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A Hunt I Will Never Forget
Oran Payne, Colorado, 2009
This was the best hunt I ever been on in my entire life. I had 8 different bulls come in to calls in 5 days, only hunted one evening due to rain, timing was perfect. There were three bowhunters leaving when I got there. They had not seen even one bull, A muzzle hunter was finishing his hunt the day that I started, he had one encounter, walked up on a bull, and couldn't get the sling on his muzzle loader off in time. The day he left we called two 5X5 bulls in, they winded us, bad wind. That evening I called in another 5x5. My guide had moved in front and left of my set up and drew the bull right into my scentline. I had couple of spikes come within 20 yards, had one 3x4 come to calls , guide was 200 yards behind me drew bull about 110 yards to my left, and another 5x5 that came in from the guides left, right to him, not good for me.
I told my guide that evening that I was going to tie a rope to him ,so he would have to stay close to me. The last day we had perfect wind, right in our face. we were set up on the same park that we had called the other four 5x5 bulls and the 3x4 in on. As first light was coming I set up about 70 yards out in the park, by an old dead tree that had blown down, I had the mountain in front of me that the bulls were coming down from. It was about 500 yards in front of me to the base of the mountain, My guide set up 75 yards behind me and began to cow call aggressively, almost instantly the bulls started bugling, at least four bulls in front of me on the mountain, answering his cow calls. Ten minutes into his cow calling all the bulls were fired up. One particular bull was on fire. That bull was buglin' so loud, like nothin I have ever heard before. Every time he answered the call you could tell he was getting closer. I was glassing the mountain, in the direction that his bugling was coming from. Finally I spotted him coming down the mountain bugling his head off and covering ground at a steady pace. He was probably 2/3 way down the mountain when I spotted him, but still there were other bulls bugling to the left and to the right, but none of them sounded like this bull. He was super wound up.
I was getting a range on every thing I could, not really alot to range though. I had practiced for this moment all summer, I had a 20-30-40-50-and 60 yard pin. When I had arrived at the ranch the guide and outfitter had me shoot at all those distances, out to 50 yards.Every single arrow, 3 at each distance, drilled the bullseye, my group of three arrows at 50 yards was under three-inches. To say the least they were impressed, and so was I.
The bull was at the bottom of the mountain now, and behind a small rise where I couldnt see him. He had to jump a fence at about 300 yards out in front of me. He was bugling like crazy, I could tell he was at the fence. My heart was pounding, and the adrenalin was making my legs into noodles. Such a majestic animal, in all his glory, definitely king of the mountains, I was focused in the direction of his bugling when all the sudden I seen him, he was headed straight at me, at a gallop, his head laid back with his antlers tucked tight against his back,nose tilted slightly up ,bugling while he was running to me.
In just a matter of 20 to 30 seconds he was closing in fast, he was facing straight at me, as he approache the 35 yard mark he began to slow to a walk,and turned his head directly at me, staring me in the eye while he was walking forward toward my guide cow calling, he was now slightly to my left front, lookin right at me at 20 yards. I tried to pull my bow back, and I was so rattled I couldnt pull it back. I attempted it again, all the while the bull is stopped looking at me, trying to figure out what I am, I had it almost back, right at the brake over point when my elbow bottomed out on a limb behind me, and sent my arm forward, the arrow fell left off the arrow rest, but didnt come unknocked, I quickly set the arrow back on the rest. The bull was now backing up to leave, I had a diaphram in my mouth an managed a cow call, and he stopped, broad side at about 25 to 30 yards. In all the panicking, and trying to draw the bow back, I guess I didnt pay any attention to how far he was, I managed to get the bow to full draw, placed my 50 yd pin on his vitals and squeezed the release, the arrow flew perfectly right over his back about two-foot high.
