My 2010 PAHVANT Adventure

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My 2010 Pahvant Adventure

Never has a waterproof piece of paper been so valuable. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be holding a tag to hunt Bull Elk on one of the best units in the state, ?The Pahvant?.
To be completely honest, I have never set foot on the Pahvant unit. It's a place where my father and Great Grandfather used to hunt deer. A place that I grew up hearing stories about.
The stories about the Pahvant have changed throughout the years however. Now it seems all you hear about are ?Big Bulls?. It's a place that the Mossback team never overlooks. A place that millionaires like Karl Malone choose to hunt. A unit that has produced state record bulls and plenty of 400 class bulls. A land of true giants.
[IMG]http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/7948pahvant.jpg

With a tag of a lifetime in my hand, I begin my adventure looking at maps and talking with everyone I can about the Pahvant. Monstermuleys has been a great a source of information with great people that are very helpful. I have talked to several members about locations and expectations. I have also met and talked with a few friends and family friends that have hunted the unit in the past. One of which hunted the unit last year and took a 380 monster with his bow. This bull is officially the new number 15 archery bull in the state.
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My schedule is pretty tight this year. I work full time and we are so busy that I have been working weekends regularly. My wife works full time as well, and we have a 2 year old that needs a lot of attention. To top it all off we have another little one due in July this year. Scouting will be tough, but I think if I can at least go down and look at the terrain and places I have mapped out, I'll be alright. From what I have heard, the bulls won't be in the rutting area until the actual rut down there anyway. So my scouting will basically be sizing up bulls and looking for water sources in the rutting areas.

July 2nd and 3rd will be my first scouting trip. I will be going down and hope to see some bulls and get some pics. I will report back after the trip.[/img]
 
We arrived Friday July 2nd and set up camp on top of a great vantage point that overlooked tons of country. I was surprized that there was not a single person or camp in sight. We ended up only seeing one other truck the whole trip.
Friday evening the wind was terrible, but it kept the bugs out of our hair. We waited it out and just before dark it died down and we set up the binos and scopes. We quickly found a small group of bulls and watched them for a while. We then picked out a few other bulls wandering around by themselves. All the bulls we saw seemed to at least have a good 5 or 6 point frame already. With a month left to grow, they are well on thier way to an excellent antler growth year.

Saturday Morning we got up and headed to the same vantage point to glass. On the way over to our glassing area we jumped a big mama grouse and her 8 little babies. A hundred yards later we jumped another mom with about 10 babies. Should be a great year for upland game as well.
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We got to our vantage point just in time. With clear skies and minimal wind we were able to spot several bulls. We spotted one group of 7 bulls and another group of three. And a bunch of others loner bulls. We also could spot some elk miles away, but couldn't tell exactly how big they were. I tried really hard to get some good pics and video, but I'm still an amature with the "Digiscoping" stuff. Give me a break! They were a mile away!
Here's the best picture I got through the spotter
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Here's a blurry one.
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I also took some video through the spotter and it turned out a little better than most of the pictures did.
Check it out
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/889/2010-Pahvant-Bulls
After we galssed in the morning, we packed up and headed over to some other areas of the unit. The bulls headed into the trees real early (It was HOT!). The deer were out and about most the day though.
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We had a good trip and saw some excellent country. Can't wait to get back down when those bulls are full grown.
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Stayed tuned for scouting trip #2 coming soon :)
 
Scouting Trip #2

I set out this morning determined to come back with some "Good" pictures of bulls. The last scouting trip was awesome, but I really wanted to get some up close and clear pics of some big bulls.
We arrived to a new location I had researched right at sunrise and immediately started picking out cows from the road. We must have seen around 100 or so all on the same hill side. We continued looking for the bulls, but couldn't find anything hanging out with the ladies. We knew there had to be a bachelor party somewhere around in the area :), so we kept searching.
We travelled to a remote area and hiked up to a good vantage point. As soon as we set up we spotted a decent bull grazing the grassy mountain side. A few minutes later, out popped his buddy (A real respectable 6 point bull. After giving the two a good look and battling the wind, we moved on.
We turned our eyes to the quakies for a while and soon enough spotted a little opening with a bunch of bulls bedded down. We had found the party!
I got some quick pics through the scope and got some video as well. Unfortunately, the wind was at it's old tricks agian and screwed up my digiscoping attempts.
I came up with the idea of trying to get down into the trees where the bulls were and getting some REAL pictures. We thought about it and decided it would be a good idea to get down into the thick stuff and look for springs anyway.
We quietly made our way into the aspens and started picking out more bulls hidden away in the trees. We started our "Mock Stalk" and began closing some major distance. 100 yards, then 75, then 50 and pretty soon 30 yards!!!
We kept it up and pretty soon we came face to face with a bull bedded down at 10 YARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Eat that Wind!!!!
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We started seeing bulls all around us. Most were just average bulls and some dinks, but there were also a couple bruisers :)
One bull we found was the ultimate "Managment bull". A huge 5x6 that had just about everything. Good fronts, nice thirds, good fourths, and good beams. He would be hard to beat with a managment tag.
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We stayed in the trees for the rest of the morning watching bulls loving every minute of it. We found some excellent hunting ground and a ton of elk. It was a trip to remember.

