The one that got away...

[EricB]

Tell us your story of the bull you just couldn't kill. Mine goes like this. I hunting this 300+ 5x5 for 3 years. I hunted with only my osage selfbow at that time. Had this bull in on 4 occasions in 3 yrs. but never gave me the shot I needed.
I now hunt with a compound due to shoulder issues & looking back he would of been mine if using that bow then.
He was in a brushy hell hole that was within 200-300 yds. of the main bedding area. He would let the rest of the elk do their thing untill a hot cow was ready then all hell would break loose. I never caught him out with the other elk in the area. I think he did his dirty work out there during the dark of night & then retreated back home......

 

[Jimbow65]

The very first morning I hunted last year, I called in a silent bull within 30 seconds of calling, he saw me first and grunted away. 20 minutes later he showed up again with a cow, he spooked again, and  the cow ran to an opening 30 yards away, I couldn't resit and shot the cow.

 

[DIRK DURHAM]

If you haven't read my story "Growler is dead" here at Elk101, then you may enjoy feeling my pain!  ;D  Click the link below:


http://elk101.com/2011/11/growler-is-dead/

 

[EricB]

Just read your article Dirk. Wow! I DO feel your pain ! Tremendous 3rds. What did he gross?

 

[Elkoholic]

Was only my second yr of hunting with a bow and we were perched way up on the ridge making our normal calling sequence when down from the bottom of the canyon came a bugle that sound like he was ready for war. Every call we made he would fire off another bugle one right after another. The timber was to thick to see anything. We were losing light fast so the decision was made to bail off of our perch into the thick-n-nasty. We ripped off one more call just to make sure he was still down there and he responded back from his hideaway. We took of basically on a sprint down hill, bear grylls style with the ground giving way with our every step. Probably sounded like a herd of elephants coming down the hill but the bull didn't care and continued to bugle. As we reached the bottom we set up and began to call. He was on top of us in no time flat. A few more calls and he was at 15yrds. At full draw he walked to other other side of the tree I was by and caused me to have to shift positions. As I rotated my bow past the tree the tip of the broadhead grazed the tree in front of me. The 5pt bull came to a stop and went on high alert. As I put my sites on him I found that I could not see my sights. It had become too dark for the old school brass sites that just blended in with his coat. I could have just free handed the shot but had not practiced and did not want to wound him. I let down and he blew out of there crashing and smashing anything in his way.  Next yr I invested in some fiber optic sites....

 

[Primitive]

About my second year of bow hunting I had a great 25 yard shot on a BEAUTIFUL 6x6 rooselvelt.  Perfectly matching sides.  Watched him come from 150 yrds away in a unit, never made a sound.  Another bull was screaming down in the draw but this one came right to me silently.  He got to 25 yards and I was out of my mind! I don't think I even used my sight, just pulled back and let go, don't even know where that arrow went!  If only I could get that one back!  Now with way more experience(due to lots of stupid mistake like this one) I calmly talk myself through my shot routine.  Live and learn ;D

 

[DIRK DURHAM]

Just read your article Dirk. Wow! I DO feel your pain ! Tremendous 3rds. What did he gross?

I didnt have the opportunity to measure him  :'(  I forgot my tape and the guy who had found him searched high and low but couldnt find his tape......... A VERY reserved guess would be 350+........ I plan on going back over to the guy's house and measuring it sometime if I can ever catch up with him again....

 

[Bullhunter]

Well in 2012 on the last day of season I just happened to be driving around calling down different drainages.  It happened be right around noon when i heard this bull bugle just off the road about 200 yards.  As i was making my way down the hill i could start to hear the cows chirping.  This bull had approximately 30 cows down in the hole with him and took me about two hours to even get close without getting spotted.  I finally found a shooting lane and set up.


I could hear the bull tearing up a small pine tree and his bugle kept getting closer and closer.  As he drew near i could see the tips of his large antlers over the tops of the small pine trees.  I only had one shooting and and he happened to stop right before it.  All i needed him was to take two more steps and i would of smoked him but all of a sudden i heard something crash through the brush behind me.  I happened to glance back to see what it was and it was five more cows running down the hill side right at me. The cows never winded me until the lead cow almost ran me over. After that the bull spun around and took off up the ridge and over the top.  I had enough time to look through my binoculars to notice the large 6x7 bull running up the hill. 


It was probably the worst day of my life but all i can hope for is that he is still in the same area this coming year. 

 

[lang]

Couple years ago I had a moose tag, so didn't chase elk much.  I had put up a trail camera in my elk area that I figured I would go grab it during the late rifle season (I'm an archer).  I was on call at the hospital till about 7 Monday morning so it was an hour or two after first light, not planning on seeing anything had my gun buried, and bullets in another location of the rig not very accessible.  I come around a corner and there's a cow in the road...then another... and another, about this time I'm scrambling cause I know whats coming gear is being thrown everywhere and there he is a big 330-340 class 6 point in the road!  Only out about 100 yards! By the time I could get bullets in and off the roadway all I could see was antlers over the brush. I'm usually Excited to see stuff, but this one hurts because I was so unprepared-all my old scout leaders would be so ashamed.