The bull decided that was enough, he started moving away out in front of me, I was cow calling and the guide was calling, the bull decided he still wanted the cow, he started making a wide circle out in front of me, from my left to my right at about 75 yards, Now I was leaning over a limb trying to get another arrow out of my quiver that was laying on the ground behind the log that I was using for cover. By the time I got an arrow knocked and grabbed my range finder, the bull had moved all the way around me to my right and was now behind me to my right. I ranged him at 107 yards, then he made a sharp right turn and headed straight at my guide. By now my guide is laying flat on the ground, with the bull walking straight at him, at three paces from my guide the bull stopped. It was a sight to see. Now I am attempting to draw again for a last ditch shot, again the adrenalin had weakened the hell out of me, I am fighting the bow, and the bull looks right at me again, he turnes to leave on the same path he came, as soon as he turned away from my guide, I cow called, and he stopped, I was at full draw,I new the distance was about 80 yards, I lined up my pins on the back edge of his shoulder, and put my longest pin, the 60yd pin, about 1 foot above his back, I squeezed the shot the arrow was on its way, smack the arrow struck the bull on the back edge of his shoulder blade, I will never forget the sound of the arrow hitting that bull.I could see the arrow sticking in him, upon impact he swung his rack straight back and snapped the arrow off, he began to leave, me and the guide would cow call every time he began to walk away, the bull would stop every time, this call and walk went on for about 10 minutes, I am watching the bull frantically. I am shaking so bad, I can barely see through my binoculars,I can see the blood coming from the bull, the point of impact was back edge of shoulder blade, about nine inches down from the top of the bulls back,blood is running down his side, I am expecting him to fall any second but he doesn't. He just keeps walking and stopping, like an animal that was not feeling very well. I started following him at a distance with another arrow knocked. He was moving through some aspens on a small ridge, I was closing the distance pretty quick when I noticed, a fence in front of him, I panicked, I thought it was another ranch fence that butted up to the ranch I was on. But it was a national forrest boundary.I was about 65 yards behind the bull when he attempted to jump the fence,he was so messed up that he got tangled up in the fence trying to jump it, wire was streching making a heck of a comotion. Then he made it over. As soon as he landed he regained his footing and took about four running leaps into some oak brush. I just stood there in disbelief that this bull was still alive. As I turned around my guide was walking up with my arrow, I compared the broke arrow with my ones in my quiver and determined that the bull had about 8 inches of arrow, including the broadhead in him. With the high impact of the arrow he was hardly leavin any blood at all. I figured most of the bleeding was internal. I told the guide I wanted to back out and give him some time. So we marked the fence where he crossed, and left back for the lodge. It was about a 45 minute drive to the lodge. After arriving we decided we would give the bull 5 or 6 hours to lay up and die. We discussed how the bull acted after the shot, walking very slow, stopping, a couple of times he even studder stepped backwards, I just knew he was about to fall, but he never did. We felt we would find him not far from where he jumped the fence. One good thing was it had rained hard every day, so the ground was pretty soft, we felt like we could track him by his foot prints even if there wasnt any blood.
We waited at camp, and watched the weather, fearing that another 2 pm rain would foil our tracking efforts, sure as heck the clouds started building, so me the guide and the outfitter headed back to the ranch, to try and find my bull, as far as I was concerned we couldnt get there fast enough,the sky was looking really bad.
We finally got there and headed to the fence, it had been four hours since the shot. We started over the fence, there was no bloded at all where he landed, which really surprised me, but we had his prints. Art, my guide, began tracking him by his foot prints, not as easy as I thought it would be, too much vegetation, and I guess he had slowed back to a steady walk. After about 50 yards we lost his track. My guide and outfitter just started scattering out, in a desperation hunt for the bull, experience tells me to stay with the track, I moved forward trying to get another track, the surrounding area, had several trails and barren muddy ground. I figured I would be able to pick up his track again, but I never could. All the surrounding mud spots out in front of the last track, and I could find not one track. After about an hour or so of this, my guide and outfitter show back up. They are trying to make me feel better, saying that the bull would probably heal up,and they thought we needed to head for the truck to avoid the approaching storm. Reluctantly I followed them, I told them that I felt 99% sure that the bull was dead, I felt like he had made a hard right or left after settling down.
That was the most emotional roller coaster hunt that I have ever experienced,So exciting, trying to get the perfect set up, seeing all the bulls, and finally getting a nice bull into range, only to blow the opportunity, then taking a long desperation shot, and seeing the arrow hit, and feeling good about the shot. I have thought it over and over in my head, If I could have only drew my bow when I knew he was at 20 yds, if I had only had the sense to realize that he was only about 25 to 30 yards when I finally did get it drawn, and placing the correct pin on him, should have been a chip shot, instead I sailed it two-feet over his back with my 50 yd pin. Knowing that he is laying over that fence somewhere was more than I could take. The storm had blown in with a vengance dumping rain, and sleet two inches thick on the ground. When we arrived back at the ranch, I just started packing up, within an hour I was on the road to Texas. 966 miles later when I arrived home, I was still replaying everything in my head,and thinking, WHAT IF I HAD ??????????? And I will keep thinking it, for a long time. It is definitely the most exciting hunt I think anyone could ever experience. No deer can ever even come close to the rush of emotions you will go through when a 800 lb bull elk with his big antlers and bellowing bugle is fast approaching you, something I will never forget, and something that I wish every hunter could experience just once,If they did, they would be hooked for life.
