First Bull Taken by Jae Pregill. After four years of working the hills...his passion took a new turn for the better. Jae Successfully took a beautiful 6x6 Bull. This boy threw everything at Jae. He gave the show we all hope for.... a screaming bugling bull that was somewhat upset and so pissed off at our "Cow & Calf Calls" that he had little time to think about the arrow that passed threw him at 35 yards. Confused to the sound and sudden impact... He ran off to take a nap.
Jae being so excited.... jumped up and down several time the moment he saw his first blood, that he had a fat lip from his binoculars hitting him in the lip everytime he bounced.
Tactics used...
Bugle to locate... cow calls to talk to him...wind indicator to flank him.... we moved around to the opposite side of him... even though the wind was favorable. Our move kept him from the old standard hang up... He double back to intercept us. I was 75-100 yard behind Jae calling... He responded to everything we did... unlike most times in the woods.
Driving into Idaho.
From first light we were on a bull. 2000 vertical feet and 4 miles from the truck later... it would have been nice to chase the bull by the truck. However, Grass is greener on the other side of the Mountain... besides we came to bivy hunt!
Wasted...Bivy Nap we had just missed a good 5x5 that got away... which was just fine... this was the furtherst from any vechicle.
Beautiful Elk Habitat. Do not try and hunt this area unless you've been a hurdler in Track... TONS of DEAD FALL and Bushwacking!
filtering was a must... tons of water everywhere.
GPS in first access country was another must. Along with a good Topo map. Very easy to get disoriented. Another lesson... Always carry your pack. Never think you'll come back... Going light without essentials is hazardous. We saved many a trips choosing to take our whole packs instead of shedding our heavy 50-60 lbs packs. We planned for 3 days out.
I carried a CanonGL2 Digital Camera hoping to get footage of taking a bull. But... Sometimes you have to do what you got to do to get the bull to come in... Three people would be the ideal number for hunting a bull with camera... but we were only two.. So no kill shots... only point a shoot. We knew we were close as the bull started to lean on the pines.....
BULL DOWN... Funny thing was we talked to an outfitter that said... "he had 22 clients last year. None were bigger than this one, as only 5 of his clients filled their tags. The Area apparently has been managed by the ID Fish and Game as a meat unit... Tons of cow tags are available... depleating the elk." We were very impressed by what we had heard, helping us appreciate this bull even more.
Jae Pregill First Bull taken with Archery
Jae devotes any spare time to scouting.. He had made several trips to the area and talked with Biologist and locals. To them we thank for their insight. Yet, it was Jae's determination to grit this hunt out as a whatever it takes attitude. Jae earned this bull! Having taken my first bull just two years earlier, I couldn't have been more excited. Everyone deserves to take a bull...until then get working and get out in the hills.
IDAHO treated us well. One more tag to fill.Jaes also bought a MT tag... So we could hunt both side of the divide.
We had Money to pay an outfitter... But decided we'd carry it out and use our money on the next bull as we realized we had an access road 3/10th of a mile uphill. We spent all day skinning, quartering, and hauling that bull out. We took out the entire hide to the knees. Crazy, but this was the first bull and now Jae had options to do some fun stuff with his hide. It was like carrying a five gallon bucket of cement up the hill.... I had this stupid task. But happy to help Jae. As you can tell the work stir up a sweat. We make four trips.
After the fourth and final trip we still had our truck parked four miles away. We then began the bushwacking marathon-sprint. We took fanny-packs, water and took off. 2hrs later we reached the trucks. Loaded up in 5 minutes and drove around 12 miles to reach our meat. Not to mention one flat tire and a broken jack later.
The next day $900 tires were bought as we dropped off the meat and visited the taxidermist.
Alot of years dreaming to get to this point. Finally it all paid off.
We'll be back in a couple days for the later part of the month.. Hopefully we'll have more to share.
MIDNIGHT
Jae being so excited.... jumped up and down several time the moment he saw his first blood, that he had a fat lip from his binoculars hitting him in the lip everytime he bounced.
Tactics used...
Bugle to locate... cow calls to talk to him...wind indicator to flank him.... we moved around to the opposite side of him... even though the wind was favorable. Our move kept him from the old standard hang up... He double back to intercept us. I was 75-100 yard behind Jae calling... He responded to everything we did... unlike most times in the woods.
Driving into Idaho.
From first light we were on a bull. 2000 vertical feet and 4 miles from the truck later... it would have been nice to chase the bull by the truck. However, Grass is greener on the other side of the Mountain... besides we came to bivy hunt!
Wasted...Bivy Nap we had just missed a good 5x5 that got away... which was just fine... this was the furtherst from any vechicle.
Beautiful Elk Habitat. Do not try and hunt this area unless you've been a hurdler in Track... TONS of DEAD FALL and Bushwacking!
filtering was a must... tons of water everywhere.
GPS in first access country was another must. Along with a good Topo map. Very easy to get disoriented. Another lesson... Always carry your pack. Never think you'll come back... Going light without essentials is hazardous. We saved many a trips choosing to take our whole packs instead of shedding our heavy 50-60 lbs packs. We planned for 3 days out.
I carried a CanonGL2 Digital Camera hoping to get footage of taking a bull. But... Sometimes you have to do what you got to do to get the bull to come in... Three people would be the ideal number for hunting a bull with camera... but we were only two.. So no kill shots... only point a shoot. We knew we were close as the bull started to lean on the pines.....
BULL DOWN... Funny thing was we talked to an outfitter that said... "he had 22 clients last year. None were bigger than this one, as only 5 of his clients filled their tags. The Area apparently has been managed by the ID Fish and Game as a meat unit... Tons of cow tags are available... depleating the elk." We were very impressed by what we had heard, helping us appreciate this bull even more.
Jae Pregill First Bull taken with Archery
Jae devotes any spare time to scouting.. He had made several trips to the area and talked with Biologist and locals. To them we thank for their insight. Yet, it was Jae's determination to grit this hunt out as a whatever it takes attitude. Jae earned this bull! Having taken my first bull just two years earlier, I couldn't have been more excited. Everyone deserves to take a bull...until then get working and get out in the hills.
IDAHO treated us well. One more tag to fill.Jaes also bought a MT tag... So we could hunt both side of the divide.
We had Money to pay an outfitter... But decided we'd carry it out and use our money on the next bull as we realized we had an access road 3/10th of a mile uphill. We spent all day skinning, quartering, and hauling that bull out. We took out the entire hide to the knees. Crazy, but this was the first bull and now Jae had options to do some fun stuff with his hide. It was like carrying a five gallon bucket of cement up the hill.... I had this stupid task. But happy to help Jae. As you can tell the work stir up a sweat. We make four trips.
After the fourth and final trip we still had our truck parked four miles away. We then began the bushwacking marathon-sprint. We took fanny-packs, water and took off. 2hrs later we reached the trucks. Loaded up in 5 minutes and drove around 12 miles to reach our meat. Not to mention one flat tire and a broken jack later.
The next day $900 tires were bought as we dropped off the meat and visited the taxidermist.
Alot of years dreaming to get to this point. Finally it all paid off.
We'll be back in a couple days for the later part of the month.. Hopefully we'll have more to share.
MIDNIGHT
