Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 2023 Bull….

After 18 years of points to get the tag and 15 days of hard hunting, I was able to get my dream bull of a lifetime even though he’s a bit smaller than a couple others I’ve taken.

I had a good friend hunting his own tags in his own camp on the mountain that kept awesome tabs on me, and my old Dad spent the 1st week in camp with me for moral support. I’m not sure why I felt the need to do this hunt as much solo as possible, but I did. I had “something” to prove to myself on this hunt and if nothing else, I feel that need was satisfied in spades.

Utah is re-structuring the limited entry elk hunts and I decided I wanted to cash in and get out of the game while the getting was good.

I was born at the base of this mountain and pretty much raised on it. It’s been a spike only limited entry unit since I was 15 years old. I’ve called in hundreds of bulls up there and I figured it would be nice to finally be able to shoot one. The only problem was, the rut was EXTREMELY slow coming.

There were large groups of bulls bacholored up until September 10th…

Every elk in this picture is a bull..



One time when I had a lazy bull half way responding to my cow calls, I managed to call in a good boar to 40 yards. I’ve cow called in several bears on this particular mountain.





I’ve never seen so many grouse in my life and was able to put several to pot.





Long story short, the rut finally kicked in good on September 14th. During the 1st two weeks of my hunt, I had a good chance at a good bull but didn’t make it happen. I passed a couple rag horns and was in elk every day. It was awesome!

On day 15, I managed to work this bull into 10 yards. It was time and he was the one. He was licking his nostrils, pissing all over himself and bugling when my arrow found his vitals. It was a beautiful, cold, wet and amazing morning in the elk woods.



He definitely isn’t the biggest bull on the mountain but I’m dam proud of him. He is a solid 5x5 and the experience was worth every second and cent I had invested in the hunt. I walked from camp this morning and killed, quartered and packed him out 100% solo.



I set my bow up for maximum penetration knowing that when solo elk calling, 90% of the shots are going to be close and the elk is going to be quartering too or frontal. I was a recurve shooter/hunter in the past and saw first hand the positive effects of the Ashby reports and his study’s on arrow lethality. I stepped away from serious archery for several years and was excited to learn there is a huge Ashby following in the compound world.

My arrow zipped right on through on a hard quartering too shot and is still sailing as far as I know. 31.5” 250 spined Easton FMJ autumn orange arrows, 200 gr RF Tuffhead broadheads, 70# @ 30” Hoyt VTM 34.



Thank you all for following along, and again, I feel very blessed to have the memories from this experience.

Good luck to y’all this year!

Todd

Congrats to you!!!

Very nice! Congrats!!!

Good deal! Heavy arrows, cut on impact broadheads are the ticket.

Excellent!!!

Well done Todd!

Outstanding

Congrats! Sounds like a great hunt. You earned him, that’s for sure. Love your setup….worked well.
Heading out Saturday for NM myself. Fingers crossed.

Hellz yeah! Well done!

Congrats on the beautiful bull. Great story and pictures too.

Great write up and pics! Thanks for sharing.........

Great bull and a great shot! That is awesome stuff!

That is a way cool story!

Congrats, meat well earned.

I've done a couple of elk solo, and it's a job. Makes me wonder how in the world anyone does a Yukon moose solo, because I know guys do it, but it's not a job I'd want to do solo after killing two yukons myself.

Big congrats and thanks for posting your story.

Well done! Thete must be incredible satisfaction in going it alone

Well done!

Thank you all very much!

Todd

Congrats.

Good deal.

I totally get the desire to hunt solo, for many reasons---one of which is the sense of accomplishment one gets (or at least, I get) from it.

Great story. Hard work pays off.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the great write up - you’ll reflect back on those weeks on the mountain for the rest of your days.

Very well done. What unit did you draw?

Great story and bull. Congrats!

Congratulations on a very nice bull. and getting him with the bow was I bet satisfying also. Good luck in your future endeavors.

Looks like a great hunt. Congrats.

Congratulations on an exceptional animal.

Sweet!!

Congratulations

Thanks for the write-up and pic's. So glad to see the wait paid off for ya'.

Congratulations