Good Hunting
Oran Payne
A Successful Elk Hunt
Randy Matthews
 Bruce, Vance, and I were in elk all day. The forth guy/Andy got a touch of food poisoning and didn't make the pack into camp until noon on opening day Saturday. We had about 30 cows in the meadows right above camp at first light. The three of us went after them, but something happened, probably the winds swirled, and they blew out of meadow before anyone could get a shot. I had a cow and calf at 40 yards when they busted. Since I have a cow tag and an either sex tag, and we were close to the trail, I was willing to take a cow and pack her the four miles 'down' the trail to the car.
After blowing the first opportunity, we saw some elk across the drainage and heard some bugling. We watched them until they went into some timber and never came out, so we figured they had bedded down. With that we decided to swing around and get above them to keep the thermals in our favor. In the process of 'swinging around', Bruce and I bumped a cow. We waiting about 10 minutes and then walked in the direction that the cow went. After about 100 yards I cow called and a bull bugled back from a couple hundred yards away. We set up and called some more. The bull would bugle back but he wasn't coming in. We figured that he had at least one cow that was a little spooked, so we closed the distance and cow called again - he bugled right back about 60 yards away and a cow started talking too. We sat up again, and he bugled back a couple more times as we called.
Bruce was about 40 yards from him at one point but it was so thick that he couldn't see him. I tried a new call technique that I learned from the 'Elk Nut video - Worse than Wolves' called the threat. The threat is suppose to sound like a cow being harassed by a young bull - although with my calling it probably sounded more like a cat being molested by a wild dog - and we never heard from the bull nor the cow after that.
We continued to work our way up and around to the elk that we heard earlier that morning. In the process we came across a big bowl that looked like great elk terrain. We decided not to drop down in to the bowl and continued with our original mission of getting up on the ridge above the elk we had seen earlier.
Once on top, we heard lots of bugling down in the timber where we had seen the elk bed up. Although it was so windy we couldn't tell for sure if they were real elk or hunters bugling. Since we were above timberline, we found a row of stunted pine trees that allowed us to drop down into the timber without being seen. Once in the timber, which blocked noise of the wind, we heard only one bugle, which was that of Andy. Andy uses his fingers to whistle/bugle so his bugles are easy to identify and it works very well for him. After listening for about 30 minutes and not hearing any thing more, we decided not to drop further down in the timber and instead we went back on top to wait and watch to see if anything came out to feed for the evening. However, once back on top we found another hunter had taken up the location and was watching some elk down in the drainage on the other side of the ridge. Since the ridge was several miles long, there was plenty of room for all of us, Bruce sat up and watched the head of the drainage right above our camp, and I went back to the bowl that we had seen earlier in the day.
As soon as I reached the bowl, I saw a cow out in the open feeding and not far away from her was 4 more elk bedded in the shade of some trees. They were a good mile away and I didn't see any horns so I decided to wait and watch the bowl a little longer. After a short wait, more elk started coming out of the dark timber into the bowl. Even though I hadn't seen any bulls, I said to myself that I'm not going to kill an elk sitting here, so I dropped down into the bowl and started working my way toward them.
The elk were in the upper end of the bowl and I was in the lower end, which was perfect since the evening thermals were starting to shift downward. As I was getting close to where I thought the elk would be, I kept telling myself to stay on the down hill side of them and not get up to high and have the wind betray me. Dang it, there is a cow broadside just less than 40 yards from me and down hill/wind. She stands for just a few moments and then turns and runs. I try the 'Threat' again, but no response. I didn't hear any others run off, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking that I pretty well just blew it.Â
Easing up further through the timber, I see a small bull and a couple of cows about 80 yards in a meadow above me, they are acting nervous and walk into the trees, but I know they haven't smelled me. I also hear a bull in the distance bulging, sounds like it is coming up from the steep dark timber. I ease up further and start hearing cows chirping. I come to another meadow and I see cows and another bull at the top of the meadow. To far for a shot but they are relaxed.
