# First Big Bull



## 1Bigbull (Sep 28, 2009)

It all started for me about 11 years ago. I moved into a new home in West Jordan and shortly after moving in, I met the man who would soon become my best friend, Rick.

For the first couple of years that Rick and I were friends, he would come home every year after elk hunting and tell me how great it was. I was always jealous because I hadn't grown up here in Utah and was not ever able to hunt elk and had no idea how or where to hunt elk.

The third year I lived here, Rick invited me to go elk hunting with him and his family. I had an incredible time. We didn't kill anything, but we had a great time, and I was hooked.

6 years ago, my best friend and his wife were with their family up in the Uintah Mountains. A rapid moving mountain storm came in and Rick and his sweetheart Lisa were struck by lightning and killed. Their 3 children are now being raised by family who love them.

After his death, it was hard for me to do certain things. For years, Rick and I worked out at the gym 5 days a week. I went back into the gym shortly after he died and all I could do was cry. Since that time, I haven't been back.

When the hunting season came around, I called Rick's dad and asked him if I he and the rest of the family that normally hunted together would go with me to the spot where we, and they had always hunted. They agreed to go along. It was very difficult for all of us, as all of our elk hunting memories included Rick. After that, we never hunted together or in Rick's favorite spot again.

This year when I finally, after years of putting into the Utah Elk Hunting Lottery, drew a tag for Bull elk, I knew that the only place I wanted to hunt was where Rick and I had started it all.

As I started scouting for elk early this summer, I did not see much to speak of and I was worried that I would not have success in this area. I continued to feel that this was the spot where I wanted to hunt. I felt like maybe I would have a chance to hunt one last time with my best friend.

For years now, I have been hunting with my brother John. He and I have had many opportunities to take deer together, but we have never taken an elk. When I told him that I drew a tag, he talked to his wife Jenny, who graciously agreed to have him take two days off work and come help me for the first days of my hunt.

When the hunt finally arrived, I found myself tired from lack of sleep. For three weeks, I was unable to get good sleep due to the excitement of the upcoming hunt.

Opening morning, I began my hunt sitting on a point where Rick and I hunted elk for the first time. We saw a few cow elk way off in the distance, but nothing close.

I decided that maybe I needed to try another spot. We spent most of the day looking in other areas that Rick and I had hunted in the past and I kept feeling that we needed to go back to where it all started.

That evening, we decided to go about 1/2 mile north of the original spot, in another place that Rick and I had hunted. There was a very long and deep canyon that Rick always said was full of elk, but it would not be worth the work to get a spike elk out. When Rick and I hunted in this location, spike elk were the only animals we could hunt.

We arrived in our lookout spot about an hour before dark. We were sitting high up on a steep ledge and looking off into a meadow that was surrounded by Aspen and Pine trees. It was an amazing view. Almost immediately we noticed elk feeding in the meadow. There were about 10 cow elk and one large 5 point bull. While he was a beautiful elk, he was not exactly what I was hoping for, so we let him go. We quietly left the area and decided to come back in the morning.

When we arrived back at the four wheeler, I decided to empty my gun by shooting it. When I did, it didn't feel right. I went and looked at the target I fired at and could not find a bullet hole in it. I also noticed that it didn't feel right. I decided to re-load and shoot one more shot. The second shot was on it's mark.

The following morning as I loaded my muzzle loading rifle, when I was compacting the bullet down into the barrel, when I removed the ramrod from the gun, the bullet, had attached it's self to the ramrod tip and come out of the barrel. I had figured out why my guy show poorly the night before, I must have pulled the bullet out of the barrel when loading it and not noticed. Normally, when you hunt with a muzzle loader and are staying in camp, you just remove the firing cap for the night and don't re-load the gun the next day. I had a feeling that I should shoot it. I felt like maybe someone was looking out for me and prompted me to test it out.

When we arrived back in the morning, We heard a number of bull elk bugling in the distance. Unfortunately for us, they were all about 1000 feet straight down hill from us in the bottom of the canyon. John and I didn't even have to think about it, we just started hiking off the hill toward the biggest sounding bull.

It seemed like the farther we hiked, the farther he moved away from us. We quietly kept sneaking through the trees. As we did, there were elk all around us. We had a couple of times when there were elk within 50 yards. It was awesome to be around such magnificent animals.

