08 Archery Elk tag filled!

Well as luck would have it I filled my archery tag this year.
I took my buddy Scott along on my second ever archery Bull tag. (he called in my first ever archery kill back in 02 on a dink 5x6 bull)
I got drawn for Arizona's 7W. We packed up with high hopes and a lot of excitement.
We hunted hard for 6 days, hiking, calling, glassing, I even took a shot and missed at a nice Bull on monday.
Yes its true, nerves can really ruin a shot for these wapiti ha ha.
We were in to elk every day and had some near shots, but never could capitalize. Stalking elk who are not calling can prove to be quite a challenge.


So we hunted a nice bull in this large field Thursday morning, never got a shot opportunity.
As I watched the bigger bull go bed down atop a large hill a mile away, I heard a small chuckle in the distance.
I thought at first it may be yet another hunter making a feeble attempt at calling to the not-yet rutting bulls.
We had heard some morning activity, and little evening talk, and pretty much seen a lot of bulls who were un-interested in calls.
they might answer, but never did it persuade any of them to change their pace nor direction.
As I closed the gap to this bull, I slowed to a creeping stalk.
I closed to a narrow 40 yards before I finally caught a glimpse of him.
I was not sure of his size, nor did I really care, I am not a trophy hunter by any means, I merely love the hunt, the stories and the learning experience and the friendships made and forged out in the field is what makes hunting so special to me.
I saw he was 6x6 and that was good enough for me to shoot for sure!
I clicked my rangefinder twice to make double sure he was 45 yards.
Only his nose sticking out from the cedar tree. His five cows only ten yards away looked my direction one too many times and caught me in a small movement.
The bull needed to take two steps to seal his fate. He did not comply at first and I stood there for what seemed like a year. . . his cows jumped and started walking off.
He chuckled with a coarse raspy growl/chuckle and hopped left and then stepped out to the needed distance for me to send my rocket steelhead the now 50 yards into his shoulder and out the other side. Whomp! I could here the wet slumpy sound as my arrow chiseled its way out through the bones and meat.
He spun and trotted off about a hundred yards and began to hump up.
I rushed to the spot to find my arrow.
The line of blood in the grass gave my heart the cool-down signal!
"YES"! I hit him good!
I began to slowly follow the trail for about 400 yards or so . . there in the field under a small tree I saw my bull give a few gasps and lay down.
I dropped to my knees and Thanked God for this perfect day.

We roughed him out at 340 and he has character too.
I feel blessed to have succeeded in our beloved sport of archery and to be able to share it with anyone else.
as Ol Uncle Ted would say "The beast is dead, Long live the beast!"
Thanks for listening. here are some CLICKABLE pics.

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