Hello all-
Here's my 2016 late November Unit 54-1 bull just back from the taxidermist today. A special shout-out, and thank you, goes to Mightyhunter for giving me the inspiration, knowledge, and verbal assistance in preparation for this hunt and even more suggestions during my hunt. It's rare these days to get much help from anyone, but since 54-1 is so hard to draw, I think its easier for some to help a fellow hunter out on a once and a lifetime tag....others would never consider assisting. So for that I say thank you Mighty!
This late Nov hunt was challenging due to the snow that came in and ultimately limited my access to the public land up high. Even the snowmobilers had a rough go, and more interesting, the highest parts of this hunt actually became devoid of elk for the outfitters a few days after the snow stopped. Well, maybe not fully devoid, but there was rumor around that they had basically abandoned the main travel corridor for other spots for one reason or another.
At the end of the day, I ended up hunting a couple spots with lower access, and also suffered through some long/snowy hikes in attempt to make it up the back way to O'Hara to no avail. The wind and cold were extremely tough to deal with.
Thankfully I had the good fortune of having my buddy from CO join me on this hunt, and on his 6th and last day with me, he actually spotted a string of 12-13 bulls making their away across Bald Ridge one evening at dusk. He was departing that evening for home/thanksgiving, and I was extremely grateful he joined me on this trip. I have to credit his eagle eyes for spotting this band of bulls from 5 miles away...as we were driving 55mph back to cody.
There's nothing like that empty feeling of being all on my own the next day...but I had a plan, and I figured I could get it done. I made it to the trailhead at 9am and started the hike up. Thank god for onXMaps. Although I had to billy goat up a rock mountain to stay off the private, I finally made it up high enough that I could descend into the canyon and take a safer route to the top.
I made it to the top of the canyon around 3pm and found myself in a pretty grass basin with ridge tops surrounding me. I looked around, took in my new perspective, gauged my general distance from the road/vehicle, and basically agreed with myself that this is where the bulls crossed into the evening prior.
Standing in the middle of this snowy pasture, looking up toward a south facing saddle, I all of the sudden have 1 bull jogging toward me and angling toward the central high spot of this pasture, then another, then another....13 of them single filed up to this saddle, look at me standing 550yds away in the center of this basin, and start feeding! Absolutely Crazy. I actually believe that with the right wind and 400-500yds between you, if your standing still, elk will basically ignore you....or maybe I just got a tad lucky. 300 yards or less is a different ballgame though. Anyway, the wind was in my favor, and these bulls obviously had food on their mind.
Anyway, I had been standing there for maybe 2 minutes, its now 3pm, and I have all 13 bulls are feeding at 550yds. Just as GOD had planned, there was a swale in the middle of the grassy basin that gave me the cover to belly crawl across the snow and up onto a small rise. I was now 450yds and could get no closer. I had the opportunity to study all of these bulls pretty carefully, and ironically only 1 really stood out.
As I was watching this bachelor herd, I then saw 3 really super bulls at 1000yds stuck into a little wedge of the opposing canyon. They were remarkably bigger, but with 13 in my path, and no way to get a foot closer, or around them, I decided on the biggest bull of this bunch. One shot at 450yds and he crumbled. He was quartering away, and when I heard the hit, he went down instantly. I was very taken back by that. Once I quartered him, I figured out that I hit him back in the ribs and angled all the way through both lungs and cracked his opposing left inside shoulder with the 300RUM. I love my RUM chambered with 180gr Scirocco's, but any shot I make at 450yds has to be chalked up to a little bit of good fortune. My longest elk to date had been 212yds!
Anyway, the story gets better. My buddy who joined me for the first 6 days actually took fantastic video that I've finally edited down to 120 minutes. I will post that on YouTube this coming weekend. It is quite a cinematographic filming event with plenty of bulls, rutting mule deer, sheep rutting, wolves, and constant action he tapped over 6 days of following me around.
Anyway, on the first day of our hunt, after the snow finally stopped, we decided on a lower country hike that Mighty suggested, and after 3 hours of bumping piles of deer and a few elk, we came across 3 bulls in a lower pasture. One bull was the obvious standout, the other 2 were smaller. He was missing his left 2nd brow point, and the video clearly documented this bull at 330yds. My buddy nearly begged me to harvest this bull, but being the first day, I passed. Well my friends, this is the exact same bull I harvested on the 7th day nearly 4 miles away.....and its undeniable. We have still photos of him, video, and then I took pics after the harvest...its the same bull.