 

[eddew7x7]

We had just left camp and was on the road in hopes of being at our intended site before daylight.  When out of the uphill side of the road jumped a big bull and stopped in the middle of the road in front of us. Out of my front widow I could only make out this was a huge animal and it was not afraid of any little station wagon.  As we stared each other down it was evident that this bull carried a large rack on his head as well as being a massive elk. I told my passenger that it was time for me to get out and hunt this dream bull. He would drive on to our destination and I would meet him later in the day.  So off I went my old LSD Bear bow and a Larry Jones bugle.  I hunted down an old over grown skid trail expecting at any moment to encounter the monster bull.  I would every half mile or so bugle like a spike.  It wasn't until I was turned around and heading back that my second call must of hit a nerve.  Out of the drainage below me came the distinct moo of a milk cow and as each call that followed the first became more violent.  I quickly got off the road and started my sneak down to this strange sounding elk, only hoping I would not meet up with a moo cow instead of the elk I hoped for. With each step I could hear the animal moving closer to my location. Without warning the bull stuck his massive head out of the brush not twenty yards away and made his unusual bugle.  He did this three more times before he went completely quit. Little did I know that this bull and I would battle wits for another five years before it would end? I remember the time I had listened to him in his home territory the evening before. He bugled with the now familiar bugle of a moo cow bull. I got up at 3:30am and headed down the canyon on a well establish elk trail hoping to get in before he pushed his cows down the canyon. This would put them into a deep hole that would make it almost impossible to bring a downed elk out of. Half way down I heard the bugle of the big boy about 100 yards away, but it sounded muffled, like in a box.  I moved slowly ahead expecting to see a piece of him at any second. Then he let loose with a great thundering bugle within what should have been eye sight.  It was then I realized why it had been so hard to pin point him.  There in a deep depression on the hillside was Moo and his herd.  I moved up and peeked over the bank getting within 30 yard of the big bull that was now tending his cows, head down running around sniffing each of his ladies.  The vine maple trees were very thick and were preventing me from taking a shoot at the moving bull. The maples were constantly moving a crossed his vitals stopping me every time I attempted to draw my bow.  All of a sudden he did something that I have never seen before or sense. He bulldozed a cow into the air and threw her into a cluster of vine maple as if to say get into line or else. The cow moved off and joined the rest of the herd.  Then as if on queue the wind switched and there was branches breaking every where.  I realized that the morning breeze had switched and gave me away like a common thief. I hunted this bull at every opportunity and always lost.  He traveled in a brush filled canyon that the over growth was ten feet high.  Many times I would brave the brush only to see his rack within yards of me, but not be able to shoot because of the thick surroundings. Then there were times he would be in the opening of a clear cut only to head back into his brush pile about the time we would spot him. The only good shot I had at him was one morning my family including my sister and brother-in-law were at the head of the drainage he lived in. I had bugled a couple of times, when that raticularly familiar bugle sounded out.  There at Four hundred yard and closing was Moo headed our way.  I told my brother-in-law to move down hill and setup as I continued to bugle him our way.  After a long wait and not hearing any bugles I softly call down the hill to my brother-in-law to move a little bit forward.  No one answered my calls, so I moved down the hill to see if I could find him.  As I rounded a brush pile there stood three big branch bulls.  One on the left broadside and one on the right broadside each only twenty yards away.  Between the two stood Moo facing me.  So imagine three large racks right together not twenty yards from this suprised hunter.  I drew in an inst and fired.  The arrow flew true and pasted completely through all three sets of antlers missing every bull.  I was shooting at what I had aimed at the antlers.  Of coarse all three disappeared without harm and I without an elk.

 

[Fullabull]

The first year I ever hunted here in WA my dad was with me but not hunting. The day before the opener we walked up this hill side just before dark. I was knew to archery hunting elk and call but I had been practicing a lot with my calls. I thew out a couple of cow calls and in seconds received a response from a bull. I turned to my dad and said lets just come back in the morning and see what happens. First thing the next morning we headed up that same place but this time moved farther up where it sounded like the bull bugled from. This time, the bull would answer but wouldn't move, we could hear he wasn't to far away but being new we really did not know what to do. We walked a little further past where the elk sounded like he was and tried again, this time I told my dad to move about 100 yards away and start calling to see if the bull would come look for him. He starts calling I right away I hear something coming from where the bull responded before. My first archery elk hunt and my heart is pounding out of my chest...
I a couple minutes I see the bulls antlers coming through the trees, he's only a raghorn but who cares its a bull and he's coming my way! He comes right to the edge of some small saplings where he can see over but not expose himself and starts looking around for a cow that is not visible. I'm waiting and waiting but he just wont budge. The he turns and starts walking away back where he came from, I run to a small opening where I can see him walking away but can't get a shot. DANG!!!
That was the last we say of him that year.


Year two, we go back to the same exact spot opening morning and both of us hit our Hoochie Moma's at the same time and a bull screamed back from exactly where the bull was last year. We could hear him coming so I told my dad to move back real quick and I moved to another spot where I figured he would go. In seconds, the nice 5 point bull comes running our of the trees and starts beating up on a small tree. He then turns and stars coming exactly where I thought he would. He is less the 10 yards away behind some small saplings and I start drawing, as I raise my bow my broadhead catches on a small weed and bounces on my arrow rest which of course stops the bull in his tracks inches from giving me the perfect shot. I stand there at full draw while he stares at me for minutes. If my dad has made a couple calls and drew his attention, the bull would probably have come out but we didn't know any better on what to do in a situation like this. The bull then turned and started walking away, I had to let down and he jumped. He I called to stop him and he stopped perfectly for me but when I tried to draw my bow again, my muscles were so fatigued I could not pull it back....that was really frustrating. He took off again and moved down a 100 yrds or so away and sat that barking at where my dad was. We tied calling to him with all kinds of stuff but nothing would make him come back. We always remember those encounters and what we learned from them and they have made us better hunters.