LowCountryElk
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LAST EDITED ON Sep-22-09 AT 04:00PM (MST)[p]Ok all,
One more Dutton story...it's going to be a bit long, so pull up a chair if you wish.
I was fortunate enough to be able to grab a Dutton bowhunt conservation tag for 2009 and enlisted my Team Mossback buddies Reed Dalton, Dave Black and Lane Limb to join me again on another grueling quest for a Utah giant. My son Erik and brother Sam joined in the fun and we started out hunting on Sept. 1, hitting the ground running trying to find a real toad bull to chase. Reed et al had done some ground work prior to the hunt but had not really seen any real studs and Reed warned me that we might not be seeing any monsters on the hunt. Well, that prediction turned out a bit off; on the second day of the hunt, we were way down in a really nasty and rough canyon (this basically describes the entire unit for those of you who haven't been there as it is a vicious volcanic rockpile where every rock moves under your feet) when all of a sudden we spied a 380"+ bull feeding calmly with some cows about 3/4 of mile across the canyon from us. 2nd day??? Well, I hacked Reed off and passed on chasing him ... he threatened to stomp on his hat in disgust. Hey, I'm liking this development and you can't shoot a legend if you take the first good bull you see eh??!!!
Anyhow, we ended up seeing over 200 elk that day, with several bulls over the 340" mark. I was pumped!! Over the course of the next several days we covered that unit north to south, east to west and saw countless elk with a bunch of bulls over the 350" mark. Reed was amazed at the changes from his previous look-sees and yes, many of the bulls were sounding off although they all seemed to be the smaller to mid-sized boys trying to get some before the big boys took over. The bruisers seemed to prefer hanging out on their own and would only occasionally sound off.
We hiked our proverbial butts off and saw, hiked, and slid down some gorgeous country and not only wore our bodies and boot out, but put some REAL serious time in with the optics. After six days of looking, I finally got to actually put my first stalk on a 380" class bull (couldn't find one of the 400" variety) in the evening, but got pinned down by a smaller 6x6 satellite who ate up all of our time until darkness prevailed. Had the big boy wide open to me, but out of range at over 200 yds. Reed reminded me that it would have been an easy rifle shot.
The next morning we set up on that bull as we knew exactly where he would head and sure enough we had him coming our way just at sunup. Unfortunately, we heard the rumble of a 4 wheeler, heard it shut off, and then a few minutes later saw an erstwhile "bowhunter" walk around the hill in plain view of our quarry with his headlamp on heading to who knows where. The bull obviously saw him too and headed out the other way. Oh well, ya can't fix stupid eh, and this is public land. We had a good "laugh" and moved on.
The next evening, after seeing another 380+" bull that AM that I got to within about 30 yds of in trees too thick to shoot in, and sitting a wallow during the day to no avail, Reed spotted an absolute pig that had 5ths that looked just as long as his 20+" swords in an area we had decided to focus on due to both the quantity and quality of bulls we were seeing there. He was the largest bull we saw during the hunt (easy 390"+) and luckily had bedded in an area we could put a good stalk on him. Unfortunately, it was getting very late in the PM by the time I got in position to move in. We snuck to within about 50 yards downhill of him when he decided to casually get up and move out for the night. We tried to stop him with cow calls, but when he did stop and give me a lane, he was 92 yds uphill. I only had a split sec to guess his range, and I guessed about 65 and let it fly. Perfect windage, but imperfect elevation .... due to the steep angle it was an excruciatingly close miss, appearing to have just cut his brisket hairs. Que sera, sera. Reed reminded me that it would have been an easy rifle shot, then stomped on his hat. What can I say?
The second to last day of my hunt, we were glassing our preferred basin at sunup when we spotted a real pig (a long beamed 385"+) moving downhill about a mile away from us on the opposite side. Reed and I bailed off our perch and did our darndest to run that boy down before he hit the trees about 2 miles diagonal from our position. We made record time in a death defying run down and across that basin (Stinky and Slam will attest as they showed up on our perch after we bailed and watched us go after ?his? bull), but like had become a pattern on this hunt, we were just a couple of minutes late to the party when we finally got there. We glassed him right before he went in the trees and Reed again let me know how easy of a rifle shot it would have been. That guy never learns!
