Crossbowguy
Well-known member
now that's a hog of a bull!!!! good luck and hope you get a crack at him!!!!
Teej's 2019 Fall Extravaganza
- Thread starter teej89
- Start date
duckhunt
Well-known member
Good luck
teej89
Well-known member
Day 8: Rain. But we still got after it. Checked out a new drainage, got within 40yds of a bedded 5x5. It was so muddy and slick when I tried crawling outta the deep ravine I was in I’d almost have to lay flat and grab sage to keep from slipping back down into the bottom hahaha once I got to him I Waited for about 15min for him to stand up but then the wind switched for a half a second and he was gonezo.
Put a stalk on 2 more bulls, but only got to 80yds. I thought they were dropping into a ravine so when they went in, I moved up. About the time I went to move forward the one bull whipped around spotting me with my pants down essentially
2mi walk out in the dark in the pouring rain combined with a 30min boat road, it felt great to get back to camp.
One plus was I found where the majority of the elk are holing up in a location way closer to camp than our last location.
Oh and the second picture, the boat is silver and the truck is blue. We shoveled mud outta it haha
Put a stalk on 2 more bulls, but only got to 80yds. I thought they were dropping into a ravine so when they went in, I moved up. About the time I went to move forward the one bull whipped around spotting me with my pants down essentially
2mi walk out in the dark in the pouring rain combined with a 30min boat road, it felt great to get back to camp.
One plus was I found where the majority of the elk are holing up in a location way closer to camp than our last location.
Oh and the second picture, the boat is silver and the truck is blue. We shoveled mud outta it haha
dirtclod Az.
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Now that's what I call A Rodeo! 
teej89
Well-known member
Day 9: We again didn’t go in the morning as the rain from the night before soaked everything we had. Had to use the corral and paracord to hang all our gear to dry for the afternoon.
We Ended up going out that night where i found the elk the night before. Not even a mile into our hike we spot a herd with a decent bull. We were just planning on trying to make a stalk when we spot a decent 4x4 mulie. It took some discussion to determine what to go after and finally we decided the stalk was too sketchy for either and to keep moving.
We ended up finding the elk again, in a valley and they’re all moving down it. We had good wind and decided to keep moving down as well and see if there was a group we could potentially get in front of. Elk bugling everywhere and we finally creep up to the lip of the spine and look over and there’s 9 cows below us at 100yds. All the sudden an aggressive bugle is let out and we spot a bull 80yds away and 100ft below us. He chases a cow into the meadow and we decide that’s the bull we’re going after.
We had to skirt in front of them and get around the small meadow without being spotted by all the other elk in the valley. We had to wait 30min as two spikes moved thru at 20yds. Seemed as if the mosquitoes stayed out until when we finally had to watch our movement with the spikes in front of us then they rose outta the dead to rip us up. Pretty cool they were so close we could hear em walking and ripping up grass as they ate.
We ended up getting around and my bud had first shot so he crept up to the meadow and the bull was going nuts. Then a bull started letting off below us which helped us as it pissed off the bull we were targeting.
Next thing I new the bugles were insanely close and I see him draw and then release. Next thing I hear is the woosh of the arrow and no thud... the bull trots off unharmed, he shot high. He said he ranged it at 57, I said go stand where he was and I ranged him, it was 30yds. He was below the meadow kind of so he had to range thru the grass and trying to conceal himself he didn’t pop up and Justin tried ranging husband head and neck.
That sure was a quiet walk back out to the boat that night as the bulls bugled the entire way back as if mocking us. Tails and heads down for an hour plus.
Plan tomorrow is to hike in and set up camp in there, hunt the evening and then come on back out and grab my other bud.
Sorry for the crappy pic of him, this was just straight off my phone with low light. This bull was easily over 300” tho, no doubt.
We Ended up going out that night where i found the elk the night before. Not even a mile into our hike we spot a herd with a decent bull. We were just planning on trying to make a stalk when we spot a decent 4x4 mulie. It took some discussion to determine what to go after and finally we decided the stalk was too sketchy for either and to keep moving.
