We have humped the same hills.....Hard to find big ones in that area. Army of orange most days. Buddy of mine shot a nice 5x5 out of there his first too.
There will be many fine trophies added here this season.
2014
7:29am opening morning hung by 8am.
Details will follow with more pictures as it gets pulled together. (just never been a photo guy, and thankful my dear friend is always armed)
My friends daughter, 17, took her first bull this Saturday morning, you have to love the smile on those kids faces when they succeed! The older I get the more I appreciate the youngsters getting in on the action, I guess maybe I am finally growing up
This bull was 1988 at Gardiner, Mt the year Yellowstone burned. He was a real old, big 5x5. His ivories were level with his gums. FWP aged him and said it looked like he was 14, but they didn't think that was possible. So many elk came out of the Park, and they started opening weekend. Of course that was pre-wolf days. We never hunted the "Firing Line" at Deckard Flats. We hunted up Bear Ck above Jardine. No crowds, and you could see bulls that came out all night, just feeding along. So cool, those days! Hundreds of elk at a time, Now none!
This bull was a Missouri Breaks Unit 622 bull from out on the tip of U.L.Bend. He was a big old 7x6 bull. His ivories were right down to the gums too. I walked all the way out to the tip of "The Bend" and they ran down into the coulee next to me while I was laying down watching another bedded bull through the spotting scope. I had seen this bull the year before and he had that extra sticker on both sides. I will forever be thankful to the guys that I ran into at the trailhead with the horses the night before who heard me shoot and left me one of their horses to pack this bull out with! They may have saved my life. Pretty stupid of me. But I was young and dumb and full of crap. I always figured I would get it down then figure out how to get it out!
This bull came from Bassett Ck just N. of Gardiner, Mt. Still pre-wolf days. Many of those years we could have a migration if we got much snow. We took two raghorns out of the group of three that we saw. We were up in there quite a ways with horses this trip.