Leftysbowman
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This story started last fall when my brother-in-law got his Wasatch Limited Entry Archery tag filled, we had a great time chasing bulls and my lifetime hunting buddy Jayson decided to go for an archery tag this year instead of the any-weapon hunt. We have been Bow Hunting since we were legal and have chased lots of elk, just never had the "Tag" so we started making plans. He had one shy of full points and after looking over all of the draw odds it came down to a sure thing in whatever unit he wanted in the state, now the hard part was which unit. He had been putting in for San Juan, Pahavant and others but he ultimatly went with the Monroe. When we finally had the conformation of the tag in the spring we started planning our scouting trips. Our first weekend was Memorial day weekend and we learned a bunch of country and seen a lot of cows but no bulls.
In the meantime we were getting ready by shooting 3d shoots and lots of running. We made another trip down in July and a good friend with a very understanding wife had already spent two weeks down there and had seen quite a few bulls and a couple of big ones so we were excited to be down there. We ended up seeing some of the bulls and learned some more of the country.
The weekend before the hunt we made one more trip down with the boys and found some bulls that we were hoping would stay put for another week. One was a really nice 6x6, the kids kept fighting over the scope to get a look at him.
We headed down a day early the following week and went out check on the bulls and they were in their ususal place so we made a plan for opening morning. We were up at 4:30 and sitting on the ridge at daylight.
We looked into the bottom of the canyon and.....
We ended up getting a shot but it wasn't meant to be...
Here is a bull we started calling Friday because we had him at 32 yards and 15 yards without a shot both times on Friday's.
We thought we had him figured out and spotted him further down the canyon in the morning so we snuck in and was right on top of him and another smaller bull at 5:00...
We waited until they got up to feed for the evening and we hoofed it over to the ridge they were on and set up, everything was perfect...except the elk forgot to show up. So we peeked over the ridge and nothing so we went to the next ridge...nothing, about this time it was getting darker so we decided to head back to the ridge they were bedded on and see if they just came around under us. We got to the ridge and looked down to see the smaller 6x6 feeding about 120 yards below but no Friday...Jayson started to sneak down when he noticed Friday right below us, all he could see was his eyes and a big rack looking at him! Needless to say he didn't stick around...it was a long hike and ride back to camp that night.
A few days before we did manage to bag a trophy 4 pt. bull..he came right into the calls and fell over dead....
September 9th.....
We had a hard time getting out of be for the first time on the whole hunt, Friday had beaten us down and we were moving a little slow but on this morning Chef (Our good buddy Rob) who had been keeping us going with Tatoe's and onions every morning decided he was going with us and wanted to know the plan so we hopped on the bikes and headed to an area we had been having some close calls with bulls and they were responding to calls.
We got to the trailhead just before light and turned off the bikes and a bull goes off just above us in the trees, I figured it was one of the five points we had seen on that hill a couple of days ago but it was dark so we decided we had better make sure. We got set up on him and had him going wild and he came in to about 50 yards...5 point...so we let him go and continued down the trail. We stopped at a ridge where we had a close encounter with a muddy 6x6 a few nights before and watched 12 or so Turkeys meander through the brush in front of us but we didn't hear anymore elk.
We decided to take a different section of the trail out that we hadn't been on since July but we had seen quite a few cows in there so off we went...we did see a few cows running into the trees but also 4 other guys hunting so we just headed to the main road.
After we got there we stopped to get a drink and figure out where we wanted to go from there, I was getting into my pack when Jayson and Chef both looked at each other and said "yup, I heard that" so I gave a little cow call and the bull responded again...it was 9:00am. We grabbed our packs and bow and headed down after him, we could hear cows chirping and bulls bugling so we just kept sneaking closer until a couple of quads came down the road and they went quiet. We got into some pines and set up, Chef had Lucy 2 the decoy and I was about 70 yards behind Jayson and started calling. At first we couldn't hear anything so I kept calling and then I snuck up to where I could see Jayson and he motioned that he could see some and I looked up and a cow was feeding twards me at about 40 yards so I snuck back about 80 yards and started calling agian. The whole mountain started calling, cows, bulls and the Haul trucks coming up the road! One of the bugles started getting closer so I kept calling and pretty soon he bugled and it sounded like he was right on top of Jayson! I heard a big smack and crashing and here comes this bull twards me and cuts up the hill about 20 yards in front of me! I just looked and thought "he had better of shot that thing!" He was big! I watched him run up through the trees about 60 yards and then there was a big crash and I could see he was down and could hear his last breaths from a double lung shot. Jayson came out of the trees with a big perma-grin on and we sat down to give the bull some time even though we could see him from where we were at.
Jayson snuck up about half way to him and said "he is down!" and the celebration started....a big Stinky Monroe Bull....
We called in the pack mules and took some pictures!
And then the work began!
