LAST EDITED ON Oct-01-14 AT 05:26PM (MST)[p] We scouted this country during the summer, located the cows and calves and made contacts with the rancher whose property the elk seemed to water and feed on during the night. He gave us permission to access any of the ranch property to hunt. We arrived the day before the season and contacted him. I asked him if the other tag holder had contacted him about ranch access. The answer was no.
Opening day we located the bull we eventually shot. He was not with the cows and disappeared into the desert before we could stalk him. The next morning we located him again but as we were stalking closer, a pickup truck with no muffler spooked him off before we could stalk closer. We had a hard time relocating him. We tried to access the area we thought he was in but a severe thunderstorm with rain and hail made access impossible due to the slick snotty clay. We couldn't keep the truck on the steep, off camber road. The next day it had dried out enough to allow vehicle access again. We spotted the bull and some cows and watched them for awhile. The big bull left the cows and ran off a smaller bull, disappearing from view to the right. At this point, the area we first saw the bull was down in a somewhat open canyon and the location we eventually shot the bull was not visible from that location, nor were there any vehicle tracks on the road or any vehicles or hunters in sight.
We continued working our way up the draw to the left of the canyon the bull and cows were in peering every so often to keep tabs on the elk. The elk were gradually moving up the canyon as the cows fed up. We almost paused and set up to take a shot but we decided to peek up around a few more trees up the ridge for a closer, higher location. It was then that I saw the two other hunters standing on the skyline near the top. I motioned to them and they stared back at us. My wife crawled under the juniper tree she eventually shot the bull from as I looked a better angle on the bull. It was at this time the hunters standing on the ridge line moved down closer to us and lay down. I could just make them out over the top of some junipers and they got prone and prepared for the shot. Soon the guy backed away from the woman and started down toward us. Contrary to what was previously stated, he did not come "talk to us". Now mind you, I am 63 and a lifetime of construction work and shooting has not left my hearing in pristine condition. I would say he stopped about 40 yards away and proceeded to scold us in the highest wisper tone he could muster. I made out him saying "our bull", "your not going to shoot him are you?" All the time puffing his chest out and waving his hands around. It seemed to me he was being very confrontational and trying to somewhat intimidate us into leaving. Not a good situation. My wife and I discussed the situation. In our opinion, they seemed to appear after us, we had a legal tag, we had made a good stalk, we had the 230 yard shot on the bull standing in the junipers (a juniper cluster, not alone juniper) and they were farther way with no shot. We took the first shot and rocked the bull. We followed with two more shots since he was still standing. He took a few steps backward and fell. We had our bull we had worked so hard for! Immediately after the first shot, a man-child temper tantrum erupted. Cuss words and swear words as loud as they could be yelled. I crawled and backed out from under the tree and the guy was already gone over the ridge. Yelling and screaming at the top of his voice. It was the most un-sportsman like rant I have ever heard in the field. Not a word from the lady with the tag. Had the tables been turned and we heard a shot and whomp as we came up the ridge, we would have cussed under our breath at our back luck and gone up to see the bull and congratulate the hunters and make a new friend.
We got the bull skinned and quartered and boned out the rest of the meat. Our new rancher friend wanted us to come by and show him the bull. We waited for him on the road by his home as he was just getting home. A bunch of people stopped along the road to admire my wife's beautiful bull. As a side note we came in from the east and south side of the bulls location. The other hunters came in from the west or north, which required crossing private property. I never did see their vehicle. I asked the rancher again if he had given anyone else permission to trespass across his property and cross his freshly hayed meadows, he said no.
We broke down our wall tent and the rest of camp the next morning. We had to drive by the other hunters camp on the way out and there he stood, 200yds away by his trailer, arm in the air and finger extended. Oh well, we got the bull and get to admire it the rest of our lives and he's got his middle finger to look at. We wish this never had occurred the way it did.
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Measure wealth by the things you have,, for which you would not take money.
