My Wasatch LE Elk Essay

[elkhunterUT]

This experience really began back in February when I dumped a load of money (can't tell my wife how much or she would kill me ) on tags at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo. I will never forget the moment I checked the draw results and saw my name listed for a Wasatch Any Weapon Elk tag. My wife explains my reaction as a giddy schoolgirl with a lot of hollering and exuberance, and I would have to agree. I was grinning for two weeks straight and had trouble sleeping with excitement for what would come.

Anyone who has drawn a LE elk tag in Utah can relate to the pressure that I soon started feeling. It is a good pressure, knowing you possess a tag that may only come once or twice in an entire lifetime and you have to make the most of it. This pressure pushed me to put more effort into this hunt than any I had before. With the help of my family and many great friends, including great guys on this forum and others, I pinpointed several areas that held good bulls in the past and began my scouting, along with preparing myself physically for the demands of an elk hunt. As many of you know, my brother (Silentstalker) had bowhunted the unit 2 years prior and took a great bull. As a family, we have bowhunted the unit for many years for spikes/cows, so we had our old stomping grounds to fall back on as needed.

I am not sure how many days and total money I spent scouting and preparing for this hunt, but I know it was a lot and looking back on it now, that time and effort brought many rewards. I can't explain the anticipation I felt every time I checked one of our trail cameras or looked in a new area. Results like this in June through August kept me going, but also made September seem like an eternity away:

More to come...

 

[Silentstalker]

Looks good so far! Congrats Bro!

 

[bowhunt]

and?

 

[Leftysbowman]

I like it! Keep it coming!

 

[elkhunterUT]

As my scouting continued, I was learning new country and experiencing things that only those who spend a fair amount of time in the woods ever get to see. I saw several bull moose along with many deer and obviously elk, but I also witnessed some rare events that I will always remember. One day, I watched as a hawk caught a rabbit and then struggled to take flight again from the weight of the rabbit as I approached ? I am sure that hawk ate good that day

There were many highs and lows during my scouting experience. Probably the greatest high of all was catching this brute of a bull on one of our trail cameras:

Seeing this bull throttled my anticipation for the hunt and it was all I could do to get through even a moment of the day without thinking about him and how good he would look on my wall ? Elk fever had me bad now!! I felt this bull was one we might be able to get on and kill. Then came one of the lows ? I went to check this same trail cam about 2 weeks later and I had several pictures of guys with hounds in the canyon pursuing bears. I also ran into a group of hounds and guys that same evening at the top of the canyon. I knew a bull of this caliber would not tolerate that type of pressure and I never saw him again. As the hunt drew nearer, I narrowed my focus on two areas and found many telltale signs of bull activity heating up:

Another low came right before the hunt started. With great anticipation, I went to check a trail camera in our usual hunting area that had tons of cow/calf/spike activity. I knew from past experience that the camera would certainly have some huge bulls on it now as they move in with the cows right at the tail end of August/first part of September. As I got to the trail camera and pulled out the key to unlock it, I noticed someone had broken the camera casing, removed the lock and stole the memory card. I was shocked they did not steal the entire camera, but I was pissed they took the card and did not put it back. Chalk me up as another victim of trail cam thievery. Still pisses me off to no end that people do this crap!! I removed the trail cam in anger, but knew there were big bulls in all of the areas I had been scouting and the hunt was just days away...

 

[elkhunterUT]

My Dad and I went up and got camp set up for my hunt on Wednesday, September 9th and spent the rest of the time before Saturday from sun up to sun down looking for good bulls. It seemed every time we went out we were seeing good bulls and lots of elk in general, so narrowing down where I wanted to be on Saturday morning was difficult. On Thursday, we found a solid 7x6 bull in one of our usual hunting areas along with several nice 6 points and many smaller 5 points and other raghorns. The elk were active in this area but only for a short time after sunup due to the warm weather. On Friday evening, I captured a small 6 point chasing 5 cows on video near a great wallow. Moments after the smaller 6 point left, a solid 340-350 6x6 bull came near the wallow with another group of cows and I got him on video as well. After weighing my options, I decided to go to our usual area in hopes of seeing the big 7x6 bull we found on Thursday.

I never thought Saturday morning would come, but the alarm FINALLY went off at 4:30 AM and it was ON!!! My Dad and Brother-in-Law Kevin set up down the ridge from me well before light and I got in shooting position just down from a meadow we thought the big 7x6 would work his way into eventually. As we were sitting waiting for shooting light, the bulls really started lighting it up with bugles and I could hear several different bulls glunking, raking trees, and carrying on chasing cows. As soon as we could see through our binos, elk started appearing everywhere. Because of the solid rutting activity, I signaled to my Dad to begin calling and immediately a 360 class 6x6 started working his way down to the meadow that I was watching. As my Dad continued to call, the bull flew through the meadow and despite our attempts to stop him for a shot, he was too worked up to get to my Dad?s calls and safely moved away from me. The rest of the morning brought 7 other bulls well within shooting range, but I chose to pass them all as they were mostly smaller 5 and 6 point bulls. Saturday night I went back to the wallow area where I had videoed the two bulls on Friday night and was able to get close on a 315ish 6x6 with weak 5th tines, so I opted to pass on him as well.

