This bull would have been a shooter if he hadn't broke off his left side just above the brow tine.
I saw lots of great bulls but I had my heart set on a 7x7 that HAD double drop tines but he broke off the left drop tine making him an 8x7.
I got great camcorder shots of him and others, I'll see if I can post them, I've never tried that before.
You have somebody local who does elk ivory jewelry? Still got two teeth in my pocket, but the guy who did my last set has disappeared, and most of the others I find online are too bloody expensive.
you dog!!! good job!! hey i will stop by after awhile to hear all about it. thats the bull you were hoping to get, right? same one in the article from last year?
Okay, here's the story as quick as I can, I have to get home.
I first read about this bull in Eastman's Journal. He was passed up.
I scouted this area in july and when I saw him he had a pair of drop tines. I knew I wouldn't pass him up.
When I headed up there for my final scoutings before the hunt, I saw a magnificent bull that would no doubt score better than this bull and it was a hard choice which to pursue, but I just loved the drop tine to death.
Every time I found him scouting he was far from the access road and that meant a long pack out, so on opener I looked for him where he had been hanging out and all was quiet. I heard a few bulls bugle but none had the deep growl that his bugle had. I didn't even pursue the other bugles.
The wind would not be in my favor until around 9am so I hung back a while and then backtracked at a different angle to see if I could find him with my binos. No luck, and all quiet.
I finally backtracked all the way to the access road and was about to crest the ravine (the road is on the crest of the hill) when I heard his deep growling bugle. He was about to crest the hill right in front of me on the opposite side of the road.
I got into position and set my 50 cal. muzzleloader on shooting stix and waited.
The cows crested first and I was concerned about the unstable breeze that was blowing crossways and almost towards them.
finally I saw the drop tine bull and then suddenly he turned and raced downhill! At first I thought that he had winded me but then it occurred to me that he was probably chasing off a rival bull. The later was correct.
He finally crested the hill at 75 yards and after the smoke cleared I saw that he had only ran about 10 yards, and the cows were confused but hanging around with our cow calling.
Then the bull layed down and after a few gasps he went limp. We gave him a few moments and I started to reload but my friends assured me that it wasn't neccessary. As we approached the bull he rose to his feet and I reloaded and put another one in him. The first was too far back and was a liver shot, the second shot was better and exited out the opposite shoulder. He expired shortly thereafter but I reloaded again just in case.
I thank my long time friend from Placer County, Dave Howell and his son for helping me, and also Pat Callahan who is a local there and very knowledgable of the elk there.
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