Im off.....

[bonehead]

will have the story to follow.....
http://www.huntersclips.com/mediadetail ... l+elk+2010

[bonehead]

more to come

[MuleyMadness]

[BIG R]

Great bull congrats

[bonehead]

So, after a fifteen year wait my uncle Frank finally drew a tag for the Pahvant. We spent every chance we could scouting in the summer. With the summer months winding down we found ourselves looking in the areas we have hunted in the past years, I guess we are all creatures of habit. We looked high and low for that dream bull every elk hunter wants to kill, and on the Saturday before the hunt I got a call from Frank, “I think I found the one”.
My uncle was excited to say the least. He had taken his wife for a small hike to watch a few canyons and listen to the elk. Just before dark a large bull stepped out of the trees onto an open hill side. He just sat back and watched all the small bulls heard up the cows. My aunt said, “Look there’s another bull standing on the ridge.” When Frank put the scope on him he was immediately impressed. The bull had an inline seven and was heavy. That night they saw twenty two bulls in this small canyon and this bull was by far the best. We had been looking in the low country along the south west end and hadn’t seen a lot of traffic, so we thought we would have the place to ourselves, boy were we wrong.

[bonehead]

The week went by with little sleep for the both of us knowing that big seven was in the area we were going to hunt. On Friday before the hunt started I pulled in to camp to find uncle Frank ready to go spot for the evening. We unpacked my stuff and took off to find the big seven. We decided to head to the top of the ridge and try to locate him and to find a good way to drop in from above. When we got to the top we ran into some bow hunters that had been on the mountain the whole hunt and said they had seen the bull we were talking about. They also stated that Mossback team had been chasing the big bull. That night we franticly looked in canyon after canyon to no avail. However, we did find a lot of boot tracks. We found ourselves lying in bed that night wondering if they had shot him or just moved him out of the country. We decided to go back to the same canyon in the morning to try and turn him up.
The next morning, GAME DAY, as we hiked up the trail in the dark we could here several bulls calling out for us. “Come and kill me!” Well, I guess that’s my interpretation. We got within a few hundred yards and waited for the sun to raise, just enough to see. As we started to see the bulls appear we picked thru them fast. “Nope to small, just a little guy, not big enough.” As the morning quickly winded down and the bulls made it to their beds we started back for the truck. On the way down we found several boot tracks right on top of ours. As we got closer to the trail head we ran into two spotters sitting on the hill looking across the canyon. We continued to where we parked, WOW, six trucks and at least that many four wheelers. We just had to wonder if they too were after the same bull.

[bonehead]

We jumped in the truck and headed down the road just to find several more large groups of guys sitting and watching the hill we had just come off of. Now we were sure that someone had seen him. We tried to keep up good spirits and did our own thing. The next few hunts found us scrambling to find something with size. Sunday while some of us took our mid-day nap, uncle Frank paced back and forth, getting nervous. He made a call to a friend and said he was worried that we hadn’t found anything big. Me and Scott (Frank’s son) woke from our nap and calmed him down. We had only been hunting for a day and a half, but it was eating at him that we hadn’t found the inline seven.
That evening found us at the top once again and looking for new areas that hadn’t been hit. We headed for a remote sage and juniper draw. We got out of the truck and walked up on this little hill to make a few calls. We left our packs and even Franks orange vest. I made three little calls and a bull answered. My uncle Frank said, “Man that guy sucks!” Scott and I both said that’s not a guy. After a few more calls the bull was coming fast and bugling the whole way. We set up and called him in to only a few yards away. As we watched him run over the hill he came off we heard one last bugle but it wasn’t him.
http://www.huntersclips.com/mediadetail ... small+bull

[bonehead]

So as we are deciding what to do we hear two side by sides coming down the road, being without orange on, we hid in the bushes and let them go by. But as we sat and waited they pulled in right where the bull had just run up the hill. We watched as five guides/ film crew got out and walked up the hill with two big cameras and a couple spotting scopes. We figured that they must be hunting something big and we should go see what it is (mind you, we were there first). So we went down and got our packs and orange for Frank and then headed up the mountain. After searching for the elk that went over the hill for a while we decided they were long gone and headed for the truck. As we walked down the road we heard a wheeler coming in our direction.
When the guy finally caught up to us we sat and shot the bull for a while. He told us that he is a spotter for Doyle Moss. We of course, asked where all the big bulls were hanging. He told us of about a few decent bulls they had been chasing. We said that we were willing to go in to some deep holes to kill and that we would work our guts out getting them out. He offered up his and Mossbacks help if we needed it, super nice, if you ask me. After seeing a few pretty bulls that night that he told us about, we headed back for some shut eye.
Mondays hunt started off being unproductive; it was starting to worry all of us. I mean we are on arguably the best unit in the state and had not found the big guys. That morning as we sat and watched a few small bulls for a while we debated on what to try next. Then we heard gun shots at the top of the hill. We sat back and watched a ton of elk pile off the top. Although we did not find a giant we saw a lot of bulls (close to twenty to be exact). We got out in front of them as they came in screaming and chasing the cows.
http://www.huntersclips.com/mediadetail ... mall+bulls
It was an awesome time laughing and joking on how I could call them right in and Frank saying he was going to shoot a small one.
http://www.huntersclips.com/mediadetail ... title=Bull

