Ian
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2014
- Messages
- 102
I've decided to make an attempt at telling my first bull hunting story, as I have successfully flooded everyone in my contacts with pictures, including folks I've just met through email from hunting related dealings. i.e. Jaret Owens- Alaskan Guide Creations, Larry Bartlett T.A.G. Bags, and a text to Aron Snyder. All such awesome and willing to help guys. Thank you all.
Upon returning from work in Afghanistan in Nov. I was looking at 16 possible days to hunt on the either sex permit I drew. The anticipation for me had been built to an epic degree, and I never say "epic". For four months I had received pictures form my closest friends, Levi, Joe "squeekieslayer", Damon, Dale, and Terry, of a variety of bulls, and Muleys. I still feel so blessed to be surrounded by guys who were as, if not more excited than me for an opportunity at a big bull.
This is one that I received from Damon
Not only had the anticipation grown, so did my bills. I treated myself to a near full hunting makeover in preparation. All new camo, new binoculars(thanks for the assist, and advice there Joe), new pack, and the list goes on. I might look like "that guy", but I really enjoy kryptek.
I could go on and on about these guys, for instance Levi's search for a bag that will best suit him to pack two whole muley bucks at one time. The guy loves physical challenge, and is something else when it comes to hiking and hauling.
I received this shot from Damon just as I started my trip home from Jalalabad. His dad, Dale also had a permit. Leading up to the season Dale kept saying he wasn't going to shoot until I got home, I told him he was crazy, and he'd better not pass on my behalf. I was so pleased to see his success, it encouraged me, and it also very slightly worried me that I wouldn't find such a nice bull.
Its not easy as I'm sure many of you know, to take time away from the wife and young children to go hunting. Especially after being away every other month. My wonderful wife realized my excitement, and made her best attempt to understand my desire to hunt. However I don't believe she will actually ever understand the thrill and enjoyment I get out of hunting year after year, many of which I choose not to even fire a round. After two days I had a plan to meet up with Terry and go after a bull that he had been scouting for over a month. We met out at his cabin the night before, and went out to have a look before it got dark, and didn't spot anything. I might have if I didn't leave my tag, and binoculars in town. So back to town I rush, returning a couple hours later after figuring out where I stored my new bino pouch, so that I wouldn't forget it, and falsely accusing my dear wife of possibly moving them from where I thought they should have been. It didn't help having two homes an hour apart, and convincing myself I must have placed them out at the ranch.
The next morning we rode the four wheelers to where we were going to hike from, passing several feeding whitetails in the fields on the way. I couldn't even give them a second look, bull elk was all I could think about. Terry has so generously a few different times taken me to some of his favorite spots to hunt, this being one of those. We started off in the dark, and hiked a dead fall filled side hill, and were approaching our first clearing to glass right on time. Just moments after starting to glass Terry whispered as he pointed "three bulls". We watched for about five minutes at 350 yards, judging their size. I dropped into a drainage for cover to get closer, and have a better look. We already knew the bull he had been watching wasn't one of these three. I had already decided I wasn't going to take a shot, I was still good on holding out, after only an hour of hunting, and already finding success. A hundred yards up the ridge there were three more bulls, Terry had a better vantage than me, and I could only see the smaller two, but I saw the large body of the biggest bull. Terry had only gotten a glimpse of his antlers before he disappeared into the timber. When Terry caught up to me he commented "that camo blends good". Right on I replied.
We continued our hike spotting several more bulls, one small buck, and a cow. We didn't follow to try to get another look at the suspected big bull that went in the timber, wind was swirling, and he wasn't pressured. We didn't want to create any.
