My 16D Rifle Elk

SDBugler

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My fall hunting schedule was pretty busy this year highlighted by a 5-week long hunt that included a youth ibex hunt, a Colorado mountain goat hunt, and a 16D rifle elk hunt. After successful hunts for the ibex and mountain goat I had 7 days available to scout before my elk hunt began. After driving all night I finally arrived in my unit in the Gila National Forest early in the morning and I decided to just pull off the road, recline the seat and use a jacket for a blanket for the few remaining hours of the night.

A few hours later I woke as the sky was just starting to get light. I had just stepped outside the truck to get rid of a few Diet Cokes that helped keep me awake while driving the night before when I was immediately greeted by a bugle down in the valley below. I franticly put my contact lenses in, changed into some camouflage, grabbed the binos and headed downhill to see what this bull looked like. Fifteen minutes later I was watching a small 6x6 bull following a cow up the hillside at 60 yards. I couldn't believe it, the sun wasn?t even up on my first day in the area and I was already into elk.

The day went downhill from there as the overcast skies soon turned to rain. Since it was raining, I decided to spend the day driving the roads and get a feel for the area and find some access points to areas that looked promising on the map. The rain finally let up that afternoon and I was able to get camp set up. The mobility impaired hunt opened the next morning, and I had a couple trucks pull in and set up camp next to me. After they finished setting up their camp, I went over to visit with my new neighbors. Mark and Joe were from Winston only a couple hours away. Mark was a guide for Beaverhead Outfitters, but on this trip he was just volunteering to help his friend on this hunt. We discussed where they would be hunting as I didn't want to mess up their hunt while I was scouting. These were a couple very friendly people and Mark and I would eventually visit and share information every morning and evening over the next couple days.

Friday evening I headed to an area in the northern part of my unit. I only had a couple hours to spend hiking around and I saw lots of elk sign but it was all old. Around sunset, the rain started up again but quickly turned to snow. By the time I got back to the truck there was 2? of fresh snow on the ground and it was still coming down.

By Saturday morning the skies cleared up and the temperatures dropped into the teens. I had planned to check out a deep canyon on the opposite side of the ridge above camp. After an hour of climbing, I reached the ridge just as it was getting light enough to see. I soon heard several bugles down in the canyon on the opposite side. After listening for a while I estimated there to be at least a dozen different bulls down in the canyon below. I headed down into an area that sounded like it had 3 or 4 bulls chasing the same group of cows. About 30 minutes later I was within 150 yards of several bugling bulls and quietly snuck in to get a closer look at them. I soon started seeing elk in the trees as the bulls were harassing the cows. I watched them for a while and soon their bugling became non-stop. In all my years of elk hunting, I had never before heard so much bugling. With all this commotion, all the other bulls in the canyon began to head towards this herd and soon I was surrounded by elk. By mid-morning the herd had grown to over a dozen bulls fighting for the affection of only three cows. I had several bulls walk by at less than 40 yards and even had one 5x6 bull walk by at less than 5? as he passed by on the other side of the tree I was leaning against. It was an incredible experience but unfortunately none of the bulls were big. After a while I managed to sneak back out of the herd undetected and headed off to search for other elk.

The elk continued to bugle all day long and I had several bulls respond to both bugles and cow calls but nothing big. That evening I decided to head back to the canyon where I had seen all the activity in the morning to see if a larger bull moved into the area. The elk were still bugling when I returned and I got within a couple hundred yards of the herd. I was somewhat happy to find that a 295 - 300? bull had moved in to take possession of the three cows and was busy keeping all the other bulls away.

After Saturday, the temperatures began to rise and the rutting activity slowed down a little. The elk would still bugle in the mornings and evenings but not with the intensity of Saturday. I would get bulls to bugle in response to my calls but they were hesitant to come in.

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After returning to camp Sunday night I was happy to find out that Joe had successfully harvested a small 5x6 bull that evening. I asked if they needed help getting the bull out the next morning but they said they shot him right next to a jeep trail and that they could get their ATV right up to him. I met up with them back at camp around noon on Monday and recognized Joe?s bull as one of the bulls I had watched on Saturday morning.

