Two Manti bulls for father & son

arch3614elk · Sep 27, 2007

When my new nephew Jerime(he married my neice) told me him and his dad drew two Manti-Lasal tags I didn't hesitate at all to offer my help. This was going to be their first time hunting a limited entry unit for elk. I wanted to help out any way I could, if it was spotting or calling elk in or even videotape some of the hunt I was willing. Opening morning I could barely keep up with Jerime on his ATV he was ready to start his hunt. With the sun coming up we were at the top of a canyon that was enormous, wide and steep. He knew the area very well and was very confident that we would see (or hear) elk. His brother was about a mile across from us and had spotted one bull early in the morning and his dad at the bottom of the canyon. Jerime bugled and we got a response about a half mile away and no way to get close to it. Not much happenned that morning we tried two more areas but it wasn't that productive. We went back to camp to talk with his dad and to hear what his dad had seen. It was very inspiring to see how excited Jerime and his brother and his dad were about the morning hunt, listening to what they saw and didn't see. My wife and I got got to their camp pretty late the night before and didn't get a chance to meet all of Jerime's family. That morning I met his grandfather who was just sitting there soaking up the conversation. He told me he was too old to walk the moutatiins and his eyesight wasn't the best anymore. After getting something to eat Jerime ask what I thought about the hunt. I told him we needed to be in the pines. The elk weren't talking much. it was still to warm and the rut was just getting started. So we made our way to an area that had a lot pines. When we got to the canyon Jerime picked out it was a good area to where we could get closer to them. We started our way down I was thinking to myself we are walking way to fast and not listening. I asked Jerime to to a cow call and we got a very fast response from a buglein the pines 300 yards away from us. We slowly this time made our way cloer to this bull. We sat and paused for a minute to call and see if the bull was still interested. Just as we sat down we jumped a cow that wasn't too spooked by us. we cow called and calmed her down enough to feed and walk away in to the quakies in fron of us. As soon as we did that we heard a second bull bugle. We could hear him moving and getting close. I had the camera rolling just in case. After about five minutes we got a glimpse of the bull, he was slowly pushing some cows out that were calling back to us. He was a nice 6x6. We were in the perfect spot. He could hear us cow calling and bugling. we were down wind from him and he was coming toward us. We put the range finder on him and had him at 250 yards. Jerime was getting in to position to take a shot and the bull wasn't going to come any closer and started to make his way back in the pines. I told jerime I would cow call to keep him interested in us. We got the bull back in the open at 210 yards. I told Jerime I had the bull on my camera and he was broadside. When Jerime shot the bull hunched and ran in to the pines. We heard him crash. This was a great shot on a good bull.

After Jerime had his bull down the ONLY other thing he could say was now it's my dads turn. The next weekend his dad got his bull.

I think they are both good bulls. I haven't had time to put the tape together of Jerimes bull but when I do I will show all of you. You actually see the bullet and it's tragectory. This was a very fun hunt. I usually get paid to do videotape and guide hunters. This was by far the most fun.