Gpw
FNG
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2018
- Messages
- 61
My good friend and my hunting mentor called me over a year ago and told me he had terminal liver cancer. My heart sunk in my chest. He said it could be managed with chemo but there was no way it was going to go away. I told him to contact Wdfw and ask them about the terminally ill tag program they have. He called down there and the guy told him he didn’t qualify because he wasn’t in hospice. My buddy who I will call r for the rest of this story. Called me and told me what the guy said. I said to call back down there because he obviously had no clue what he was talking about. He called back down there and talked to the lady that is in charge of the program. She says if you have less than 5 years to live and have your doctor sign off the paperwork you will receive a deer or elk tag of your choice. He received his permit and the planning started early for the hunt. The tag was pretty much from the end of September to the end of December with a two week break in the middle.we went on several trips on weekends. The first trip we found a solid bull but he just wasn’t fast enough to get a shot off before he disappeared in the brush. The next weekend we went back to look for the bull and got there a bit late. R said let’s try and go after him a bit and see if we could call him in. He made it up the hill a little ways and just couldn’t physically do it. We were pretty limited on what we could do. Weekend after weekend we went out with very few opportunity’s. Towards the end of October on one of the weekend hunts he passed on a good solid 350 type bull. The folllowing weekend we got right on 8 bulls. There was 1 shooter in the bunch but the bulls blew out and went over the ridge and no shot opportunity. Then we had the two week break. The snow came the elk moved down out of the mountains mostly on private ground. I was scrambling to find access. I was pretty stressed. We got some access. But the weather was terrible with heavy fog. I was pretty stressed disheartened and feeling the pressure of getting his tag filled with an bull that he would be really happy with! I said a prayer on Saturday night asking for clear skies and big bulls in an area we had permission to hunt. We get to the glassing spot and first thing we see a group bulls and at least 2 good solid shooters. The more we looked more bulls started popping up. Then we saw the bull that would do his tag justice. It took several hours, a few phone calls, setting everything up to make the 500 yard shot perfect for R. First shot was just over his back, second was in the neck and was not a good hit.the third shot hit him in the spine and dropped him. Long story short it took a couple more to put him down. We were able to get a sxs close. But not all the way to the bull. Lotta of pictures later we skinned caped and quarter the bull. Another friend was shuttling quarters with his 4 wheeler. We got out of there just before dark. I owe a huge thanks to a lot of people who were willing to help from contact info of landowners to offer help packing, locating bulls. A huge thanks to all the land owners who gave access. I can’t emphasize enough how grateful I am. I love you buddy! Congrats on a bull of a lifetime!
