MITCHMO
Well-known member
Well it’s taken 5 years but I finally have a bull on the ground. I’ve got a spike and a cow but really wanted a bull. We planned this trip after hunting the area previously and finding a nice cross canyon shot where we would glass elk from way off. I decided this year, we would pack in and camp there and just wait. No matter how long it took, we would just live there until one stepped out. That’s a pretty poor plan I know, but it comes from several years of desperation.
we drove roughly 30 hours complete with whiteouts and typical road drama. We hit the trailhead with about two hours of daylight left. It was cold and raining. Guess who forgot rain pants? We grabbed our packs and decided we were basically experts and took off up the mountain with about 70lbs on our backs. I had 10 days worth of food. I was going to live there until I killed a bull. We got within 20 min of where we wanted to be and decided we were dangerously cold and wet. We did an extremely poor job of setting up my tipi in the dark and finally settled in our bags and got a little sleep. Everything was cold and damp in the morning but we got our gear on and climbed the rest of the way up. Now the hard part, where the heck was this little ledge about halfway over the ridge to the bottom. “It was right here two years ago”. We pretty much zig zagged they whole area and finally found it. Some trees had blown down and made it hard to find. In the dark we set up a tarp to block the rain and made a quick breakfast. I couldn’t see yet but pulled up my binos and was pretty shocked when I saw a light spot. No way that’s an elk....then it moved. I almost yelled at my brother I was so excited. As it got lighter we ranged it and it was way too far. I was so focused on it, I never even noticed the 15 other elk just a couple hundred yards to it’s left. Once I saw those, it was game on. Although smaller, definitely in range. I have been practicing weekly for about 5 years shooting at ranges out to 700 yards. We saw two bulls in the group and they were 500 and 525. I managed to find a spot to get prone and took my time getting a solid rest. They started moving into the timber and the closest bull finally presented a shot. I squeezed the trigger on the 280 AI and let the shot go. I could hear the muzzle blast echo across the canyon followed by a very loud WHOP! I had never heard a bullet hit an animal but it was unmistakable. I racked in another shell and get back on target. I saw him rock forward, then back and tip over. Followed by about 300 yards of tumbling. I couldn’t believe it. Had I just shot my first bull 10 minutes into the first day of hunting after years of hunting???? We gathered our gear and dropped down into a crazy steep canyon and up the other side. Took some time but finally found him wrapped up in a bush. Aggressive high fives ensued. We packed him to the bottom and hung the quarters. Having never been out the bottom of the canyon, we said a prayer, grabbed some meat, and off we went. we made it back to a road by early afternoon and got a ride back to camp. We climbed all the way back up top and retrieved camp. We got back right about dark and set up the tent. We packed out the rest in one load each the next morning. It was heavy but all down hill. Crawling under dead falls sure sucked. Back at camp, my brother decided to try an fill his deer tag so off he went for the last couple hours of daylight. As luck would have it, he returned to camp that night with a buck! We packed out the rest the next morning, and we were done! We celebrated with elk backstrap on the fire.
Couldn’t believe it. We got loaded up the next day and headed off to Montana, which is a story for another day.
we drove roughly 30 hours complete with whiteouts and typical road drama. We hit the trailhead with about two hours of daylight left. It was cold and raining. Guess who forgot rain pants? We grabbed our packs and decided we were basically experts and took off up the mountain with about 70lbs on our backs. I had 10 days worth of food. I was going to live there until I killed a bull. We got within 20 min of where we wanted to be and decided we were dangerously cold and wet. We did an extremely poor job of setting up my tipi in the dark and finally settled in our bags and got a little sleep. Everything was cold and damp in the morning but we got our gear on and climbed the rest of the way up. Now the hard part, where the heck was this little ledge about halfway over the ridge to the bottom. “It was right here two years ago”. We pretty much zig zagged they whole area and finally found it. Some trees had blown down and made it hard to find. In the dark we set up a tarp to block the rain and made a quick breakfast. I couldn’t see yet but pulled up my binos and was pretty shocked when I saw a light spot. No way that’s an elk....then it moved. I almost yelled at my brother I was so excited. As it got lighter we ranged it and it was way too far. I was so focused on it, I never even noticed the 15 other elk just a couple hundred yards to it’s left. Once I saw those, it was game on. Although smaller, definitely in range. I have been practicing weekly for about 5 years shooting at ranges out to 700 yards. We saw two bulls in the group and they were 500 and 525. I managed to find a spot to get prone and took my time getting a solid rest. They started moving into the timber and the closest bull finally presented a shot. I squeezed the trigger on the 280 AI and let the shot go. I could hear the muzzle blast echo across the canyon followed by a very loud WHOP! I had never heard a bullet hit an animal but it was unmistakable. I racked in another shell and get back on target. I saw him rock forward, then back and tip over. Followed by about 300 yards of tumbling. I couldn’t believe it. Had I just shot my first bull 10 minutes into the first day of hunting after years of hunting???? We gathered our gear and dropped down into a crazy steep canyon and up the other side. Took some time but finally found him wrapped up in a bush. Aggressive high fives ensued. We packed him to the bottom and hung the quarters. Having never been out the bottom of the canyon, we said a prayer, grabbed some meat, and off we went. we made it back to a road by early afternoon and got a ride back to camp. We climbed all the way back up top and retrieved camp. We got back right about dark and set up the tent. We packed out the rest in one load each the next morning. It was heavy but all down hill. Crawling under dead falls sure sucked. Back at camp, my brother decided to try an fill his deer tag so off he went for the last couple hours of daylight. As luck would have it, he returned to camp that night with a buck! We packed out the rest the next morning, and we were done! We celebrated with elk backstrap on the fire.
Couldn’t believe it. We got loaded up the next day and headed off to Montana, which is a story for another day.
