My Unit 201 Rifle bull

[LuckyHntr]

Had a fun hunt, saw 100 to 150 5/6 point bulls in two days of hunting, just crazy. The evening before, we heard bugling constantly for over 3 hours. Spent a lot of time sneaking around good bulls at less than 100 yards. This felt like a once in a lifetime experience, which it is, ha. In this area, we liked this bull the most. Passed on a couple that would probably scored better.

 

[jls456]

Way to go. Nice Bull.

 

[Cohntr62]

Congrats on a beautiful bull. But I have to say when you're seeing 100-150 5-6 pt. bulls in 2 days, you'd think the DOW could increase the tag allotment a bit. The number of points required to draw these premium units is crazy.

 

[Snoopdogg]

That's a crap load of bulls, and that's a helluva bull. Congrats.

 

[Elkduds]

Excellent, congratulations. 201 is my dream hunt, even for cows, just to see and hear all those bulls. I'll never get to a bull hunt there.

 

[cmbbulldog]

Sounds like a fun hunt, have any more pics?

 

[FamilyMan]

WHAT?! I simply can't imagine that many bulls.

Can the range possibly sustain that number of elk, or should more tags be made available?

Mark

My hunting spot is so secret, not even the elk have found it yet.

 

[FamilyMan]

By the way - how about some more pictures of your bull.

Mark

My hunting spot is so secret, not even the elk have found it yet.

 

[peanut]

Great bull, great memories.
Congratulations

 

[Mnbearhunter123]

Awesome bull!! See any bucks out their? I'll be out there in a couple weeks. Can't wait!

 

[LuckyHntr]

Here are a couple more pictures.

I heard the local rancher and outfitter Raftoupolis, runs 10,000 head of cattle in this unit. Black cows are everywhere and they were there last year and I think every year. But, there was so much grass and so many places to water, the range looked good to me. Many ponds must be spring feed, because they don't dry up. So many cow pies near water.

Met some hunters from Arizona who drew with 27 pts. They figured that most hunters were in their 60s, which I wouldn't doubt could be true...

By the way, you don't have to wait to hunt. Raftoupolis has a tag for purchase at a bargain price of $17k. THere is a trophy fee on top of that. He has some leases and chunks of private in the extreme northwest corner of the unit, but one thing I enjoyed was the complete lack of private property. You could go where you wanted, lots of roads and lots of fences. I believe the state bought almost all the private property and made it state trust land.

I like how the state manages it. It is a true trophy unit. Some of the bulls we passed were one year away from being great. I think the bull I shot could have used another year. There are some good genetics in there.

The deer seem to be on an upturn. Lots of younger looking deer and young bucks. Actually, was surprised how many deer there were. I am concerned about the lions when I stumbled onto two different lion kills and one was a good buck. Didn't see any big bucks, one good buck. A bow hunter from Craig has been shooting coyotes and that might be helping the deer population.

Eddie, if you read this post your picture! You got a big heavy old bull.

Will see if I can get permission to post a couple bow kills, big bulls!

 

[LuckyHntr]

 

[LuckyHntr]

 

[270Whatelse]

Wow sounds like a good time to me!

 

[jls456]

How many PP's did it take to draw? Would love to hunt this area.

 

[twdjr]

Congrats on the great bull!

 

[sjhgraysage]

Congrats!
Thanks for taking the time to post your pics and the story.
With 23 points currently, I may not get there before I'm to old LOL!

 

[DW]

Great bull lucky! Congrats! They gave out 56 buck tags in 201 this year, see enough to keep up to that pace and produce trophy class bucks?

 

[Magicman]

Congrats on the "once in a lifetime" hunt and a nice trophy.

 

[1greatelk65]

Pete,

Very nice bull, Congrats on a great hunt!!! per your request here is my 201 bull. Not sure how you download photos..???

 

[elkhuntr]

Did you score either one of these Bulls? Just curious as I might try to draw the tag next year. How many points did it take?

 

[Mnbearhunter123]

How were the roads and trails? I'll be up there in a week.

 

[1greatelk65]

Unit 201 has a lot of access roads for the entire area. The roads were in pretty good shape for the earlier hunts, not sure if you have weather. I used my ATV for most of the areas I hunted.

 

[rmanwill]

Congrats. Sounds like you had an awesome hunt and you did well.

 

[elkhuntr]

1greatelk65, I sent you a private message.

 

[LuckyHntr]

Once again, great bull and congratulations. I think the bull you shot was probably a year older than the one I shot. I know you certainly passed up a lot of bulls, was he the largest you saw?

 

[LuckyHntr]

56 buck tags seems like maybe to many tags to me. We were surprised with how many deer was saw, but I don't think there are 56 older age class bucks in there!

Would hope someone is chasing lions and filling the quota. It could be great deer area.

 

[LuckyHntr]

Graysage, if you are a resident, then you should be in the pool that draws a tag!

 

[LuckyHntr]

Mnbearhunter, I think the roads are in decent shape. To me it doesn't look like that clay type. slick as snot soil, ha. Unless, you are down lower then the soil type turns into clay.

As you know there are roads everywhere and with an ATV you could almost drive to or get close to a down animal. It reminds me of how the BLM was in the 80s. Not many roads were shut down and I don't think they dare shut down roads up there, unless accompanied by an armed group to enforce, ha.. Think about it, guys have waited two decades to hunt in some cases.