Once in lifetime bull

[realunlucky]

Fronts backs tine lenght yep he has it all congratulations wow

 

[sandhillhunter]

Congratulations! Definitely once in a lifetime where I come from!

 

[Nate]

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This is the twentieth elk for my friend. I was lucky enough to have had the honor to be the caller on the day of this harvest. My friend truly earned this bull on public back country hunting. The picture with both of us in it shows the shock he was in and how happy I was for him. The bull green scored 373 and had 22" thirds. An absolute beautiful bull. When we got back to the truck, GPS said that we had a total ascent of just under 7,500 feet for the day.

This hunt started over twenty five years ago and the twentieth elk harvested my great friend took this once in a lifetime public land bull in rugged Montana back country. I started hunting with Boyd eleven years ago and he continues to push me harder than anyone I have ever hunted with. He is a very selfless hunter and not a trophy hunter. He just enjoys working extremely hard to chase elk in very difficult terrain in northwest Montana.

We are hunting in a region that is by no means a trophy region of Montana. The area is steep and brushy and the elk population and less than lots of other areas I have hunted in Montana. But we enjoy it because it is “home” and we get away from people and truly enjoy God’s creation.

We started our day 2 hours before daylight and started hiking up a trail. I swear this trail has more switchbacks than any other trail we hike, but I guess look on the bright side and at least there was a trail to start the day with unlike most areas we hunt.

Just before shooting light on the day of the harvest of this magnificent animal, we jumped a bull from the trail. While getting our bows off our packs, putting camo on our faces, and eating a quick snack before the hunting begins, I told Boyd that he was shooter that day and I was calling.

Well by lunchtime we had not heard a thing. My GPS said we had already ascended over 6,800 feet. While eating lunch, Boyd commented to me that sometimes you just have to step on them to get one to talk. Well about 2:30 we crawled through an alder patch in a small drainage and heard what we knew was an elk crashing away.

Frustrated, I quickly barked a couple times at what I was certain was a bull running away. I looked down and saw a huge track in the dirt. I told Boyd to work his way to the bedding area. I believed that the bull did not see us or smell us due to the direction of the wind and we were crawling out of an alder infested drainage. I believed I could possibly call him back or at least it was worth a try.

I know there are guys who want to know what calls I was using. Well, it's simple was using the old trust worthy Mellow Yellow Momma from Bugling Bulls Calls and a home made grunt tube I made.

After giving out a couple quick barks, I gave a couple alerted cow calls. I then followed up with a short raspy bugle. After a couple minutes, I heard the bull bugle back at me. At that point I thought to myself that this might actually happen. During the next 45 minutes or so, I continued to make elk noise, including breaking sticks, kicking the ground and raking a tree. During that time I heard the bull bugle 3 or 4 times. I also heard a commotion followed by Boyd cow calling a couple times. I thought two things, either he shot something or spooked something.

We have a system where the shooter will make 3 short cow calls to get the caller to move forward. Well it was at least 30 minutes after the commotion that I finally heard the call to come to him.

I was greeted by a guy who was about to puke. Boyd told me he had just shot a huge bull and watched it die 30 yards in front of him. Boyd told me that he believed it was a 340 class bull. After lots of hugging, laughing and high fiving, we went up to the bull. Boyd was in shock when he finally placed hands on his trophy.

I told Boyd that I believed the bull was bigger than 340. I guessed him conservatively at mid 360’s range.

I took several pictures and he was only smiling in a couple. That day I really saw the signs of shock in my best friend who hunted over twenty five years and finally harvested a true once in lifetime bull. Green score on the bull was 373. It had 22" thirds.

We deboned the elk and got it into game bags. Boyd packed a load of meat and I packed the head. We went back in with a few good friends and packed out the rest of the meat from that massive elk.

I could not have been happier shooting the bull myself. Boyd truly deserves this trophy.

On a different note, I packed the head out on my Exo 3500. The pack performed awesome. However packing out head gear like that on my back through brush infested and steep terrain was, well let’s just say it sucked.

Also this was the second time I wrote this. I messed up and did not type it in a word doc and some unknown reason the forum logged me out and I lost all of it. I learned a lesson and believe the first write up was better LOL.

 

[Nate]

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EXO 3500 proving itself once again!!!

 

[Jarrod Renaud]

good freakin job! what a great bull

 

[Ziggy]

Wow! Congrats!

 

[TimeOnTarget]

Amazing bull!!! Congrats to a great hunting duo!

 

[7stw]

Wow what a bull congrats to you both !

 

[Redside]

Nice job! Great story!

 

[Muledeernv]

Awesome bull congrats

 

[Whisky]

Excellent!

 

[JG358]

Awesome bull!

 

[IdahoElk]

Thanks for the great story on this magnificent bull!

 

[Roy68]

Congrats!

 

[MTbowhunter36]

Awesome bull!!

 

[Nate]

Thank you all for the compliments. I felt blessed to be able to be there for my longtime friend and hunting partner.

This was another one of those moments that I wish I had a better camera than just my iPhone LOL

 

[bourbon]

Amazing! Awesome feat and incredible animal.

 

[Art Vandeley]

Awesome. Looks well earned. Congrats

 

[back country]

What a bull! Big congrats to your friend! Great write-up too.

 

[Mike7]

Unbelievable bull, especially in that country! Well done.