Wilderness Bull Adventure

[Eagle]

This trip was a 40th birthday gift for myself and a 50th birthday gift for one of my dearest friends and hunting partners, Chad. He drove to my house on 9/15 and stayed for the night.

We left around 8:30 am on Tuesday 9/16 and made it halfway across NE before stopping for the night. An uneventful trip thus far.

We left NE for an acclimation destination outside our hunting area by 6:30 am, and arrived shortly after 4 to check in to our last hotel for several days. We did an hour long acclimation hike at 9300-9800’ before returning back to 7000’ and having dinner.

We woke up to another beautiful day and checked our rifles at a local range to confirm they were on at 100 and at 300. Once zero’s were confirmed we left to make our way the final couple hours to the ranch our outfitter was based out of. We met with the head guide and camp manager that evening to go over safety protocols and expectations and for them to answer any questions we might have. We spent the next hour organizing our gear and packing it for transport by mule into camp before eating dinner and settling in for the night.

The evening sky was incredible with clear views of the Milky Way and cool crisp fall air.

 

[Eagle]

We awoke early and enjoyed the views and cool air before eating breakfast at 7. We loaded up and left for the trailhead at 8 along with the other four hunters in our camp, Lynville, Dan, Ian and Mark.

The drive to the trailhead took about 40 minutes. We got our horse assignments, adjusted saddles, filled saddle bags and mounted our horses for the 5 hour ride into camp.

The ride in was beautiful, with amazing views and fall colors all along the way. We stopped for lunch after 1 with roughly an hour to go and had a slight rodeo when my horse broke off the tree she was tied to. Thankfully I had removed my rifle from its scabbard and she calmed down relatively well.




After lunch we remounted and while the camp manager/head guide was getting his string sorted out he asked me to hold his lead mule. The mule then pushed my mare out of her way causing my mare to rear vertical, but no ill effects occurred and we continued on our way once all was settled.

Camp is in a beautiful location; a big open park with a nice creek meandering through it. We met our guide shortly after arrival and got secured in our tent. Home for possibly the next 10 days. Our guide, Matt, is a former college lacrosse player, and exceptional specimen with 4 years of guiding experience. Upon meeting Matt he joined us in our tent for a discussion on our expectations and info on where we would be hunting, which was visible from camp.

Due to the close proximity to camp we would be one of the last groups to get up in the morning and leave as others had areas that required a 3 hour ride in the dark to reach their territory. Matt also let us know that our breakfast would be served at 4:45 and we’d be in the saddle by 5:40 for an hour ride in the dark before hunting was to begin.

We had dinner that evening and hung out with the camp crew soaking it all in. I got my tripod and binos out and glassed the mountainside we were going to be hunting. After a few minutes I spotted a bull with a great frame, but had no idea what he was aside from a mature bull. To see that before opening day and be told we were headed right for him in the morning was exciting and sleep did not come easily that evening.

 

[Eagle]

The morning arrived quickly as we woke well before our required time of 4:20. We had a great breakfast made by our camp cook Hayden who was a fine man and fellow Kentuckian. After breakfast we gathered our gear and prepared for the morning ride.

The ride in was uneventful, and we slowly worked our way towards a large meadow about 700’ below the mountain top. Shortly after dismounting the horses and sneaking to the edge we noticed a cow high up on the opposite face. Then the first bugle of the hunt rang out in the dark timber to our left and was answered by a separate bull to further left. We decided to try and stalk in for a possible shot, and after closing a couple hundred yards, the buggling stopped. With the wind not being great for a stalk into the bedding area, Matt decided to have us continue on around the mountain to eventually work our way to the top.



We worked around the mountain for a couple hours, without seeing anything. Out of no where, Matt looked at me and Chad and said to get down. I followed his eyes up toward the top and noticed several cows had just popped over a saddle and were on our side. We heard a bugle, and the bull quickly showed himself over the rise. I quickly determined he was a shooter, but then I heard someone say there was another bull.

Wanting to compare the two I looked to the other bull and determined he was smaller. By the time I moved back to the first bull he was moving down the mountain too quickly for a shot at 270 yards quartering too. With him moving closer following cows I decided to try and creep up to a rise for a closer shot. The cows continued to pick up speed as did the bull and they flew by without giving me a shot. All I could see where his head and antlers as he ran right to left behind the cows.

