I went up to help my Dad with his 1st Season bull tag this weekend, Unit 4, Colorado. It was the usual scene, with lots of hunters, lots of elk running around, but an overall great time with my dad. Sunday morning we came across the following:
Pretty sad to see a young bull left to rot, untouched, with crow $hit all over him, eyes picked out. It really made my Dad and myself disgusted. Worse, the "hunter" (term used loosely) shot this bull from less than 50 yards, no brush in the way to obscure anything, just no excuse to not properly identify that this was not a legal bull. As you can tell by the shot placement taking out both front shoulders, this bull dropped in his tracks, so there is no way someone "couldn't find him".
I hiked out last night, tracked down a warden, shared pics and GPS coordinates, and wished him luck on hopefully catching the scumbag who did this. I know they will have little chance based on the evidence I could provide, but if anyone else saw or heard of someone leaving a sub-legal bull lie in the east part of unit 4, please PM with details and I will share it with the warden. There were plenty of others hunters in the area (including a few others we talked to who came across the same dead bull), so at least there is a possibility someone saw/knows something. I know it is a long shot, but worth a try.
On a semi-related note, my Dad has been hunting the same area for the past 3 years, and has passed on at least four bulls he wasn't sure on if they were legal, and has come home empty-handed as a result. After each one, we talked over the horn configuration, and it sounds like he was overly cautious on them and they were probably all legal. However, after we came upon this little 2x3, it reconfirmed his conviction to not pull the trigger unless he was 100% sure. It is a shame not everyone in the woods has this same standard.
Pretty sad to see a young bull left to rot, untouched, with crow $hit all over him, eyes picked out. It really made my Dad and myself disgusted. Worse, the "hunter" (term used loosely) shot this bull from less than 50 yards, no brush in the way to obscure anything, just no excuse to not properly identify that this was not a legal bull. As you can tell by the shot placement taking out both front shoulders, this bull dropped in his tracks, so there is no way someone "couldn't find him".
I hiked out last night, tracked down a warden, shared pics and GPS coordinates, and wished him luck on hopefully catching the scumbag who did this. I know they will have little chance based on the evidence I could provide, but if anyone else saw or heard of someone leaving a sub-legal bull lie in the east part of unit 4, please PM with details and I will share it with the warden. There were plenty of others hunters in the area (including a few others we talked to who came across the same dead bull), so at least there is a possibility someone saw/knows something. I know it is a long shot, but worth a try.
On a semi-related note, my Dad has been hunting the same area for the past 3 years, and has passed on at least four bulls he wasn't sure on if they were legal, and has come home empty-handed as a result. After each one, we talked over the horn configuration, and it sounds like he was overly cautious on them and they were probably all legal. However, after we came upon this little 2x3, it reconfirmed his conviction to not pull the trigger unless he was 100% sure. It is a shame not everyone in the woods has this same standard.