We made a big loop, and back to the four wheelers. What a day, first day out and saw almost exclusively bulls. Terry had to work the next morning so I drove a couple miles to my cabin, made a couple sandwiches, and packed my tent and bag. I got a late start, so I hiked quickly to gain some elevation, found an almost, semi flat spot and dropped my pack deciding to set camp when I returned in the dark. I headed for one of the worst spots I know to hike, because it is a frequented spot for elk, and we spotted some there the night before. I passed a couple beds, and could smell elk.(no snow) I kept getting strong whiffs and knew it wasn't residual from a recent bed. At best you might get a lane of 75 yards in this timber I'm in, and lucky to see the full body of an elk. I moved slow, stopping every couple of steps. Then I heard them start walking, they must have been standing for the last twenty minutes, because it was so audible. I froze darting my eyes around to spot some color, and spotted movement. I could see one bulls cheek, and antlers when he looked around. They were not aware of my presence. I tried for another twenty minutes to get a better look, if I moved to the other side of the tree I was next to I couldn't even find him. So exciting, and frustrating at the same time. I estimate at least three bulls from glimpses of tan, and the antlers I could see slightly, it was an easy decision to pass trying to get a shot on the smaller bull. I slowly backed off as night fell to return to set up camp. The flat spot I thought I found turned out to be nothing more than a sleeping pad sized cut into the sidehill. I stradled the hole with my homemade sawtooth, ate a sandwich and got ready to sleep. As I was about to doze of the coyotes started up, and close by. They were yipping, and barking on three sides around my tent. Too loud to sleep, so I just enjoyed the wild. Then I heard the trickling of snow rolling down the sides of my tent, huh, guess I'll be testing my workmanship on this tent I built. Before I fell asleep I could already see the perimeter of snow sneaking in under the walls of the tent. At some point in the night I woke up to hooves walking down the mountain on both sides of my tent, I couldn't believe the experience I was having on this first day of hunting.
I'll try not to draw this out too much, it's getting long. The next morning there was a good four inches of heavy snow, and I was surrounded by fog. I started out in the direction I last saw the bulls the night before. I could see even shorter distance than the night before in the timber, my goal though was to get to a spot where I could glass an open ridge, and hillside. Engulfed in fog of course. I reached the clearing and could only see 30 yards. Waited 30 minutes incase something came my way, then started down and around to loop back to my camp. This is at least the fourth time a similar thing has happen to me, and I think it may finally sink in. I fall down at least a couple times a season, not like tumbling down the rocks fall, but like slip straight to my ass right now falls. A couple years ago "the fall" resulted in sheering off both my windage, and elevation turrets, uhh that's not good. So this year, I wipe out, straight to my ass. Only this time I'm using a gunbearer on my brand new 24". The butt of my gun slams the ground, barrel of gun kisses my forehead. I stand up to check for what damage I've suffered, and see that the three bar slider the upper strap of the bunbearer hooks to is folded in half. @#$%%#, I guess I just can't have nice things. Back to the moral, after I fall down I need to sit there and look around for a moment, then slowly stand up and look some more. I understand that now after like I said at least four similar happenings. Well I didn't do that, I take a couple steps and freeze, nothing moved I just stopped, and staring right at me 50 yards away is a 6 point bull. Not one that I was going to shoot at yet, but two of the other three with him, the ones with the big dark antlers. Those two I wish I had a better look at. GONE. I fight every year the way I change my hunt when I start to head back. I speed up, don't focus as much on being quiet, and I spook game. The hunt isn't over until your back to the truck, house, etc. One day it will sink in. So now I'm only 1/8 mile from my tent, and figure I've successfully run everything off, when within 100 yards of my tent I spot more elk in the timber. The one I could see(bull again) wasn't alerted. I watched him lay down. I started to take off my pack to put the stalk on, and I felt the wind swirl, hit me in the back of the head, and carry my scent right to them. Just like that they were gone.
I packed up and headed back to town to see the family. The wind blew the next two days at what felt like no less than 70mph. I stayed with the family, and headed back out Thursday night to be joined by Levi and Dale. The plan the next morning changed quick when we couldn't see very far again do to some cloud cover, so we had a beer. We spent the day scouting different areas and glassing, not much was out. I watched a guy gut a bull on top of the mountain that we had planned to go up, and watched hunters, and elk pass each other for a couple hours. The day was drawing to and end, Dale and Levi went home, and I continued to glass. I was feeling discouraged as I watched a cow and two calves, and a small 5 point, when I spotted with my new binos two bulls on the same open ridge that was fogged in a couple days earlier. Sitting there by my self, I said out loud, "big bull". I sent the guys a picture to let them know what I'd be doing the next morning.View attachment 31947
Levi replied that he would be back out that night, he needed to swing by Dales to get his knife. When he pulled up to Dales house, out came Dale with Levi's knife, dressed in his camo with his pack on. "I'm coming with you".
Joe replied that he would be out the next morning.