I will post the rest of the pics in a new reply.

I'm taking a couple weeks off for the birth of my son, but stayed tuned in August for Scouting trip #3.
 
Pics from Scouting Trip #2
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This bull was a really nice bull, he had an awesome frame.
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Here are some bulls retreating to thier bedding area
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Another one of "Mr. Management"
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Had to take a break from scouting for a few weeks.
But it was for a good reason.
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Say hello to my new little hunting buddy
 
Finally got out again!
Found some good bulls and some awesome springs/water holes.
Unfortunatley, I forgot to put my SD card in my trail cam. So I had to take the one out of my regular camera and leave it in my trail cam. So no pics this time boys, but I will make sure to post a bunch on the archery opener in less than 2 weeks.
My buddy got some pics too. I will see if I can get his pics to post up.
 
Got a few pics back from my buddy that was with me on the last trip.

The Pahvant Pyramid
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Deep Canyon
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Bedded bull with turned down blackish fronts. Kinda cool lookin, but he's just a dink. I have some better pics of this bull on my other camera, and some cool video too. I'll post it up after I get my trail cam on the 21st.
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Well, my trail cam suvived out in the wilderness for two weeks. Pretty amazing :)
So I got my SD card back with all the video and pics from the last trip on it. The last post I made had a picture of a decent bull at the bottom of the post. I have some real good video of that bull. I nicknamed him "Double Down"

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/980/Double-Down

Also got some pretty sweet trail cam pics. One bull I got on the cam was pretty sweet. I nicknamed him "Dr Evil"
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Here some other pics I had on the camera
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Stumbled on these awesome springs flowing right out of the mountain too
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Found a few little buggers and ladies as well

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August 21st (Archery Opener)

Opening morning of the archery hunt we decided we would make our way out a high vantage point and glass most of the morning. I have a archery deer permit, so I brought my bow along in case a buck decided to present a shot. With bow in hand, we made our way down a high ridge to the vantage point. Once set up we started seeing a few cows out in the open across the canyon. We picked them out one by one, but no bulls in sight. Finally about a mile away I spotted 4 bulls feeding in a open chute. Good lookin bulls, but nothing spectacular. I decided to set the digiscoping stuff and see if I could get some decent video at that distance. Meanwhile me friend walked around the corner to glass some other area we couldn't see. I sat and tried to get some video, but the wind was driving me nuts so I put my stuff away. Just as I was getting up, I saw my friend hustling back with a smile on his face. He said there was a nice bull with about 30 cows just around the corner. We made our way over to check him out, and got set up. There he was, with his freshly rubbed antlers glistening white. He was bugling and his cows were chirping. I got some video just as he started making his way back into the thick stuff.
Not satisfied with the video, I decided we would try and get closer to get some pics of this brute. He was a good 6x6 with great beams and good tine length, but he had a really short 5th on one side.
We crept within 20 yards of some of his cows, and had about three different spikes at 30-40 yards. My buddy was kicking himself for not getting an archery tag for a spike or cow.
We finally found the bull about 50 yards down the hill. We thought he spotted us so we got down on our bellies and crept over the brim. He was standing right behind a tree with all his 30 cows around him. They had busted us! We had about 60 sets of eyes looking right at us and they exploded down the mountain without looking back.
Awesome day for sure! Got me way pumped for the upcoming hunt. Almost made me want an archery tag, I think I could have shot that bull with my bow.

Anyway, I got some video of him. It's pretty hard to get a real good look at him through the trees. But if you look close when he's in the open you can see he has some great tine length on him.

Enjoy:

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/992/Brute


A few of the pics of this trip are posted on the last post.
 
