AWHOLELOTTABULL
Long Time Member
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A long time friend and a guy that has guided with me and for me for the past 10+ years finally got his chance at a mature bull this past weekend. After glassing and passing on several good bulls Danny heard this bull walking out on Sunday night but couldn't get a look at him. After glassing about 15 cows and calfs Danny and I talked about going in to see what he looked like. It would be a pretty solid hike to get to him and even longer if we played the wind to our advantage. We went in Sunday night and after a 45 minute hike we slowed to a crawl on the ridge top and took our time moving in. As we made our way through a big aspen stand I glanced downhill to our right and saw a tan "something" down the mountain about 200 yards. It was steep and I initially brushed it off as just a tan bush. As I started to take a step, I decided that it warranted a quick look through the binos. I'm glad I did. Laying there at the base of a thicket of aspens was this bull. As I glassed further I could see 4 or 5 cows laying around as well. We couldn't see the bulls head very well and couldn't really tell what he was but he was giving us a great bedding shot with his vitals exposed. We broke out the spotting scope and tried to get a better look at his head gear and couldn't. In the mean time his cows had got up to feed and he was shortly behind them. He moved just enough for us to get a look at his rack and Danny decided that he was good enough. By this time however, he was pushing his cows around and was not giving us a shot. We got a big pine tree between us and them and closed the distance hoping to get a better shot. They moved away at about the same pace as we thought we were closing. As we peaked out from behind the pine tree we could see the cows and finally glassed the bull raking a rather large aspen tree to death. He was giving Danny a severe quartering away shot and we were close to a 45 degree angle down to him at about 207 yards. He had a cow that was standing behind him so Danny waited for a clear shot. The cow finally moved and Danny took the shot that finished him. In the picture the blood spot you see is the entrance hole. While it appears to be really far back, it is what the angle dictated. The exit hole was in the brisket just in front of the left shoulder. It took out his liver and completely blew apart his left lung. He only went 10 yards before going down. We quartered him, put him in bags and hung him up for the night. We got back to the truck right around 11:00 pm. We went back in on horses the next morning and got him out. Enjoy the pictures. A great bull for a great friend and a guy that knows a lot about elk.
This is the picture that got this bull his name. I have been a part of killing a lot of bulls in my life time and I have never seen dew claws like this before. The biologist lopped them off and took them to study. It looks like he has opposing thumbs.
It's always an adventure!!!
This is the picture that got this bull his name. I have been a part of killing a lot of bulls in my life time and I have never seen dew claws like this before. The biologist lopped them off and took them to study. It looks like he has opposing thumbs.
It's always an adventure!!!