We ended up finding the elk again, in a valley and they’re all moving down it. We had good wind and decided to keep moving down as well and see if there was a group we could potentially get in front of. Elk bugling everywhere and we finally creep up to the lip of the spine and look over and there’s 9 cows below us at 100yds. All the sudden an aggressive bugle is let out and we spot a bull 80yds away and 100ft below us. He chases a cow into the meadow and we decide that’s the bull we’re going after.
We had to skirt in front of them and get around the small meadow without being spotted by all the other elk in the valley. We had to wait 30min as two spikes moved thru at 20yds. Seemed as if the mosquitoes stayed out until when we finally had to watch our movement with the spikes in front of us then they rose outta the dead to rip us up. Pretty cool they were so close we could hear em walking and ripping up grass as they ate.
We ended up getting around and my bud had first shot so he crept up to the meadow and the bull was going nuts. Then a bull started letting off below us which helped us as it pissed off the bull we were targeting.
Next thing I new the bugles were insanely close and I see him draw and then release. Next thing I hear is the woosh of the arrow and no thud... the bull trots off unharmed, he shot high. He said he ranged it at 57, I said go stand where he was and I ranged him, it was 30yds. He was below the meadow kind of so he had to range thru the grass and trying to conceal himself he didn’t pop up and Justin tried ranging husband head and neck.
That sure was a quiet walk back out to the boat that night as the bulls bugled the entire way back as if mocking us. Tails and heads down for an hour plus.
Plan tomorrow is to hike in and set up camp in there, hunt the evening and then come on back out and grab my other bud.
Sorry for the crappy pic of him, this was just straight off my phone with low light. This bull was easily over 300” tho, no doubt.
bowhuntmontana
Well-known member
You are getting the most out of your experience. Keep after it!
teej89
Well-known member
Thanks! The hunts over actually, this is just a recap since I didn’t have service during the hunt.
We’re in Wisconsin now, I think
Some guys on here know how everything played out.
It's a good story. mtmuley
teej89
Well-known member
Day 10: moving gear and water up into camp. And we see dry-ish dirt!!!! Yes that tiny little patch of light gray in that picture is fully dried gumbo. Ah man that felt amazing seeing that, if you haven’t been here in the mud you don’t even know.
Nothing more eventful happened today, saw and heard some bulls but a crazy lightning storm drove us out early.
Got back to camp and our other bud joined us and we had some Busch lattes and grilled some deer steaks.
Nothing more eventful happened today, saw and heard some bulls but a crazy lightning storm drove us out early.
Got back to camp and our other bud joined us and we had some Busch lattes and grilled some deer steaks.
teej89
Well-known member
Day 11: in the morning we trudged the remainder of our gear and tent up into our camp. Got destroyed by mosquitoes on the way in due to rain from the previous night and the warm temps. It was like the scene in the newer/not-so-graphic Jurassic park where the pterodactyls go flying through town grabbing people and picking em up. I shit you not at one point I thought my buddy damn near got lifted off the ground by them bastards.
Glassed up a real nice 6pt in a stalkable location. We let my bud go who missed earlier as he was the one that glassed it.
On the way he missed his marker and went too high, so he had to come back down to the knoll above the bull. The plan was for him to stay above the knoll but he couldn’t see the bull so he started backing up to go around the knoll. As he did that the bull fed right up to where he just was at 20yds and when my bud came around the low side of the knoll he was face to face with a cow, donezo.
My other bud and I got back on them as we watched em bed up again. Long story short we made a good stalk, got within his furthest shooting distance. We got to the ridge and waited, again skeeters everywhere, and a cow busted us below that we never saw. They started to get up and I cow called stopping the bull in his tracks, ranged em for my bud and he let one fly. I watched it fly right over the bulls back.... 2 arrows over the backs of 300”+ bulls as I’m playing elk guide.
Later in the evening we tried getting me on a bull moving up a valley with no luck. Two six points worked up the valley, we didn’t get in front of the first but got in front of the second he just didn’t take the same path the first one took, here’s a pic of him my bud snapped real quick with his phone.
Glassed up a real nice 6pt in a stalkable location. We let my bud go who missed earlier as he was the one that glassed it.
On the way he missed his marker and went too high, so he had to come back down to the knoll above the bull. The plan was for him to stay above the knoll but he couldn’t see the bull so he started backing up to go around the knoll. As he did that the bull fed right up to where he just was at 20yds and when my bud came around the low side of the knoll he was face to face with a cow, donezo.
