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How big is this bull??

thecrittergitter

thecrittergitter

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Bozeman, MT
So, just curious, was out wandering the hills looking for a wapiti and came across this guy........pictures suck a bit as he was a long ways off and I appartenly couldn't hold the camera very still to the spotter but does he look like a shooter??;)
 

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I'm thinking, from what I remember, that he would top your best Matt... but as you know, the pics dont show it all. I'm betting he's big enough though.

The one where his rack is straight away... makes him look real good.
 
Huge success!!

Ok guys!! I don't have a lot of time so this story is going to be real short. My best friend Zach (FIVER) and I took off last week for the high country and backpacked in to a new area we have been wanting to hit for a few years looking for the elusive wapiti. We actually didn't see all that many elk and it was extremely quiet as far as bugling goes. We spent 8 days in the tent, hiked about 11-12 miles a day and were rewarded........greatly.

Did a lot of glassing.....

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Ended up passing on a few younger bulls and for the first part of the week, we had set our mind on solid bulls or we would not shoot. Its so rugged and far in there, we were planning on holding out.........Had this guy at 32 yards just wanting to get shot:)

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After looking over a few bulls and seeing a couple dandy's but not being able to get in range, we were wondering if we were going to pack nothing back but our camp that we came in with.

Well, on day 6, we finally found a bull that wanted to cooperate with the calling. This nice sixer got a little to brave and I called him right by Zach at 35 yards and Zach decided he was worthy of a trip back to the house and into the freezer. Awesome job Zach, perfect shot on a nice bull!

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Spent the better part of the night and next day hiking to camp and packing meat. It was really fortunate, we ran into a couple guys and I asked them if they wanted to put their bows down for a day to help pack out an elk (was totally joking of course) but they were totally stoked to help out!! Awesome guys! Thank you Terry and Michael for your help! They gave up their hunting time to help pack out Zach's elk.
 
I suppose we better get back to the bull in the spotter.............

So last day we had available to hunt was Saturday night. On friday night, was a bit down on the luck of no shot opportunities yet for me. Well, it was closing in on last light of the day and we notices a group of elk about a mile and a half away. We threw threw the binos up and notices what appeared to be a very big bull trailing 16 cows across a nasty hillside. No time to get there but was cool to see him anyway. We figured we would come back in the am and see if we could find him.

We actually found the 16 cows at about 10 am headed into a little bench that was timbered pretty thick. I figured they would lay down in there for the day and we could make a stalk over there but I hadn't seen the bull yet. It was too rugged and nasty of a hike to just go on a hope so I wanted to see the bull before I went. At about 1 pm, I noticed a couple cows coming out to do their mid day stretch and get a little bite to eat. after about an hour of staring into the timber edges, I finally got to throw the glass on some horn............hence the pictures we began this thread with.

I guessed that bull would probably go over 375 and started getting pretty damn excited. We made a stalk plan that would require us to not only hike the 2 mile hike down nearly vertical and up the other side nearly vertical, but have to go an extra bit and come in around the other side to get the wind right...

I took a picture of the entire hillside so we could use it for reference when we got over there, don't know how many times I thought it would be so easy to pick out a spot on another hill and it all looked different. This proved to be essential to getting in the right place.

We figured we knew exactly where the elk would feed out of the timber so we got in place and waited. Sure enough, after a short time, the cows started slowly working our way and feeding out exactly like we had thought.

Love it when a plan comes together perfectly and you play your cards just right............The bull ended up following them out just as we had thought and I had to do everything possible to quit looking at his headgear as he came our way...........I was focused on the shoulder and all I can hear over my right shoulder as Fiver is looking though the binos is "Holy #$&#@^ that thing is friggin enormous"!! He said he thouht that SOB was over 390".......

Well, he fiinally presented a good shot after the 4 minutes that seemed like 40..........and about 200 yards later we were walking up to the little pipsqueak;)

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My legs were like jello, I could barely stand I was so excited!

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I told Zach I agreed with his assessment and thought he just might sail the 390 mark... And actually would eventually find out that he would hit the 400" mark........

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I never thought I would see a 400" bull on a public land DIY hunt let alone kill one.

I have to say, I think my ol buddy Dan Drazan, that passed away this spring after his fight with Cancer was helping me out on this one! Thank you Dan for talking the elk gods into throwing me a bone;) all 400" of it...

ALso, couldn't have shared this hunt with a better guy! Thanks Zach for going along and sharing this once in a lifetime experience and being there to be a great pack bitch:)LOL

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By the time we wrestled this set of horns off the mountainside, I had chipped off about an inch or so of his tips but we finally got it done!

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Didn't always go as planned, had a few wipeouts too:)

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I will thank my beautiful and understanding wife for allowing me to spend this kind of time in the mountains. I know she is stuffed to the gills with stuff going on with our four kids but I hope she knows it was so worth it on this one!!!

By the way, going to take the next few weeks off of hunting to get back in good graces with her:)

Sorry for the short story, but got to get too much done.

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By the way.......I chipped off enough on the hike out to officially screw myself out of the 400" mark:D Final tape says 399 1/8"...........Not that it makes a crap bit of difference to me.;)

Happy hunting everyone!!
 
What goes around comes around - you have definitely put in the effort to have earned that one. Congratulations to both of you.
 
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