Me and my brother started our trip 6 days before the limited entry ML hunt to put the finishing touches on our scouting. By the time our hunt started we were very excited. On opening morning both the bulls we had spotted were spooked by ML deer hunters and vanished, we couldn't find either of them so we move on to other canyons. A couple good hunting friends of mine came down on the second day of our hunt to help me and my brother. On day 3 of our hunt my brother got his opportunity at a nice bull and connected. He got his first lesson on exactly how tough these big bulls were. It took us three days to track his bull and find it dead, nearly five miles from where he shot it. It was only me and my brother hunting on the day we found the bull at 1:00 pm. It took us until 7 pm that night to get the antlers out; bull had died the first night so the meat was not salvageable.
We got my brothers bull back to camp on Sunday night, Monday morning he had to leave for work reasons which left me on my own for the remaining 4 days of my hunt. Monday was day 11 of hiking this mountain of foot with pack. I was physically and near mentally done hiking that pile of lava rocks, with nobody to give me a pep talk I didn't get down in the nasty stuff again. On Tuesday evening I went for a ride with the wife and twins to do some glassing. We found a herd of elk two ridges west of me that had a 6X7 bull with good mass and palmations. I decided that I would take this bull and started the sneak on him. I was sneaking through quakies and for the life of me couldn't stay quiet but this bull kept bugling and never left. I had finally snuck in close enough to see the elk on the opposite ridge through the quakies but I was still a bit far. As soon as I started moving again a deer busted me and ran right for the elk, I was sure it was OVER. Much to my surprise the elk didn't leave and the bull kept bugling. I finally snuck within shooting distance of the bull but he was not giving me a shot. His cows were frozen and he was running back and forth across the top of the herd trying to push them down into the draw I was sitting in. He actually bull dozed one of the cows with his chest and knocked her down the hill, this gave me my shot. Remembering how tough these bulls could be I reloaded and gave him one more.
The best part was my wife watched the whole thing happen in the spotting scope. My dad and another good friend of mine from the area came up early the next morning to help cape and pack him back to the truck.
When we got back to camp on Wednesday my wife had lunch fixed and camp packed up. I would not have been able to hunt the way I did without her. She had breakfast fixed every morning at 4:30 and had dinner warmed up at night when we got back to camp; after 14 days of this routine she wanted very much to head home.
My ONLY regrets with this hunt is pictures. I never took the time to take good pictures throughout the hunt and once we got the bulls down we went to work and didn't take time for pictures until the work was over.
?Here?s to the hero's that Git-R-Done!!?
We got my brothers bull back to camp on Sunday night, Monday morning he had to leave for work reasons which left me on my own for the remaining 4 days of my hunt. Monday was day 11 of hiking this mountain of foot with pack. I was physically and near mentally done hiking that pile of lava rocks, with nobody to give me a pep talk I didn't get down in the nasty stuff again. On Tuesday evening I went for a ride with the wife and twins to do some glassing. We found a herd of elk two ridges west of me that had a 6X7 bull with good mass and palmations. I decided that I would take this bull and started the sneak on him. I was sneaking through quakies and for the life of me couldn't stay quiet but this bull kept bugling and never left. I had finally snuck in close enough to see the elk on the opposite ridge through the quakies but I was still a bit far. As soon as I started moving again a deer busted me and ran right for the elk, I was sure it was OVER. Much to my surprise the elk didn't leave and the bull kept bugling. I finally snuck within shooting distance of the bull but he was not giving me a shot. His cows were frozen and he was running back and forth across the top of the herd trying to push them down into the draw I was sitting in. He actually bull dozed one of the cows with his chest and knocked her down the hill, this gave me my shot. Remembering how tough these bulls could be I reloaded and gave him one more.
The best part was my wife watched the whole thing happen in the spotting scope. My dad and another good friend of mine from the area came up early the next morning to help cape and pack him back to the truck.
When we got back to camp on Wednesday my wife had lunch fixed and camp packed up. I would not have been able to hunt the way I did without her. She had breakfast fixed every morning at 4:30 and had dinner warmed up at night when we got back to camp; after 14 days of this routine she wanted very much to head home.
My ONLY regrets with this hunt is pictures. I never took the time to take good pictures throughout the hunt and once we got the bulls down we went to work and didn't take time for pictures until the work was over.
?Here?s to the hero's that Git-R-Done!!?