The other bull however was moving much slower and once I knew I wasn’t going to shoot him, I told Chad to shoot him if he liked him. When Chad didn’t shoot, I looked over and noticed that he was covering his ears preparing for me to shoot. I crawled over and hit him on the leg to get his attention. When he glanced back I told him to shoot the bull if he liked him, Chad quickly got up on one knee and fired a shot just as the bull went behind a set of trees.

At the shot two of the horses took off, and the Matt came up to us to direct us toward the draw the elk were running down to see if we could get a visual. While creeping down we looked to the left and noticed an elk coming back towards us through the trees. Suddenly a bugle rang out 40 yards away, but just as quickly the bull turned around and ran off.

We slowly move down and did not notice Chad’s bull and Matt told us that he had to go catch the horses. While Matt went after the horses, Chad looked for any sign of a hit without finding any. I told Chad that I was going to go back to the shot of the site so we could get a better idea of where the bull was when he fired. Once getting Chad, to the location, I moved back to gather water and other gear and shed a layer.

Out of nowhere, Chad fired a shot, quickly followed by another shot. I rushed forward to see Chad pumping his fist saying that the bull had gotten up and he fired and put him down. We celebrated together and took some pictures and video and waited for Matt to return after catching the horses. Matt hadn’t heard the shots, but was ecstatic to see the bull down. A nice mature 6x6 with beautiful ivory tips. A great repressive of the species and a fine bull for a first time elk hunter.



The next 5 hours were spent on bear watch and butchering, until Matt2 the packer/wrangler/jack from Maryland and another fine young man arrived. After the bull was loaded up, Matt suggested we head up to the top of the mountain to glass.



We spent a couple hours glassing, I was concentrating on the area we thought the lead cow likely took the herd, but never turned up anything. After glassing we started making our way towards camp. We stopped for 40 minutes above the same meadow we stopped at in the morning, but from the opposite side and glassed. We saw a cow and calf, and then a 5 point following them about twenty minutes later, dogging their trail like a whitetail. From there we continued back to camp, arriving back around 8:20 to an incredible dinner of crap and beef filets. One other hunter, Mark, had successfully filled his tag, also with a 6x6. We quickly hit the cots to prepare for day two.

 

[Eagle]

We left camp at 5:40 to begin the hour ride into the first light spot. At 6:25, we spotted two cows close and dismounted, but they ended up being alone. We continued on and found three more cows about 10 minutes later, but again they were alone. We heard a bugle off in the distance, and continued on to the same meadow as the previous morning and evening.

At the meadow we spotted the same 5x5 from the evening before, but no other elk. After talking to Matt, we decided to continue on to the southernmost portion of his area to hunt along the way. We reached the area without coming across any other elk being spotted only hearing a couple of distant bugles. After glassing, napping, and eating lunch, we decided to head to the northernmost portion of the guides territory so we could get an inventory of the whole area.

Along the way, we went by the kill site of the day prior, and just as expected, a grizzly was on the kill. He watched us for a moment, before lumbering off into the trees out of site. Just a friendly reminder that we were not the apex predator in this area.

As we were riding down from mountain towards the meadow, we heard a bugle across the basin. We tied the horses and heard a second bugle. With the horses tied we started glassing to find the elk, only to glass up a horse across the basin. The other hunters eventually materialized and we saw three people with four horses. Thankfully when they left, they went in the direction opposite of where we were headed, so once they had left, we continued on.

This particular area has seen a wild increase in resident pressure over the last five years, and it has a handful of “scab” outfitters trying to hunt the same territories as the outfitter we were with. Of course it’s public ground and available to all of us, but seeing others take advantage of trails and areas maintained by the outfitter in the wilderness is frustrating for them and for the hunters.

While we were sitting, the weather we had been watching march across the sky all day finally caught up to us, so we donned our rain gear as a low pressure system moved in and shrouded the peaks all around us. After riding for thirty minutes headed north, we began to smell elk off and on with the breeze. We stopped for another break to see what the weather was going to do and stop short of the storm that was producing lightening further north. After an hour break and off and on rain, we continued on north riding through rain and fog/clouds. We reached the far north end of the territory and the guide told us to split up and glass after we tied up the horses.