My other bud and I got back on them as we watched em bed up again. Long story short we made a good stalk, got within his furthest shooting distance. We got to the ridge and waited, again skeeters everywhere, and a cow busted us below that we never saw. They started to get up and I cow called stopping the bull in his tracks, ranged em for my bud and he let one fly. I watched it fly right over the bulls back.... 2 arrows over the backs of 300”+ bulls as I’m playing elk guide.
Later in the evening we tried getting me on a bull moving up a valley with no luck. Two six points worked up the valley, we didn’t get in front of the first but got in front of the second he just didn’t take the same path the first one took, here’s a pic of him my bud snapped real quick with his phone.
teej89
Well-known member
Day 12: hot. 80+ degrees. In the morning there was some elk movement but not much. Around 11am tho the valley erupted with bugles and it seems every pitch of timber had small groups leaving them and they all headed up into the same valley with this giant drainage bugling the entire time, we didn’t have a fat chance of getting ahead of em. After that we pulled out to go back to our main camp and refill our water supply as we definitely didn’t have enough water to hunt this heat.
Day 13: 90+ degrees, even hotter. Fished today, caught some pike, crappies, perch and smallmouth. We are headed in about 4am tomorrow with more water for the next 3 days.
Jumped in the lake too cool off and get some grime off the bodies hahaha
Day 13: 90+ degrees, even hotter. Fished today, caught some pike, crappies, perch and smallmouth. We are headed in about 4am tomorrow with more water for the next 3 days.
Jumped in the lake too cool off and get some grime off the bodies hahaha
teej89
Well-known member
Day 14 Part 1: 3:30am alarm, yikes.... we’re on the ground about 4:45. The 2+ miles uphill in with 3 days of water was brutal. We figured at 4am it’d be cooler temps, nah, it was hot, humid, muggy and the pterodactyls were out in full force and it hasn’t even rained in a couple days.
Bulls bugling the entire time up into camp and we finally get to camp around 6:15ish. As soon as we rounded the corner from our campsite we see a rag horn trotting thru the flat. We tried to make a move on him but we were too late and we watched him go up the other side of the valley.
Hiked into the drainage we wanted and spotted a small rag horn in the bottom. Got in front of him at 80yds and he was just feeding. My buddy decided to try and get closer, little to no cover, and as always where there’s one there’s more and we got busted by a spike bedded up on the hill.
After that we spot a smaller 6pt headed into a patch of timber, get ahead of him and get in posterior just as he decides to bed down 70yds away. We sat there for 45min and for 30 seconds the wind switched and poof, he gone jack. 3 attempts and it’s only 8:30.
@mtmuley would appreciate this as he knows where I hunt. We hiked from the bottom and spine do it out to the top of the ridge then circled the whole way around the drainage coming back down in at the head of the creek. Probably over 10 miles the first 2-3 being nasty spines and getting cliffed out.
Finally we spot a herd and try and make a move back down into the drainage, the wind switched again and we bust out 4 cows and a bull. Only those 5 busted us but they went hauling down the drainage and every elk in the neighboring draws and ridges saw those guys running and joined in, probably 50+ elk. Bulls bugling like mad trying to keep their cows in order. But fortunately we did a big circle and pushed em back into our main hunting grounds and after a mile they just started feeding and milling around again.
The next hour was cat and mouse with the herd trying to get on smaller groups till we singled out one real nice 6pt. It was supposed to be my turn to shoot but after we crouched thru the creek and belly crawled a meadow we only got to 65yds. I won’t shoot past 60yds, it’d take a lot to get me to shoot 60 even tho I can hit an 8” circle comfortably at 60. So I give my bud the chance.
A cow stands which gets the bull to stand, first shot, I’m feeling this is gonna go good, high. Bull stands there, I saw put another in, high and hits a tree. He jumps about 5 steps forward, after a 5min Stare down he feeds back into the opening, 3rd shot, high. My bud looks back and just keeps apologizing, we have no idea what and how this just happened. I tell him to shake it off and we’ll keep pushing and get on some more.
Bulls bugling the entire time up into camp and we finally get to camp around 6:15ish. As soon as we rounded the corner from our campsite we see a rag horn trotting thru the flat. We tried to make a move on him but we were too late and we watched him go up the other side of the valley.