I could barely sleep, Levi said we didn't need to of course, but I did just in case. Joe arrived in the morning, we went over the plan, and headed out an hour before shooting light. It was snowing lightly, and seemed to be a bit cloudy. We hiked at a good clip, at one point Joe said sarcastically that he was glad we got such an early start, so that we could take it easy on the hike. I would have ran up the mountain if I could, Levi would have ran up the mountain if he had a permit. We hadn't gotten as far as I had hoped to when it starting getting light enough to make out the hillside. We all stopped to glass, Joe left me to see what Levi wanted on the radio, and about ten minutes later Joe briskly returned and said, "I hope you're ready". Where are they at? I could barely make them out at the top of the ridge with my binos. They were still laying down. Levi had been watching a muley buck and spotted the elk when the buck walked right by the elk. They were 1k yards off, and we discussed how close I wanted to get, not having shot the AR10 much recently, I said not more than 5-600 yds, but I'd like to get closer. Joe had his 338 edge, and offered it up, but I wanted to use my .308. We were off to the races trying to keep up with Levi. We peeked back out of the timber at 700 yards, and they were looking intently in our direction, and now standing. A little panic started to set in. Levi again bolted into the timber and up, at one point I had to tell him I had to slow down so that I could shoot. We got to 400 yards, and they had gone to eating and slowly making their way toward the skyline, and timber on the back side. The thoughts were racing through my head, you have one shot, don't screw it up, if you miss they'll be gone, if you're not stable you'll miss. As if Levi could read my mind he put his hand on my shoulder and said, " I'm so glad you're such a good shot". which I haven't really proven. What a guy, it was helpful in calming the nerves a bit. Levi and I closed to 365 yds, I tried his shooting sticks for a second, no joy, so I got prone with the bipod. I looked through my scope, and it was like a nightmare, I couldn't see. It appeared to be foggy, I quickly examined it, no fog, oh shoot my parallax. I laid back down and adjusted it, for a moment it did nothing then all the sudden came into focus like it was cold and slow, new to me. Whatever it was now I could see, and it gave me a few seconds to catch my breath. The bull I was going to take a shot at was behind a tree and would take a step, and eat, step and eat. The set up was perfect, I was stable and level, I could breath, and his next step would put him right in the crosshairs. I said to Levi who was in his spotting scope, "one more step"..........Booom.........I saw a slight hump when the bullet hit, and he wheeled 180 and stood looking around. The other bull was running around in and out of my field of view. I started to doubt if I had hit him. I'm almost positive I saw him waiver, when Levi said shoot him again. I fired, and the second shot hit hard knocking him to the ground. The rest is history, back to the house by noon.
Levi and I
Joe and I
Upon returning from work in Afghanistan in Nov. I was looking at 16 possible days to hunt on the either sex permit I drew. The anticipation for me had been built to an epic degree, and I never say "epic". For four months I had received pictures form my closest friends, Levi, Joe "squeekieslayer", Damon, Dale, and Terry, of a variety of bulls, and Muleys. I still feel so blessed to be surrounded by guys who were as, if not more excited than me for an opportunity at a big bull.
This is one that I received from Damon
Not only had the anticipation grown, so did my bills. I treated myself to a near full hunting makeover in preparation. All new camo, new binoculars(thanks for the assist, and advice there Joe), new pack, and the list goes on. I might look like "that guy", but I really enjoy kryptek.
I could go on and on about these guys, for instance Levi's search for a bag that will best suit him to pack two whole muley bucks at one time. The guy loves physical challenge, and is something else when it comes to hiking and hauling.
I received this shot from Damon just as I started my trip home from Jalalabad. His dad, Dale also had a permit. Leading up to the season Dale kept saying he wasn't going to shoot until I got home, I told him he was crazy, and he'd better not pass on my behalf. I was so pleased to see his success, it encouraged me, and it also very slightly worried me that I wouldn't find such a nice bull.
Its not easy as I'm sure many of you know, to take time away from the wife and young children to go hunting. Especially after being away every other month. My wonderful wife realized my excitement, and made her best attempt to understand my desire to hunt. However I don't believe she will actually ever understand the thrill and enjoyment I get out of hunting year after year, many of which I choose not to even fire a round. After two days I had a plan to meet up with Terry and go after a bull that he had been scouting for over a month. We met out at his cabin the night before, and went out to have a look before it got dark, and didn't spot anything. I might have if I didn't leave my tag, and binoculars in town. So back to town I rush, returning a couple hours later after figuring out where I stored my new bino pouch, so that I wouldn't forget it, and falsely accusing my dear wife of possibly moving them from where I thought they should have been. It didn't help having two homes an hour apart, and convincing myself I must have placed them out at the ranch.