Finally, on the last day of my hunt (10th), we watched a bunch of nice (<350") bulls in the basin in the AM, none that I wanted to chase though, and then I sat the wallow during the day reminiscing on such a great hunt. I was ready for tag soup and was going to be a happy camper. Around 5 PM Lane showed up and said they had spotted a nice 360" 7x7 bull bedded in the basin and we were gonna make one last hunt to try to take him. We took off and climbed up on the ridge where they had last seen him from the lookout a couple of miles away, but we had a hard time locating his hideout. Turns out depth perception is a bear from a couple of miles away and there were a couple of canyons they hadn't detected between the ridge we were on and the one the bull was bedded down on. We finally located him, but the closest we could get was over 200 yds and we couldn't move in on him due to the wind and topo. After the climb, we had a bull bugling from the ridge above, so we headed out for him, figuring it to be our last hunt for the year. Lane did some magnificent cow calling and within about 10 minutes, he had called a freak 6 x spike down from the mountaintop on a dead run. He was a strange looking critter with a great 6 on one side, and a 25" spike on the other with a screwed up grey eye to boot on his freak side. He was horny too as he covered about a mile in just a few minutes looking for some action. He pulled up about 15 yds from me, but no thanks bro. See ya.
We continued up the hill as we started hearing more bugles, with one sounding like a real serious stud. We spotted him up high and he fit the bill (370"), so we hustled towards him as the sun was starting to head down and out. We made it to a wide, long burn area and set up hoping to get him in before last light and began calling in earnest. He hung up of course, but suddenly on the left side of the burn a cow and bull popped up and began running like thoroughbreds straight at us. I was pinned in the open standing next to a small pine but was able to get an arrow nocked before they ran pell mell right into me. The cow ran right by me into Lane and spooked and the bull pulled up about 10 yds out. We did the stare down, then he spun and headed out. He looked good enough for a last second bull, so I drew and hoped a call by Lane would stop him, but it didn't. He was only trotting, so I let it fly and unfortunately saw the arrow hit too far back as he rounded the trees about 40 yds away. We hung tight for the waiting period trying to see if we could call the big boy down the hill and only succeeded in calling that stupid 6 x spike down again with a couple of cows. They hung out by me, sometimes within a few yards, for about 45 minutes until I finally ran them away just before dark. Lane came over, I told him I thought I had hit the bull and we went to go look for blood. Just as we got to where I had hit him, he stood up about 40 yds away and we could see he had been hit in the back leg and was moving pretty sluggishly so we backed out and let him bed for the night. Definitely a last minute opportunity and bull, but I didn't sleep but two hours that night dwelling on my poor shot and the possibility that he was not mortally wounded.