Hiked into the drainage we wanted and spotted a small rag horn in the bottom. Got in front of him at 80yds and he was just feeding. My buddy decided to try and get closer, little to no cover, and as always where there’s one there’s more and we got busted by a spike bedded up on the hill.
After that we spot a smaller 6pt headed into a patch of timber, get ahead of him and get in posterior just as he decides to bed down 70yds away. We sat there for 45min and for 30 seconds the wind switched and poof, he gone jack. 3 attempts and it’s only 8:30.
@mtmuley would appreciate this as he knows where I hunt. We hiked from the bottom and spine do it out to the top of the ridge then circled the whole way around the drainage coming back down in at the head of the creek. Probably over 10 miles the first 2-3 being nasty spines and getting cliffed out.
Finally we spot a herd and try and make a move back down into the drainage, the wind switched again and we bust out 4 cows and a bull. Only those 5 busted us but they went hauling down the drainage and every elk in the neighboring draws and ridges saw those guys running and joined in, probably 50+ elk. Bulls bugling like mad trying to keep their cows in order. But fortunately we did a big circle and pushed em back into our main hunting grounds and after a mile they just started feeding and milling around again.
The next hour was cat and mouse with the herd trying to get on smaller groups till we singled out one real nice 6pt. It was supposed to be my turn to shoot but after we crouched thru the creek and belly crawled a meadow we only got to 65yds. I won’t shoot past 60yds, it’d take a lot to get me to shoot 60 even tho I can hit an 8” circle comfortably at 60. So I give my bud the chance.
A cow stands which gets the bull to stand, first shot, I’m feeling this is gonna go good, high. Bull stands there, I saw put another in, high and hits a tree. He jumps about 5 steps forward, after a 5min Stare down he feeds back into the opening, 3rd shot, high. My bud looks back and just keeps apologizing, we have no idea what and how this just happened. I tell him to shake it off and we’ll keep pushing and get on some more.
teej89
Well-known member
Day 14 Part 2: we keep on cat and mousing this herd, bulls bugling everywhere but it went silent all of the sudden. We get to this one draw and I take a knee as we heard elk fairly close to this draw earlier so I wanted to relax and let them make a move before we do. It was weird I just had a random hunch to stop and not move then 5min later I hear twigs cracking and we now know we have elk within 50yds milling around in the timber but we just can’t see em.
About 20min go by and a spike comes out below us at 50yds. I said I’m not shooting just want practice and I drew and floated the pin and was like yep that’s a dead bull. My bud goes, “do you mind if I shoot em?” I don’t care, go for it.
We get to just under 45, he draws, let’s go, arrow is tracking, Miss, high. A 5x5 stands up beside him and I say just aim low, a foot low, he releases and it zips over his back again and now he’s out of arrows. He about unzips and at the same time I can hear something breathing, more like an exhale, above us in the timber so I get him to quiet up. He’s out of arrows so I know this is my chance to kill one without feeling like I’m robbing him of his chance.
The wind was perfect, 15MPH in my face and I keep hiking up in the meadow paralleling this timbered draw where I’m hearing the exhaling and twigs cracking still.
There’s a small opening that allows me to see to the far side of this little draw and there’s a cow feed 80yds away. She spots me immediately but I have a sage brush in front of me and slowly sink down. About 10min later she relaxes and Beds up.
I put some small junipers between her and me and get to within 50yds of her. After about 30min of hearing elk walking above me and bulls raking and a couple bugles they start moving. I range a patch of junipers that are at 50yds. A 6pt bull follows the bedded cow out right to my 50yd mark. He steps broadside and puts his head down to feed, I draw back as he stops, settled that pin in behind the shoulder and watch it fly right at its mark. He trots maybe 20yds, looks around and tips over right there, my first ever DIY public land archery bull!! Ended up being a double lung pass thru.
Right after that bull expired a MONSTER of a bull comes out to check out the commotion at 75yds, he was a giant. Im excited with mine, it’s tough to trophy hunt with 4 tags and with one guy who hasn’t ever killed an elk before so I was trying real hard to get him on one. A celebratory warm Busch light may have been had as well.
Long story short about my friend, he has one of those sliding pin sights and the screw that holds his main housing on vertically had backed out and even tho it was still adjustable it’s initial vertical setting wasn’t correct. Must have happened during the hike as he shot his bow when he got here.
