Gotta hour?

It was '98 and after a LONG years wait we finally were THERE, the famed Gila/Apache area of southwestern NM. My brother, a friend of his and myself were about to start a 5 day hunt with THE guide/outfitter of all g/o's in NM, Mick Chappel of New Mexico Big Game Trophy Hunting. The 2 hour drive from Albequerque was filled with constant talk and scanning out the window for game (quite arrid on the drive tho from Albq too Quemado). We pulled into the ranch about 3 hours before dark and got settled in and met our guides. Dinner was another hour or two so we took our rental SUV out and started looking around. Found a few mulies but no elk.

That night as I was gettin my gear together (was a primitive weapons only area and I had my trusty lil 50cal Wolverine) my guide who was a 20 year old local from a family of noteable guides, came too me and asked, "What kind of bull are you after, just a bull or a monster?" I quickly told him that I was here for those famous "Gila Monsters" I had heard, read and seen on TV so much about. It was Oct. 15th and he told me that the big boys had already rutted and were typically back up in higher areas and kind of too themselves. I told him no problem and told him I would be ready to go at the main ranchhouse at umpteen thirty and READY! The hunter cabins were adequate and slept 6 per with a full bathroom but I have bad allergies so I knew my asthma would have me locked up in an hour. It was 29 degrees and the S-10 Blazer wasn't quite up too my 6'4" frame but I folded the backseat down, parked it on a slope and tried to sleep. There were several small bulls and herds of cows in the wheat fields at the base of the ranch about 300yds away and they SCREAMED all night. As I laid in the cold truck I thought, "man this place is eatup with elk, I'll be done in an hour tomorrow"...

After breakfast (and my brothers warnings to stay in the truck as the snoring in the cabin and the 110degree woodstove kept him up ALL night! I met up with the guide and away we tore. We drove too the backside of nowhere and I was sure I heard "dueling banjos" as we passed a hunter everynow and then on the "county highway" that I call a gravel farmroad, we finally got up ontop of a mountain and it was just barely "pinklight". My guide killed the lights and eased the truck into the edge of a clearing he said was a good starting point that he usually heard bulls from earlier during bowseason.

As we sat in the truck, loading our backpacks and getting ready my guide again asked what kind of bull I wanted to try to get. I told him that tho this was my first elkhunt, since this WAS in the Gila area I thought a 300" 6x6 was a good starting point. I no more than got the words out of my mouth when I looked out the side window at 3-4 cows running straight toward the truck at 45 yds. I could only make out their shape in the "barely there" pinklight that preceeds the dawn. I was about to mention them too him when I could make out a surefire 300" 6x6 rack chuggin along behind them! Too which I added, "Kind of like that one right there"! My guide leaned over and saw the approaching bull, now closing in on 30 yds and STILL coming dead on too the truck. He started yelling, "SHOOT HIM, SHOOT THAT SUMBEECH!" For a split instant I thought too myself (hell there's elk behind every tree here, I aint finishin this early) "Now if I kill this bull right now, this early, before I even put my feet on the ground and practically out of the truck, I will NEVER hear the end of it from everyone". So I told my guide, "I aint shootin a bull out of the truck". "Then get out of the truck!" he tells me in no uncertain circumstances. By now the cows have turned broadside are are just loping broadside about 25 yds from the truck and the bull hasn't given us so much as a glance. Again I tell my guide, "I aint shootin out of the truck and it's too early, man we should see plenty if this is any indicatation". He was obviously flustered and mentioned something about NEVER seeing that bull again (and he was certainly right).

That was dawn Saturday October 16th, the next elk of ANY sort we saw was a cow after dark while driving out Sunday night! Everyone else was hunting low and seeing 20-30 elk each morning and 20-40 each afternoon. I was beginning to KICK myself and I was seeing that 300"er in my sleep each night in the truck! My brother killed a 280" 6x6 Monday afternoon and his buddy let a 340"er walk that same afternoon (he already had a 1250# 375" Canadian elk on his wall).

Each morning we walked 3-5 miles and then the same each afternoon. We got up on some cows and a raghorn Tuesday morning and that was about it as light fell that night. Honestly I was mad, hadn't seen but 10 elk in 4 days and most everyone else was through. I had just about gotten it in my mind that I was going home with nothing but scratched up equipment, bruises, cuts, blisters and a SIZABLE hole in my wallet!

Most of the dozen and a half hunters were already finished and the last morning held promise of rain. Breakfast was short and only a couple of us were left. Almost quietly my guide and I rode too our first area. As the rain came down he told me that with as much terrain as we have covered it would be fine with him if it was ok with me if we just eased around in the truck until the rain lightened up later in the morning. I was half worn out and 3/4 mad so I certainly agreed. For about an hour after daylight we slipped around, glassed, glassed and glassed somemore.

As we came into a clearing we both saw it at the same time. INSTANTLY my guide locked up the brakes and by the time the truck skidded too a halt we both had our binocs up on it. 1/2 mile away, atop a hill was an almost white appearing elk. Feeding in the small trees with its head down. I asked what it was, just as the words cleared my lips he raised his head.......... We never moved so fast in all our lives. We gathered up only the basics, flew from the truck and UP the mountain in record time! We were slowly easing our way up the ridge as we were now close too the area we had seen the bull. My guide turned too me and whispered, "Be REALLY quiet, he should be right in here somewhere". As I looked over his shoulder I caught movement. I told him, "DON'T MOVE he is standing behind you about 35 yds away!" [:@] I know for sure the Lord was smiling on us that day because under normal conditions we wouldnt've gotten within 100yds of that bull. The wet ground was silent and the wind was amazingly in our favor. The guide slowly turned his head around and saw the bull. Too which he then whispered again, "SHOOT THAT SOMBEECH!!!" and dropped to his knees.

I was already on the bull but with the brush and a large Ponderosa pine log lying between us, I couldn't see anything but the top third of the bull and couldn't see either his rump or his head. Not knowing which end was which I just stood there with my crosshairs on him. I could subtly hear my guide repeatedly whispering, "Shoot that sumbeech, shoot that sumbeech". The log was blocking me so I took a chance and eased forward 2 steps, my guide was about to come out of his skin. Once I could see clearly over the log I then waited for a split second for the bull to move so I would know what to aim for. He raised his head and again I nearly fainted, here stood a 368" 6x6 at only 30yds and I am just watching him.

KICKPOOOOOOOOOF my lil wolverine bellowed, the bull stood straight up and in a tornado of hooves and breaking brush he tore out of there. I was trying to reload as quickly as possible, shaking like a crackaddict, trying to reload my rifle and my guide is slapping me on the back yelling, "YOU GOT THAT SUMBEECH, YOU GOT HIM". Quickly we heard the bull crash up only 20yds away and all was silent again. My heart was in my mouth now and I am sure blood was pumping through the top of my head.

Needless to say, it was the biggest bull of the hunt and it was dark before we got him back too the ranch, and I was "da man" in camp the lastnight before our return home! Goes to show you can NEVER give up, when you're in trophyland you can NEVER say what will happen and I learned to NEVER give up!

http://www.nmtrophyhunts.com/elk.htm

That's me and my "last minute Gila Monster", second row and on the right!

Sorry it was long, but you said you wanted "A STORY" and it is my greatest trophy too date!
RA