It’s mid September and I’m off to my “hunt of a life time”,
elk hunt. Similar to many of the hunters I know, I’ve applied in the
local draws for years, and finally my time has come!
“Once in a life time hunts”, are worthy of what they say, a
hunt that is worth a life time of wanting, waiting, planning and hoping.
My wife, Lynne, thinks I have a “hunt of a life time” 1 to 2
times each year. Not so. They have to be different. The Kodiak bear hunt on
the island is an example. There we lived in a pup tent, walked in wet, hip
high boots on ground that tried to suck us in, and worked and sweat. What a
hunt! The 9 ½ foot beast takes up the entire wall, right here in front of me,
as I write this article.
How about the 38 ½ inch mule deer I got on the plains of Alberta. Freezing cold
winds, walking past a 190 inch buck and harvesting the 230 class, freaky horned
mule deer, in the middle of his 75 doe harem. Man, was that a “once in a
life time hunt”.
Vancouver Island, with my
son Nathan, and his friend, Tyler, was another example. We each shot huge
black bear which measured between 7’2” and 7’6” and
skulls over 21 inches. ‘Bet we couldn’t do that again.
Ten years ago, my daughter, Micah, went with Lynne and me to visit my
in-laws in South Africa,
where Micah shot her first animal, a large impala. It turned into quite the
social event with our parents taking Micah and Lynne all over South Africa and
Zimbabwe and me getting a leopard, greater kudu, eland and 9 to10 other African
species. A true “hunt of a life time” that was.
Not all hunts are “once in a life time hunts”. I’ve
struck out, been hurt, gotten sick and been weathered out of many a potentially
great hunt. Like you, I dream, and plan and manipulate my hunting points,
vacations and abilities, to improve my odds of having better hunts. I’ll
even skip years and not hunt to improve my odds.
The Carters and others seem to agree with what I thought was my
philosophy, so I take advantage of their expertise as well.
It’s easy, for example, to find a good elk hunt. We have a lot
of elk in the West, yet how do we provide ourselves with that “once in a
life time” bull elk hunt? Six years ago in an incredible area in Utah, with elk screaming
in every direction, Micah harvested a 330 bull. She drew this tag with only 2
points and luck.
Last year, with maximum Utah
elk points, it was my year for a tag. With a British Columbia sheep hunt planned, I chose
not to hunt elk, instead, continued to pile up points. I was not surprise this
year, when hearing I had drawn a roadless Bookcliffs bull elk tag. I had
played the system for 14 years.
This hunt is not for the casual hunter. I recruited my son, Jed, as
photographer and muscle man, Bruce Boren, as cowboy and elk expert, and Tyler
Rasmussen, as more muscle, elk judger and elk caller deluxe.
We hauled horses and a camp into a good area and scouted some. It
seemed promising, and on the 3rd day of the 10 day hunt we began
hunting.
The bulls were screaming hot and we passed up 330 to350 type bulls all
day. That’s hard to do. In the late morning, we saw a very good bull
with his cows at 500-600 yards, moving very fast. The country is rough and
steep, and an hour later, this herd bull disappeared over a distant ridge with
his cows.
Our self appointed panel of experts agreed he was a shooter, but also
agreed our odds of finding him again were low. However, we spent the next 4 to
5 hours getting in a position for a chance to see this bull again.
At 4:30 PM we spotted a nice 350-360 bull with his cows, working a side
hill several miles away. A successful stock on this elk seemed a viable option.
We had been hearing a bull below us 300-400 yards, and hoped it was the bigger
bull. As 5:00 PM came, multiple bulls were bugling around us, decreasing our
confidence that we knew the location of the bigger bull.
Across the quakie, pine, bedding draw directly in front of us we then
heard a bull moving and bugling. We started after him. At approximately 400
yards we spotted a big guy, and then closed the distance to 200 yards. On an
open ridge with my recruited, photographers, cowboys and judgers we saw the big
bull we had put to bed 6 hours earlier.
We didn’t spend much time scoring him on the hoof. He just
looked great. An excited shot with my 280 Remington hurt him critically and
one more shot put him away.
The photos will never do him justice. He’s a 7X7 with junk, mass
and a lot of character. I needed a truck load of physical help, 14 Utah points, and as
usual, big chunks of slop luck to get him down and home.
He grosses over 380 Boone and Crockett points and is an honest to
goodness “hunt of a life time”.
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