Big Game Success Pics -2009
 

Anyone have some success pics of any trips out west so far ? Post em up here with a small story...

We'll be heading to Wy in two weeks with nine assorted tags. Hopefully I'll have some pics to post when we return.

I hope to have some after a couple more weeks!

I hope to do the same thing in a few weeks.....and good luck to you guys as well.

Its guys like us that need some pics to help pass the time...lol

I got close to a few bulls over the last two weekends but things just didn't work out. This last week the wind was swirling like crazy. I had alot of fun calling a small bull after I bumped him from his bed. I called him back but he just wouldn't come out of the trees far enough. He would zig zag back and forth until the wind finally changed directions.

Maybe later this month I will have something

One mulie buck so far out of three of us. Dad got the first one, wasn't real wide but nice deep forks. I'll post pics in when I get the film developed. I might not get one if he's not nice enough to take home to momma. hehe

I got Lucky!
 

Well I finally made it out West for a bow elk hunt. None of my buddies could make it ... either they claimed to not have the $, or the time or didn't want to hunt elk with a bow, and on and on.

So I went alone. Well not exactly I did use an outfitter in New Mexico. There were 4 hunters in camp with 2 guides. It was a 6 1/2 day hunt. Morning one was the coldest and we had the most action. We heard a close bugle - I walked 3 yds to take cover and bumped a few cows that had a good bull w/ them. W/ in minutes 3 others were bugling in the same canyon. Our guide/owner Bob Atwood called a nice bull down a ridge toward us. The fellow I was paired with in front of me and got 2 shots @ 35 & 50 yds. I saw the bull walk and then stand after the 2nd shot and saw no signs of a hit. He felt he hit it so we looked for several hours - no blood, but also no arrows?

We saw 2 good bulls on morning one and kept seeing about 1 bull on each AM/ PM outing! They were not really responding much to calls as the PM showers were making the nites and mornings warm; we were bumping or walking up on bulls and cows.

On the 4th eve of the hunt we flipped a coin and I got a turn to sit at a wallow. This was my only "pot" hunt so far. Lke every afternoon we got thunder, then rain. I sat on a branch laying across a few stumps in a rough blind (relly a few trees w/ some blow-downs ) facing a wallow 20 yds away. At 6:30 a bull snuck over a bank into the wallow. I had prepared for such a chance, so I was ready. When the cautious bull's head went behind brush I knelt down and drew the bow while staying low. I came up on 1 knee, put the pin behind his shoulder and released! I heard a loud crack and saw the bull leap away w/ a lot of the shaft sticking out his side.

I was pretty bummed out thinkig I hit the shoulder, I was really down on myself. The last thing I want to do is wound an animal like that. I sat and pondered as the drizzle turned to rain and night fell. After 30 min I snuck over to where the bull split and found some blood on a deadfall he jumped. An hour later the guide and hunter showed up lights on .. by now it was a dark rainy nite. I told them the story and we got on the trail. We had a modest blood trail, followed it about 70 yds, until Atwood looked ahead and said "there's your bull". They were some sweet words! Turned out the shot was right ... behind the near shoulder & slightly quartering away. The Grizz Trick went all the way thru to the far shoulder. I found the front 8" of the shaft under the far shoulder blade ... I guess the arrow broke or rebounded when it stopped.

The outfitter estimated the bull to be 3.5 yrs old... it wasn't the biggest bull I saw over the days we hunted but, hey for the first time w/ a bow its a trophy to me!

I hunted w/ Blue Mountain Outfitters and was guided by the owner - Bob Atwood. He runs a first rate operation - great staff and accomodations. we hunted good lands, and he got us on the elk!

Good luck to all who pursue the grand elk with stick and string.

I just made a post in the muzzle loader forum, so here is the copy.

Sorry guys, I have not been on here for quite a while, but I figured I would post on here with my recent success on my elk hunt here in NV. I had a unit 061/071 cow muzzle loader tag. I ended up seeing about 75 elk, and had several others within close range that I never saw because of the timber. On the 5th day, I was able to make a 1 mile long stalk on a group of elk sunning themselves and take a 600 lb cow at 95 yards. The bullet went through both shoulder blades, and I was able to recover the bullet just under the hide on the other side. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the bullet performance! Here are some pictures.

The load was a 385 Hornady Great Plains on top of 90 grains of GOEX 2f, CCI 209 shotshell primer, and a Traditions Pursuit LT.

First picture is Telephone Creek (I got the cow in Cat Creek)
Second is me and dad
Third is me and elk
Fourth is the "exit" wound right at the point of the shoulder
Fifth is the bullet as recovered next to an original

Later,

Marcial

Great elk guys! I live in elk country and still figure any elk is a trophy.

No joke there wyotrapper!! We are all draw tags here, even for cow elk, and I want elk meat, not wait 10 or so years on average for a bull tag! Plus, we have to apply for either cow or bull, not both on the same app., so I stick to the cows!