As I start to ease up to them, I hear cows mewing on the down hill side but in front of me, and it sounds like they are coming to the meadow, so I move back to the edge of the meadow and set up. In the distance I still can hear that bull bugling. It would be nice to take one of the big bulls in this area, but this bowl is just a little over a mile from the car and my main objective is to put meat in the freezer so I'm taking the first good shot opportunity I get!Â
Straight across from me, a cow comes out into the meadow mewing. She's headed up hill and is about 70 yards away. I cow call to her hoping to bring her in for a shot. She get nervous, turns around and walks back into the timber she just came out of - aghhhh, stinkin ole elk don't know a good call when they hear it! The bull in the distance is now closer and still bugling, so, thinking I don't have much to lose I cut loose with a bugle. The cows relax and come back out into the meadow - at least they can appreciate a manly call! More elk come out into the meadow below me, including a small 5X5, but he's not the one doing all the bugling. The little 5X5 lets out a little squeal and walks over to a wallow about 70 yards directly below me and starts playing in the mud. Two calves walk straight towards me with some cows walking behind them. Since the bull is straight down hill from me, I'm afraid that he's going to smell me and skedaddle, taking the herd with him. The calves are also coming in below me and if they keep on the same course they are going to walk right on top of me. Things are getting pretty intense and I feel my heart pounding, and I'm thinking 'God this is what hunting is all about, what an awesome experience'.
All of a sudden a year and a half old cow (i.e. good eating) steps out from behind a few trees in the middle of the meadow and stops at 20 yards with her head down feeding. I come to a full draw but her front leg is back so I wait. Have you ever noticed how women have a way of taking their sweet little time when you are in a hurry! Finally after a long wait, she takes another step forward and gives me the perfect broad side shot. Slow motion sets in, pick a spot behind the shoulder, not to far back, squeeze the trigger - well the best squeeze I could muster considering the circumstances! You've probably heard the Sam Elliott 'What's for dinner - BEEF' commercial, where Sam is talking about grilling steaks and time stands still until a dog barks, we'll that's what it was like, time stood still until that arrow hit it's mark and then all heck broke loose and elk started running every where.
From slow motion to a blurrrr, she spins and runs back down the hill, for a split second I see an arrow protruding from right behind here shoulder - Yes, good shot! Then I see her and the herd running into the trees - mark the spot where she went into the trees in case I have a hard time picking up a blood trail, but I'm sure she didn't go far with that shot, I'm thinking that is one of the best shots I've ever made on any animal.
OK, now it's time to 'try' to slow things down and compose my self. Check my watch, it's 7:45. Replay everything in my mind, and everything seems good, feeling confident that the shot was good. Bull still bugling in the distance. What a day! Mark a way point on the GPS, fill the water bottle out of the stream near by, try to call my buddy on the radio - where is that slacker when you need him!
Finally, 20 minutes have gone by and time to pick up the trail. It's getting dark and I have to use my flashlight to trail here. Pick up a blood trail within the first 10 feet, the blood is spewed everywhere - reconfirming a good shot. Follow the blood trail into the trees where I saw her run. To make a long story short, after a few loop-dey-loops and her still going another 50 yards after bleeding out, it took me an hour and 15 minutes to trail her 150 yards. It was kind of weird in that she piled up about 15 yards from a young bull that had been dead for over a year. I actually found the bull skull with some chewed up antlers first. Think about that, trailing a wounded cow in the middle of the night and walk up on the skeleton remains of a bull, then go another 15 yards and find your cow - a little creepy!
It was 9:15 when I found her. I said a little prayer of thanks, put my watch in my pack and then proceeded to get to work, using the 'gutless method' and hung the quarters in a tree. That gutless method is the way to go, and I'll never gut another animal, unless it's a situation where I can drive the truck right up to it.
Turns out, it wasn't the shot I thought I had made. I thought I had perfectly broad sided her with a double lung shot, but I actually hit her behind the last rib on the left side and it came out right behind the front shoulder on the right side.
Perfect shot for a quartering away shot, but not the shot I thought I had made - another 'Thank you God' moment! It was almost a full moon and bulls were bugling all around while I quartered her - several times I just had to stop and thank God for such a wonderful experience. Even during the hike out, I heard bulls bugling all around. Finally stumbling into camp, trying to be quite, not wanting to wake my buddies, but was glad to hear one of them say 'is that you Randy?'. Then trying not to sound to excited, but not hesitating to give them the readers digest version of the evening adventure. I eat a little jerky and trail mix, check my watch as I climb into the sleeping bag, and thinking it's later than I thought as my head hit the pillow 1:30.
