This hunt started with a phone call from Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. I received a message on Tuesday the 30th stating that I was the first alternate for the Monroe archery bull tag and that if I wanted this hunt I'd have to return the call by noon the next day. Immediately I tried to get in touch with my buddy who is an avid elk hunter from Utah to see if he could drop everything on short notice to help me out. Luckily his wife understood and gave him the go ahead! Anyway, since the hunt had started the week prior we had to plan fast. He spent Labor Day weekend scouting while I got things ready on my end.
The hunt- I showed up and set up camp on Friday the 9th and the hunting began the next morning. Just to keep the story short I'll say that we passed up 15 bulls the first day. All of them would break the 280 range. This didn't mean much to me because I would have probably stuck any one of them if it weren't for my friend. He had much higher expectations for me! The second morning Bo finally said there's your bull (360ish). We spotted him about 400 yards out pushing his cows into another canyon. We ran and got ahead of them to set up. We didn't do any calling as they were all feeding right into us. I had time to range one small tree that I thought the bull would step by. He did but, for whatever reason (bullfever?), I shot right over his back.
The next afternoon (day 3) we decided to move further North on the unit to check out some different bulls. We managed to call in 2 bulls that Bo made me pass on. Finally we heard a bugle about 150 yards out that sounded interesting so Bo dropped back off this ledge and started cow calling. The goal was to have the bull pass below me for a 20 yard shot. Well things got interesting when the bull came up the ledge and above me. As he came in I could see that he had good fronts and a lot of mass but couln't really on Bo to tell me to pass or shoot. I decided he was a shooter. When he stepped behind some pines I came to full draw. He came in strong to twenty yards but then hung up quartering towards me. Bo let out one last cow call that made him turn broadside and move forward. I rotated, still at full draw, and let him pass me slightly (now at 5 yards). He stopped to rip out a bugle and that's when I let the air out of him. He ran uphill about 50 yards but stopped when we cow called him. That's as far as he made it.