My dream has come true. I've busted my butt over the past year reading, scouting, looking at google earth for hours on end, refined my gear, spent a grip load on new gear, shot my bow everyday, ran when I didn't want to in the morning and it's all come to this bull. I'm extremely happy taking this bull and just wanted to share with you guys.
I shot him about 1.5 miles from the nearest road, and the work really began getting him back to the truck. It was extremely tough. Each trip out was with a 85 to 100lb pack. It took my buddy and I two trips to get er done. My first load was the head, cape, backstrap and tenderloins and my buddy took down one bag by hand because we didn't have a freighter type pack for him. I have to say the 2200 was bombproof packing this bull out. We borrowed a 4500 from another friend and my buddy used that on our 2nd trip back in. I had 3 meat bags left at this point and it was 2am by the time we got to the first meat bag I had stached. We put all three about 100yards apart from one another and the gutpile and we didn't have any run ins with predator. In case anyone is wondering this bull completely boned out barely fit into two 120q coolers with alittle bit of ice. I saw that topic earlier. I couldn't believe the sheer amount of meat I got off of him. It's amazing. I butchered the whole bull with a Buck PBS, which is a combo knife, gut hook, saw. Mental note for next time... I'll be packing in the Kodi Saw and deboning knife.
I also butchered the elk myself at home. Talk about a project, but thanks to my awesome wife who helped me package everything, we're going to have some great tablefare for sometime. I'm guesstimating I have over 300lbs in the freezer. The backstrap alone on this thing was over 36" long. I couldn't believe it.
I called this bull in to me and three others at 0800. Prior to this I had them scouted out and knew their general locations. I hit a bugle first light and nothing came back. We hiked in further to a drainage their known to frequent and the bulls started lighting up around 0730. We got closer to the closest one we heard and about 0755, I started chuckling through the bugle tube. Minutes later I had three bulls ontop of me and I shot mine which was the closest at under 20yards. My buddy was able to capture all of this on his video. The shot of my expression after shooting was priceless. I was in complete shock. Infact I think I still am. The bull expired in about 150yards down the mountain from where I shot. After some pictures and celebrating the work began. It took me 6hours to field dress, completely debone the meat, and cape it out for a shoulder mount. This was the first time I had field dressed an elk. It was an experience.
I've learned so much over the past year, espeically from reading Hanes Backcountry Bowhunting. If it wasn't for that book, I'd still be in my old comfort zone hunting a half mile from the road and never venturing to where I took this bull. Its some serious country where I took him and feel pretty confident others won't be hunting where I harvested this bull.
Thanks to the guys in the Backpacking Forum who helped me refine / establish my backcountry gear over the past year!
I shot him about 1.5 miles from the nearest road, and the work really began getting him back to the truck. It was extremely tough. Each trip out was with a 85 to 100lb pack. It took my buddy and I two trips to get er done. My first load was the head, cape, backstrap and tenderloins and my buddy took down one bag by hand because we didn't have a freighter type pack for him. I have to say the 2200 was bombproof packing this bull out. We borrowed a 4500 from another friend and my buddy used that on our 2nd trip back in. I had 3 meat bags left at this point and it was 2am by the time we got to the first meat bag I had stached. We put all three about 100yards apart from one another and the gutpile and we didn't have any run ins with predator. In case anyone is wondering this bull completely boned out barely fit into two 120q coolers with alittle bit of ice. I saw that topic earlier. I couldn't believe the sheer amount of meat I got off of him. It's amazing. I butchered the whole bull with a Buck PBS, which is a combo knife, gut hook, saw. Mental note for next time... I'll be packing in the Kodi Saw and deboning knife.
I also butchered the elk myself at home. Talk about a project, but thanks to my awesome wife who helped me package everything, we're going to have some great tablefare for sometime. I'm guesstimating I have over 300lbs in the freezer. The backstrap alone on this thing was over 36" long. I couldn't believe it.
I called this bull in to me and three others at 0800. Prior to this I had them scouted out and knew their general locations. I hit a bugle first light and nothing came back. We hiked in further to a drainage their known to frequent and the bulls started lighting up around 0730. We got closer to the closest one we heard and about 0755, I started chuckling through the bugle tube. Minutes later I had three bulls ontop of me and I shot mine which was the closest at under 20yards. My buddy was able to capture all of this on his video. The shot of my expression after shooting was priceless. I was in complete shock. Infact I think I still am. The bull expired in about 150yards down the mountain from where I shot. After some pictures and celebrating the work began. It took me 6hours to field dress, completely debone the meat, and cape it out for a shoulder mount. This was the first time I had field dressed an elk. It was an experience.
I've learned so much over the past year, espeically from reading Hanes Backcountry Bowhunting. If it wasn't for that book, I'd still be in my old comfort zone hunting a half mile from the road and never venturing to where I took this bull. Its some serious country where I took him and feel pretty confident others won't be hunting where I harvested this bull.
Thanks to the guys in the Backpacking Forum who helped me refine / establish my backcountry gear over the past year!
