LAST EDITED ON Sep-25-11 AT 08:47PM (MST)[p]http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/7334dsc_0205_2803.jpg,
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Finally, here we go. It all started while camping on memorial day weekend. We were all hanging out in the trailer and here started the emails of unsuccessful from the dwr. My 19 year old daughters came last and out of nowhere it says successful! How could it be with only 4 points, it was then the celebrations started.
Fast forward to Day 1: After much anticipation, waiting,dreaming,and not being able to focus on life, we were heading up the deep creeks looking for Mckenzys monster bull. We saw only 2 bulls at the top of rockys and they didnt look big enough to go after in that country(at least on the opener).
Day 2: We had a nice bull just at daylight coming off the alfalfa fields heading right towards us but as luck would have it a truck coming in way to late blew him out of the area. That afternoon as we were heading back to camp we saw some elk on the indian reservation so we stopped to have a look. We saw 2 incredible bulls fighting in and out of some cottonwoods with about 20 cows, the question started then, how do we get them off the reservation? That evening we called a cow and a calf to 15 yards but couldnt get those bulls to follow. We had to head home for some very important classes at Utah State and couldnt return until Wed night and it about killed Mckenzy.
Day 3
Thursday morning), we had a perfect setup wind perfect, a bull bugling down below us and just starting to get light. We had called for about 20 mins and had the bull just to the edge of the cedars, he was so close she could almost taste him, but yep a guy on a 4 wheeler parks 25 feet behind us and starts walking and spotting, you guessed it bull gone! That evening watched the bulls on the reservation again with awe.
Day 4: Tried a new area way west and it was a total bust. For the evening hunt we told Mckenzy to choose where we were going to go. She wanted to go west behind the reservation and see if we could call a bull to the public land(no pressure on dad). We got behind the res. and watched a nice 6 point bull come out with his cows to feed, we were only 290 yards away but they were 250 into the indian land. We watched and videoed for about an hour, cow called and couldnt get him interested. I decided to bugle and see if we could piss him off and boy did we... within 5 mins he gathered his cows and headed east. We left my 14 year old son (Takoda) and a friend Mike to spot and off we went, a 20 min run to the truck, a 15 min baha ride in my buddies truck, and another 15 min run/walk/stalk and we were about 850 yards from them. The sun was setting fast, so we closed the distance to 580 yards got setup and she let him have it. We knew he was hit but not how bad so we watched him as the sun faded away and didnt know how far he had gone before he laid down and it was pitch black. We decided to leave him and not push him and go gather our spoters and head to camp. Returning to camp my wife couldnt believe no elk again, we then informed her we left one for tomorrow and hoped we could find him.
Day 5: After a sleepless night we left for the mountain hoping to find her bull. Within 20 mins we found him just 300 yards from where we saw him last and the celebration began. I would like to thank Mckenzy for her patience and passion on this hunt. I would also like to thank my son Takoda who was there every step of the way. I had a great friend Brinton who killed a pig there last year spend every second with us and for his help in finding this awesome bull. I would also like to thank the many other friends who came and went throughout the hunt, but most importantly thaks to my loving wife who got to spend her 25th anniversary on the desert supporting us, feeding us and cheering us on all the way!