huntinfanatic
Active Member
- Messages
- 777
During my 5th year of trying to get a branch antlered bull on an OTC any bull unit with my bow I finally got it done. As some of you know the any bull units in the southern half of Utah are extremely difficult hunts due to low elk numbers, heavy hunting pressure, and/or lots of private property. It took tons of scouting to find a place that held elk every year during the hunt but I finally found that honey hole.
Year one was frustrating to say the least. I only had one encounter and it was with a cow and calf that about ran me over running away from another hunter opening morning.
Year two I got a little bit of elk fever and shot the first cow that came within bow range, my first elk with a bow.
The last two years I passed on many cows and had a few amazing encounters with some decent bulls but always managed to find a way to screw it up. If something could go wrong I somehow figured out how to make it happen.
That brings me to this year. On my 10th day of hunting things finally came together and I was able to shoot this 5x6 bull as he left his bedding area to feed for the evening. A steep downhill 20 yard shot and a 70 yard death run and he was down! Definately the hardest earned animal I have yet to take.
The icing on the cake was seeing my 2 year old sons excitement to see "daddys elk".
Year one was frustrating to say the least. I only had one encounter and it was with a cow and calf that about ran me over running away from another hunter opening morning.
Year two I got a little bit of elk fever and shot the first cow that came within bow range, my first elk with a bow.
The last two years I passed on many cows and had a few amazing encounters with some decent bulls but always managed to find a way to screw it up. If something could go wrong I somehow figured out how to make it happen.
That brings me to this year. On my 10th day of hunting things finally came together and I was able to shoot this 5x6 bull as he left his bedding area to feed for the evening. A steep downhill 20 yard shot and a 70 yard death run and he was down! Definately the hardest earned animal I have yet to take.
The icing on the cake was seeing my 2 year old sons excitement to see "daddys elk".