Finally, we got to a meadow where we had a view that was about 100 yards long and 40 yard wide. There were 3 bulls bugling within 250 yards of us. We sat down and put up a cow elk decoy. We started cow calling and each time we called, the bull would bugle back. We waited and waited, but he wanted us to come to him. After an hour of calling, we decided that we were going to have to try to sneak in on him.

The problem was, that in the process of our calling, we called in a herd of cows. they hadn't seen us, but we saw them. They headed right into the bull we were working for. With a herd of cows coming into him, there was no reason for him to come to us. This also presented another problem, with the cows between us and the bull, how could we get close enough to get a shot at him without first spooking the cows.

It had been about 40 minutes since the cows went though the area and we decided that one of two things could have happened. Either the cows stayed between us and the bull, or they had moved through.

We made a decision to stand up and start sneaking in on the bull. Just as we stood up and started packing up our gear, we heard the bull bugle again. This time he was much closer to us. He was coming down the hill right toward us. Fortunately for us, he was still in the trees and hadn't seen us. We immediately sat back down. John had the decoy in his hand and held it up in front of us.

Within 30 seconds, the bull was standing at the far side of the clearing looking for the cow that had been calling to him. He looked across the meadow and saw the decoy that John was holding. He immediately started screaming at us and moving our direction. What an adrenaline rush!

This bull was moving in on us from 100 yards - 80 yards - 60 yards - 40 yards, then he stopped at 33 yards! While he was moving in on us, I kept asking John, is he a shooter? I wasn't sure he was what I was looking for, he was big, but not quite as big as I hoped for. As I watched him though, I realized that he was very heavy horned and I thought about how cool this experience had been to this point. When the bull stopped, there was a small aspen tree between me and him. I decided that if he moved into the right position for a shot, I would take it. I had already decided that if I had an opportunity at a big bull, I wasn't going to be greedy and just keep waiting for something bigger and better. Plus, this was John's last day with me and I really wanted to fill my tag while he was there. After about 5 seconds, the bull took one more step, just in the direction I needed him to for a clean shot. I gently squeezed the trigger of my muzzle loading rifle. I watched as the gun fired. The bull turned and started running in the opposite direction, then crashed to the ground.

I couldn't help but feel that during this whole experience, I had my two favorite hunting companions with me throughout the whole experience, my brother John, and my best friend Rick.

John and I spent the rest of the day getting the elk butchered and hung in a tree. We were able to pack the head and cape off the mountain along with our gear. By the time we got back to camp, it was almost 6:00 in the afternoon. John had to leave and my Dad and my brother in law, Dan came up to help me make the second trip the next day to finish packing him out.

This hunt was everything I expected, it was emotional, hard, fun and amazing all in one experience. The animal is incredible. I can't wait to get him back from the taxidermist so that we can honor him by placing him up where we can see him all the time.


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## sharpshooter25 (Oct 2, 2007)

Great story and congrats on the bull. Do you have pics to post?


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## Ryfly (Sep 13, 2007)

That's a great story. One of the best I've ever read. I remember when your friend got killed. My sister was an aquintance of his.


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## tuffluckdriller (May 27, 2009)

Great Post, great job on your hunt, and good for you to be back hunting the elk. What unit were you on?


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

Thank you for sharing.


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## 1Bigbull (Sep 28, 2009)

Thank you for all the comments. It was a great trip! I was on the Central Manti unit. I just posted a pic too.


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## sharpshooter25 (Oct 2, 2007)

We didn't see the pic, where is it?


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

Great story. So sorry about rick and his wife. I always remember these stories when In a lightning storm. We had another incident like that a couple of years ago. I was a little confused. Did you say you are raising ricks kids? If so good on you man.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Great story!! Cant wait to see the bull!!


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

sharpshooter25 said:


> We didn't see the pic, where is it?


+1??


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Nice story. That's what makes the memories important.


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## Rabbit_slayer16 (Oct 18, 2007)

great great story!! i usually just skip the big posts and get to the killin parts but read and enjoyed ever word.


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## TAK (Sep 9, 2007)

I am pissed with this thread! I can't read and the picture I can't see man! Lets see it... I love Elk PORN!


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