My 2024 limited entry Utah rifle elk hunt

[Big Fin]

Great story. Congrats on a fine bull. Thanks for sharing your story here.

 

[coleslaw]

Great pictures. Gotta love those old Hondas, bulletproof

 

[TheTone]

Congrats on a nice Utah bull. Great looking country

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

That’s a nice bull. Congratulations. I enjoyed the story.

 

[Redraider7]

Fun read!! Utah is a great place and I sure hope I get a shot at hunting elk there

 

[gonhunting247]

Thanks for sharing. Fun read and congrats!

 

[txco]

Congrats! Way to keep after em!

 

[Mallardsx2]

So odd to put smiley faces covering your faces.

Congrats on your bull.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Congrats on hanging in there and finally taking a great and hard earned bull.
Great story and pics as well.

 

[mxracer317]

So odd to put smiley faces covering your faces.

Congrats on your bull.

I think it’s RAD. You see what AI can do with a picture of Albert Einstein or Abraham Lincoln? It can take a picture and make a realistic movie out of them. No need to post personal or pictures of your kids to the Internet.

 

[Deez Nutz]

Great pictures. Gotta love those old Hondas, bulletproof

Hey now, don’t be lusting after my ‘88.

 

[CForest]

Kudos to you for putting the work. Utah isn't what it used to be, spent a fair bit of time there myself the last 4 years. Filled bull tag in our group this last week, gotta go back and try to fill a cow tag in the southern part yet though.

 

[sambo3006]

Great story! You put in an amazing amount of effort on that hunt. While it isn't a 400" bull like the ones you see with a half dozen people surrounding it and a guiding service logo in the bottom of the picture, it is far more of a trophy the way I see it. Well done!

 

[F250]

Great hunt and write up ! Thanks for taking us along !!

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Congrats DeezNuts
Matt

 

[CPAjeff]

Congrats!

 

[Flatbrimmer]

Back to the trailer to load up with over night gear. Buddy told me to let him know when I killed something and he’d help me pack. I took the truck down the road a little way and things were still such a muddy mess from the snow that I took the wheeler the last 15 miles or so.

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I arrived at the end of the road right about noon and started my walk. Out of everywhere I had been, this was the nicest, rolly, lightly timbered, easy walking patch of ground that I had hunted.

I had a high point in mind about 3.5 miles from the wheeler that I was headed to. About 2 miles into my hike I look over and sure enough about 1000 yards away I see about a dozen elk with a 5 point, and a 6 point that appears to be somewhat decent. “Seams like a good opportunity”, so I put some trees between me and them, dumped all my overnight gear out of my pack, checked the wind, and headed their way.

Well as luck would have it, and my rookie mistake not being thorough, there were a number of other elk with them that were bedded in the timber above them that I did not see. They had me pegged and proceeded to run away bringing the whole herd with them. Not knowing exactly where they had gone, I did my best to tail them. A couple of hilly rises later, there they were, bunched up on a hillside across a steep ravine, 544 yards away.

There was a rock outcropping a few yards ahead of me that I headed for. Very awkward position to get comfortable in but I did my best. Range: 503 yards. I could see the bigger bull, there were cows blocking his neck and his rump but I had a clear view of his shoulder and ribs, with no cows behind him, I felt good and I took the shot. I heard an impact but he was immediately covered up by cows so I did not get to see him react. The cows cleared and there was not an elk laying there. I watched them go over a ridge through my binos and I only saw the smaller bull with them, but there were some trees there and there was a chance that I could have missed a couple of the elk leaving.

I headed over there to look around and see what I could find. No Bull. I wandered around a bit looking for blood, and I looked around looking into gullies and the bigger ravine down below, there were a few burnt trees crisscrossed here and there that I was looking around, but nothing. I figured I’d range back to where I shot from and sure enough I wasn’t quite far enough. I went up the hill a bit further and there was a little knob with a subtle depression at the top, and there he was laying right there in the depression.

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I think he dropped in his tracks. Very thankful to find him. It was about 1:30 in the afternoon.

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I texted my buddy and he immediately started my way. What a guy. I quartered him out, boned out the fronts, skinned the skull and had him in bags in 1.5 hrs.

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Then I packed him across that first nasty ravine and had him in a tree. Just as I was getting there with my 3rd and last load he was just walking up, impeccable timing! (Now that I think about it, suspicious timing!)

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I took a front and a hind and the stuff I had with me, and he took a hind and the head and we headed for the pickup, arriving there about an hour or so after dark.

I left the wheeler there and took his pickup back to my truck. His other buddies had just gotten to camp, it was a fun evening. 5.8 miles and a dead elk today.

Big congrats bro! That’s some funny ass emojis on the pics. Sounds like a real grind and I’m glad you found a decent bull!

 

[MT_elk]

Congrats on your elk and hunt. You definitely hunted hard and I'm glad it worked out for you!

 

[elkrchr]

You definitely put forth the effort and were rewarded for it! Congrats on that bull and thank you for sharing your adventure with us!!