fstop
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Here is my Utah muzzle bull I took this year. I have to thank my good friend John Caruso aka "saxon" who helped me. We both had tags this year for the same LE unit, his was an archery tag and mine was a muzzle tag. I called his bull into him and he returned the favor by calling this bull into me. We had scouted the area for weeks and had seen some quality bulls. John took his 320 class bull about six miles from where I killed this bull. I had my sites set on one of the larger bulls we had seen earlier on his hunt. The opening morning I passed a bull that would score around 320-330 at about 20 yards. Then the rain came and it didn't stop for about six hours and the elk were quiet. Finally about 4pm the rain stopped and we headed out. We hadn't walked twenty minutes and suddenly we had bulls screaming from every direction. One of the bulls we'd found the day before was a big 360-370 herd bull with about 15 cows in the drainage next to the one we were looking into. So I knew a quality bull was in the area. We set up on top of a ridge just below the bull that was answering our cow calls and waited. The bull took his time but eventually was just below my position and was getting pretty worked up about this cow that kept calling to him. Finally I started to see about three cows feeding directly to me and could see some movement behind them. I soon realized that this could be the big herd bull we'd seen the day before and now my nerves were really getting the best of me. The cows continued to feed closer and closer and suddenly I could see the tips of the bulls antlers behind a large juniper tree about 60 yards away. At about 15 yards the lead cow caught my scent and bolted down the hill. Knowing that I was busted and that the bull was only about 60 yards away I stood up and waited for the bull to move from behind the tree. As I stood up I could see that the bull had a good back end and thought his fronts looked good to...I guess in my mind that's when I made the decision to shoot. The bull took a few quick steps forward and I let him have it. He took off down the hill he'd come from and cows bolted from every direction. As soon as John and I could talk John asked if he was a good bull and I told him that he looked huge. Although I thought he looked short on one side? We waited about a half an hour and started following his blood trail. We'd only gone about 40 yards when the blood trail dried up. Luckily with all the rain it was easy to follow his tracks. He only went about 100 yards farther. Unfortunately I didn't look this bull over totally before pulling the trigger, but I had a great time and have many lasting memories hunting with good friends. The bull scores 170 on his left side but didn't grow a second or third on his right. It looks like he must of injured his pedicle on his right side a few years back. A biologist told me that he had teeth of a ten year old bull. This is my third mature Utah bull in four years. In the picture you can see the shed I found near where we found the bull. I think my wife is about to leave me if I get another tag! I hope you enjoy the pics and the story. Later fstop
