I've been talking a lot lately with the people I associate with and it seems like a lot of people like killing big animals.
I've found few people really know how to do this. Why you ask? because they get caught up in the moment and shoot small stuff.
Well I started off this elk hunt like many of my past hunts. I checked trail cams, deleted all the pics of the 360, 370 and most 380 bulls. I do this because you will never kill a 400 if you shoot the little guys.
Well day 1 found us hunting a bull with 22" 1's, 2's, 3's, and swords. Good width and sub average 5ths. Right off the bat we spotted the herd he had been running with and standing in front of me in rifle range was a bull that got my blood pumping. He was easily 360" and most likely 370". I wanted to shoot him but my guide said he was a general season bull. I reminded myself not to shoot when i was excited cuz I wouldn't get a 400" bull. So I just watched this absolute toad of a bull slowly walk off.
Four more days we hunted from gallup to cameron arizona near arizon units 9 and 10 by the grand canyon. we saw some good bulls but nothing close to 400". Finally we were out of options and my guide had to go hunt a general season unit.
I decided to hire a local who had a guiding license but knew nothing about elk hunting. He simply allowed me to be legal and I told him to sit back as I was going to areas I knew should hold elk that I felt should be elk paradise. In actuality I just wanted to get away from all the other guides and get in the middle of nowhere.
The day I tagged out I had hiked so much and so far that I found the elk in the farthest reaches of nothingness where no man would ever dare trek and it was in that area that I got my bull.
The day I tagged out I got to thinking over the years off all those big bulls I over analyzed in the spotting scope. I remember being excited to shoot one right up the the point I analyzed the last inch of his last g5 and determined his tines were all 1/2" too small to shoot.
I said screw it. were not gonna glass. The bulls are screaming everywhere. We're gonna locate the middle of the war and find the bull that is at the center of all the conflict and that is going to be the target we want.
After 2 hours of tons of bulls screaming at us and in the middle of the thickest fog imaginable I was getting close to the bull I wanted. Why did I want him? because he sounded big, in charge, and like he owned every bull in the area. He was the one to beat. He was the one every bull envied and he was the one with all the cows. I knew it would take every ounce of luck I had to get passed all those eyes and to finally lay eyes on the prize. Well the sleet and fog worked to my advantage and before I knew it i had been trailing him at less than 60 yards for over 30 minutes with perfect wind. All i remember is hearing him scream in my face and thunk as he chased whatever the heck it was he was chasing all over the friggin place. My heart was about to explode with anticipation at what he looked like. If he was a rag horn I'd obviously pass as the herd bull was hiding close by. However if the first sign of horn I saw belonged to that thing that kept growling at me it was going to die.
about 10 minutes after thinking this I saw a patch of elk and then it growled at me. I knew this was my bull. I didn't care what he looked like at this point. I was too excited. next thing I knew is i saw the tops of his beams. they swept back too far to care about score. I raised my rifle and could barely find a shooting lane at less than 40 yards in the thick crap he refused to EVER leave. I flinched and jerked the trigger and thank god the gun that was pointing 20 feet below the bull didn't go off. So I calmed down and tried another shot and again I fliched way bad. And thank god once again I had still forgot to take the safety off. So i reached in front of the trigger and pushed the safety forward and almost pulled the trigger doing so. I hurried and took aim and flinched again!!!! thank god I was to stupid and didn't completely push the safety to the fire position. I told myself I only had one shot and a 40 yard shot which was now closer to 35 yards was a gimme shot for a scoped rifle.
I calmed myself down and as he walked past the last small clearing I let him have it with a 250 gr scenar from my 338 lapua magnum.
He turned a complete circle and fell dead 10 steps from where he was shot.
I literally shook for the rest of the day. I didn't care what he scored. I had no clue what he scored. All I knew is that he gave me the impression that he was the bull of the woods and Thats all I wanted. To beat the best bull in that area and win at the ultimate game of chess. The guy with me had no idea on score and asked me what I thot he'd score as the only other bull he had shot was done so with me 2 years earlier and it was a 389 bull.
I looked at the bull and in total confusion I said he was about 38" and maybe even 40" wide. He had weak g3's and g1's and wouldn't score well and that it was the biggest bull I had every killed. Why????? because its been since I was 6 years old that i had a hunt like that and had so much excitement.
Why do i spend so much time, money, and effort on hunting? for that one time to feel like a kid again. Its not something we get to experience much in life especially as we become functioning responsible adults and those few rare moments when/if we ever get to feel like a kid again are worth millions of dollars if they have any value less than pricelessness to beging with.
so next time you sit on that high point over analyzing every detail of an animals horn size instead of thinking "wow, theres a monster regardless of total inches". Just try and remember why you first started hunting and ask yourself if what your doing is even worth it.
2 days later after I calmed down I decided to see just how wide that bull was as I hadn't seen a bull that wide in real life. the taxi and I disagreed on where the exact "boone and friggin crocket" measurement point was. So I came up with an inside spread of 47" and his was 50". my score came out to 391 and his was 399.
I contemplated on adding the score to this little write up as not to subtract from the meaning of this post but what is the point of why we all hunt?
Some where we all had a close encounter with a monster that got away. Or we had dreams about ......"one day". regardless of the actual size of that one that got away, in our minds it was a 200" muley or a 400" bull. In my mind that bull was a monster. Regardless of the score I would have always remembered seeing that lumbering giant working his horns through the trees at 40 yards. Even though I only saw the top of his rack my initial thought was "HOLY $^&*(*!!!!!!" he just happened to actually score way up there which was simply a bonus, not the goal. I got lucky on the score PERIOD.
and in my book that what hunting is truly about.