Labor day weekend (Last trip before the hunt)

I headed down by myself this weekend with high hopes of finding some good bulls to add to my hit list. I arrived Saturday afternoon to a new spot a good friend of mine had told me about. I got camp set up and hiked out to a point to start glassing. We found some good bulls, but man was it windy. I usually dont mind the wind much (As long as it's heading the right direction), but it sucks when you are trying to keep a spotter steady.
Sunday morning I checked the Trail cam and got some other pretty cool bulls on there.

This guy was pretty nice, but had short 5ths.
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A little Rag horn
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Had some other pics, but I'm going to wait until after the hunt to post the rest of what I found on my camera. Stay tuned :)

Sunday Afternoon, I took a nice little hike in search for a buck. I found a little 2-point and some does, but no nice bucks. A little further down the canyon I saw something move about 100 yards away in the quakies. At first glance I thought it was a deer, but it turned out to be a little calf elk. I sat down and started picking out cows bedded on the hillside. I knew there had to be a bull close by. Soon enough I heard him bugle, and found him bedded next to some cows. He wasn't a shooter bull, but he was pretty none the least.
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Poor little fella never knew I was even there :). After the afternoon stroll I backed out and headed back to the truck. I got back to camp, rested for a bit, and then headed out to glass some other areas.

During this trip I found some real nice bulls, but after the drama that "Dr. Evil" caused, I think I will wait a while before posting the pics. There's something about pictures of big bulls that gets people all wound up.

I have a hit list now of three bulls. Any of the three will get pounded opening morning (that is if they make it through the bow hunt). I will show you all of these bulls AFTER the actual hunt.

The Rutt is on boys, and it's time to get serious about killing a trophy bull. Sorry to make you waitfor it, but it will be worth it (I hope).

Wish me luck fellas!
 
Some of you smart guys are probably wondering why I am sitting at my computer updating my hunt adventure challenge on the second day of the LE rifle hunt :)

Well, either I'm an idiot and decided to come home and search the forums, or......... Something else :)

Anyway,
Here's my hit list I created before the hunt. These three bulls were bulls that I really liked and would harvest if the given the chance.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1032/My-2010-Pahvant-Hit-List
 
During the archery hunt I got news that one of my favorite bulls (Dr. Evil) had been hit.


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I found out that the archery hunter that had hit him, was a guy that I had been talking to. I was a little disappointed, but the archery hunters get first crack at those bulls and you have to repsect that. I was glad that at least it was someone I knew. He worked hard for that bull and deserved him for his effort he put into it.

Later that week I heard that the arrow had hit the shoulder and Dr. Evil was still alive and doing pretty good. A freind saw him the next day with some cows and a little red spot on his shoulder. He seemed to be getting around pretty well.
I still had hope that he would last a few more days, and make it to the rifle opener.
 
Well, the few short days before the hunt finally came and I hoped that I had all the gear necessary for my adventure.

Can't leave without all my vortex optics and accessories:
Vortex binos (Vulture & Fury)
Vortex Nomad Spotter
Vortex Rifle Scope (Diamondback)
Vortex camera adapter

Gotta have the GPS, radios, and of course the calls.

Also picked up a "Katadyn" filter water bottle. This thing literally saved my butt a few times up there.

And you can see the other items

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I also purchased a new rifle earlier this year. The new Ruger Hawkeye Sporter in .300 Win Mag
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And I need a pack to put it all in too.
I purchased this Eberlestock pack a few years ago with the rifle pouch right behind your back. Works great abd keeps your rifle protected.
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Got all the gear packed up and ready for Friday morning (The day before the hunt)
 
"The Day before the hunt"

Obviously I didn't sleep Thursday night. Infact, I haven't got much sleep at all the last few weeks.

The day before the big opener was finally here. I have worked my butt off for this hunt. Scouting every chance possible and trying to get myself in the best shape possible. I lost 20 pounds on the "Monster Muleys Biggest loser challenge", and I felt pretty good. I still had some chub to lose, but overall I felt like I was in good hiking shape and could hold my own.

I woke up Friday, blew through a P90X video, waited for my friends, and finally headed out about 10:00. I could only round up two guys to go with me. Neither of the two had spotting scopes so I was a little worried about having some spotters. Seemed like everyone else had at least 10 guys spotting per tag.
Anyway, I gave my buddy my spotter and my other buddy a good pair of binos. We set camp and headed for the vantage point.
When we reached the vantage point we got set up and immediatley found a couple bulls. One was a decent six and the other a 5x6. They both were out feeding early and in the sun. I took some video through the new camcorder and it didn't work as well as my powershot. I also couldn't figure out how to load them from the camcorder to Monster Hunt clips. So YouTube had to do.