I spent the rest of the week searching new areas for a big bull without any success. After seven days of scouting I had seen well over 300 bulls but only found two that were 300? or more. One was right at the 300? mark and the other was around 310? ? 315?. Even finding 6 point bulls was difficult. After experiencing one of their worst droughts in decades, the antler growth was well below normal. I had run into one of the local ranchers while scouting and during our visit he indicated that they had only received 0.25? of rain between the previous winter and the middle of August. Some of the guides I ran into while scouting also reported the same thing. Some estimated that the antler growth was 15% - 20% down. That doesn't? seem like a lot until you consider that a 360 class bull wouldn't even break 300? if those estimates were correct.

After years of applying and finally drawing a tag for arguably the best tag in the state for trophy potential, I was disappointed that I drew it on such a poor year. On Friday night before the season opener, I decided that I would shoot the first decent 6 point bull that gave me the opportunity.
Opening morning I decided to hunt a ?canyon? where I had seen the 315? bull. It was one of the lower elevation areas in the unit and was mostly thick pinyon- junipers. I had seen about 100 elk in this area during a couple scouting visits. The ?canyon? was more of an ?open park? that stretched for about 5 miles rather than what I would call a ?canyon.? From my research, I knew that the area was popular so I planned to arrive a couple hours before shooting time to get a jump on the competition. Based on my scouting, the elk moved out into the park at night to feed and water, and then worked their way south into the north facing hillsides to bed during the day.

I parked my truck at the west end of the ?canyon? and worked my through the trees along the south side. My goal was to get half way up the canyon before shooting light and hopefully intercept the herds as they moved out of the park and up the hillside. My plan was working and I could hear several bulls bugling out in the open park. However, as it started to get light, I noted that the bugles were getting farther away. By the time it was light enough to see, it was apparent that all the elk were headed into the trees on the opposite side of the park. There was no way to get across the park without being seen, so all I could do was watch the elk until they disappeared into the pinyons.

I decided I would spend the day and hunt in a big circle through the hills around the park and end up in the pinyons on the other side in the afternoon, and hopefully catch the elk as they headed back to the park in the evening. I located a few elk stalking through the hills including one real nice 6 point bull. Unfortunately, he had broken one antler completely off just above the first point. I watched him and his cows at 50 yards for a few minutes before the wind swirled and they scrambled over the ridge and out of sight. It was a unique encounter as I had picked up this bull?s shed from last year with its distinguishable first point just a couple days earlier less than 200 yards away.

By noon, I had made it all the way around the park and was planning to have lunch on the ridgeline above the pinyons on the north side of the park. As soon as I made it to the top of the ridge from the back side, I could hear bulls bugling down in the pinyons below ? and it wasn?t just an occasional casual bugle, these bulls were bugling non-stop during the middle of the day!! The bulls were fairly spread out in the pinyons below. I spent some time looking through binoculars into the thick vegetation in areas where the bugles were coming from and I was able to locate a couple bulls bedded in the shade.

After listening to the bulls for a while I zeroed in on what sounded like the largest bull and headed down the hill towards him. Thirty minutes later I was within 100 yards of the bull but the pinyons were so thick that you couldn't see more than 10-15 yards at the most. I was slowly inching my way towards the sound of his bugles when a cow busted me and stood up from her bed just a few yards away. She stared at me for about a minute before deciding that she didn't like me and began trotting off with some of the herd behind her. I could hear the bull get up and he began bugling as he moved off following the herd. The bull?s bugles must have given the herd a false sense of comfort and they only went a couple hundred yards before stopping again.

I figured out that when the elk were bedded they could see through the lower dead branches of the pinyon-junipers and could see my legs as I walked through the brush. I quickly caught up the herd again and followed the bull?s bugles whenever he moved. I decided that I would just stay on the tails of the herd for the rest of the afternoon. I knew they would eventually work their way back toward the open park and I would have a better chance of a shot as they neared the park and the vegetation opened up more. The bull bugled enough that I could tell if the herd was on the move or not. If his bugles were moving I followed. If the bull quit moving between bugles I would just stop and sit down.

This cat & mouse chase continued throughout the afternoon. At times I could tell I was within 30 ? 40 yards as the bull?s bugles were so close they would vibrate my body, yet it was so thick I couldn't see him. Around 3:30 another bull worked his way into the herd. At his arrival, the two bulls? bugling intensified into a screaming match as they tried to display their dominance over each other. However, they never engaged in a fight and eventually they decided to just stay on opposite sides of the herd of cows from each other.

