Giant Bookcliffs bull found dead

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Hope this wasn't posted already.
The rumor is he was found somewhere up on the Bookcliffs out of Grand Junction. Maybe a tree just fell on his head!

Pauls_dead_elk_find.jpg


Pauls_Bookcliffs_find.jpg


Paul_w_Bookcliffs_Winterkill_2011.jpg
 
Thats an awesome lookin bull. Looks like he was old. But I do find it hard to believe that all those trees came down on him. One of those 3 logs looks much older than the rest, maybe that one killed him and the rest cam down on him later??? Anyway great find on a really wide & old bull.
 
What a beast. Unfortantly I would say it looks like the work of a poacher.
 
Looking at the scene I am dubious as to whether it was the work of a poacher as well. From the photos it appears the bulls body was never separated from the head and it laid with it's antlers under all the logs intact. For one, I gotta believe that a poacher would likely try to hide the rack some distance from the carcass(less chance of discovery that way) and two.......would be damn hard to drag an intact bull carcass on that steep of hillside into a position like that and "hook his rack under the bigger two of the three logs. Just what it looks like to me. Crazy bull tho.
 
>Looking at the scene I am
>dubious as to whether it
>was the work of a
>poacher as well. From
>the photos it appears the
>bulls body was never separated
>from the head and it
>laid with it's antlers under
>all the logs intact.
>For one, I gotta believe
>that a poacher would likely
>try to hide the rack
>some distance from the carcass(less
>chance of discovery that way)
>and two.......would be damn hard
>to drag an intact bull
>carcass on that steep of
>hillside into a position like
>that and "hook his rack
>under the bigger two of
>the three logs. Just
>what it looks like to
>me. Crazy bull tho.
>


Maybe they carried the logs where the bull died. Would be a lot easier than moving the bull.
 
There was an incredible amount of new blowdown in that country this year. I'm sure the trees just fell on the skull...
 
Look at the first picture. Two logs over the head and neck and one over the head between the antlers. Very few trees fallen around the area. The odds of a tree falling and killing a big bull is slim. The odds of three trees falling on a big bull in that pattern would be very slim. It looks like foul play to me.
 
since we CSI the scene Here how it went down the Old trees was already there from along time ago, Bulls was walking along, the wind blew down the next tree and it hit him right between the horns killing him. If someone poached it I believe they would move the rack from a open area to a more thick bush area to hide them from some-one just riding along could find them. IMHO

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
 
The next set of 1 in a million circumstances with that bull is whats the odds of a tree killing the second best bull to ever walk the bookcliffs? 1 in 100000 million?

I'm just not buying into the tree fell on it scenario! I've heard of way to many BS attempts at finding skulls in the off season. This is one of the reason the division wont let you keep a dead head in Utah. Tards would poach a buck hang the head up in a tree so the bugs and birds could eat it. They would then come back during shed season or summer time and say hey I found a 220" dead head. Lion must have killed it! They poach a buck and stick it in a fence and say o it got stuck in a fence. A friend of mine seen that scenario last year! They poach a buck and just leave it in a ravine covered in brush ect. Now it looks like they lay a log on top of it and say look what I found. One in a million a tree fell on it!

avatar_2528.jpg
 
interesting. maybe the bull put his antler under the fallen log and it got stuck. it looks like it is under there pretty good in the first photo. it also looks like his leg is between his antler and the log, like he was trying to pull himself out. then maybe while he was stuck the smaller tree fell on him. i have seen a lot of photos of weird things before. it looks like a lot of effort for a poacher to set this up. you would think they would have hidden it a little better so they would be the one to find it when they came back. maybe i am naieve, but it looks legit to me. call me a sucker.
 
It appears the logs fell perpendicular to the slope rather than parallel, where the surrounding logs have all fallen parallel to the slope. Am I missing something? I am in the suspicious pool. Angles just don't play out in this one that all things could happen naturally.
 
All I know is I am bullheaded strong and even at 6'4" & 260lbs it would have taken at least several men of my stature to "place" aspen trees that big anywhere....let alone over a big bull rack on a fairly steep slope. Not an easy feat. And if you look at the opposite slope in the one shot there are trees laying in a whole mixture of orientations too...........who know, bizarre for sure regardless of how he met his end. All I have to say is "holymotherofpalmation!"
 