It was a great experience chasing these amazing animals we hunted hard for 15 days and ended up getting this bull 400 yards from a main road...it is always better to be lucky than good! We were glad we could share this with both my dad and Jayson's step-dad who drug us along on countless excursion chasing animals when we were kids dreaming of something like this, I wish the kids could have been there but they were excited for us just the same and they get to go help us look for another big stinky on the south cache this weekend so hopefully I will have some more pics!
Good luck to all of the other ones out there still hunting!
In the meantime we were getting ready by shooting 3d shoots and lots of running. We made another trip down in July and a good friend with a very understanding wife had already spent two weeks down there and had seen quite a few bulls and a couple of big ones so we were excited to be down there. We ended up seeing some of the bulls and learned some more of the country.
The weekend before the hunt we made one more trip down with the boys and found some bulls that we were hoping would stay put for another week. One was a really nice 6x6, the kids kept fighting over the scope to get a look at him.
We headed down a day early the following week and went out check on the bulls and they were in their ususal place so we made a plan for opening morning. We were up at 4:30 and sitting on the ridge at daylight.
We looked into the bottom of the canyon and.....
We ended up getting a shot but it wasn't meant to be...
Here is a bull we started calling Friday because we had him at 32 yards and 15 yards without a shot both times on Friday's.
We thought we had him figured out and spotted him further down the canyon in the morning so we snuck in and was right on top of him and another smaller bull at 5:00...
We waited until they got up to feed for the evening and we hoofed it over to the ridge they were on and set up, everything was perfect...except the elk forgot to show up. So we peeked over the ridge and nothing so we went to the next ridge...nothing, about this time it was getting darker so we decided to head back to the ridge they were bedded on and see if they just came around under us. We got to the ridge and looked down to see the smaller 6x6 feeding about 120 yards below but no Friday...Jayson started to sneak down when he noticed Friday right below us, all he could see was his eyes and a big rack looking at him! Needless to say he didn't stick around...it was a long hike and ride back to camp that night.
A few days before we did manage to bag a trophy 4 pt. bull..he came right into the calls and fell over dead....
September 9th.....
We had a hard time getting out of be for the first time on the whole hunt, Friday had beaten us down and we were moving a little slow but on this morning Chef (Our good buddy Rob) who had been keeping us going with Tatoe's and onions every morning decided he was going with us and wanted to know the plan so we hopped on the bikes and headed to an area we had been having some close calls with bulls and they were responding to calls.
We got to the trailhead just before light and turned off the bikes and a bull goes off just above us in the trees, I figured it was one of the five points we had seen on that hill a couple of days ago but it was dark so we decided we had better make sure. We got set up on him and had him going wild and he came in to about 50 yards...5 point...so we let him go and continued down the trail. We stopped at a ridge where we had a close encounter with a muddy 6x6 a few nights before and watched 12 or so Turkeys meander through the brush in front of us but we didn't hear anymore elk.
We decided to take a different section of the trail out that we hadn't been on since July but we had seen quite a few cows in there so off we went...we did see a few cows running into the trees but also 4 other guys hunting so we just headed to the main road.
After we got there we stopped to get a drink and figure out where we wanted to go from there, I was getting into my pack when Jayson and Chef both looked at each other and said "yup, I heard that" so I gave a little cow call and the bull responded again...it was 9:00am. We grabbed our packs and bow and headed down after him, we could hear cows chirping and bulls bugling so we just kept sneaking closer until a couple of quads came down the road and they went quiet. We got into some pines and set up, Chef had Lucy 2 the decoy and I was about 70 yards behind Jayson and started calling. At first we couldn't hear anything so I kept calling and then I snuck up to where I could see Jayson and he motioned that he could see some and I looked up and a cow was feeding twards me at about 40 yards so I snuck back about 80 yards and started calling agian. The whole mountain started calling, cows, bulls and the Haul trucks coming up the road! One of the bugles started getting closer so I kept calling and pretty soon he bugled and it sounded like he was right on top of Jayson! I heard a big smack and crashing and here comes this bull twards me and cuts up the hill about 20 yards in front of me! I just looked and thought "he had better of shot that thing!" He was big! I watched him run up through the trees about 60 yards and then there was a big crash and I could see he was down and could hear his last breaths from a double lung shot. Jayson came out of the trees with a big perma-grin on and we sat down to give the bull some time even though we could see him from where we were at.
Jayson snuck up about half way to him and said "he is down!" and the celebration started....a big Stinky Monroe Bull....
We called in the pack mules and took some pictures!
And then the work began!
It was a great experience chasing these amazing animals we hunted hard for 15 days and ended up getting this bull 400 yards from a main road...it is always better to be lucky than good! We were glad we could share this with both my dad and Jayson's step-dad who drug us along on countless excursion chasing animals when we were kids dreaming of something like this, I wish the kids could have been there but they were excited for us just the same and they get to go help us look for another big stinky on the south cache this weekend so hopefully I will have some more pics!
Good luck to all of the other ones out there still hunting!
