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Elk .... Let's see them!!!

Opening Day 2011-Rifle

young 6x6. not a pig but a spectacular hunt on my own on public ground
 

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AZ unit 10 - early rifle - 2012 (first and only elk)

2005 - Arizona Unit 10, early rifle. Again assisted by NVLongbow, Jereep, and along with Uncle Larry. Some good locations provided by AZ402, even though he could not join us.

Saw a true giant two nights before season opened. Hunted for him pretty much every day, passing some really good bulls in the process. Passed this one earlier in the hunt before he lost his fifth point on the passenger side.

Ended up rolling the dice and lost, but would probably do the same thing all over if I had the same chance, given how big that pre-scouted bull was. Sometimes finding a big one before season can be a curse, causing you to foresake all others. In Unit 10, some of those you foresake would be lunkers on any other hunt.

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Randy - even though your hunt was 7 years prior to mine it would have been nice to talk to you about the unit. As a through and through desert rat and avid coues deer hunter I really do not know squat about elk hunting. It was a really tough hunt (moon and abnormally high temps) but I was finally able to connect with this bull on day 6 of a 7 day hunt. After hunting thicker country for 4 days I relocated to an area an archery antelope hunter told me about and it paid off. It was DIY but I had a crew of 4 other guys helping me out. We will be back at it again in 10 days as one of my buddies drew an early rifle tag in unit 1.

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Hey guys, I'm new here, but not new to elk hunting... I'm not a trophy hunter, but certainly won't pass one up... Here is my best bull date, from 1997... I call him the hard luck bull... I took a shot from 40 yds, and as we all know, once the arrow is gone, it's gone... He took a step and the arrow hit him in the paunch... Long story short, it took me 7 weeks to find this bull, but I found him on the 2nd week of rifle season... I cut my tag, cut the antlers off, and my season was over...

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These 2 bulls were taken in 2003 (top) and 1999 (bottom) The top pic was my last archery elk, as my wife was nearly killed in a hit & run car accident 3 months later, and I just recenty took back up archery hunting last season...

The bottom pic was my longest kill on elk to date (730 yds) with my 300 Win Mag and Hornady handloads... My biggest rifle kill so far...
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I hope to make some new friends on here, and possibly find another hunting partner or 2, as I see there are quite a few from Mt. on here...



Doug...




To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.

(Revelation 1:5)
 
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I've plastered these pictures everywhere else, might as well post them here too.

My 2013 Wyoming General Tag bull. Biggest bull of my life and probably bigger than anything I will shoot in the future even on limited entry tags. The crazy thing is I've been building points in Wyoming (and Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado) so that one day I might be able to shoot a trophy bull but was hunting the general tag in Wyoming pretty much as a meat hunt shooting the first legal bull I saw.

This was the first legal bull I saw in 2013.

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Bull of a lifetime for me.
 
2013 Wyoming

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Pictures from my Wind River Range, Wyoming hunt with my daughter. While kicking myself for not taking a shot at another elk, this fellow trotted over the ridge into my view. This time I didn't wait for a better shot! My daughter had three chances at elk, but I think she was getting greedy and trying to out-do her dad. Next year I'm taking her to New Mexico! btw when I got home, I found out I won a Sitka jacket from Randy! Thanks Randy!
 
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Colorado 1st Rifle Season 2013 - 7mm08 and 140gr Accubonds.

Thanks to Oak for the packout pic!
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And thanks to Hawkins Taxidermy for getting the euro mount done in less than a week!
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Congrats on a great Bull BruinPoint!!! My next rifle purchase is definitely going to be a 7mm-08! I just need to find that winning lotto ticket;)
 
Mt opener

My opening day in MT public lands bull. we were actually able to get two bulls opening morning on BLM land in the SW part of the state. leaving the truck at 1:30 AM was just about right to be in place a good hour before anyone else on the opening morning rush. I got this bull at about 300-350 yards across the canyon from the saddle I was sitting in. with two bulls down I was lucky enough to have a friend who went up with me to pack them out with mules in the dark. Mules are definatly worth having. My bull that you can see here was about 4 miles from the road and at 8400 ft exactly. The truck was at 6000. He is not even close to a big bull but for public land DIY hunting he is a decent first bull.
 

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Got lucky on opening day! Not a high scorer, but my biggest so far and I really like the mass and main beams.
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It's definitely Thanksgiving, as my son got an elk this past Sunday.

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We'd been mostly hunting here in the Back Yard, aka Bridgers, although he'd also made a trip into the Tenderfoot. Neither of those neighborhoods were particularly cooperative, so we headed back to our old haunts in Paradise!
Or let's see, is it the next canyon over? Maybe we should start an initiative to change the name of those canyons...

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Not a very good photo, I know, but the horses just weren't into posing. With the sun at my back, they weren't at all into facing back "up" the trail, and insisted we keep pointed toward home, so...
In spite of Sonny having his eyes closed here, he was still pretty wound up about the extensive wolf chorus we'd heard that morning. Fortunately elk retrieval went fine, and Thank God for horses! Even though we backpacked it only about a quarter mile or so, to a horse-compatible spot.
So again, it's Thanksgiving! 90# per side on the ponies, and Buddy's possibly the best mountain horse in the Rocky Mountains, or at least the best I've had. I know Greenhorn and others backpack elk similar distances, or at least talk good-looking young women into helping, but I'll still take Sonny and Buddy. They're lower maintenance!! Perhaps except for shoeing...
 
I took this bull last Sunday. Shot him at about 8 am and got back to the truck after dark. The second day of packing took 6 hrs 45 minutes to go 6 miles.
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