The experience.
I've found few people really know how to do this. Why you ask? because they get caught up in the moment and shoot small stuff.
Well I started off this elk hunt like many of my past hunts. I checked trail cams, deleted all the pics of the 360, 370 and most 380 bulls. I do this because you will never kill a 400 if you shoot the little guys.
Well day 1 found us hunting a bull with 22" 1's, 2's, 3's, and swords. Good width and sub average 5ths. Right off the bat we spotted the herd he had been running with and standing in front of me in rifle range was a bull that got my blood pumping. He was easily 360" and most likely 370". I wanted to shoot him but my guide said he was a general season bull. I reminded myself not to shoot when i was excited cuz I wouldn't get a 400" bull. So I just watched this absolute toad of a bull slowly walk off.
Four more days we hunted from gallup to cameron arizona near arizon units 9 and 10 by the grand canyon. we saw some good bulls but nothing close to 400". Finally we were out of options and my guide had to go hunt a general season unit.
I decided to hire a local who had a guiding license but knew nothing about elk hunting. He simply allowed me to be legal and I told him to sit back as I was going to areas I knew should hold elk that I felt should be elk paradise. In actuality I just wanted to get away from all the other guides and get in the middle of nowhere.
The day I tagged out I had hiked so much and so far that I found the elk in the farthest reaches of nothingness where no man would ever dare trek and it was in that area that I got my bull.
The day I tagged out I got to thinking over the years off all those big bulls I over analyzed in the spotting scope. I remember being excited to shoot one right up the the point I analyzed the last inch of his last g5 and determined his tines were all 1/2" too small to shoot.
I said screw it. were not gonna glass. The bulls are screaming everywhere. We're gonna locate the middle of the war and find the bull that is at the center of all the conflict and that is going to be the target we want.
After 2 hours of tons of bulls screaming at us and in the middle of the thickest fog imaginable I was getting close to the bull I wanted. Why did I want him? because he sounded big, in charge, and like he owned every bull in the area. He was the one to beat. He was the one every bull envied and he was the one with all the cows. I knew it would take every ounce of luck I had to get passed all those eyes and to finally lay eyes on the prize. Well the sleet and fog worked to my advantage and before I knew it i had been trailing him at less than 60 yards for over 30 minutes with perfect wind. All i remember is hearing him scream in my face and thunk as he chased whatever the heck it was he was chasing all over the friggin place. My heart was about to explode with anticipation at what he looked like. If he was a rag horn I'd obviously pass as the herd bull was hiding close by. However if the first sign of horn I saw belonged to that thing that kept growling at me it was going to die.
about 10 minutes after thinking this I saw a patch of elk and then it growled at me. I knew this was my bull. I didn't care what he looked like at this point. I was too excited. next thing I knew is i saw the tops of his beams. they swept back too far to care about score. I raised my rifle and could barely find a shooting lane at less than 40 yards in the thick crap he refused to EVER leave. I flinched and jerked the trigger and thank god the gun that was pointing 20 feet below the bull didn't go off. So I calmed down and tried another shot and again I fliched way bad. And thank god once again I had still forgot to take the safety off. So i reached in front of the trigger and pushed the safety forward and almost pulled the trigger doing so. I hurried and took aim and flinched again!!!! thank god I was to stupid and didn't completely push the safety to the fire position. I told myself I only had one shot and a 40 yard shot which was now closer to 35 yards was a gimme shot for a scoped rifle.
I calmed myself down and as he walked past the last small clearing I let him have it with a 250 gr scenar from my 338 lapua magnum.
He turned a complete circle and fell dead 10 steps from where he was shot.
I literally shook for the rest of the day. I didn't care what he scored. I had no clue what he scored. All I knew is that he gave me the impression that he was the bull of the woods and Thats all I wanted. To beat the best bull in that area and win at the ultimate game of chess. The guy with me had no idea on score and asked me what I thot he'd score as the only other bull he had shot was done so with me 2 years earlier and it was a 389 bull.
I looked at the bull and in total confusion I said he was about 38" and maybe even 40" wide. He had weak g3's and g1's and wouldn't score well and that it was the biggest bull I had every killed. Why????? because its been since I was 6 years old that i had a hunt like that and had so much excitement.
Why do i spend so much time, money, and effort on hunting? for that one time to feel like a kid again. Its not something we get to experience much in life especially as we become functioning responsible adults and those few rare moments when/if we ever get to feel like a kid again are worth millions of dollars if they have any value less than pricelessness to beging with.
so next time you sit on that high point over analyzing every detail of an animals horn size instead of thinking "wow, theres a monster regardless of total inches". Just try and remember why you first started hunting and ask yourself if what your doing is even worth it.
2 days later after I calmed down I decided to see just how wide that bull was as I hadn't seen a bull that wide in real life. the taxi and I disagreed on where the exact "boone and friggin crocket" measurement point was. So I came up with an inside spread of 47" and his was 50". my score came out to 391 and his was 399.
I contemplated on adding the score to this little write up as not to subtract from the meaning of this post but what is the point of why we all hunt?
Some where we all had a close encounter with a monster that got away. Or we had dreams about ......"one day". regardless of the actual size of that one that got away, in our minds it was a 200" muley or a 400" bull. In my mind that bull was a monster. Regardless of the score I would have always remembered seeing that lumbering giant working his horns through the trees at 40 yards. Even though I only saw the top of his rack my initial thought was "HOLY $^&*(*!!!!!!" he just happened to actually score way up there which was simply a bonus, not the goal. I got lucky on the score PERIOD.
and in my book that what hunting is truly about.
The experience.
