulls. I knew catching him alone was my big chance. As shooting light dawned, I closed the distance with a few pleading cow calls and he gave me the “come on in” chuckle . As I entered the red zone, I gave one last mew, almost a whisper- just to misdirect the bull to that location. Then, I quickly contoured underneath the bull and wrapped around behind him as he dropped down to look for the cow. He was literally walking my boot tracks from just a minute before when he walked into a small shooting lane at 37yds and I let go a perfect arrow. That final encounter was absolutely heart-pounding and took all the experience and every skill I have honed over all these years of hunting to pull it off.
After the shot, I found my arrow covered in good blood but I struggled to find any blood trail associated with the bull’s tracks. There were so many tracks in the area it made it nearly impossible to isolate the correct track. I began to panic a bit as all “what-ifs” came flooding into my head. But after 15 minutes of grid searching, I found the bull resting peacefully just 102yds from the shot. This pic is taken at the moment I found him…
