The bull was taken in the Murderers Creek unit of central/eastern Oregon. Dave got it on opening day. A group of us were working down various draws off a ridge near camp. Dave was just finishing some "business" in the bushes when his son in law (new to hunting) began excitedly exclaiming "elk, elk, elk!" Dave looked up on the hillside on the opposite of the draw and there were four branch antlered bulls quietly trying to slip up to the timber approximately 250-300 yards away. He said he thought he was dreaming. They must of been bedded down and thought they were hidden pretty good. But thanks to Dave's "delay", they got nervous and tried to sneak out. With britches yet to be buckled he sat down and got two shots into the bull before the disappeared into the timber. Luckily there was lots of fresh snow so the tracking wasn't too bad and Dave caught up with him for the final time about 400 yards up the draw.
The cape is fine and he is having the head mounted. The weather was well below freezing and the cape was salted right away. The pictures look a ittle sad because I was trying to find the bulls buddies each day and was not back in cap until well after dark until the last day. A couple of us passed up spikes not wanting to be out done so early in the hunt) and did see a few other branch antlered bulls, but were not a bable to catch up with them.
Even though I struck out it was fun to be part of Dave's Elkventure!
Brett
