All,
For 8 years and 4 seasons I have been chasing elk in high pressure public land in Colorado. In 2008 I thought I had killed a trophy bull for that area considering the hunting pressure (and I still consider that mature 5x5 a trophy), but this year I stumbled upon a class of bull that I figured I would have to pay thousands to find. On day 3 of our hunt I changed tactics and ventured off by myself into an area with no access and a headache to get to. It paid off with finging a herd of about 30 elk with 3 bulls at 7:05am. One bull was up in the timber bugling with a cow squacking away. The others were feeding towards the timber with a 5x5 similar to the one I got in 2008 and this bull trying to skirt the backside of the group. After getting settled in as close as the terrain and 60 eyes would let me, I rangedd him at 479 yards. I got comfortable on the sticks and put a 200gr accubond out of my 325WSM dead into the point of the shoulder. He took 10 steps and piled up. We did find the slug in the far shoulder weighing 160gr. It took the the better part of the rest of the day to get the joker out. Per the ivory tooth chart, he is estimated between 9 and 11 years old. It was pretty cool to finally show my Dad and Uncles who I was hunting with. They have been hunting in that general area for decades and were pretty impressed.

I know there are much bigger bulls on here, but I still can't fully digest how this all came together and he is not only in my freezer but will soon be on my wall.

Thanks for viewing.

Nice bull - congratulations, job well done!

Congrats, very nice bull!

neat OLD bull

Thanks all. I appreciate it.

Congats to you - that is a heck of a bull!!

Very nice! As far as public land goes, the biggest bull I ever saw was on public land in Co. A 7x7 and massive.

Very nice bull, congrats...Thanks for sharing your story and also letting us know what cartridge/bullet combo you used. Good job!!

That's a fantastic bull! Congratulations!!

Great bull, congratulations!! That bottom pic looks to be back in camp, how'd you get him out?

Very nice bull! Congratulation.

Yeah, nice bull. But I'm wondering, like smokepole. How did he come out whole(it appears), from an area with 'no access and a headache to get into'?

Congrats on a very nice bull! I took a 6x6 on public land a few years ago but he didn't have the mass yours does.

cacciatore:

That's a really nice bull. I've been DIY hunting public land in Colorado for over thirty years and I've taken several big 5x5 bulls and some small 6x6 bulls. But that bull is bigger than anything that I've gotten. Very impressive and I hope it adds more to your personal satisfaction that you did it on your own, on public land.

Congratulations!

KC

Super bull--congrats!

That is one great looking narley old bull!

He was the one to take out of the herd and had seen his zenith.

how'd you get him out?

Lefty C

Maybe he got lucky like I did years ago. I killed an elk in dark timber and flagged my way out to where I knew there was a road. I knew my buds wouldn't be around for a couple hours so I followed the road and it turned and ran along a fence line. When I got to the end of the road, I had this eery feeling I'd been there before. Just then two guys come up the hill and asked if that was my elk down there? Why heck yes it was. What I thought would be a cut and pack job turned into about a 150 yd drag. Uphill albeit but it looked worse than that to start.

That my friend is a great bull! Congratulations.

Totally aweso, congrats!

Great bull

Nice!

Crickets

Beautiful bull and well done!


ddj

Thanks everyone. I appreciate it.

Getting him out was in fact the trick. Once I got my Dad and Uncles there, we changed our mind a couple different times on our approach. In the end we figured gut him out and get started......if we get to a point we can't go any further, then we can go to plan "b" (which we didn't have yet). In the end, we used one of those cabelas game carts with dual wheels. We loaded him on there....tied him on and drug him out whole (less the guts). There was lots of sweating, swearing, arguing, etc., but we got him out to the road and loaded him on a trailer, cart and all.

If I think of it, I will take pictures of how the game cart faired. One wheel has quite the wobble.....and the main frame has a new arc shape to it. We are already looking at how to reinforce for next season. But we can't complain too much....the thing probably paid for itself in that one trip.

I did have to warn my Dad part way through to take it easy because if he had "the big one" out there, that he would be drug out second.

Thanks again everyone. When I get time, I will throw a tape on him and come back with a score. I have my guess. Any guesses?

