Well, this is sorta the kind of story that everyone loves to hate. Its really only because of how it starts, but here goes anyway....
My older brother thought he put in for a rifle LE early elk rifle hunt on the Wasatch here in Utah. Turns out he actually put in for the premuim tag and with zero points, drew it!
He called me and thought the F&G had made a mistake when they pulled out over 500 bucks for a resident elk tag... haha, I still can't believe he drew it. I had to explain to him what the premuim tag was and that it was a good thing. (I think he took an enormous amount of crap at home for how much that tag cost him)..haha
My brother lives in BFE and with work, could only scout portions of the wasatch on a limited basis. I on the other hand must really like scouting because I spent one day a week during July and 2 days a week during August as a ritual scouting for him with trailcams and the spotting scope.
As we started finding bulls it turned into sort of a brotherly competition as to who could find the biggest bull. He had decided to buy a trailcam and kept telling me about all these gigantic rubs he had been finding in the area of his camera. Turns out he was able to get a moose and some bears on his camera. After some ribbing and a few bets for future finds, I told him about what I had just found.
In August I made my weekly ritual to check the trailcam. I had never seen a soul back in this part of the unit and I had my camera a long ways from any roads. As I approached my camera on that day, I got that feeling I was being watched. I have been to this exact spot a ton of times and never had that feeling. This time was different, and when I opened my camera to view the pictures, I found out why!
I don't really consider myself a "wuss" although Moosie may disagree:hump:, but I hightailed it off the mountain after exchanging cards in the trailcam. I also got a few more pics...
The next couple of of trailcam pics got the blood boiling. This is a trailcam pic of a bull I saw last year. You can see he has put on a ton of growth and turned into a damn nice bull.
One more big bull on the trailcam. We'll call this bull "Lucky".
So, we fast forward to opening day of the rifle hunt. My brother made the decision not to hunt the bow hunt. The first morning has my brother, his son, and a buddy of mine walking in the dark towards bugles. As we got closer, it got lighter. At 8am, we had cows and bulls all around us. A couple of calls brought these critters to 15 yards. What an amazing experience. The big bulls kept their distance and stayed in the trees. As we continued to hunt, my brother spotted a bull 700 yards away as it walked through an opening in the pines. I quickly through up the spotting scope and said "its lucky!". the bull was on the move and we needed to get closer. We watched the bull walk into a stand of pine trees and we made our move. Now within 300 yards, the bull was bugling, but wouldn't leave the tree's. About 2 hours into this stand off, something spooked other elk which ran into the same stand of pines. This sent the bull running through the pines and out of the area without us being able to get a shot...
Frustrated, we hold off on pushing any of the animals and came back during the afternoon. Back at camp, my brother was starting to cramp and really felt the hike from earlier starting to kick his butt. We located another good bull and decided to head out on the ridge to an overlook to glass this basin. At 300 yards below me, I spotted another bull going through the tree's. I told my brother who hadn't walked out on the edge to get down here and look this bull over. It was at that time I was told something about my brother that I had never known........
To be continued.........
My older brother thought he put in for a rifle LE early elk rifle hunt on the Wasatch here in Utah. Turns out he actually put in for the premuim tag and with zero points, drew it!
He called me and thought the F&G had made a mistake when they pulled out over 500 bucks for a resident elk tag... haha, I still can't believe he drew it. I had to explain to him what the premuim tag was and that it was a good thing. (I think he took an enormous amount of crap at home for how much that tag cost him)..hahaMy brother lives in BFE and with work, could only scout portions of the wasatch on a limited basis. I on the other hand must really like scouting because I spent one day a week during July and 2 days a week during August as a ritual scouting for him with trailcams and the spotting scope.
As we started finding bulls it turned into sort of a brotherly competition as to who could find the biggest bull. He had decided to buy a trailcam and kept telling me about all these gigantic rubs he had been finding in the area of his camera. Turns out he was able to get a moose and some bears on his camera. After some ribbing and a few bets for future finds, I told him about what I had just found.
In August I made my weekly ritual to check the trailcam. I had never seen a soul back in this part of the unit and I had my camera a long ways from any roads. As I approached my camera on that day, I got that feeling I was being watched. I have been to this exact spot a ton of times and never had that feeling. This time was different, and when I opened my camera to view the pictures, I found out why!
I don't really consider myself a "wuss" although Moosie may disagree:hump:, but I hightailed it off the mountain after exchanging cards in the trailcam. I also got a few more pics...
The next couple of of trailcam pics got the blood boiling. This is a trailcam pic of a bull I saw last year. You can see he has put on a ton of growth and turned into a damn nice bull.
One more big bull on the trailcam. We'll call this bull "Lucky".
So, we fast forward to opening day of the rifle hunt. My brother made the decision not to hunt the bow hunt. The first morning has my brother, his son, and a buddy of mine walking in the dark towards bugles. As we got closer, it got lighter. At 8am, we had cows and bulls all around us. A couple of calls brought these critters to 15 yards. What an amazing experience. The big bulls kept their distance and stayed in the trees. As we continued to hunt, my brother spotted a bull 700 yards away as it walked through an opening in the pines. I quickly through up the spotting scope and said "its lucky!". the bull was on the move and we needed to get closer. We watched the bull walk into a stand of pine trees and we made our move. Now within 300 yards, the bull was bugling, but wouldn't leave the tree's. About 2 hours into this stand off, something spooked other elk which ran into the same stand of pines. This sent the bull running through the pines and out of the area without us being able to get a shot
...Frustrated, we hold off on pushing any of the animals and came back during the afternoon. Back at camp, my brother was starting to cramp and really felt the hike from earlier starting to kick his butt. We located another good bull and decided to head out on the ridge to an overlook to glass this basin. At 300 yards below me, I spotted another bull going through the tree's. I told my brother who hadn't walked out on the edge to get down here and look this bull over. It was at that time I was told something about my brother that I had never known........
To be continued.........
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