Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Monday, October 18th, Day 3. Up early with a lot of anticipation. I had been dreaming of this bull all night. I could hardly eat breakfast.

We parked the horses at the base of Waterfall and climbed to its head. From there, the only direction was up. Halfway up, the snow started falling. Another few feet and it was a blizzard. Jake and I discussed it. If we got up there and it was snowing this hard, it would be impossible to glass for the big bull and see him. But we were well into the climb and didn�t want to give it up. So we pushed on. At one point after a rest break, I took 20 steps and was out of breath, it was that steep!

We reached the crest about 8:30am I would guess and started glassing. Sure enough, the herd was there! They were about a mile away tucked up against the base of a peak. We didn�t have a lot of cover between us, but we did have a willow lined creek. So we monster stepped from side to side of the muddy creek (thank goodness for waterproof boots!) hunched as low as we could for about half a mile. The willows hare only about waist high there from all the elk grazing on them. From time to time, the snow was coming down so hard we would lose sight of the herd, but they were just grazing and loafing. Some were lying down, some were standing. We snuck behind a ridge and made up some ground. Then, over a little saddle into the shelter of another little ridge and we made it to the end of that ridge. From there we were stuck. No cover to get any closer. The herd was still a long ways off it seemed. We took up a good position on a pile of rocks and tried to get the range finder to get a reading on how far he was away. We were worried the herd could go either left or right and we wouldn�t get a shot. The bull was just lying down with his 20 cows and a smaller bull near him at this time however. They were lying in amongst a bunch of Volkswagen-sized boulders. Every once in awhile, he would bugle to the world, telling everyone that this was his harem and his area. The elk were tucked up to the base in the big boulders:
















After about 45 minutes, the snow started to let up a bit. I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when Jake hissed that he got a reading. The bull was at 402 yards and was just standing broadside to us. Jake said, we gotta shoot him, get ready! I think we both thought he was further away than that, so that spurred me into action. I had a great rest on the rocks and this time, I put the crosshairs about 12 inches above his back. The gun was rock steady (yeah, pun intended). The wind was negligible. I took my time and squeeeeeeezed that trigger. At the shot, the herd exploded into action, but the bull just staggered. Jake calmly said that I had hit him, but put another one in him. As I got lined up, the bull was falling down, getting up, and staggering this way and that. I shot again, but knew it was no good as the bull had fallen down again just as I shot. This time, he stayed down however. I could just see his right antler sticking up behind a boulder. I stayed ready for the next 10 minutes or so making sure he wasn�t going anywhere. He wasn�t. The walk to him was an adrenaline-filled speed walk. Ol� Jake couldn�t seem to keep up to me! It was just after 10:00 am when we got to him.

This is what I found when I rounded that last boulder:


































































We got the pictures taken and the bull quartered out by about 1 pm. It took Jake 2 attempts to get the pack horses up to him because it was so steep.

Sammy decided to break camp as he was worried about the storm and we weren�t seeing a lot of elk. Unfortunately, Dad didn�t see any elk in the morning in Golf Course. He did see a group of about 12 cows right by camp as we were packing to go out. He spent 2 more days from before dawn until dark on stand but didn�t see another elk. He sure put in his time and deserved to get an opportunity, but that is hunting.

Technical Details: My bull scored 301 6/8 inches and was a 6X6 before he broke off a tine. He had 46 inch beams; a 40 inch inside spread and 10 � inch bases. His fifth tine on his right side was broke off (and it looked like it would be around 8-10 inches long). His 5th point on his right side was pretty small, so he basically scored as a 5X5. He yielded right around 250 pounds of meat. I shot him at 402 yards with a Sako A7 in .300 Winchester Short Magnum/Leupold VX3 scope with Federal Barnes Triple Shock X bullets in 180 grain. The shot was a complete pass through just behind the shoulder. A perfect double lung shot. Some things that really worked well for me on the trip: Schnees Beartooth boots, Nikon Monarch Binoculars, Filson Mackinaw wool pants, and Smartwool base layer tops, bottoms and socks. Most important item to bring next time: nasal spray to prevent cement-like boogers.