What am i forgetting?

[Hilljackoutlaw]

One bull down. 3 tags left to fill.

 

[MTHunter1321]

Congrats! Tomorrow is my last day of work and then it’s 11 days chasing elk.

 

[ignorethefringes]

Awesome! Congrats!

 

[LCH]

Nice one! Keep after it!

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Well a recap of the week. I saw alot of bulls and called in 6 close enough for shots. The struggle was getting shots. The closest chance was a grind on wednesday morning. I saw 4 bulls and cows heading up what we call miller hill at 715am. After 4.2 miles I hiked above them and they would not make a peep. So I checked all sides of miller and nothing. So I hiked down the backside over a mile to see if they headed to the neighboring hill. I got down there called and called with no answer. So I laid on the ground in frustration at 10:03AM and at 10:07AM. I heard a bugle on top of miller hill. After a few dumbfounded thoughts i got up and hiked back up the hill as I was cresting the top I saw antler tips about 50 yards away. So I dropped and crawled into some scrub brush hit the cow girl and he ripped off a bugle and started coming and was destined to be broadside in the wide open at 15 yards (I ranged a cow patty in his path). I went full draw and just waited for him to step into my line of sight he bugled again with a nice chuckle. As he was hitting my sight line I took my breath and slowly hit the release and simultaneously he saw me out of his peripheral and spun a 90 and I skimmed the inside of his back leg. No serious damage. milliseconds from a 330 plus 6x6. Deflated I headed the 4.2 miles back to camp.
The most exciting moment was last night on my way home I glassed a hill from road and sure enough that same 6x6 was feeding with some cows at the base of the hill. I made a quick plan and went after him at 6:50PM. I got above him and setup after some back and forth I moved in closer and called some more and he started coming. He got to 15 yards but I could not get a shot and he knew something was wrong and wandered off. Then i moved across the park and another bull bugled so i setup on him and he started coming immediately and got to the edge of the park and stopped and raked on a tree for 5 plus minutes at 30 yards. I'm screaming at him saying if you wanna fight let's go as daylight faded. He finally comes out and i could see my pins but just couldn't shoot in that light.
My uncle from PA had 4 run ins with bulls hit a nice 5x5 in no man's land high and we watched the bull for an hour and he was fine. Last day he called in a big 6x6 to 20 yards and for 15 minutes could never get a good shot opportunity.
Ryan got the 6x6 in the pictures in the pouring rain after a 5 minute stare down.
Brian and his son had plenty of opportunities but no shots. Brian had a spike at full draw literally 4 feet away from his broadhead before the bull realized what was up, the spike was being followed by a 2x2 and big 5x5 he was waiting to shoot the 5x5. Heart pounding moment!!!
Andy the lone deer hunter in the group blew a chance on a big 5x5 and a nice 3x3.
All in all it was an amazing week of heart pumping moments and those moments well outweighed the frustration of not getting the shots or making the shots we should have made.
We ate and drank like kings, slept like babies, and told many stories sharing great laughter.
I totaled roughly 90 miles in 10 days the high day being 16.
One weekend left in archery for brian his son and me. Hopefully we get it done!

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Couple more pics of Ryan's bull.

 

[JLS]

Nice bull.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Nice bull.

Yea ryan chased him around for 2.5 days before finally getting him. He kept having close calls but never spooked him and he stayed in the same little tiny draw everyday with a cow and a calf. He was pumped that it finally paid off. It's his first archery kill ever.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

A few pics of our home away from home, elk quartering, and lunch time knife throwing competitions.