We watched these bulls for a bit as nothing else was going on. We didn't hear any bugles or anything all night.

About 10 minutes before dark I spotted some cows feeding out into the open. They just kept coming out single file, and I knew a bull would be behind them. After about 27 cows came out, the bull showed himself. He looked great! he had awesome fifths, maybe 13-15 inches long and pretty solid everywhere else. It didn't take long to add this bull to the list and maybe even try to pull something off the next day.
We watched him until dark and hoped he would stay put. We planned to set me up in the area he was in, and get a better look at him in the morning.

I got back to camp and knew that I wouldn't be getting ANY sleep that night. So I popped out my sleep medicine: "Nyquil" :)
I thought it would help, but I don't think anything can cure the excitment that comes to a person with a LE Elk tag before the opener.

Next up
"The Opener"
 
"Opening Morning"

The hunt was finally here! After months of anticipation and hard work trying to find that bull of a lifetime, the day was here. I had a tag in my pocket and a rifle in my hand, I couldn't believe it!

I got up at 5:00, got my gear, and jumped in the truck. I made my way over to the area that we had seen the big bull the night before. It was about a mile hike down the ridge, so I headed down in the dark tring to position myself before light.
As soon as it was light enough to see, the silence exploded with screaming bulls. Bulls bugling thier heads off all over the mountian. Behind me, in front of me, and below me. I couldn't go any further down the ridge without running into bulls.

I sat down, got my shooting stix out and steadied my rifle. I let out a few cow calls with my Hoochie, and got a very close response. About 30 seconds later a bull comes crashing in to within 40 yards. I put my binos up and could easily see that he wasn't a shooter. Pretty sweet none the less

The bull made his way down the ridge and about 5 minutes later I heard a shot right where the bull was headed. Not sure if a hunter shot him or not, but after that shot the whole mountain started shooting. I must have heard 20 shots in less than a half hour. Either people are terrible shots, or every tag was filled that morning in that canyon.

The bulls calmed down after all the shooting, and I could only hear a few bugles here and there. I made my way out to the area the big bull was in the night before but there was nothing. I got a hold of my friends and they said that they had spotted a nice bull in the next canyon.

I started the hike into the next canyon (About another mile or so). I got halfway over there and started hearing a few bugles in the bottom of the main drainage I was hunting. It was a steep drop, but I knew that's where the big boys were hanging out. I was getting pretty close to the area my trail camera was in, so I kept my eyes peeled. I kept hearing bugles, so I sat down and waited for something to happen.

I looked down into the drainage and spotted a few cows feeding in the pines. Then I heard a blood curdling bugle and saw a bull run out to meet the cows. I pulled up the binos and low and behold: "THE COLONEL"

I couldn't believe my eyes!! It was one of the bulls I had seen and filmed on Labor day. I also had him on my trail cam a few times. And more important, he was on the "LIST"

He was about 800 yards down the canyon and moving into the deep creek bottom with his cows. I made my way down into the bottom and found the trail they had been on. I found a few fresh urine spots in the dirt and knew I was on the right path.
I figured the bull usually pushes his cows from the rear, so if I followed them I might get a shot at him. There were a few more bulls in the bottom making thier way up the canyon toward the "Colonel" and his harem. I could hear them bugling and trying to catch up with the cows.

He was moving up pretty quick trying to get away from the fast approching bulls trying to steal his cows. I was right on his heard and could hear him bugling right next to me. He had to have been less than 75 yards from me. I kept moving forward and eventually bumped a few cows. They didn't seem to scared so I waited for them to move ahead and then I kept following.

After about an hour of stalking the "Colonel", I heard loud BOOM of another rifle. I knew I was less than 75 yards from my dream bull, and at that moment my dreams were shattered.
A guy acorss the drainage had taken a sniper shot (800+ yards)
at the "Colonel". The cows scattered and I could hear elk crashing through the trees everywhere. I had no idea if he was hit or not, but at that range I was pretty sure it was a solid miss.

After a few words to myself and some kicks in the dirt, I pressed forward. I could hear the two bulls still coming up the canyon bugling. They could still smell the cows and were heading up my way. One of the bulls was a growler, I hoped he would come around the corner and be some 400 monster or something.