The next morning we rode the four wheelers to where we were going to hike from, passing several feeding whitetails in the fields on the way. I couldn't even give them a second look, bull elk was all I could think about. Terry has so generously a few different times taken me to some of his favorite spots to hunt, this being one of those. We started off in the dark, and hiked a dead fall filled side hill, and were approaching our first clearing to glass right on time. Just moments after starting to glass Terry whispered as he pointed "three bulls". We watched for about five minutes at 350 yards, judging their size. I dropped into a drainage for cover to get closer, and have a better look. We already knew the bull he had been watching wasn't one of these three. I had already decided I wasn't going to take a shot, I was still good on holding out, after only an hour of hunting, and already finding success. A hundred yards up the ridge there were three more bulls, Terry had a better vantage than me, and I could only see the smaller two, but I saw the large body of the biggest bull. Terry had only gotten a glimpse of his antlers before he disappeared into the timber. When Terry caught up to me he commented "that camo blends good". Right on I replied.
We continued our hike spotting several more bulls, one small buck, and a cow. We didn't follow to try to get another look at the suspected big bull that went in the timber, wind was swirling, and he wasn't pressured. We didn't want to create any.
We made a big loop, and back to the four wheelers. What a day, first day out and saw almost exclusively bulls. Terry had to work the next morning so I drove a couple miles to my cabin, made a couple sandwiches, and packed my tent and bag. I got a late start, so I hiked quickly to gain some elevation, found an almost, semi flat spot and dropped my pack deciding to set camp when I returned in the dark. I headed for one of the worst spots I know to hike, because it is a frequented spot for elk, and we spotted some there the night before. I passed a couple beds, and could smell elk.(no snow) I kept getting strong whiffs and knew it wasn't residual from a recent bed. At best you might get a lane of 75 yards in this timber I'm in, and lucky to see the full body of an elk. I moved slow, stopping every couple of steps. Then I heard them start walking, they must have been standing for the last twenty minutes, because it was so audible. I froze darting my eyes around to spot some color, and spotted movement. I could see one bulls cheek, and antlers when he looked around. They were not aware of my presence. I tried for another twenty minutes to get a better look, if I moved to the other side of the tree I was next to I couldn't even find him. So exciting, and frustrating at the same time. I estimate at least three bulls from glimpses of tan, and the antlers I could see slightly, it was an easy decision to pass trying to get a shot on the smaller bull. I slowly backed off as night fell to return to set up camp. The flat spot I thought I found turned out to be nothing more than a sleeping pad sized cut into the sidehill. I stradled the hole with my homemade sawtooth, ate a sandwich and got ready to sleep. As I was about to doze of the coyotes started up, and close by. They were yipping, and barking on three sides around my tent. Too loud to sleep, so I just enjoyed the wild. Then I heard the trickling of snow rolling down the sides of my tent, huh, guess I'll be testing my workmanship on this tent I built. Before I fell asleep I could already see the perimeter of snow sneaking in under the walls of the tent. At some point in the night I woke up to hooves walking down the mountain on both sides of my tent, I couldn't believe the experience I was having on this first day of hunting.
I'll try not to draw this out too much, it's getting long. The next morning there was a good four inches of heavy snow, and I was surrounded by fog. I started out in the direction I last saw the bulls the night before. I could see even shorter distance than the night before in the timber, my goal though was to get to a spot where I could glass an open ridge, and hillside. Engulfed in fog of course. I reached the clearing and could only see 30 yards. Waited 30 minutes incase something came my way, then started down and around to loop back to my camp. This is at least the fourth time a similar thing has happen to me, and I think it may finally sink in. I fall down at least a couple times a season, not like tumbling down the rocks fall, but like slip straight to my ass right now falls. A couple years ago "the fall" resulted in sheering off both my windage, and elevation turrets, uhh that's not good. So this year, I wipe out, straight to my ass. Only this time I'm using a gunbearer on my brand new 24". The butt of my gun slams the ground, barrel of gun kisses my forehead. I stand up to check for what damage I've suffered, and see that the three bar slider the upper strap of the bunbearer hooks to is folded in half. @#$%%#, I guess I just can't have nice things. Back to the moral, after I fall down I need to sit there and look around for a moment, then slowly stand up and look some more. I understand that now after like I said at least four similar happenings. Well I didn't do that, I take a couple steps and freeze, nothing moved I just stopped, and staring right at me 50 yards away is a 6 point bull. Not one that I was going to shoot at yet, but two of the other three with him, the ones with the big dark antlers. Those two I wish I had a better look at. GONE. I fight every year the way I change my hunt when I start to head back. I speed up, don't focus as much on being quiet, and I spook game. The hunt isn't over until your back to the truck, house, etc. One day it will sink in. So now I'm only 1/8 mile from my tent, and figure I've successfully run everything off, when within 100 yards of my tent I spot more elk in the timber. The one I could see(bull again) wasn't alerted. I watched him lay down. I started to take off my pack to put the stalk on, and I felt the wind swirl, hit me in the back of the head, and carry my scent right to them. Just like that they were gone.