Going back up on Sunday to pack her out, I tell the guys that I think I can de-bone the quarters and get her out in one load and probably won't need their help - famous last words! Bruce being a lot smarter and wiser that I, said that they would hunt until about 11:00 and then meet up with me to see if I needed any help getting her out. It turns out that it took three of us, five and a half hours to pack her out. The GPS said that it was 1 and 1 tenth of a mile to the car, but the topo said that there was some really steep terrain between us and the car, so we took the 'easy' route - which turned out to be the wrong way! I owe Bruce and Vance big time for all the help they gave me. I'm sitting here as I write this with a swollen and bruised right foot, barley able to walk, and that was with those two guys helping me - I'm not sure I'd be off the mountain yet had they not been there - another opportunity to thank God! Something about sitting at a desk all year and then packing out an elk without any conditioning it hard on the feet!
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. Obviously, it was dark when I found her and I didn't know how to work the timer nor flash on the digital camera I was carrying - pretty disappointing considering it was such a great hunt, but that's my fault for not figuring out how to use the camera before hand.
Not a huge bull story to tell, but it was one of the best hunts I've been on!
Another Success Story
Edward Watson
Yea, Baby!! Here is the whole story. This bull is a bull of a lifetime. Gary down at All Seasons Taxidermy said it is one of the biggest bulls he has seen taken off public land around here. It was a story book hunt. I was deep in the dark timber around Green Creek. I bugled about 8:30 Sat morning, heard no response. So packed my jacket in my backpack and walked up the hill about 150 yd.. I was about 30 yd. in the timber off of a field and crash, I heard some elk above me about 80 yd.. I thought I spooked them and they were running away. So I cow called to try to keep them around. I was wrong they were busting thru the timber coming to me. I looked through the timber into the field and just saw antlers and a huge bull attached coming my way.( I did not even have a arrow knocked or my release out) I knocked an arrow and got my release on and by this time he was 40 yd. out. I thought I was going to have to take a knee cause he was coming straight in, but he quartered off to my left and I got behind a tree to hide myself. He was 30 yd. now and going below me. A rock the size of a car separated us at this point and helped hide me. I drew my bow and held. He was at 22 or so yd. and went behind a tree and to the other side going down hill he gave up the shot and boom I shot and watched the arrow hit right behind the shoulder, (a tad high) and I knew he was dead. He ran about 10 yd.. I cow called to keep him around, he started walking towards the field then ran across to the other side and stood and coughed and dropped, he got back up went about 5 yd. and dropped for good.
I had a perfect view of where he dropped only 90 yd. from where I was. His cows were still mewing so I called back to them for a few minutes and then they bugged out slow (never even saw them). I took my backpack off and started dancing a jig (very quietly of course). I waited about 10 minutes and walked around the field to get above him I heard a crash in the timber above me and figured I spooked the cows off, but no. I started crossing a log looked up and at 30 yd. a bear was looking right at me. So we had a standoff for about 6 minutes. I was standing in plain site with the field behind me and this bear was not moving. I waved, waved my bow, I thought he was blind. Finally he turned and crept up the hill out of sight (I've seen 7 bears while hunting so far this season). I walked over to the bull and did another dance. Dern he is big. I had a couple of buddies come help me haul him out. I went back Sunday and got the head. He is a trophy of a lifetime. Best thing was my 39th Birthday was Friday. Great Birthday hunt!!
He came in silent, but they are talking now with the colder weather.
Not Just Another Elk Hunt
Mike Magrew
I heard no elk and saw only a single doe, Gary however had a close encounter. He was trying to find a wallow he had marked on his GPS years ago. He had gotten into an area that was starting to look familiar, yet he still needing guidance from his GPS. After checking his GPS which said he was very close to the wallow, he looked up to see a giant bull which saw him at the same time and immediately busted out of the area. On his return trip from the area, he heard a single bugle back in the direction of the wallow, from where he had just came from.
The following mornings hunt was planned. A bull talking his worth ten in the bush not talking even if it was only a single bugle. Tuesday morning found all three of us, Gary, Bill, and myself in the same area yet no bugling bull. Bill had been bugling off and on while we worked our way to the wallow. Once located, we surveyed the wallow which appeared to not have been used in several days. Suddenly, to our northwest, along the side of the mountain the familiar sound of an elk busting out of the area. It appear a bull had probably been coming in silently and had busted us.
Discouraged but not beaten, we slowly made our way back towards Bill's truck which was well over a mile away. Only a couple hundred yards from the previous wallow, we located another which was getting much more frequent visits. We marked the location for future reference and started back towards the pickup.