Thought I should post my pic anyway. Any guesses on score? Hope you enjoyed my adventure as much as I did
chris
Here's my 2016 late November Unit 54-1 bull just back from the taxidermist today. A special shout-out, and thank you, goes to Mightyhunter for giving me the inspiration, knowledge, and verbal assistance in preparation for this hunt and even more suggestions during my hunt. It's rare these days to get much help from anyone, but since 54-1 is so hard to draw, I think its easier for some to help a fellow hunter out on a once and a lifetime tag....others would never consider assisting. So for that I say thank you Mighty!
This late Nov hunt was challenging due to the snow that came in and ultimately limited my access to the public land up high. Even the snowmobilers had a rough go, and more interesting, the highest parts of this hunt actually became devoid of elk for the outfitters a few days after the snow stopped. Well, maybe not fully devoid, but there was rumor around that they had basically abandoned the main travel corridor for other spots for one reason or another.
At the end of the day, I ended up hunting a couple spots with lower access, and also suffered through some long/snowy hikes in attempt to make it up the back way to O'Hara to no avail. The wind and cold were extremely tough to deal with.
Thankfully I had the good fortune of having my buddy from CO join me on this hunt, and on his 6th and last day with me, he actually spotted a string of 12-13 bulls making their away across Bald Ridge one evening at dusk. He was departing that evening for home/thanksgiving, and I was extremely grateful he joined me on this trip. I have to credit his eagle eyes for spotting this band of bulls from 5 miles away...as we were driving 55mph back to cody.
There's nothing like that empty feeling of being all on my own the next day...but I had a plan, and I figured I could get it done. I made it to the trailhead at 9am and started the hike up. Thank god for onXMaps. Although I had to billy goat up a rock mountain to stay off the private, I finally made it up high enough that I could descend into the canyon and take a safer route to the top.
I made it to the top of the canyon around 3pm and found myself in a pretty grass basin with ridge tops surrounding me. I looked around, took in my new perspective, gauged my general distance from the road/vehicle, and basically agreed with myself that this is where the bulls crossed into the evening prior.
Standing in the middle of this snowy pasture, looking up toward a south facing saddle, I all of the sudden have 1 bull jogging toward me and angling toward the central high spot of this pasture, then another, then another....13 of them single filed up to this saddle, look at me standing 550yds away in the center of this basin, and start feeding! Absolutely Crazy. I actually believe that with the right wind and 400-500yds between you, if your standing still, elk will basically ignore you....or maybe I just got a tad lucky. 300 yards or less is a different ballgame though. Anyway, the wind was in my favor, and these bulls obviously had food on their mind.
Anyway, I had been standing there for maybe 2 minutes, its now 3pm, and I have all 13 bulls are feeding at 550yds. Just as GOD had planned, there was a swale in the middle of the grassy basin that gave me the cover to belly crawl across the snow and up onto a small rise. I was now 450yds and could get no closer. I had the opportunity to study all of these bulls pretty carefully, and ironically only 1 really stood out.
As I was watching this bachelor herd, I then saw 3 really super bulls at 1000yds stuck into a little wedge of the opposing canyon. They were remarkably bigger, but with 13 in my path, and no way to get a foot closer, or around them, I decided on the biggest bull of this bunch. One shot at 450yds and he crumbled. He was quartering away, and when I heard the hit, he went down instantly. I was very taken back by that. Once I quartered him, I figured out that I hit him back in the ribs and angled all the way through both lungs and cracked his opposing left inside shoulder with the 300RUM. I love my RUM chambered with 180gr Scirocco's, but any shot I make at 450yds has to be chalked up to a little bit of good fortune. My longest elk to date had been 212yds!
Anyway, the story gets better. My buddy who joined me for the first 6 days actually took fantastic video that I've finally edited down to 120 minutes. I will post that on YouTube this coming weekend. It is quite a cinematographic filming event with plenty of bulls, rutting mule deer, sheep rutting, wolves, and constant action he tapped over 6 days of following me around.
Anyway, on the first day of our hunt, after the snow finally stopped, we decided on a lower country hike that Mighty suggested, and after 3 hours of bumping piles of deer and a few elk, we came across 3 bulls in a lower pasture. One bull was the obvious standout, the other 2 were smaller. He was missing his left 2nd brow point, and the video clearly documented this bull at 330yds. My buddy nearly begged me to harvest this bull, but being the first day, I passed. Well my friends, this is the exact same bull I harvested on the 7th day nearly 4 miles away.....and its undeniable. We have still photos of him, video, and then I took pics after the harvest...its the same bull.
Thought I should post my pic anyway. Any guesses on score? Hope you enjoyed my adventure as much as I did
chris
