Here's the only photo I’ve received, of Chris with his opening-day (er: evening) Arizona Bull. 120 yard kneeling shot at dusk, 250gr Barnes all-copper TEZ saboted muzzle-loader "boolit", from a new (Virgin) CVA 30” barreled front-stuffer ... using 110grs Triple-7 (synthetic black-powder) pellets (a 60+50 gr pellet) ignited by T-7 primers. Double lung pass-through ... impacted about 2” higher than aim point. Enough smoke (in the cold air) that it was hard to follow the Elks reaction. Chris was alone at the shot ... as Bro’ held back, due to lack of cover.
It’s hard to tell from a head-on photo, as I can’t get a good read on the front 4. Nice mass, which he carries on up though the 5th points. It’s almost as if the 4th points were “extras” and the 5ths should be considered the 4ths. For scale, though he is kneeling, Chris is 6-2”. The Bulls left beam (with the huge vertical 5th point) goes palmated (flat) beyond where he is supporting it ... then runs back past him, to where it forks ... to create the 6th and 7th points. The Bulls right beam (a more typical) 7-point shows (in that light angle) how “knarley” the surface is. I always like to see that rugged look vs. a smooth surface appearance in the main beams and even in the points. - - - A side shot or two would really help, but main-beam lengths appear to be in the 50-54” range. I’ll guess it will gross between 350 and 365 as a non-typical. While the rack is narrow, he said the main beam lengths made it appear to be a butt-scratcher, when viewed broadside just before the shot. - - - The background was truly representative of the rolling Park-like Ponderosa-Pine country that they were hunting in. It’s Goldilocks country .... where it's difficult to see/shoot over 200 yards (often closes down to 150 or even 100 yards). In other words ... almost too-open for archery hunters and yet "just-right" for muzzle-loaders. I can see why the Archery hunters complained that they often called in (or snuck-in) on bugling bulls ... were able to identify and judge them ... but it was difficult to get within a 30-40 yard shot-range.
. . . Silver Bullet
We now return to our regularly-scheduled ... Wyoming Bighorn hunt.