Only one of those trees was over the head,the antler was tucked under the two large ones.Anyone could pick up on end of that one and walk it over the top of that rack.You REALLY think that it fell on THAT bull and killed him?
 
DEFFINATELY a case of foul play here!! With all the bears in the book cliffs the poacher(s) knew that they could count on the body and bones getting scattered to hell and back making it hard to prove the shot that killed him. All they want is the head and horns anyway so you cover them up with a couple logs so the critters don't drag that part away. AS to WHY the big a$$ logs, well a bear can dig and move smaller logs. So you gotta have big enough logs that the bears won't just move them and drag the skull off too.
 
Those logs look huge. I don't think a poaher would have it inhis dirt bag body to go to all of the effort of moving some huge long logs when he could just get the jo done another easier way...


It was a big bodied 2 point.
 
Are you kidding me???

A top 0.5% bull is killed by one old tree and not one but two recent fallen trees?

Why would an old bull stick his antlers under a tree already lying on the ground???

And just what were these guys doing riding horses in an aspen thicket???

The perps are either in the photo or acquainted.

Sheeeesh.
 
I know the guys who found this bull.
I've known him for 30 years and can tell you that they found the bull legit and in fact, did not take it off the mountain. Don't blame the guys who found him. THEY DO NOT HAVE THE ANTLERS.
I love it when people start making wild a$$ accusations for no reason other than they don't have smiles on there faces.
Give me a break!
 
>Why arn't they smiling at all?
>Only thing I see on
>their face is guilt....

By the way, The DWR was contacted about this find immediately by the guys who found it.
 
man if i found that i would need a supply of inhalers to get my lungs in working order.
 
Has to be a poacher, just has to be. 3 logs fell on this one bull in a year? Maybe there was another really big bull that killed the big bull and then knocked down 3 trees and pushed them around to cover up his kill or maybe it was a group of big bulls that didn't like this bull.
 
>Are you kidding me???
>
>A top 0.5% bull is killed
>by one old tree and
>not one but two recent
>fallen trees?
>
>Why would an old bull stick
>his antlers under a tree
>already lying on the ground???
>
>
>And just what were these guys
>doing riding horses in an
>aspen thicket???
>
>The perps are either in the
>photo or acquainted.

The logic behind this statements makes me glad I have never found a patch of Marijuana. If you were to report it, everyone would think you grew it or know who did.
>
>Sheeeesh.
 
And the winner of the horns goes to WhiskeyMan.

"And just what were these guy's doing riding horses in an aspen thicket"

That must be the true sign of poachers,riding horses in aspen thickets.

LMAO
 
I did not and do not accuse the guys who found it of doing the poach job.

But it looks to me like foul play was what killed the bull, just by the circumstances, three trees fall on the things head? Then no points are broken off? RIGHT!!!

But these guys could be and likely are innocent. Whoever did the poaching was probably going to head in there this fall, or next spring.
 
Wow, what a bull!!! Some of you guys need to get away from the computer and go out hunting. Been sitting at the desk a little to long...
 
It's not the first time............


what_are_the_odds.jpg

_____________________________________
"Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid."

-John Wayne
 
Elk_nuts,

isn't it obvious that in that first pic somebody moved that big ass pine right on top of the bull?

Seriously, do we have a bunch of damn CSI investigators here? And then to try to lay blame on the folks that found it. Lame. Man, do you not get out and hunt, and scout? Do you not ever come across something strange, suspicious or out of the ordinary? If you do, are you automatically guilty just because you happened upon it and it is highly unlikely unless of course you had something to do with it. Lame.

Bull could have died from natural causes and trees fallen on it. Bull could have been killed by a predator and trees fallen on it. Bull could have been poached and trees placed on it.
I have even seen bulls rake their antlers in the dirt on a slope or in a wallow and he could have gotten stuck under the older logs. Who really knows?

Regardless, it is a cool find and an awesome bull. Wish we knew more, but it's not my place to lay blame and speculate.
 
What the hell are those guys doing riding their horses in the mountains??? Don't they know horses are supposed to be in pasture during the fall? How dare they be enjoying the woods this time of year!


