Had an amazing elk hunt last night. I am real happy that I decided to buy a second tag. I went back to where I have been seeing this herd in the evenings all week. Thanks to lots of vocalization by the herd themselves, I ended up working right into the middle of the herd in some really thick stuff without saying anything myself, I let the elk do the work for me.. After about 1 hour sneaking around in my socks...I got to shoot this guy at 22 yards, perfect heart shot as he was bugling. I had a 1 foot by 1 foot shot window through the hvy brush. He didn't go 60 yards. This is the bull that I've been after for almost 2 weeks, have a lot of footage of him and his herd..I had 2 other close calls with him on separate days. He had 17 cows, there was another really nice 5x5 or 6x6 ..but younger than this guy in there. The younger bull almost ran me over, I drew and I had to shake my bow at him to get him to see me.. it was intense, no shot on him after I was forced to move to save my arse! He had been fighting with my bull right in front of me @ 30 yrds in the thick stuff...they were battling over a very hot hyper calling cow. She was going nuts and had the boys worked up. This old bulls teeth are really worn down, beautiful ivory. If I had to guess he's on the decline. I am happy, dedicating this season's efforts to the memory of my mother. After I killed this bull and walked to him I must have sit there for 20-30 minutes, taking it all in, thanking God for the opportunity and thinking of my parents, knowing mom's with dad, looking down smiling. It sure felt like they were. I am off work today. Taking care of this bull now and cutting up my spike bull, gotta make room in the cooler for this guy. Time to focus on whitetails.
Not anywhere near my home.. 40 min... drive.. got home at 3 a.m. Had to skin and quarter him and pack frame him out, straight up hill Good bud of mine came and gave me a hand or I would have been all night.
Congrats Troy on a great bull and a tremendous effort to take your target elk. Respect to you and your skills!!! Now, go kill a monster whitie. Thanks for sharing.
Troy, I am so glad you are having the season you are. I remember when you wrote about dedicating this season to your mother. Keep it up bud. CONGRATS!!!!!
Congrats again Troy. But you better slow down, they might start rationing you tags if you keep this up. You are my HERO!!
Hahaha.. John, thanks bud, the crazy thing is if I wanted to spend another 400+ I could get another..not... I'm done.. plenty of meat and I really want to focus on whitetails now.. 3 full months and Idaho, E. WA and N.D. Bucks to hunt! .. got the bow dialed. Couldn't be happier.
Thanks everyone so far the for kind words, I gotta get my butt out in garage and get to work! Elk ..steaks anyone? Hope you all have a great Friday, gonna try to get this all done and go whitetail hunting this evening.
