marley
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LAST EDITED ON Sep-22-11 AT 02:23PM (MST)[p]My younger brother has hunted along side me since we were kids but never on an elk hunt. As kids we only hunted deer and birds, never elk. With school and family and work it had been along time since we had gotten together for a hunt. After I drew my Henrys tag last year and my brother tagging along it got him fired up to start hunting again. He asked me this spring what he should put in for and I told him to put in for the Wasatch elk tag just to start collecting points. Low and behold he drew.
Unfortunate event #1: 3 weeks ago I booked a plane ticket to fly out there to help him scout. He planned to backpack in for a few days and get to know the area. As I am sitting at the airport getting ready to board the plane, I get a call from my brother. He informs me that his wife was being transported to the hospital with severe bacterial infection and would have to be there for the next 5 or so days. I called my brother in law and he met me at the airport and we got a little scouting done for the next few days and my brother met us down there a few days later.
Unfortunate event #2: As we are driving around looking for better access points and glassing points my brothers quad cab, long bed, duramax, truck slides off the road into a huge ditch. A tow truck had to be called and due to where we were the cost came to $600.
Thursday night I drove out the get a few days of scouting and backpacking in before his hunt was to start.
Unfortunate event #3: My truck slides off the road and with only a few inches to spare before rolling down the side of the hill into a huge colvert. Same tow truck is called and after another $300 I am out.
On Friday morning my brother and I drive to the top of the trail head to backpack in.
Unfortunate event #4: I accidently locked the keys to my truck in the truck with my pack and all my gear. We spent 2 hours trying to hit the automatic lock button with a tent pole and were successful in hitting it but not unlocking it. Finally a locksmith is called and he tells us the Toyotas will not unlock with the automatic button if no one is in it. Locksmith comes and another $200 bill is paid.
With all this time wasted we decide to base camp it that night and just backpack in early in the morning. Saturday morning comes and we are sitting at the trailhead in a soaker. The fog settled in and we couldn't see more than 30 yards. We sit out the fog and begin our backpack in. That evening, the bulls were screaming their brains out and one in particular was catching our attention. I set up the spotting scope just in time to see the bull step into the trees. I moved the scope to the bottom of the trees just in time to see the bull step out. All I could say was, "Holy crap" over and over. I pulled out my rangefinder and got a reading of 1405 yards with only about 10 mins. of light left. I told my brother that I thought this bull would go 380. We decided to sit there and watch him and talked about the best plan of action for the morning to get on him. As we were debating we heard, boom...whop, boom whop, boom whop...and the bull goes down. We were sick to our stomachs. We went to bed that night with broken hearts. (others hunters that saw the bull in a camp said that it scored 378).
We decided the next day that the bottom-up method was not going to work for us so we packed up our gear and headed back out to come in from the top. This would involve alot more hiking but we would be able to see and hear better.
Now remember this is my brothers first elk hunt. Before this he had never actually even heard an elk bugle in the wild and he wanted the full experience. He wanted one screaming in his face. The next morning as we were heading in, we heard a bugle not too far off but it was still well before light so we just stayed where we were. The bull ended up not 15 yards from us in the pitch black screaming his head off, raking a tree right in front of us. He was so close we could hear him breathing as he raked the tree. I looked back at my brother to see a look of pure fear on his face. The rest of the day and next morning was pretty uneventful.
Monday evening we decided to try a new canyon that we didn't think anyone would've hunted yet. As we moved in, the wind was so strong we could barely hear anything. This helped and hurt us. The wind masked our noise and scent really well but made it very difficult to pin point the bull and tell how far they were. Every bugle sounded so far away but I knew they were close. We heard a deep growl that sounded like it was just over the ridge. We slowly worked our way up the hill to see what was in the next gully. After glassing for a few minutes I saw a small aspen getting pushed around. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to get my brother to see him to no avail. The bull started to walk away and down the canyon from us and I thought the game was over. The only good thing was his cows stayed behind. I told my brother that he might just be heading for water and he'll be back. About 15 minutes later we saw his antler tips just pacing back and forth just over the rise in the hill. He paced back and forth at 150 yards checking his cows for what seemed like forever. I was hesitant to cow call because his cows were out in the open in plain sight and we only had 3 little aspens for cover and didn't want to give up our location. After several mins. I decided to give him a little calf call as quietly as I could make it. This stopped his pacing and he looked in our direction but still only showing antlers. I gave him another call and he took a step forward, another call, another step, another call, another step. The last step pushed one of his cows out of the way and as she trotted forward, the bull stepped up to chase her presenting the top half of his body broadside. I whispered, "at the grassline...HAMMER HIM." My .300 RUM barked and the herd took off with the bull dragging behind. I knew he was hit but didn't know where and my brother couldn't find him in the scope again to hit him again despite my panicking cries to "hit him again, hit him again." The bull walked into the trees about 30 more yards and fell over.
When we got over to the bull his tine length had us both in awe. We new that he was just a 6x5 but loved the length. I think my brothers smile was touching ends in the back of his head. We had a LONG way to get out and with it getting dark and my other brother trying to find us we decided to come back in the morning to pack him out. We started our pack out at 9 the next morning and made it back to the truck with the last load at 8 that evening.
Sorry for such a long story but I felt that I should write it all out for the people on this site that helped us out so much. I have to give a HUGE thanks to AWHOLELOTTABULL and his friend Danny for all their help. You guys just got a first time elk hunter HOOKED for life. Thanks also to the 6 or so other guys on this site for all your help with info. as well. It was an awesome experience and time well spent with my 2 brothers.