The next morning Team Dalton got on him early at 6:30 AM and picked up a slight blood trail that didn't seem to get better as we followed it. I was bummed about my poor hit and praying that his movement had allowed the Grizzly Trick to do its magic on his femoral artery, but no such luck. We bumped him out of his bed after about 45? and the real trailing work began. I had the right guys for the job (don't ever try to hide out from Dave Black), so we put our heads down and got to work. He crossed the basin and we figured the only tack we had was to push him hard and hopefully wear him down. Not good, but the only chance we had and I knew I'd have to get another arrow in him to put him down. After seven grueling hours of difficult tracking, during which we bumped him a couple of more times, Reed and I finally caught up to him in a steep, narrow and extremely rocky canyon standing on the edge of a cliff. I managed to get a quick 20 yd shot off that somehow hit an invisible tree branch and which flew harmlessly off into the nether before he bailed right off the edge of the cliff right in front of us. Incredulously, we ran over and saw that he had bailed down a narrow 25? chute to another steep hillside below. We could hear him working his way down the canyon so I took off, arrow nocked, and tried to get down to where he was heading ASAP, jumping and running on my own near-death pell mell charge down for an interception. Amazingly, I caught up with him in about 200 yds as he stood on another ledge, beat down. This time, I did not miss the shot, but he took off again due to the gallons of adrenaline coursing through him. I was elated at getting another arrow in him, but sick at what I had put him through. Reed came down and we followed his trail down towards the bottom of the canyon. Rounding some trees, we finally found him down on the trail directly above a steep cliff near the bottom. He was not finished but could not move so I put one final shot into his lungs and he finally expired. What a tough animal!!! I wish I could have put him down more humanely. To our dismay, as he lay dying, his death throes caused him to work ever closer to the 50? cliff edge he was on; I could envision him falling and smashing his antlers on the rocks below. Fortunately, his antlers hung in a tree and he finally expired with his legs hanging over the void. What an experience!!!! And it made for a tenuous and death defying cape and quartering job for the guys. Didn?t even phase ?em!!!!
I can't say enough again to sing praises for Reed, Dave and Lane. And to have my son Erik and brother Sam join us was icing on the cake. It was another hunt of a lifetime and I was glad to share it with people who love the game as much as I do. It was grueling and physically difficult hunt, but I wouldn't change a minute of it. Thanks Doyle for setting this up so I could hunt with these guys; they are a credit to your team and give 120% all the time. I will always count them as great friends and hope I get a chance to do it again with them. Finally ?? sorry Reed, but it?ll be with a bow again if and when we go out. LOL!!!
P.S. ? Didn?t mean for this to go this long, but then again, it's a hunting story. Thanks for reading it till the end. Hope you have enjoyed it.
LCE
P.P.S. ? Oh, and by the way, Stinky and I had a $20 bet on biggest bull. I'm conceding to him even with all his bull?s broken tines. Congrats to the MAN!! Haven?t had mine measured, but I'm guessing 330? or so. Oh, but the memories??.
One more Dutton story...it's going to be a bit long, so pull up a chair if you wish.
I was fortunate enough to be able to grab a Dutton bowhunt conservation tag for 2009 and enlisted my Team Mossback buddies Reed Dalton, Dave Black and Lane Limb to join me again on another grueling quest for a Utah giant. My son Erik and brother Sam joined in the fun and we started out hunting on Sept. 1, hitting the ground running trying to find a real toad bull to chase. Reed et al had done some ground work prior to the hunt but had not really seen any real studs and Reed warned me that we might not be seeing any monsters on the hunt. Well, that prediction turned out a bit off; on the second day of the hunt, we were way down in a really nasty and rough canyon (this basically describes the entire unit for those of you who haven't been there as it is a vicious volcanic rockpile where every rock moves under your feet) when all of a sudden we spied a 380"+ bull feeding calmly with some cows about 3/4 of mile across the canyon from us. 2nd day??? Well, I hacked Reed off and passed on chasing him ... he threatened to stomp on his hat in disgust. Hey, I'm liking this development and you can't shoot a legend if you take the first good bull you see eh??!!!
Anyhow, we ended up seeing over 200 elk that day, with several bulls over the 340" mark. I was pumped!! Over the course of the next several days we covered that unit north to south, east to west and saw countless elk with a bunch of bulls over the 350" mark. Reed was amazed at the changes from his previous look-sees and yes, many of the bulls were sounding off although they all seemed to be the smaller to mid-sized boys trying to get some before the big boys took over. The bruisers seemed to prefer hanging out on their own and would only occasionally sound off.
We hiked our proverbial butts off and saw, hiked, and slid down some gorgeous country and not only wore our bodies and boot out, but put some REAL serious time in with the optics. After six days of looking, I finally got to actually put my first stalk on a 380" class bull (couldn't find one of the 400" variety) in the evening, but got pinned down by a smaller 6x6 satellite who ate up all of our time until darkness prevailed. Had the big boy wide open to me, but out of range at over 200 yds. Reed reminded me that it would have been an easy rifle shot.
