WELL IT FINALLY HAPPENED !!! I harvested a big bull elk. YEAH ! well the story goes like this, I had a chance to shoot this bull on the opening morning of the hunt 9/13/2008 but, I passed on him cause he was about 700 yards away and I thought that was a bit far, and I thought I could maybe find one a bit better. The weather was horrible for elk hunting, hot and dry, the elk were all held up tight in the timber and it was very tough to see them. I, my dad and brother hiked and HIKED and HiKeD our butts off, literaly I think I lost 20 lbs. we saw a fair share of small bulls, (4's & 5's) but none that I thought were shooters, we did see one other big bull but it was right at dark and we couldn't get a good look at him before it was pitch black. so after days and days of hiking and glassing and hiking and glassing some more, I decided I would focus on the bull that I had passed on opening morning. This bull had a very destinct bugle that sort of broke in the middle and changed pitch so I named him TWO-TONE. I will hear his bugle in my mind forever. We listened to him for days, but he would not come out in the open, he had himself a little nest down in a heavily timbered ridge with a bunch of cows that he was just not going to leave, so after days and nights of hiking and waiting and listening, we decided to go in the timber after him. so on sunday 9/21 my dad and I hiked the ridge and waited to hear that 2 tone bugle, we heard him until about 9am and then he was quiet so I thought now or never. It had rained during the night so all the undergrowth was damp and quiet as we made our way down the ridge though the dence timber. I headed towards the area that I had last heard him and when we got there, NOTHING. but then we heard a bugle down the ridge a bit, so on we went slowly moving down the ridge. we got to where I tought he was again and quess what, NOTHING. so we sat on a log and waited for a minute, I blew my cow call 3 times and nothing, I said to my dad " maybe they winded us and " and then we heard the best sound in the world a BUGLE, less than 100 yards away then I heard him coming at us on the run looking for that fake cow, I put the bi-pod down on the rifle and got ready for the shot. the bull ran in to a shooting lane though the timber about 60 yard away,I droped to my seat for the shot, looked through the scope and saw nothing but leaves, so I stood took three side steps to the right looked through the scope, the bull came in to the open, I put the crosshairs on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger, BOOM! one shot, Twotone hunched up and turned went 20-30 yards and was done! we walked up to him, it was so awsome all the waiting 18 years of waiting for my chance to take a big utah bull was over, I was so happy, what a thrill to hunt one of earths most magestic animals. It was just AWSOME!!!
Then the work really began it was around 11 am when I shot, by the time we got him taken care of it was 3pm. Dad hiked out back to the 4 wheelers and back to camp to go get the horse to pack him out, the horse is Heaths (my brother) and had never packed out and animal so we were nervous but she did great, we made two trips to get him all out,, and it was dark when we got back to camp 8:30 pm. we were SPENT, I had two granola bars at 7 am and dad had an apple, all day that was it so we were on fumes. Tami came up and met us at camp to see my bull, and brought us a big arby's roast beef sandwiches, it was so good we were so hungry. We built a big fire and the kids looked at the elk, then Tami and the kids left and dad and I CRASHED...
We woke up, packed up camp and came home, we took him to the taxidermist and I took the meat to the butcher, came home took two showers and a bath... it was great to have running water again and to see my family. it was a fun trip and I am truely greatful for all the help that I got from Tami, Dad, Heath, and Brad Jensen. It was a lot of work but I loved every minute of it.
