R
Rattler
Guest
I had a Manti Muzzy LE Elk tag this year. I did a lot of scouting and knew where the cows and bulls would be. We hunted hard the first three days. No shooter bulls came into view. We did have a night with 5 different satellite bulls came in to our calls. Saturday was the last full day my brother could be there for the hunt so we planned to head on down to the bottom of the canyon despite the call for rain. We worked our way down the draw and about 10:30 I jumped 17 head of cows at 20 yards. My brother was 40 yards behind me and couldn't see them. I started to cow call and I heard the herd bull starting to come in. I saw him at about 90 yards but it was almost straight on and there was no shot. All of a sudden my cow call stopped working. My brother didn't see the bull so wasn't making any calls. The bull knew something was up and took off. We heard another bull just over the ridge line and down in the pines. We crept up over the ridge and there was a bull on the opposite ridge at 290 yards. I climbed down to make a play on him. I could only get to with in 279 yards. I knew my gun was 6" low at 200 yards. I did some calculations knowing my brother was leaving the next day and this might be my only shot. I aimed 6" over his back and fired. As the smoke cleared I see him heading up hill 10 yards from where he was standing. I was discouraged to see him running and then he took a staggering step and then rolled 50 yards down the mountain. It was only a little over 1/2 a mile to the ATV but a change of 1,000' in elevation. It was 12 hours with four guys to get him out. This was a week from last Saturday when we had all of the rain. We dropped the last load of packs at dark and had to get my 64 year old dad out because he was starting to suffer from hypothermia. It was an awesome trip that I will never forget. It makes me really appreciate having a brother that went the extra mile with me.