My brother Chad joined us the next day and we decided to go back to where we started on Saturday morning assuming the rutting activity would still be on fire, but just before light we had only heard one distant bugle and not much else. Chad and I told my Dad and Kevin that we were going to move deeper into the next canyon to take the action to the elk rather than waiting on them. As we moved on, we could hear the clashing of antlers up above us so we inched forward to catch the bulls as they fought. Chad caught some motion to our left and we saw a small 5 point sparring with what looked like a really nice bull with great mass and tine length. I readied for the shot and Chad started calling. Both bulls immediately ran at us and I put the scope on the large bull as he moved within 30 yards. Just as I was about to squeeze the trigger, Chad told me he was ?just? a 5 point. A really big 5 point, but I wanted a solid 6 point bull, so we passed on him and moved into the next canyon.

With little action there, we moved on to the next canyon which we knew held several very active wallows and immediately heard at least 4 bulls screaming down the canyon. We moved quickly to the action and just as we were approaching the pines where most of the action was, a bull screamed 40 yards below us in one of the wallows. He stepped out and we could tell he was a nice 6 point, but just a little shy of what we wanted. We let him go and moved towards the pines where we could hear several bulls that sounded big. I moved in front of Chad about 40 yards and crept toward the pines as Chad called from behind. I could hear the bull glunking and when he screamed, he was very close but I still could not see him. He then moved to my left out of the thick pines and through a small sage flat, but I could not see him from where I was, so I quickly moved to the edge of the sage flat and stopped for a moment while Chad continued to call. We then noticed that the bull?s cows were still in the pines behind me and we knew he would not like the fact that we were between him and his harem. As the cows moved towards the bull, I could see them well but could not see the bull. I could only hear him on the other edge of the sage flat behind some thick trees. As the cows got closer and Chad continued to call, the bull couldn't stand it any longer and stepped out to gather the cows and push them off. As he stepped out, he was straight on to me about 90 yards away and I could see he had solid 4th tines and was a good 6 point bull, so I quickly got him in the scope and fired. The thump of the hit was audible and the bulls reaction told me I had a great hit between his neck and shoulder. I put another insurance shot in him as he quartered away from me and he dropped. The whole experience happened so fast yet so many emotions ran through me. I have killed several spikes and cows with my bow, but have never taken a mature bull before, so the whole event was a culmination of my hunting dreams coming to reality. As we walked up on the bull, I was grateful for every second of the experience from the highs and lows of scouting, to the exhilarating experiences with rutting bulls, to being able to share what I absolutely love over most anything else with my Dad, Brother, and Brother-in-Law.

The bull was beautiful and I was thankful to have taken such a great animal. Though he wasn?t the monster I had hoped for from my earlier trail cam pictures, he had a lot of the same characteristics just on a bit smaller frame. He was plenty big enough for my first mature bull and will look nice on my wall. Here are some field photos:

I can't thank Chad, Kevin, and my Dad enough for their help on this hunt and in getting this bull out of the hell hole we shot him in-it was a LONG and GRUELING day to be sure. Next time I will try to shoot one a little closer to the road or get some horses-thanks guys!!

I hope you enjoy the longwinded story ? I know I enjoyed experiencing it and will cherish it for the rest of my life. Because I drew this tag at the Expo, I am fortunate to still hold 11 elk points and hope to repeat this all over again in a few years.

P.S. ? I was wearing orange while hunting, just took it off for the pictures

 

[predator]

The Doyle Clan strikes again!! Way to go, man, congrats. Great bull, wonderful story.

Sorry you look like your brother, tho.

Pred

 

[bowhunt]

That is just awesome! What a great hunt you had. Way to go!

 

[Silentstalker]

Nice job Cory and you told the story very well. It was a great experience for sure! Congrats and thanks for letting me be there for the kill!!

Pred,

Your killing me!! See you around.

 

[MulePacker]

Cory,

Nice Job. That is a great looking elk, what a great hunt. It will never get better than sharing the hunt with your family. Thanks for sharing the story.

 

[Lambo]

Cory,
Nicely done. I didn't figure that it would take ya to long before the big boom, and then down he goes. Good lookin bull. Congrats
Lambo

 

[c3]

Congrats! Great story and a great bull.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[DR_DEATH]

OUTSTANDING thanks for taking us along your hunt expierence.

 

[accubond]

Congratulations to you and all invlolved! As stated above, thanks for taking us along, I really enjoyed that story.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

 

[ktc]

Cory,

Chad sent me your photos. Congrats on a very nice mature bull. Looks like you had a great hunt and lots of time scouting. Nicely done!

 

[Stubaby]

Sweet post and pics...nice bull and thanks for sharing!!!

 

[elkhunterUT]

Thanks guys and glad you liked the story and pics - it was fun for me to be able to type it up and relive the memories once again!

Best of luck to everyone on remaining hunts this year.

 

[AWHOLELOTTABULL]

I thought the emailed pictures were great. I'm glad I looked on here Cory! Great read and fun hunt to experience with family for sure. Congrats. I had no doubt the Doyle clan would produce.


It's always an adventure!!!
www.awholelottabull.com

 

[bingo]

That must have been one fun ride, from the expo draw to the spring of antisipation, to the summer of scouting, to the hunt. Congrats Cory and thanks for sharing!

 

[Midnight2]

Great Essay. Love the photos. Great Bull and you certainly did your homework.

Midnight