Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Utah Wasatch Early Rifle Bull

I found out in May that I drew a Limited Entry Wasatch Rifle tag. I had 10 points and that was actually pretty lucky. It takes 15 or so points to guarantee this tag. Since May I've been out to scout 6-7 times. I covered a lot of country and didn't have much to show for it. I had seen 3 elk, 2 cows and a small bull, in all of those trips. The hunt started on Saturday and I headed up Thursday afternoon to try to find a bull. I hiked a lot of miles Thursday night and then all day Friday and hadn't seen a single elk. I had heard a few bugles around camp Thursday night though.

Me out scouting:



My brother-in-law and his son got up there Friday and decided to take a 1/4 mile hike from camp and sit at a meadow. They had been there for 15 minutes when a HUGE bull and one cow came walking across. I was pretty excited that night when they told me and we planned to be at that meadow before light the next morning. Guess how many elk we saw that morning? ZERO.

We then hiked into a water hole I had seen from Google Earth and got there about lunch time. All the water was gone and there was already a hunter sitting there watching it. I was not feeling very optimistic at this point.

There was a spot I had never been to but someone on another forum told me about. We drove way over there and started hiking. The goal was a water hole about 1.5 miles away and 6-700 feet of elevation gain. We got about halfway up the trail at a place where we could see across a ravine into some dark timber. My nephew said "we should try cow calling". My BIL gave a cow call and 5 seconds later we heard a half-hearted bugle coming from the dark timber. We waiting a minute and then he blew the call again. This time the bull meant business and we could hear trees crashing and he was half-grunting/half-bugling. I chambered a round and tried to see down the hill where the bull was but couldn't see anything. There were too many Aspens and bushes in the way to see very far. Then all of a sudden I could see antlers coming up the hill. I could tell he was a mature bull and instantly decided I would shoot this bull. He just kept coming up the hill though and I never had a good shot until he got to within 50 yards and stopped. I had to move around quite a bit to get a shot but did get one off. He ran perpendicular to how he came up and I got off two more shots as he ran (I don't think either of those last two hit him). Thinking about it later, I think the only reason the bull didn't spook as I angled for a shot was that the sun was directly behind me and he was coming uphill looking directly into the sun. He probably couldn't see anything.

At the time we weren't 100% sure he was even hit. We looked around where he was when I first shot and didn't find any blood. I then went down to where I last saw him and found a little bit of blood. I followed it for 10 minutes or so. The blood trail was consistent but not heavy. The bull had gone back into the dark timber. I was walking along, following the blood trail, when I saw him 40 yards ahead laying down with his head down. I only had a spine shot and I didn't even know if he was alive still, but I wasn't going to risk it. I figured potentially ruining some meat was better than the bull getting up and running away. Just as I was about to pull the trigger he started trying to move and I shot him.

He isn't a monster bull, but I am very happy with him. He is easily the biggest bull I've ever killed. The Wasatch unit is a good unit, but it is not one of the top tier Utah units. I told myself I would shoot any mature 6x6 and that's what I did.

The rifle is a Winchester model 70 classic featherweight in 30-06 with a fixed 6 Leupold. Bullet is nothing special. Factory Federal 180 grain.

Nice bull congrats, your nephew and bil on the run from the law or something?mb

Nice bull Congrats!

I just didn't ask their permission to post their photo online. No fugitives 😀

Incredibly exciting stuff! Great job on finding that beautiful bull!

I know what you mean when you talk about getting off three shots, but the last two likely didn't connect. I shot an elk from about 80 yards and then fired four over its back as it slowly walked broadside. I get that elk fever bad sometimes.

Congrats on the bull!

The rifle sure opened early this year.

Nice bull, good photos, and great story.....with a happy ending! Congratulations! memtb

Nice looking bull.
Which lake is that in the background of the first picture?

Nice bull congratulations on your hunt.

Well done.

Congrats.

Nice bull, enjoyed the story. Thanks for taking us along.

Excellent! Congratulations, and thank you for the story & photos. Good looking bull.

I like your attitude about shooting any mature 6x6, many of us will never do that. I tagged a 6x6 twenty years ago, but not since. Those antlers still hang in the family room, and bring back memories of a great hunt.

I'd say you more than put in the effort necessary. Good job!

Laughing a little about the "plain jane" 30-06, 6x scope & factory 180 gr ammo. That's really all we need for most hunting, and I might just favor the 30-06 & 6x for most of my hunting too.

Again, congrats!

Guy

Well heck yeah - congrats!

Very nice Bull! Congratulations on a successful hunt.

Shooting the first legal bull ensures elk steaks instead of tag soup. Happy Trails

Fantastic....congrats!

Good stuff!! Congrats on taking a fine bull & thanks for the great story.

Nice man 👍

Wow, great bull and even greater story. What I’m ever more impressed by is that you took him with a 30-06 and a fixed 6x scope. Some folks would say that isn’t really possible anymore. 😉 Nice going!

Congrats on a nice bull and great memories.