Traditional >>>------->
 
>What the hell are those guys
>doing riding their horses in
>the mountains??? Don't they know
>horses are supposed to be
>in pasture during the fall?
>How dare they be enjoying
>the woods this time of
>year!
>
>
>Traditional >>>------->


Haha, exactly what I thought. Good hell!
 
> Very few trees fallen
>around the area.


It's stupid comments like this that keeps me from posting on here much anymore. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Did you not look at the pictures? No fallen trees?????????????? (Rolls Eyes)




_____________________________________
"Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid."

-John Wayne
 
"but it's not my place to lay blame and speculate."

We are posting in forums on the Internet - laying blame and speculation are basically required! Your whole post just makes me think you did it... See, that wasn't so hard!
 
I am going with the poacher theory. I too think they most likely covered the head hoping for bear and others to eat the body and not be able to take the head.


When they came for the road hunters I was not one so I said nothing. When they came for the oppurtunists I was not one so I said nothing. When they came for the public land hunters I was not one so I said nothing. When they came for me there was no one left to say anything!
 
Definately the work of a Yeti!! :)

I've seen a big strong wind knock down a bunch of trees all of a sudden before & it can get scary depending on how close they are falling to you!

It could have happened naturally.
 
Good for you 1FastGambler..!! Finally someone produced the most logical answer...

What do we know? The logs appear to be too heavy for MEN to move, it looks as though they were deliberately placed on the animal to prevent other animals from removing it, it looks like both natural causes and foul play...

In my mind there is only one explanation- BIG FOOT. Get your trail cams in there...!! Let's find the old boy...

This old bull must have really pissed him off...


"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24
 
Perhaps the medium log was already down but caught up agaist the big log. Elk comes by and starts rakinging the logs. Enough pressure is applied to the medium log that it shifts and pins antlers down.

It would be interesting to investigate the small tree. If it was a natural dead fall than what ever part of the rootball left on the trunk should match up with the original standing location which should only be feet away from the bottom of the tree.
 
Am i the only one who doesn't think there are three trees on it?

To me it looks like one the gray log it it close to that The bull went down next to that big log with the peeling bark.

Seems possible that the gray tree killed it and later a deadfall came to reast on top of it.
 
If it was a poach job, it doesn't really make sense to slide one antler under some trees and put a small tree on top of him, just to have his other antler sticking way up in the air to be seen easily by anyone. That group doesn't look like a bunch of poachers to me. Also if it was a poach job, why had they not come back to claim the sucker sooner? From the looks of it, it has been there for a good long time. Just about no skin left. Hard to imagine natural, but really doesn't make sense to be poached either. So to make myself feel better about mankind: Natural death:)
 
Pitiful looking pic with the mouth open like it is. As for the original pic, it was a great bull and a shame to die either by a poacher or a falling tree.

Rob





>
tree_elk_dead_3.jpg

>
>_____________________________________
>"Life's tough. It's even tougher if
>you're stupid."
>
>-John Wayne
 
Here is my speculation. Late last winter this bull was walking through some deep snow maybe stopped to rub and scrounge beneath the snow with his antlers or was grazing too close to the tree rubbing his antler or something and got it caught underneath the log. In his trashing and attempts to free himself he only buried the antler deeper, and tried to push himself off by stepping over the antler (see pic 1). Well he couldn't free himself so he expired and the smallest quakey fell on top of him post-mortem.


HOOK 'EM!
 
It seems to me that it's possible that the tree fell on the bull. While hitting the back of its head, his face was pushed downward and his left antler tines down towards the bottom of the grey log. The blow to the head probably didn't kill him right away but had him pinned down. It an atempt to free himself, he was using his left leg for leverage and pushing away from the grey log and thrashing his head around until his left side tines got hooked up under/around the grey log and his left leg got wedged under the tree too. At that point he was done, no way of getting out of that fix. Look at the log by his left front leg, it looks to me to be rubbed heavily. Probably from his antler or front leg while trying to free himself. Just a thought.