[bonehead]

After that morning we headed back to camp / Team Hatch resting site for some lunch. That afternoon Tory showed up to take us to a new area, or at least we thought. He told me to head to the top of the mountain that we had watched all morning. His dad had killed a bull a few years back on a secret wallow. LOL! We get to the top of the hill to look down on this wallow to find three guys packing out an elk off of it. Not the biggest bull so we didn’t care too much, but it was not much of a secret wallow after all. We spent a few hours driving around and checking some spots to sit and watch that evening. We decide to split for the first time during the hunt to cover more ground. I dropped Frank and Scott off in one canyon to do some glassing and Tory and I went one canyon over. The minute Tory and I got to the top of this small hill we heard a bull and he was close, so we snuck in to try and get a look at him. We call as we get close and his cows must have only been a few yards away and split. The bull follows them and stopped a hundred yards away and bugled at us a dozen times or so.
We decided the best thing to do was to go back and get Frank to check out this bull. As we start running off the hill I look to the left and see this bull walking up the ridge to see what all the calling was about. It took all of two seconds to say he was a shooter. I told Tory to go get Frank and meet me back at the bottom of the hill and I would keep an eye on him. As I saw the bull walk up and over the ridge I knew where he was heading. I ran down to the road and met my uncle and we took off to cut him off. We headed up and around this ridge and jumped out of the vehicle. We hiked to the top of the hill and turned to find the bull. He had already made it by us. When Frank got set up he called out for the yardage, “625” BOOM the first shot rang out. The bull stopped.”I think you missed!” Then came the second shot.”You shot to the right, keep the same height and shoot to the left.” BOOM the third shot was on its way, HIT, “You hit him good,” we watched the bull walk a few yards and stop.

[bonehead]

http://www.huntersclips.com/mediadetail ... =long+shot

This is where we should have cut the distance in half and finished him but… we called out the yardage on a few and I mean a few more shoots 675 – 700 yards. He hit him two more times at least. The bull is stopped and sick and now we were down to the last bullet. Yeah, the last bullet we had on the mountain. Frank and I headed down the mountain to get closer. When we got on the other side of the trees where we could see the bull I called out the yardage, 300 on the money. We sat up and took our time on the last shot (four to five minutes to be more precise). BOOM, the shot rings out and dust flies……
Did you miss the bull? The bull took three big steps back and looked like he was going to tip over. We watched and prayed that he goes down. After a few minutes of him standing there and my uncle franticly looking for more bullets I called out on the radio. “Anyone out there have bullets for a three hundred ultra mag or a gun we can borrow we are in this canyon.” We watched the bull for a few more minutes before he walked into the oak and laid down.
I tell my uncle.”Don’t worry he is hit hard and should die right there.” After a few more minutes went by we saw three guys on the move coming straight for us. When they got close I ran to them, “Do you have bullets or a gun?” And who do you think it was? Some of Mossbacks team and they had bullets. The young man that walked up to my uncle Franks says, “I hear you need bullets for your gun.” At this point my uncle is about in tears as the boy hands him three bullets from his gun. He asked, “Do you think you will need more?” and hands him two more.
We headed up to the bedded bull and jumped him at five yards and got one more shot in him.
http://www.huntersclips.com/mediadetail ... l+elk+2010
As he ran off Frank shot two more times before he tipped over. To the young man and team mossback that came to our aid thanks a ton. This young man’s name is McKenzie Sims, the same kid that had the Governors tag last year and killed with team Mossback. He sat thru a few pictures with us and then said thanks for killing the bull because if we didn’t, and he would have it meant he would be headed back to school the next day.
After participating in guiding clients to 498 kills on several different ranches, Frank finally got the opportunity to hunt himself and to fill his tag with a trophy bull. Frank, thanks for inviting me to be a part of your hunt. I couldn’t be happier with the end result and will always remember this exciting adventure.