I packed up and headed back to town to see the family. The wind blew the next two days at what felt like no less than 70mph. I stayed with the family, and headed back out Thursday night to be joined by Levi and Dale. The plan the next morning changed quick when we couldn't see very far again do to some cloud cover, so we had a beer. We spent the day scouting different areas and glassing, not much was out. I watched a guy gut a bull on top of the mountain that we had planned to go up, and watched hunters, and elk pass each other for a couple hours. The day was drawing to and end, Dale and Levi went home, and I continued to glass. I was feeling discouraged as I watched a cow and two calves, and a small 5 point, when I spotted with my new binos two bulls on the same open ridge that was fogged in a couple days earlier. Sitting there by my self, I said out loud, "big bull". I sent the guys a picture to let them know what I'd be doing the next morning.View attachment 31947
Levi replied that he would be back out that night, he needed to swing by Dales to get his knife. When he pulled up to Dales house, out came Dale with Levi's knife, dressed in his camo with his pack on. "I'm coming with you".
Joe replied that he would be out the next morning.
I could barely sleep, Levi said we didn't need to of course, but I did just in case. Joe arrived in the morning, we went over the plan, and headed out an hour before shooting light. It was snowing lightly, and seemed to be a bit cloudy. We hiked at a good clip, at one point Joe said sarcastically that he was glad we got such an early start, so that we could take it easy on the hike. I would have ran up the mountain if I could, Levi would have ran up the mountain if he had a permit. We hadn't gotten as far as I had hoped to when it starting getting light enough to make out the hillside. We all stopped to glass, Joe left me to see what Levi wanted on the radio, and about ten minutes later Joe briskly returned and said, "I hope you're ready". Where are they at? I could barely make them out at the top of the ridge with my binos. They were still laying down. Levi had been watching a muley buck and spotted the elk when the buck walked right by the elk. They were 1k yards off, and we discussed how close I wanted to get, not having shot the AR10 much recently, I said not more than 5-600 yds, but I'd like to get closer. Joe had his 338 edge, and offered it up, but I wanted to use my .308. We were off to the races trying to keep up with Levi. We peeked back out of the timber at 700 yards, and they were looking intently in our direction, and now standing. A little panic started to set in. Levi again bolted into the timber and up, at one point I had to tell him I had to slow down so that I could shoot. We got to 400 yards, and they had gone to eating and slowly making their way toward the skyline, and timber on the back side. The thoughts were racing through my head, you have one shot, don't screw it up, if you miss they'll be gone, if you're not stable you'll miss. As if Levi could read my mind he put his hand on my shoulder and said, " I'm so glad you're such a good shot". which I haven't really proven. What a guy, it was helpful in calming the nerves a bit. Levi and I closed to 365 yds, I tried his shooting sticks for a second, no joy, so I got prone with the bipod. I looked through my scope, and it was like a nightmare, I couldn't see. It appeared to be foggy, I quickly examined it, no fog, oh shoot my parallax. I laid back down and adjusted it, for a moment it did nothing then all the sudden came into focus like it was cold and slow, new to me. Whatever it was now I could see, and it gave me a few seconds to catch my breath. The bull I was going to take a shot at was behind a tree and would take a step, and eat, step and eat. The set up was perfect, I was stable and level, I could breath, and his next step would put him right in the crosshairs. I said to Levi who was in his spotting scope, "one more step"..........Booom.........I saw a slight hump when the bullet hit, and he wheeled 180 and stood looking around. The other bull was running around in and out of my field of view. I started to doubt if I had hit him. I'm almost positive I saw him waiver, when Levi said shoot him again. I fired, and the second shot hit hard knocking him to the ground. The rest is history, back to the house by noon.
Levi and I
Joe and I
Now what are you going to do?