The next morning we set up on that bull as we knew exactly where he would head and sure enough we had him coming our way just at sunup. Unfortunately, we heard the rumble of a 4 wheeler, heard it shut off, and then a few minutes later saw an erstwhile "bowhunter" walk around the hill in plain view of our quarry with his headlamp on heading to who knows where. The bull obviously saw him too and headed out the other way. Oh well, ya can't fix stupid eh, and this is public land. We had a good "laugh" and moved on.
The next evening, after seeing another 380+" bull that AM that I got to within about 30 yds of in trees too thick to shoot in, and sitting a wallow during the day to no avail, Reed spotted an absolute pig that had 5ths that looked just as long as his 20+" swords in an area we had decided to focus on due to both the quantity and quality of bulls we were seeing there. He was the largest bull we saw during the hunt (easy 390"+) and luckily had bedded in an area we could put a good stalk on him. Unfortunately, it was getting very late in the PM by the time I got in position to move in. We snuck to within about 50 yards downhill of him when he decided to casually get up and move out for the night. We tried to stop him with cow calls, but when he did stop and give me a lane, he was 92 yds uphill. I only had a split sec to guess his range, and I guessed about 65 and let it fly. Perfect windage, but imperfect elevation .... due to the steep angle it was an excruciatingly close miss, appearing to have just cut his brisket hairs. Que sera, sera. Reed reminded me that it would have been an easy rifle shot, then stomped on his hat. What can I say?
The second to last day of my hunt, we were glassing our preferred basin at sunup when we spotted a real pig (a long beamed 385"+) moving downhill about a mile away from us on the opposite side. Reed and I bailed off our perch and did our darndest to run that boy down before he hit the trees about 2 miles diagonal from our position. We made record time in a death defying run down and across that basin (Stinky and Slam will attest as they showed up on our perch after we bailed and watched us go after ?his? bull), but like had become a pattern on this hunt, we were just a couple of minutes late to the party when we finally got there. We glassed him right before he went in the trees and Reed again let me know how easy of a rifle shot it would have been. That guy never learns!
Finally, on the last day of my hunt (10th), we watched a bunch of nice (<350") bulls in the basin in the AM, none that I wanted to chase though, and then I sat the wallow during the day reminiscing on such a great hunt. I was ready for tag soup and was going to be a happy camper. Around 5 PM Lane showed up and said they had spotted a nice 360" 7x7 bull bedded in the basin and we were gonna make one last hunt to try to take him. We took off and climbed up on the ridge where they had last seen him from the lookout a couple of miles away, but we had a hard time locating his hideout. Turns out depth perception is a bear from a couple of miles away and there were a couple of canyons they hadn't detected between the ridge we were on and the one the bull was bedded down on. We finally located him, but the closest we could get was over 200 yds and we couldn't move in on him due to the wind and topo. After the climb, we had a bull bugling from the ridge above, so we headed out for him, figuring it to be our last hunt for the year. Lane did some magnificent cow calling and within about 10 minutes, he had called a freak 6 x spike down from the mountaintop on a dead run. He was a strange looking critter with a great 6 on one side, and a 25" spike on the other with a screwed up grey eye to boot on his freak side. He was horny too as he covered about a mile in just a few minutes looking for some action. He pulled up about 15 yds from me, but no thanks bro. See ya.
