S
stinkystomper
Guest
I've got a cliff hanger for you all. After 24 years of hunting with a bow my father may have finally killed his first bull elk with a bow, did I mention he's hunting with a bow. Did I also mention that in 24 years he has refused to go at it with anything else. I even bought him a muzzy tag this year that I ended up putting in my own name. I won't know for a couple more hours for sure, but here's the story.
It started out as my father came back home on Sunday because he was worried about work. We convinced him to go back, and this morning he headed back up to the gila (6 hour drive). I instructed him to sit at a certain waterhole which I've had trail cams on for 2 months now. The cameras take about 1200 pictures a night of all sorts of elk. Anyways, I instructed him that if he would sit in the crows nest of the windmill on that water hole he would get a bull. Well, at 5 pm today I called my friend, who also owns the ranch where I always hunt and told him my dad was back up there, and where he was at. I asked him to please go keep an eye on him. Jerry gladly agreed to do so and off he went. Jerry called me back up at before sundown(odd) pretty upset. Here's the story he told me. He arrived on a pretty good lookout with his 4yr old son in order to watch my father and to scout out where exactly the elk were moving. Immediately he noticed a good 350 bull about 1/2 mile from the water showing no signs of coming in because it was raining. By the way, all of this hunt is on public land. Next he looked at the water my father was sitting on only to find a 310 6x6 wallowing in it. All he could see was my fathers head bobbing up and down. This same thing happened last year and the bobbing was due to the fact that my father was so excited that he couldn't pull his bow. Well, 20 minutes past and the bull got out of the water, rounded up his cows and left. Jerry was a little upset and decided to go back to his house and cook the poor guy a steak. About 30 minutes later my father called him on the radio and relayed another set of events. What had actually happened was the my father was watching the bigger bull at the edge of the trees 1/2 mile away. As soon as he turned around he saw the bull Jerry had been watching wallowing in the water. My father is legally deaf and cannot hear a bull bugle at 10 yards, so there's no way he would have heard the elk come in. This is also why he's never been able to get a bull. Once he spotted the bull he wanted to draw but the cows had him pegged because of all the head bobbing he'd been doing watching the other bull. He was afraid to draw his bow and scare off the wallowing bull at 40 yards. After 20 minutes of wallowing, and my father and the cows having a stare down, the bull rounded up the cows and left. For some strange reason as soon as Jerry left, the bull rounded up his cows and came straight back to water. He said the bull walked straight to the edge of the water hole and just stood there. He took his rangefinder, clicked 57 yards 3 times, grabbed his mathews safari, came to full draw, settled his 60 yard pin square behind the bulls front shoulder allowed 6 more inches behind that point and squeezed the release. One sound he can still hear to this day for some reason is the impact of a projectile on an animal. Go figure. He heard the arrow cleary smack the bull at 57 yards. The cows took off and the bull ran 200 yards away to a very dark draw. He said all he could see was the bulls outline for about 30 minutes. The first 5 minutes the bull was staggering in place. Then it appeared as if the bull had either bedded or was kicking at a bed but his head was down. Then he decided the bull had been laid out flat the whole time and that his feet were kicking. Then he decided he didn't know what was happening but that now the bull was for sure laid out flat and his head was definitely not up. I know the canyon he's talking about, and when the sun is riding low all you can see is a dusty glow in the sky in which you can make out very little. He knows where the arrow went. He's knows the bull was straight broadside. He knows the bull was laid out. What do you guys think. I told him to eat a steak, go to bed and wait until first thing and then go back. Looks like they're heading back now. I hope it's not a mistake. Everything sounds good, but its dark and the bull is laid up so why not leave well enough alone. My dads so excited he cant think straight and there's no talkin him out of it. I will post back here as soon as he calls me back. Cross your fingers.
It started out as my father came back home on Sunday because he was worried about work. We convinced him to go back, and this morning he headed back up to the gila (6 hour drive). I instructed him to sit at a certain waterhole which I've had trail cams on for 2 months now. The cameras take about 1200 pictures a night of all sorts of elk. Anyways, I instructed him that if he would sit in the crows nest of the windmill on that water hole he would get a bull. Well, at 5 pm today I called my friend, who also owns the ranch where I always hunt and told him my dad was back up there, and where he was at. I asked him to please go keep an eye on him. Jerry gladly agreed to do so and off he went. Jerry called me back up at before sundown(odd) pretty upset. Here's the story he told me. He arrived on a pretty good lookout with his 4yr old son in order to watch my father and to scout out where exactly the elk were moving. Immediately he noticed a good 350 bull about 1/2 mile from the water showing no signs of coming in because it was raining. By the way, all of this hunt is on public land. Next he looked at the water my father was sitting on only to find a 310 6x6 wallowing in it. All he could see was my fathers head bobbing up and down. This same thing happened last year and the bobbing was due to the fact that my father was so excited that he couldn't pull his bow. Well, 20 minutes past and the bull got out of the water, rounded up his cows and left. Jerry was a little upset and decided to go back to his house and cook the poor guy a steak. About 30 minutes later my father called him on the radio and relayed another set of events. What had actually happened was the my father was watching the bigger bull at the edge of the trees 1/2 mile away. As soon as he turned around he saw the bull Jerry had been watching wallowing in the water. My father is legally deaf and cannot hear a bull bugle at 10 yards, so there's no way he would have heard the elk come in. This is also why he's never been able to get a bull. Once he spotted the bull he wanted to draw but the cows had him pegged because of all the head bobbing he'd been doing watching the other bull. He was afraid to draw his bow and scare off the wallowing bull at 40 yards. After 20 minutes of wallowing, and my father and the cows having a stare down, the bull rounded up the cows and left. For some strange reason as soon as Jerry left, the bull rounded up his cows and came straight back to water. He said the bull walked straight to the edge of the water hole and just stood there. He took his rangefinder, clicked 57 yards 3 times, grabbed his mathews safari, came to full draw, settled his 60 yard pin square behind the bulls front shoulder allowed 6 more inches behind that point and squeezed the release. One sound he can still hear to this day for some reason is the impact of a projectile on an animal. Go figure. He heard the arrow cleary smack the bull at 57 yards. The cows took off and the bull ran 200 yards away to a very dark draw. He said all he could see was the bulls outline for about 30 minutes. The first 5 minutes the bull was staggering in place. Then it appeared as if the bull had either bedded or was kicking at a bed but his head was down. Then he decided the bull had been laid out flat the whole time and that his feet were kicking. Then he decided he didn't know what was happening but that now the bull was for sure laid out flat and his head was definitely not up. I know the canyon he's talking about, and when the sun is riding low all you can see is a dusty glow in the sky in which you can make out very little. He knows where the arrow went. He's knows the bull was straight broadside. He knows the bull was laid out. What do you guys think. I told him to eat a steak, go to bed and wait until first thing and then go back. Looks like they're heading back now. I hope it's not a mistake. Everything sounds good, but its dark and the bull is laid up so why not leave well enough alone. My dads so excited he cant think straight and there's no talkin him out of it. I will post back here as soon as he calls me back. Cross your fingers.
If that was the case, I might be out there too! Is it a mistake to go back? Might be. If the bulls head truly wasn't up, the steak he will be eating tonight is elk steak! Once their head hits the dirt it's usually over. One thing for certain, if he jumps him tonight and calls you, get him out of there. Nothing worst than jumping a bull elk and getting his adrenline going... man those things can cover some country! Keep us posted.
