Well my elk seasons were successes.

Sounds great, look forward to the rest.

CONGRATS TreeLine!!!! Can't wait to hear the rest!

Any pics to share?

I had to go teach a class.
Alright now where was I? Oh ya, got the cow hunt out of the way now it was time to go chase bulls. We had have been getting snow now for a month or so, many of the heards have been coming down out of the high country where I tend to hunt. I decided to backpack just a hour up into some of there early winter grounds just to see if they might be there yet. Got in a little after dark set up the tent and didn't really get much sleep as usuall before a hunt. The anticipation of what day light will bring tends to keep me up. During the night it snowed about six inches the morning was looking very promising. Spotted a cow and lots of deer at first light, that was it for the day, no tracks aside from cougar and bear. The elk were not there except for three lost cows. By late afternoon I decided to get out of there. Packed up camp and headed out.

The next day I decided to take my FJ40 for a drive up to where some of the higher roads are around here to see what was going on up there. Great time playing in about 20 inches of snow but no animals. Talked to a few camps that were buried up there, they hadn't seen anything aside from dear. So I figured these guys were hanging out somewhere in between. I went down a bit and up a trail, about 15 min. in I had tracks in the snow. I countinued to work my way up trying to get a vantage point in which to do some spotting before dark. About an hour in I crossed a group of fairly fresh tracks and decided I had better get on them. About 60 yds into the timber I came up onto 6 beds in the snow, they had aparently winded me a bit earlier and moved out. I could tell from the way that they had taken a pee in the snow that I was on at least two bulls one of which had a very big foot. I stayed on them awhile trying to figure out where they were headed but never got into them, dark was coming fast so after about an hour of dogging these guys I broke off and headed for the truck. Looking forward to tomorrows hunt back in that same place. Go to go. More later.

I'm liking it so far. :)

To continue. The next morning I decided to get up on top and take a seat in a position that I could see a great deal of the surounding country that I was in last evening. I took a seat and sat aaaand sat aaaaaand sat. I really didn't see any point in crunching around in the woods since the snow had thawed out yesturday and froze that night. At 5:00 I spotted three bulls about a mile across the canyon coming out of the timber into a upper aspen grove. One of which was a dandy. I had about an hour until sun down so I figured to get after them. The snow had softened so I figured I would angle directly to them, I didn't really have enough time for anything other.
Before getting to them a single animal jumped off of a bench above me, never saw him. I continued working my way towards my animals picking up what I figured to be their beds on the near side of the timber. It was gettng pretty intense about now, knowing that there were at least three bulls probably within about 150 yds. I decided to start working underneath them since the wind had now shifted to down hill. About 5 minutes later I had a bull in my sights. But all I could see was body and one tine. That wasn't enough. I stood there frozen with cross hairs on target for what seemed to be an hour. All of the sudden the bull layed down. I could now see that he was a legal bull (4pt for better) but he wasn't the big one that I had seen with the spotting scope. Never the less I was tired and decided I would take him. Well now that he was laying down all I could see was his rack and no body, not even head. The way the hill curved he was well hidden. Dark was not far so I figured I would make a move, while keeping an eye out for the others. I took about 7 steps up the hill and froze, there he went across the hill through the thick aspens. I continued to work across hoping to catch a glimpse but nothing.
Time to feed my son, be back later.

Congrats on getting your wapiti, TreeLine. :thumb Thanks for sharing the hunt with us.

Thanks for the comments fellas, lets finish this up, it's getting a bit long.

To make a long story short I caught up with two bulls in the bottom of the canyon right at dark. At about 400yds I could see two one of which was the big one. As much as it pained me I didn't take the shot, to far without much light.

The next day I did the exact same thing, sitting and glassing but focused a bit lower, figuring that they probably ate down low and bedded down. After sitting for few hours I couldn't sit any longer so I thought I would make a big loop, up and around the top of the canyon and back down where I left the bulls, getting there in the evening. I moved small groups around all day but saw nothing very big at about 4:30 I was back down where I left the bulls the night before. A little bit later about 130 yds there was a bull stairing at me through the aspens. I pulled up on him and tried to put the antlers together through the aspen branches. He was decent, squeezed the trigger, down he went. Turned out to be a pretty heavy old 5x5 with a couple broken tines. Sweeeet. Not the big one but pretty nice. Lots of bear sign so I figured I better get him out as soon as possible. I took a front leg and headed to the truck, which was only about 30 minutes away. Went to a camp and rallied up a couple of guys. We made one trip and got the rest. Done. Man I love this time of year. I'll get some pics up soon

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Treeline,

Awesome job, and great story! :thumb

Thanks for sharing the story and picture.

Keep up the good work.

Great lookin' bull TreeLine! CONGRATS!

Thanks for the replies fellas. It was a great couple of weeks, to bad it's over. Time to go chase pheasants.

great bull!!

A freezer full of meat, a nice bull, and a great story. Sounds like a good time to me.