I got down into the bottom and found a little outcrop over looking the creek in the bottom. I cleared a spot in the bushes, got my rifle and stix out, and got ready. I sat there getting comfortable and waiting for the growler to show himself.

As I was waiting, I spotted something across the creek about 100 yards. It looked like a pair of elk legs. I pulled my binos up and could see that it was an elk standing in the pines. Upon closer examination, I spotted some antler. It was really thick and he was standing right in the pines not moving. I wondered how long he had been standing there watching me.

After a minute or so he took a step forward and I caught a glimpse of the back end of his rack. This is more or less what I could see:
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It was the freakin "Colonel"!!!! He must have separated from the cows and headed across the creek.

I pulled up my rifle, put the crosshairs right behind his shoulder and..............................................
 
Here's some additional video of the bull I named "Captain Hook". He was #1 on my list, I just loved those hooked fronts.


I do have to apologize. There is a bad word in the song attached to the video. Please turn your sound off if you want to avoid hearing it. I didn't realize it until I had made the video. Sorry
 
BOOM!!!!
He reared up like a horse, ran 30 yards, and dropped like a sack of rocks.

Countless hours of scouting and research and the hunt was over in 2 hours. I told myself that If I saw a bull on "The List", I wouldn't hesitate to take him.

The "Colonel" showed himself for the last time. And now he will spend the rest of his life (or should I say my life) on my wall.
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Well, after the shot you always here someone say
"NOW THE WORK BEGINS"
I always hated when people would say that, but man were they right! This thing was huge!
I have cut up and packed out a few cow elk before, but holy crap a bull is twice the size. Not to mention I had to shoot him in the nastiest place on the mountian.

I rounded up my two buddies and we started chopping the Colonel up. I have never caped an animal before, so that was a new and long experience for me. Took us a while but we got him caped out up to the neck and all quartered out. Once the head was off I tried picking up the head, antlers, and cape. No Way was that going on my back, that thing was over 100lbs.

We decided that there was no way to get all that out in one trip so we took the two front quarters, back straps, and other meat up. It took us all day to get that out and we were nearly dead at the top. One buddy's boot completely fell apart on the hike and we had to use a whole roll of tape to hook it together. I Was pretty surprized to see a pair of one year old Irish Setters do that.

By the time we got back to camp, we knew tomorrow was going to be hell getting the rest of that out. So we asked a few other camps with horses if they would be interested in helping out. I offered a few different people $150 to pack the rest out. Can you believe they all turned us down? I was in a pickle, and had no idea what to do at that point. I really didn't want to waste any meat.
I prayed all night that someone would help us out.

In the morning we got up and felt pretty good, but we dreading the pack out. At that point I knew we were on our own. Just then i got a text from my buddy Mark with a number of some people the run the cattle up on the Pahvant.

I called them up and just about pee'd my pants when they said "We would love to help you get your elk out". That was one of the greatest moments of my life :)

Thank you soooo much Chuck and Carla, you saved my life!!
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If anyone ever hunts the Pahvant and needs help getting some an elk out, call Chuck Roberts. He is one of the nicest guys in the world.
PM me for his number.
 
Well my bull ended up grossing just a few inches under 370. Not bad for a DIY public land elk hunt. No Guides, No Fences, and no scouting army.

Just goes to show you that you don't need $10,000 to shoot a big bull. You just need to get off your butt, do your research, go scout, and you will be rewarded. I'm just an average guy with a wife and two kids. I don't make very much money and I can only get out every other weekend or so. Anybody can have an experience like I did. Just make it happen! (Oh, and I guess you need to draw a tag :) )

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This little guy will be 20-25 years old before I draw a tag again.
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Here are a few trailcam pics I had of him.
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Some pics of the "Colonel" on the hoof.


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Thanks MM Member "Gbrandon" for the pics.

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Thanks to Reggie Parsons for this pic. He looks really young in this picture. I'm curious to see how old he was.
 
I was exausted after the hunt and no way was I going back into that canyon to get my trailcam. So I left it there for a few weeks.
I got it back today. Here's the bulls that were on there.

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Well the famous "Dr. Evil" bull has finally been harvested. Most of us weren't sure what would happen to this bull after he was hit during the archery hunt. Nobody ever saw him during the rifle hunt or muzzy hunt. But he finally showed himself on the Late Rifle hunt and was taken down.
I begged to get permission to post some pics, but it didn't work out. I'm still trying, but for now this link to the TU site will have to do.
Congratulations to the hunter!

http://www.#####.com/board/board_topic/7136732/799162.htm
 
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