There's always next year
 
I studied the photos and all the replies. For all you ameteur CSI guys, here's the REAL "what happened": Definitely, yet skillfully poached. On a pre-season scouting trip, the poacher spotted this bull bedded down lying in the crook created by the two oldest and lowest lying logs. Skillfully, he snuck down on this bull within about 6 yards and shouldered the small aspen over, striking him exactly between the antlers. It didn't kill him, but it pinned him down. The poacher momentarily panicked, grabbed the closest deadfall to finish the job, but didn't have enough strength to completely pick up the large aspen. He could only raise one end, so he swung it like a baseball bat, lodging it beneath the small aspen and moving the larger of the two old logs onto his antler. In swinging the 1240 pounder, he ruptured a disk in his back. Without the strength to finish the bludgeoning, he went in with his pocket knife, slashed the jugular, and crawled home. That smart old bull actually tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure to the wound, which explains why he expired with his leg in the position it remained in photo #1. ANYONE could have seen THAT.
Are the poachers in the pics????? Probably not, however it IS a little fishy why the guy in the bottom photo is wearing VERY light-colored jeans and a light-colored shirt......They are very good "aspen camo" patterns..... Maybe to sneak up on another bull???? AND, his right arm seems to be in pain and have numb fingertips - sure signs of ruptered disk......FISHY!
.
.
IMHO - that was a great and once in a lifetime find.

edpre
 
I'm late in this conversation but I will say it is possible that a tree fell and killed him. Had a 2100 lb angus bull killed by a tree that fell during a wind and thunderstorm broke his back and the tree was only about 10 or 12 inches in diameter it had snaped off about 2 foot from the ground and caught the bull dead center. So yes I think it's possible.
 
Bigfoot, he's not even real! It looks to me like a small herd of caffeinated up Beavers are to blame! Look at all those other logs that were wind blows, or shall we say chewed and knocked over! Just goes to show you, do not trust a beaver! Poor bull!
 
It would have taken several guys to place those large logs on that bulls antlers--impossible. The poaching theory doesn't hold up unless it was possible to slide the antlers under the already fallen logs--old logs. Since the finders were able to pull it out from under the logs it goes to reason they could have just as easily been slipped up under the logs by someone else. The third log is movable by a man. I am leaning toward poached under the totality of the circumstances. Doesn't mean the finders are the poachers.

I don't buy the tree pattern argument. If you look in the background, trees fell in all directions.
 
I'll throw my guess out there. I say it was a natural death. The tines that were under the log have some serious curve to them. I think that the bull got them stuck under them somehow and couldnt ever get em out. Then the third and smallest log fell/rolled on it after. Thats the only way this makes sense to me.
 
WHAT?You should be running one of the govt conspiracy forums...

For GODS sake there are a bunch of PC pussies in this world!
 
Not a conspiracy freak but don't you think if trees that large fell on the rack like that it would have broken the rack badly?Just saying.
Best,
Jerry
 
Regardless of how this bull died I was very disappointed when I first received these pictures. The Book Cliffs are my back yard and this is a bull I've watched and picked up a couple years of his sheds. I'll try to post some pictures later on. If anyone finds out the outcome with this bull I would love to find where it ends up and be able to compare his years growth. His set the year before scored about 340. Looks like he grew quite a bit. I spent all last winter trying to relocate this bull but he never showed up. Now I know why.
 
>
>Not a conspiracy freak but don't
>you think if trees that
>large fell on the rack
>like that it would have
>broken the rack badly?Just saying.
>
>Best,
>Jerry


See post 38
 
>Regardless of how this bull died
>I was very disappointed when
>I first received these pictures.
>The Book Cliffs are my
>back yard and this is
>a bull I've watched and
>picked up a couple years
>of his sheds. I'll try
>to post some pictures later
>on. If anyone finds out
>the outcome with this bull
>I would love to find
>where it ends up and
>be able to compare his
>years growth. His set the
>year before scored about 340.
>Looks like he grew quite
>a bit. I spent all
>last winter trying to relocate
>this bull but he never
>showed up. Now I know
>why.


cant wait to see the pictures...........
 
LAST EDITED ON Sep-22-11 AT 02:16PM (MST)[p]http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/316724_10150305355628198_676878197_7895060_5791565_n.jpg. Not the best picture but there's a mtn dew can for comparison.
298308_10150305389148198_676878197_7895242_1818446785_n.jpg

321176_10150305389663198_676878197_7895243_1443912764_n.jpg

317878_10150305389888198_676878197_7895244_11929982_n.jpg

307390_10150305391313198_676878197_7895250_2051573937_n.jpg
 

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