I am in India for the week working, so it will probably not be until this weekend.

LMAO, been there, I hear you!!

That's not all luck! Congrats on a great DIY public ground bull....

Very cool!! Congrats on a job well done.

Enjoy him. You could hunt another 25 years and not see a better bull on public lands again. My group got one like than 15 years ago and haven't seen anything even close mass-wise since including in the other camps around us.

Nice bull. Congrats

Obviously considering it was family relationships (Dads, Sons, Uncles, Nephews)........it was all very clean polite swearing.

Thanks again all.
I am pretty thrilled about it........and really struggling to decide what mount style. In fact, I would love some suggestions from you guys/gals.

I was thinking a shoulder mount on a pedestal with the horns tipped back. I was looking at some pictures and kind of like the chin up a bit and maybe bugling. The pedestal I would make out of some rustic barn boards.

Thoughts?

Well, my "big adventure" with hauling out a whole animal wasn't even an elk, and was with two of my best hunting buddies so the swearing was anything but clean and polite.

Your idea for the mount sounds great, go for it!

Very cool and gives a flatlander something to hope for! LOL'd about the game cart-I've suffered the results of a few catastrophic game cart failures on hogs and deer! They're usually cheap pos's so I took to welding my own. Of course, when some stranger walks up to you on public land, right in the middle of cussing yourself out for stupid design or crappy welding...you get the idea!

Great bull! Congrats!

Great bull!!

We may start calling this cart "the wee little cart that could".

As I said...it looks like hell afterwards, but it got the job done. If it means that I have to buy a new one for to group to get my Dad or Uncle's elk out next time.....so be it.

Very very nice bull.Congrats. I have never hunted on private land in CO and have taken some nice bulls, but not that good. I'd guess it is in the 330-340 range

First off big congrats on that bull. I got ahold of an old canoe dolly thats bent up to try and make one of those things a while back. I just drug my deer ( first deer for me) about 350 yrds and the dolly would have been great. My taxidermist just started doing elk mounts in a free standing big flower pot format. I wish i had pics of it. He makes a nice wooden pot and wieghs it down somehow then puts a post in it to mount the elk to. He adds some fake vegetation and old timber to complete the look. They look great and can be freestanding or pushed into a corner. He also sarted putting a piece of tree next to shoulder mounts on the wall and that looks killer with a deer. I think I'll try that on mine. Great bull man!

I've been lucky in many public establishments, so yes.

Way to go on the bull. Going where others can't/won't is always a good thought.

I've gotta ask, is that how you got lucky at other "public establishments??"

congrats! thats a fine bull from public land and and the fact you got it off public land under fair chase conditions makes it a much better trophy in my mind that if you shot some farm raised bull, like someone might shoot on some hunting preserve even if it was much larger!

wow.... what a stud. Congrats man, doesn't it feel even sweeter it was on public land too.

congrats

Now that is funny!!!! (as long as it didn't happen)

Good bull, anywhere.

Congrats.

Very nice! Congratulations!

It didn't happen...thank the Lord.
And I was only half kidding him when I said it.

VERY well done!

You're the man! Awesome! I only hope to do as well, some day.

Eric

flippin awsome!

These are my sentiments as well. Congratulations!
I believe there are many ranch hunters who wish they had done as well.

Thanks fellas. I appreciate it. I know there is bigger....and I know there are better....but in a single point area especially with my Dad and uncles makes it the best for me.

Great bull!

Very well done!

Nice bull! Congrats.

Outstanding! My brother's first bull, he took two years ago was a 6x6 'bull of a lifetime (most likely)' that he took on public land in MT. It was traveling with a 5x5 of similar size (but less mass) that my dad ended up with.

Beautiful, you deserved a nice one! Kudos!

Broken third on right? Great old bull. Have seen some close and some maybe a bit better in relatively low point areas. Would love to roll one like him some day.

I like the way you did that.. And the results!

Did you hunt the hill?

The 3rd was actually kind of missing. It seemed like that volume of antler was consumed by the bladed 4th ....or should I say 3rd in the location of the 4th.

I did not. I wasn't terrible far from there as the crow flies when I shot this bull, but I wasn't up on that hill.