With the arrival of the second bull, the activity of the herd increased and they began to move in the direction of the open park. As they got into more open vegetation and with the faster pace of the herd it was getting harder to keep up with the herd without getting caught. On a couple occasions, I got busted by a straggling cow or calf, but with all the activity, they would stare at me and then pass me off as just another elk moving through the trees. I was able to catch occasional glimpses of the two bulls. One was a 6x6 that I would guess to be around the 300? mark and the other bull was a pretty nice 5x5. At one point I had the 5x5 bugling broadside at 8 yards, but I had decided to hold out for his partner.

Around 4:00 I was hot on the trail of the herd when I accidently stepped on a branch. At first I got nervous that this might make the elk aware of my presence, but my fears were soon put to rest when I saw the unmistakable golden tan of a bull walk up to the opposite side of the juniper I was crouched behind and he let out a raspy bugle in my direction. He must have heard the branch snap and figured one of the cows was away from the herd and he came back to rope her back in. After a long couple of minutes, he turned and started walking to my left. I could see a small opening in the junipers and I raised my rifle in anticipation. The bull was so close that I was actually looking up at him and when his head passed through the opening, I briefly counted six tines on the left side of his rack and immediatly lowered the gun to where his chest would be when it passed through the small opening and a split second later I fired a round off at 10 yards. The bull only made a couple more steps before falling to the ground. At the sound of the shot a bugle rang out just 40 yards away! I couldn't believe that the herd hadn't spooked at the gunshot.

As I walked up to the bull, I was surprised to see that he was not the 6x6 bull I had been following all afternoon. Instead, he was a 6x5 with a broken first point on his right side. This bull must have quietly slipped into the herd. Even though he was not the bull I had intended to shoot, I was not disappointed.

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Although I had dreamed all summer of finally having a realistic chance at harvesting a 340?+ bull, I had come to the realization after scouting that a trophy bull was not going to be in the cards this year due to the drought. I had decided to just enjoy the hunt for the experience. For me this bull will elicit memories of the excitement of chasing bugles through the mountains for a week; of being in the middle of a herd of elk as the bulls chased cows all around me; of being close enough to touch a bull elk as he bugled right next to me; and of being in a herds? back pocket for 4 hours while following them through the brush.
 
Not to be negative dude but if I'm seeing things correct thats a piss poor rack for that bull. He looks to have a giant head from both angles. Usually elk with heads that large and massive roman noses are fairly old bulls and sport some pretty gnarly racks as far as size goes. I saw this on many bulls myself this year. In fact I shot what I thot was a raghorn for meat on the last day and it ended up being a giant old bull with hardly any horns. I ended up grinding all the meat for hamburger as it wasn't worth eating any other way.

Great bull, horrible year. These friggin drought years suck but the hunting was stellar anyways. Cant complain about ever havin the opportunity to go huntin eh? At least thats the way I look at it. Congrats!
 
On a year like this, that is a great bull. We had hardly any rains in the antler growth period. This winter looks to be a good one, so next year should be great! Hopefully, you can draw another tag, and I can get one as well! Great harvest, good luck in the years to come!
 
+1 Stinky!

Hey, atleast you were smart enough to go at it with the right attitude and have fun with what usualy is a super tag!
Good read.
 
Stinky, you are 100% correct. That was a tough old bull. We have eaten a few steaks so far (and some chislic while watching the MN Vikings lose on Sunday afternoons). Its like chewing boot leather.

The drought not only impacted the antler growth, but also the body size on several bulls that I saw. This bull had ZERO fat on him. I have shot many bulls in my life but this is the first bull that I have ever packed out in three trips (excluding the head/antlers) and I didn't even debone him.

One pleasant suprise however, was his ivories. They had beautiful color. The best I have ever seen. I sent one out to get a custom necklace made for my wife to thank her for letting me go hunting for 5 weeks straight.
 
Great read on a very nice hunt. The bull might not be the biggest, But the story makes him a special bull.

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Congrats man,.....glad you got one in a bad year. I hunted 16D on my first hunt in NM,...in about '94. Saw 2 bulls over 400 and too many to count that were over 300. Sorry to see that it's gone down so badly in the years since then.
 
Congrats on a great hunt and thanks for taking the time to share it.Your words took me right into the hunt and during this time of year that is golden.Congrats again , Happy New Year...
 
Sounded like a good hunt. Congrats! There were still some big bulls to be had out there this year though. I personally thought antler growth was average this year. We got on some dandy’s out there. Still think they are issuing to many tags though.
 
Probably I can't keep track of all the little Bulls I kill. But one day that 400 class is gonna go to sleep.?? hell I can't even draw a tag
 

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