I had been sitting for thirty seconds when Matt ran over and told me he had cows on his side. I grabbed my rifle and moved over towards the copse of trees he was in and immediately saw the cows. After seeing two separate groups of cows earlier in the day with no bulls, I thought there had to be a bull with this group. Suddenly, another elk materialized out of the trees and we could immediately tell he was a mature bull. I asked for a range, dialed my scope, and found as solid a rest as I could on a small curved branch on the side of a pine that my foreend fit perfectly in. I found the bull in my scope, confirmed he was a shooter and settled the crosshairs on his vitals before beginning the slow squeeze. The trigger broke and the bull dropped at the shot, which was 414 yards tbr and 465 los distance. Thinking it was over I stood up and let out a “Holy S*it” before hearing the guide and my buddy tell me he was getting back up and to put another one in him. I looked down to see the bull pulling wildly with his front legs but no use of his back before he disappeared back into the trees.

We watched the area for a bit and after not seeing any further movement figured he was dead, but we decided to leave my buddy at the shot site while we rode down to confirm. The adrenaline dump and shakes were as bad as I can ever recall experiencing, and my feet were shaking in my stirrups as we began the decent. The path down from the shot site was steep and slick, and the horses were braking the whole way down. At roughly 200 yards I got a visual of the bull, and could see he was on his side dead.

Matt and I continued down to him and took a couple pictures before he left to get Chad for them to ride down together. Once Chad arrived, we took pictures together as quick as we could with light fading and more weather moving in. We spent the next two hours gutting and prepping the carcass for an overnight stay in what I can best describe as zero visibility, in grizzly country. When you’d glance up with your headlamp, you couldn’t see 5 yards due to the dense cloud of fog.

I removed the heart and tenderloins and placed them in a game bag and we placed them well up a tree where we also tied the head. We drug the gut pile as far away as possible and then placed a branch in the chest cavity to ensure it was open and allowing airflow through the whole cavity. With the carcass prepared and head secured we remounted and this was where the real adventure began.

Chad’s horse decided it wanted to turn quickly on him and almost threw him off. He managed to get off before anything bad happened and we all got on and started the ride back up to where we had shot from. The way up was even slicker than before after two hours of rain, and we were making slow progress up a 45 degree slope. I looked up ahead to see Chad’s saddle sliding backwards towards his horses flank and he again slid off as his saddle followed to the side of the horse. Matt was off in a flash grabbing Chad’s mount before she was able blow up. Once settled, Chad walked up to the top while the guide resaddled and we decided to lead the horses up the slope. With Chad’s horse saddled and his rifle back in its scabbard, we continued up on foot and reached the top after slipping and skidding all over, two steps forward, on slip back.

We remounted at the top and I immediately noticed Chad’s rifle wasn’t in his scabbard, it had fallen out on the way up, but we agreed to just leave it for the night and to get it in the morning as it was already 10pm. Matt was having a tough time navigating in the conditions as his phone screen and hands were wet. He eventually got off and got a ziplock out of my saddle bags to cover the phone with in hopes of keeping it dry.

We slowly made our way down the mountain repeatedly turning around as we got cliffed out over and over again. At one point I looked slightly left of Matt and Chad and noticed an orange glow at roughly 40 yards. Likely a grizzly that was thankfully downwind of where the horses couldn’t smell it. About half way down, we came to a small ditch not any different from many we had been over already, but Chad’s horse again decided to be an issue and fell into the ditch causing Chad to fall off her back and drill his butt on a rock.

Thankfully he escaped unscathed but he refused to get back on his horse the rest of the way down to the main trail. After about another mile we all decided to lead our horses over the plethora of downfall and steep grades and we finally made it to the trail at 11:45. We begged Chad to remount and he quickly asked why he couldn’t ride my horse instead of his and I immediately agreed and told him to take my horse.

Once all settled into our new mounts, we began the ride back arriving in camp at 12:30. The wrangles had waited up for us and had warm food and a hot tent ready to go for us and we were all thankful to get dry and hit the cots.

 

[Eagle]

Saved

 

[Eagle]

Saved