Here's a bit of a video of after the shot. His smile says it all.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1598/wasatch-elk-hunt
Unfortunate event #1: 3 weeks ago I booked a plane ticket to fly out there to help him scout. He planned to backpack in for a few days and get to know the area. As I am sitting at the airport getting ready to board the plane, I get a call from my brother. He informs me that his wife was being transported to the hospital with severe bacterial infection and would have to be there for the next 5 or so days. I called my brother in law and he met me at the airport and we got a little scouting done for the next few days and my brother met us down there a few days later.
Unfortunate event #2: As we are driving around looking for better access points and glassing points my brothers quad cab, long bed, duramax, truck slides off the road into a huge ditch. A tow truck had to be called and due to where we were the cost came to $600.
Thursday night I drove out the get a few days of scouting and backpacking in before his hunt was to start.
Unfortunate event #3: My truck slides off the road and with only a few inches to spare before rolling down the side of the hill into a huge colvert. Same tow truck is called and after another $300 I am out.
On Friday morning my brother and I drive to the top of the trail head to backpack in.
Unfortunate event #4: I accidently locked the keys to my truck in the truck with my pack and all my gear. We spent 2 hours trying to hit the automatic lock button with a tent pole and were successful in hitting it but not unlocking it. Finally a locksmith is called and he tells us the Toyotas will not unlock with the automatic button if no one is in it. Locksmith comes and another $200 bill is paid.
With all this time wasted we decide to base camp it that night and just backpack in early in the morning. Saturday morning comes and we are sitting at the trailhead in a soaker. The fog settled in and we couldn't see more than 30 yards. We sit out the fog and begin our backpack in. That evening, the bulls were screaming their brains out and one in particular was catching our attention. I set up the spotting scope just in time to see the bull step into the trees. I moved the scope to the bottom of the trees just in time to see the bull step out. All I could say was, "Holy crap" over and over. I pulled out my rangefinder and got a reading of 1405 yards with only about 10 mins. of light left. I told my brother that I thought this bull would go 380. We decided to sit there and watch him and talked about the best plan of action for the morning to get on him. As we were debating we heard, boom...whop, boom whop, boom whop...and the bull goes down. We were sick to our stomachs. We went to bed that night with broken hearts. (others hunters that saw the bull in a camp said that it scored 378).
We decided the next day that the bottom-up method was not going to work for us so we packed up our gear and headed back out to come in from the top. This would involve alot more hiking but we would be able to see and hear better.
Now remember this is my brothers first elk hunt. Before this he had never actually even heard an elk bugle in the wild and he wanted the full experience. He wanted one screaming in his face. The next morning as we were heading in, we heard a bugle not too far off but it was still well before light so we just stayed where we were. The bull ended up not 15 yards from us in the pitch black screaming his head off, raking a tree right in front of us. He was so close we could hear him breathing as he raked the tree. I looked back at my brother to see a look of pure fear on his face. The rest of the day and next morning was pretty uneventful.
Monday evening we decided to try a new canyon that we didn't think anyone would've hunted yet. As we moved in, the wind was so strong we could barely hear anything. This helped and hurt us. The wind masked our noise and scent really well but made it very difficult to pin point the bull and tell how far they were. Every bugle sounded so far away but I knew they were close. We heard a deep growl that sounded like it was just over the ridge. We slowly worked our way up the hill to see what was in the next gully. After glassing for a few minutes I saw a small aspen getting pushed around. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to get my brother to see him to no avail. The bull started to walk away and down the canyon from us and I thought the game was over. The only good thing was his cows stayed behind. I told my brother that he might just be heading for water and he'll be back. About 15 minutes later we saw his antler tips just pacing back and forth just over the rise in the hill. He paced back and forth at 150 yards checking his cows for what seemed like forever. I was hesitant to cow call because his cows were out in the open in plain sight and we only had 3 little aspens for cover and didn't want to give up our location. After several mins. I decided to give him a little calf call as quietly as I could make it. This stopped his pacing and he looked in our direction but still only showing antlers. I gave him another call and he took a step forward, another call, another step, another call, another step. The last step pushed one of his cows out of the way and as she trotted forward, the bull stepped up to chase her presenting the top half of his body broadside. I whispered, "at the grassline...HAMMER HIM." My .300 RUM barked and the herd took off with the bull dragging behind. I knew he was hit but didn't know where and my brother couldn't find him in the scope again to hit him again despite my panicking cries to "hit him again, hit him again." The bull walked into the trees about 30 more yards and fell over.
When we got over to the bull his tine length had us both in awe. We new that he was just a 6x5 but loved the length. I think my brothers smile was touching ends in the back of his head. We had a LONG way to get out and with it getting dark and my other brother trying to find us we decided to come back in the morning to pack him out. We started our pack out at 9 the next morning and made it back to the truck with the last load at 8 that evening.
Sorry for such a long story but I felt that I should write it all out for the people on this site that helped us out so much. I have to give a HUGE thanks to AWHOLELOTTABULL and his friend Danny for all their help. You guys just got a first time elk hunter HOOKED for life. Thanks also to the 6 or so other guys on this site for all your help with info. as well. It was an awesome experience and time well spent with my 2 brothers.
Here's a bit of a video of after the shot. His smile says it all.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1598/wasatch-elk-hunt
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