400" Bitterroot Mt Bull?

bittersweetmuleymeat · Nov 5, 2005

RUMOR has been floating around Game Warden confinscated a 390" to some say 400" Bull from a rifle hunter that had previously filled his elk tag in archery season. Suposedly within the last week or so. East side of Bitterroot Valley. Anyone know the scoop? Im guessing the "size" part of the poaching story was exaggerated, but hey, if your gonna get in trouble, why not "BIG" trouble.
Bittersweet

RockyDog · Nov 5, 2005

Heres the BitterFroot scoring system.

310 is really 280.
350 is really 310.
im guessing a 400 in this frooty valley will end up being around 350.

Hornseeker · Nov 8, 2005

The problem with the Bitterfruit is that not many guys really get out and hammer it, not like I do. Most these guys head out on the weekend and walk a mile up the trail and might see a little raggy 320 bull (guys like Rockydog), then when someone claims to see a real piggo, like a 380 or 400 bull, they call BS...
Couple guys like myself, that get out there and pound it hard, hunting from dawn till dusk, covering 15-30 miles on foot a day, might be passing up 340 bulls on a daily basis, just trying to find those couple 400's that we saw while scouting in August. Just cause you cant run with the big dogs dont mean there aren't big bulls out there boys.

Bozeman · Nov 8, 2005

LAST EDITED ON Nov-08-05 AT 07:15PM (MST)[p]You call a 320 bull a raggy? and passing up 340 bulls on a daily basis? Wow I guess you must be a professional hunter. Walking 15-30 miles a day. If you truly walk that far it doesn't leave much time for glassing. Walking 2 miles an hour thats 14 miles in 7 hours.

RockyDog · Nov 8, 2005

Hornseeker is one of those fruiters, a couple years ago he was telling me about this bull he killed that would be a booner, then it was confiscated for not being legal, it didnt have long enough browtines.

RockyDog · Nov 8, 2005

One time i came along Hornseeker walking on a logging road. I asked him what he was walking the road for, he said he had only walked 29 miles that day and he needed to put in 30. This was the 45th road hed crossed on his jaunt.

Zigga · Nov 8, 2005

LAST EDITED ON Nov-08-05 AT 08:40PM (MST)[p]Hornseeker,

Post pics of your trophy room PLEASE!!!!!!!!

cauch · Nov 8, 2005

There are no good animals around the bitterroot area. No need for people to be making a hunting trip over there.

Hornseeker · Nov 9, 2005

Its tough to build up a good trophy room when you are passing up 340 bulls all the time. Every once in a while I'll shmack a little raggy 320 bull for meat, but rarely would I waste my energy packing that bone out of the woods....some wannabe like Rockydog probably stumbles upon my old 320 racks in the woods in the spring and wrestles it all the way out to his truck so he can put it in his "trophy horn pile".

I figure eventually I'll get the drop on one of my big boys, the 380-425 bulls, but until then, the trophy room will be barren.

If I'm on trail I cruise about 5 mph, off trail usually brings me down to about 3.5 maybe 4 mph. Rockydog didnt say I was at a jog as I passed him on the logging road....and that was after 29 miles already.

muleyman · Nov 9, 2005

30 miles per day??? I think I remember a post a while back that you said you have been achery hunting for the past 5 years and yet to connect? Why the heck are you passing up 320-340 bulls when you haven't killed on yet? Or are you really telling the truth? Just curious...

muleyman

drahthaar · Nov 9, 2005

I hope you guys know each other. That is some big time smack you boys are putting out there.

I don't know anyone hunting MT that would pass a 320 bull, if they really know what a 320 bull looks like.

ktc · Nov 9, 2005

Horny,

You guys are joking. Right? 25-30 miles a day?

A horse walks about 2.5 miles an hour. I have only seen one guy in 25 years that could outlast one. I have heard of a few others. 12 hours of light X 2.5 mph= 30. Now dude, are you really telling the truth or just joking?

It is like dragging a deer 500 yards out of a hell hole. Every guy who does it tells me how this deer weighed 425 pounds gutted. I realize that every tug up the hill these deer are gaining a few pounds and by the time we reach the top it feels like we drug out an elephant even though it was only 137 pound buck.

I rode a horse on a cattle drive down a paved road. I road about 15 miles that day. I was so tired and sore I felt like my ass had to be surgically removed from the saddle leather. It took almost all day long to boot.

Keep on truckin' Horny!;-)

bittersweetmuleymeat · Nov 9, 2005

HORNSEEKER, You have some very very very interesting things to say about the Root, and "trophy" quality of the animals there. Remember a 320 "meat bull" is alot more likely to become a 400" bull than, lets say, a COW ELK. Guess I have been looking behind the wrong trees there for the last 30+ years. Bittersweet

Hornseeker · Nov 9, 2005

Yeah, I was just kiddin, I actually put on about 35-40 miles a day and pass up the 350-360 bulls.

hehehe

Just smackin rocky around a bit, he's a bud that lives a few miles away, sorry to hijack your post Bittersweet. I haven't heard anything about a 400 bull being poached yet this year...I did hear about a bull being poached near Lolo here, but never did get the size. I saw a 320-330 bull on some private up here...hope it wasn't that one, I was scheming on how to waylay him when he stepped off!

Good Luck All,

Ernie

Deadred707 · Nov 9, 2005

I was up there last week and saw a verey nice bull just up the hill from the old elk farm at Rye creek south of Darby. Father in law lives just across the road was able to set up spotting scope out the back door of the house.Loved it up there looking to go back soon.

Kyle

sheepeater · Nov 10, 2005

Ernesto-Did you kill your goat yet?
Jamie

bittersweetmuleymeat · Nov 10, 2005

Whew, I feel a little better now. Just thought I was doing something wrong as I have put on a few miles over the years here too. I was just curious as to the supossed size of this bull that was (possibly) killed. Im guessing it was the typical gross overestimate. Glad the guy got pegged though if thats the case. Be safe. Bittersweet

Hornseeker · Nov 10, 2005

Thats a sour topic Jamie...but no, and dont plan on it either....I sorta described it in the moose/sheep/goat forum. I was not prepared for the number of goats I'd be seeing, I thought surely it would be more....and that was putting on 25-30 miles a day up there ! :0)

sheepeater · Nov 10, 2005

I feel your pain I ate that tag as well, I tore up my ankle early in October and couldnt go back in until middle of november, by then there was five feet of snow, and it was sliding everywhere. One thing that Kurt Alt the Biologist told me was that sometime in wolf creek they will come down in elevation, might be worth checking into, another option would be to see if the Carrolls will let you access the old burn from the ranch, I have seen alot of goats up there in deeper snow. You should give it another shot, heck maybe one of the toad Madisonian bulls will be up there.
Jamie