We continued up the hill as we started hearing more bugles, with one sounding like a real serious stud. We spotted him up high and he fit the bill (370"), so we hustled towards him as the sun was starting to head down and out. We made it to a wide, long burn area and set up hoping to get him in before last light and began calling in earnest. He hung up of course, but suddenly on the left side of the burn a cow and bull popped up and began running like thoroughbreds straight at us. I was pinned in the open standing next to a small pine but was able to get an arrow nocked before they ran pell mell right into me. The cow ran right by me into Lane and spooked and the bull pulled up about 10 yds out. We did the stare down, then he spun and headed out. He looked good enough for a last second bull, so I drew and hoped a call by Lane would stop him, but it didn't. He was only trotting, so I let it fly and unfortunately saw the arrow hit too far back as he rounded the trees about 40 yds away. We hung tight for the waiting period trying to see if we could call the big boy down the hill and only succeeded in calling that stupid 6 x spike down again with a couple of cows. They hung out by me, sometimes within a few yards, for about 45 minutes until I finally ran them away just before dark. Lane came over, I told him I thought I had hit the bull and we went to go look for blood. Just as we got to where I had hit him, he stood up about 40 yds away and we could see he had been hit in the back leg and was moving pretty sluggishly so we backed out and let him bed for the night. Definitely a last minute opportunity and bull, but I didn't sleep but two hours that night dwelling on my poor shot and the possibility that he was not mortally wounded.
The next morning Team Dalton got on him early at 6:30 AM and picked up a slight blood trail that didn't seem to get better as we followed it. I was bummed about my poor hit and praying that his movement had allowed the Grizzly Trick to do its magic on his femoral artery, but no such luck. We bumped him out of his bed after about 45? and the real trailing work began. I had the right guys for the job (don't ever try to hide out from Dave Black), so we put our heads down and got to work. He crossed the basin and we figured the only tack we had was to push him hard and hopefully wear him down. Not good, but the only chance we had and I knew I'd have to get another arrow in him to put him down. After seven grueling hours of difficult tracking, during which we bumped him a couple of more times, Reed and I finally caught up to him in a steep, narrow and extremely rocky canyon standing on the edge of a cliff. I managed to get a quick 20 yd shot off that somehow hit an invisible tree branch and which flew harmlessly off into the nether before he bailed right off the edge of the cliff right in front of us. Incredulously, we ran over and saw that he had bailed down a narrow 25? chute to another steep hillside below. We could hear him working his way down the canyon so I took off, arrow nocked, and tried to get down to where he was heading ASAP, jumping and running on my own near-death pell mell charge down for an interception. Amazingly, I caught up with him in about 200 yds as he stood on another ledge, beat down. This time, I did not miss the shot, but he took off again due to the gallons of adrenaline coursing through him. I was elated at getting another arrow in him, but sick at what I had put him through. Reed came down and we followed his trail down towards the bottom of the canyon. Rounding some trees, we finally found him down on the trail directly above a steep cliff near the bottom. He was not finished but could not move so I put one final shot into his lungs and he finally expired. What a tough animal!!! I wish I could have put him down more humanely. To our dismay, as he lay dying, his death throes caused him to work ever closer to the 50? cliff edge he was on; I could envision him falling and smashing his antlers on the rocks below. Fortunately, his antlers hung in a tree and he finally expired with his legs hanging over the void. What an experience!!!! And it made for a tenuous and death defying cape and quartering job for the guys. Didn?t even phase ?em!!!!
I can't say enough again to sing praises for Reed, Dave and Lane. And to have my son Erik and brother Sam join us was icing on the cake. It was another hunt of a lifetime and I was glad to share it with people who love the game as much as I do. It was grueling and physically difficult hunt, but I wouldn't change a minute of it. Thanks Doyle for setting this up so I could hunt with these guys; they are a credit to your team and give 120% all the time. I will always count them as great friends and hope I get a chance to do it again with them. Finally ?? sorry Reed, but it?ll be with a bow again if and when we go out. LOL!!!
P.S. ? Didn?t mean for this to go this long, but then again, it's a hunting story. Thanks for reading it till the end. Hope you have enjoyed it.
LCE
P.P.S. ? Oh, and by the way, Stinky and I had a $20 bet on biggest bull. I'm conceding to him even with all his bull?s broken tines. Congrats to the MAN!! Haven?t had mine measured, but I'm guessing 330? or so. Oh, but the memories??.