Bill bugled about 30 yards below the wallow, near the bottom of the drainage we were working. Suddenly, in the distance, a bull responded with a bugle of his own. We covered about another 40 yards and Bill bugled again. This bull responded with a half grunt, half bugle and it was apparent he was coming. With no time to waste, Gary and I sprang into action, well he dropped to his knees next to a spruce and I backed up to two aspens and a single spruce. Bill backed up from us about 20 yards unable to get any further due to the bulls apparent fast approach.
I had ranged a couple of downed trees with my range finder and had just put it away when I saw the bull's legs crossing the bottom of the drainage. I also saw a very light colored cow, (cattle) walking on the other side of the drainage, about 50 yards from us. Both the bull and cow were heading down the mountain. I whispered to Gary, "He is right in front of us, coming towards us, about 80 yards out". I looked over at Gary and saw his eyes slowly rotate towards the cow on the other side of the drainage. I then heard him say something about it being off the my left. I gathered he thought the cow was the bull at first because he could only see the light color of it from his vantage point.
I continued to watch the bull who was zigzagging his way towards us. As he turned up the side of the drainage I drew my bow. He was approximately 45 yards away and continuing up, moving to my right. Feeling the bull was going to present a better shot for Gary then what I currently had, I lowered the string. Suddenly, the bull turned right back towards us, heading in a line that would take him about 3 yards to my left, about 6 yards from Gary. I slowly began pulling the bow back again, very slowly. Gary, realizing the bulls actual location, began to due the same. At about 8 yards Gary broke over the Bowtech Guardian but the bull saw the motion. He busted and Gary let loose an arrow the flew just over the bulls back as the bull lowered to spin and run. As the bull ran he barked once. Bill, who had been cow calling behind us, let out a squeal from his bugle tube. The bull had ran up the mountain to our right and stopped out at about 60 yards behind cover surveying the situation.
Slowly, the bull began walking above Bill, continuing to move further to our right. The bull actually spooked again but Bill was able to calm him enough to keep him in the area and circling us. Finally, after what seemed about two to three minutes the bull had circled well past Bill and was now standing about 40 yards to what would have been, left of our back sides and above us when the whole situation had started. I now was also on my knees with Gary, both of us trying to find a clear path through the think spruce and dead falls to place an arrow. I had finally located a small opening and was getting my knees under me when I heard Gary loose an arrow. I heard the thud of what sounded as if a good body cavity shot had been made. I looked up to see the bull spin but noticed that he had kept his right front leg stiff as he made the move. I looked over at Gary who had already hung his head in disappointment, believing he had hit the bulls leg rather then his vitals.
Bill worked on Gary, telling him that he had not heard the sound of bone but rather the sound of a good hit. After several minutes we began to check the blood trail. We first located the arrow which appeared to have blood on it's entire length but showed much more towards the rear quarter of it's length. This did not raise Gary's spirits at all. We began tracking the bull with decent blood. After about 30 yards, the trail opened up like the red sea. I was walking at an extremely fast pace following the blood. After about 70 yards I could see the bull piled up and stopped about 40 yards from it. Gary walked up to me and I simply pointed in the bulls direction and watched his eyes as they searched. They were as big as quarters as he scanned the hill side trying to find his booty. Suddenly, they grew to half dollars and I knew they had rested on his prize. I walked up to the bull behind him, knowing first hand the trials and tribulations he had gone through in his six year quest for his first Rocky Mountain Elk. I made one statement upon reaching the bull with him, "Soak it in brother". After several seconds, Gary knelt down to lay down his bow. He began to speak but his voice cracked, stopping him. I looked into his eyes and they began to well over. He then said something but I could not tell you what it was. I was working to hard to choke back my own tears of joy for my best friend who had finely met his goal. I looked at Bill who was smiling from ear to ear. He said, "That right there makes it all worth the effort we have been putting in".
After photos, hugs and laughs we checked how the bull had been struck. The arrow had entered just behind the leg, just under the chest and exited the far shoulder, uphill angle. A later inspection showed that the arrow had cut clean through one of the arteries right next to the heart. The bull was a small 5 by 5 but to Gary it was the "Bull Of The Woods" and I would have to agree.
To Gary, sorry brother, everyone who has lived it knows the feeling. I am proud of you my dearest friend. Oh, and you owe me one, three people, two frame packs, one mile, uphill, the entire bull, one trip, we were crazy!
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