The last picture is my view when I shot, The red dot is where he was standing when I shot.
The funny part is we covered a lot of elevation and mileage this day and I ended up shooting this bull 500yds from where we initially were sitting and glassing 10hrs prior.
About 20min go by and a spike comes out below us at 50yds. I said I’m not shooting just want practice and I drew and floated the pin and was like yep that’s a dead bull. My bud goes, “do you mind if I shoot em?” I don’t care, go for it.
We get to just under 45, he draws, let’s go, arrow is tracking, Miss, high. A 5x5 stands up beside him and I say just aim low, a foot low, he releases and it zips over his back again and now he’s out of arrows. He about unzips and at the same time I can hear something breathing, more like an exhale, above us in the timber so I get him to quiet up. He’s out of arrows so I know this is my chance to kill one without feeling like I’m robbing him of his chance.
The wind was perfect, 15MPH in my face and I keep hiking up in the meadow paralleling this timbered draw where I’m hearing the exhaling and twigs cracking still.
There’s a small opening that allows me to see to the far side of this little draw and there’s a cow feed 80yds away. She spots me immediately but I have a sage brush in front of me and slowly sink down. About 10min later she relaxes and Beds up.
I put some small junipers between her and me and get to within 50yds of her. After about 30min of hearing elk walking above me and bulls raking and a couple bugles they start moving. I range a patch of junipers that are at 50yds. A 6pt bull follows the bedded cow out right to my 50yd mark. He steps broadside and puts his head down to feed, I draw back as he stops, settled that pin in behind the shoulder and watch it fly right at its mark. He trots maybe 20yds, looks around and tips over right there, my first ever DIY public land archery bull!! Ended up being a double lung pass thru.
Right after that bull expired a MONSTER of a bull comes out to check out the commotion at 75yds, he was a giant. Im excited with mine, it’s tough to trophy hunt with 4 tags and with one guy who hasn’t ever killed an elk before so I was trying real hard to get him on one. A celebratory warm Busch light may have been had as well.
Long story short about my friend, he has one of those sliding pin sights and the screw that holds his main housing on vertically had backed out and even tho it was still adjustable it’s initial vertical setting wasn’t correct. Must have happened during the hike as he shot his bow when he got here.
The last picture is my view when I shot, The red dot is where he was standing when I shot.
The funny part is we covered a lot of elevation and mileage this day and I ended up shooting this bull 500yds from where we initially were sitting and glassing 10hrs prior.
Last edited:
Jape
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- Joined
- Sep 26, 2017
- Messages
- 1,733
Well done and way to be a great friend to your buddy!
teej89
Well-known member
Day 15: The pack out. Of course it pours overnight to make our pack out a slippery, muddy, curse filled mess. On top of that it was tough sleeping with the high winds and constant elk bugles.
On our way out we each fell at least twice in the mud. I made a wallow as I slipped coming down into a creek, landed on my butt and slid the rest of the way. Then I was so covered in mud and my boots were too so I couldn’t get up and ended up flailing/flopping till I could get a trekking pole into the ground.
A little over 2mi later to the lake and we were done! I got on the boat and turtle backwards onto the deck till they unstrapped me, damn that was miserable in that mud. Our pants were soaked the entire way up and covered in mud.
Took the bull into town and got a celebratory DQ lunch and blizzard
On our way out we each fell at least twice in the mud. I made a wallow as I slipped coming down into a creek, landed on my butt and slid the rest of the way. Then I was so covered in mud and my boots were too so I couldn’t get up and ended up flailing/flopping till I could get a trekking pole into the ground.
A little over 2mi later to the lake and we were done! I got on the boat and turtle backwards onto the deck till they unstrapped me, damn that was miserable in that mud. Our pants were soaked the entire way up and covered in mud.
Took the bull into town and got a celebratory DQ lunch and blizzard
Crossbowguy
Well-known member
Nice 6X
LCH
Well-known member
Congrats man!!
dirtclod Az.
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- Jan 24, 2018
- Messages
- 2,776
Great Bull,Congratulations!
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Congrats 
Matt
Matt
elkrchr
Well-known member
Awesome write up and congrats on a fine bull!
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