# Oregon BULL pics & stories



## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

Well my OR bull elk hunt finally came and i drove up to the John Day area of OR which holds Rocky Mountain elk, no Roosevelts on this side. I get up to camp on Tuesday afternoon as the opener is Wednesday morning. Nice little cabin (old house on the property) , 3 bed- 2 bath house with 12 guys in it, still pretty nice for elk camp as we had heat and hot water so we by no means roughing it.

Got a shot off at 200 yards at camp and assumed we were still on so we were ready for the next morning. There was 2 guides in camp for the entire group and they sorted us as who could/would hike and who couldn't. So the young guide (26 yrs old) , lean mountain goat he was, took me and another guy who had been up there hunting 3 times previously and missed a couple years. He told us at camp he was good to 400 yards so off we went. I had my 7MM hitting a 4" target at 600 yards with wind so i was confident to at least a 500 yard shot with no worries. 

1st Morning we sneak a little NISAN truck to a gate and get out and quietly walk down a trail to another gate and gaze over an open area in a canyon that had a big pond in the bottom and little Juniper trees scattered all over that we could try to Elmer FUD it between to hide as we snuck up to the pong to see if they were drinking still at sun up. We had to hike a couple miles to get to said pond and got busted by a couple cows on the way in, but they just looked at us and slowly moved on as we froze for a while and seemed we got lucky. After that we could see where the pond was but it was still 2,000 yards away but we could see part of as heard was wondering past the pond. We sneak up to about 400-500 yards out and can see about 60 cows and a few bulls in there but it was just getting light. We see a rag bull standing by a tree overlooking the herd and we were glassing him and i see a dark big rack pop up from under him as a big 6 point gets up and wanders behind a tree. Just then we hear a BUGLE and it was coming in strong like full rut, we couldn't believe it as it was coming right in to take away more cows and didn't give a crap about our cow calls. We finally see this nice 6 point run up and bugle at all the cows and he is in the open. The retired police officer who had been there 3 times prior was obviously older than I and i told him elders go first and he lined up on that bull and let a shot out. I was glassing him and he didn't move so immediately said "hit him again" , off goes another round and the bull finally walks behind a tree. We look at him and ask where he was aiming and he tells up 2 feet over his back... We were like WHAAAAAT , you said you were good at 400 yards, he told us he just adds a foot for every foot over 200????????????, well crap , lets get closer. We sneak up to about 300 yards and we see him again by another tree and he is licking himself in the side so we figured he is at least hit. He send another round and tells us he was aiming at the top of his antlers as he was facing away from us. Guide says "stop guessing and I am shooting from now on!!!!!. 

We head up the hill to go around him to try not to push him over the fence before we get in to look for blood. We finally get to the spot he was standing and we find a good puddle of blood and continue to find a few more before it turns into a small drop every 20-30 yards till it stops. We look for him for about 6 hours and finally decide to give it a try the next day and hope he expires in a bed later on. 

We go do some glassing that night and dont see anything. Next morning we go back to same spot so he can look for his bull and maybe the herd came back, well we crept up and saw a couple cows again and they let us slip into the spot we hoped they would be again. We saw a 2 spikes at 70 yards and i passed as it was only day-2 , now they slowly move off and i am thinking i just let the last bull i will see for the week walk away, then we see a doe bounce away and she bumped what was left of the heard and we could feel them starting to move as we are in a meadow of lava rock and hard as hell to walk through, well we dark forward about 50 yards and happen to catch up to them and see about 15-20 cows and 1 nice 5 point bull with them. We are only about 120 yards away but just as the sun peaks up from the tree line they were standing directly in line with it and all i see in my scope is a flashlight staring back at me as they walk into the trees. They were heading to the same area the other guy is in so we book it as fast as we can down the rock slide and about die trying to get to position as we hoped he would push them back. Never saw them again but when we met up with him he said that nice 5 stood broad side at 100 yards for 2 min when he saw them but since he drew blood the day prior he was done unless he found his same bull. 

We walk the woods some more looking for his bull and head back to camp for some food. 

That night my guide say well if you are not afraid to hike we can go after the bulls that are separating from the cows as they are going to up high and grouping back up so we headed to the back side of the mountain to glass for the night. We checked a trail cam at a water source down low and it was full of cows and 1 spike, so he decided to head up as high as we could to go do some glassing. We make it about 1000 feet in elevation and find a nice rock cliff to sit and glass from. We had the guy who missed with us for another set of eyes as well and we sit for about 30 min looking down the canyon. The guide says "man, if we climb a little higher we can prob see the top of the ridge and get a better view to see if anything is on the other side, and i just gotta see it since we arr already here" , i said lets go for it, well it was steep as hell and took some time to get up there but when we finally made it was great and we were about 2,500 feet above the truck we left and now we are dead so i was stoked to sit and glass for a while. We had about 2-hours of light and saw nothing but 3-4 moo cows below me stumbling into everything they saw and being loud so i was not optimistic we would see anything. 

It was about 600 and dark was coming quick and we were about to start heading down the rock/death mountain to go find our other guy. Just as we turned to go i caught a quick gimps of blond hair standing on the clear hill side. From our spot we could glass 3 different opening on the mountain side where they could feed and they were at 500 , 650, and 850 yards, but we has ZERO wind , so i told him it was the most perfect conditions to take a long shot if it presented itself and i knew i was confident at 600, especially with no wind or breeze at all. 

I saw the bull and told him "call it out" as i grabbed his pack and mine and took off to make a soft area to lay on in these extremely lava pointy rocks to get set up for a shot. He didn't see it so he was like "call out what?" , he then saw what i saw and comes running and says i see another one. 

So now heart is POUNDING and we can see 2 nice bulls just crazing the mountain side and have no clue we are there. We set up and he sits next to me with his spotting scope so we can decide which one to go after. He said the one that was lower was a nice 5 and i didn't care as i was stocked to see 2 bulls in the best condition possible to get a shot at. I give a quick read on my MOA chart and it says 500 yards is 8.4m so i give the ol Nikon scope a twist to 8.6, i was exited and over cranked a click. Lined up on the lower bull and he found a good feeding area behind a tree so i couldn't get a shot off. Franco says go for the top one so i lined up on him and he says lets film it, he finds the bull in his spotting scope and sets his phone on it and starts recording and we let my breathing settle a bit. after telling myself to calm the hell down and try to control my breathing as my heart is pounding so hard it is making my scope hop just from my shoulder. He says he is on him and to let her fly when i am ready, after what seems like 234,874 minutes i feel i am steady and slowly squeeze off my first round. Well now that i have a break on my 7MM, the muzzle flash blows his scope over and the phone goes flying and we are def as all can be. I faintly hear him say "you got him , HIT HIM AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he has now sat down but his head is looking all around and i was worried he was going to get up and run so i laid the cross hairs on his vitals and let the second fly and it hits him right in the lungs and he rolls over and proceeds to slide down the mountain a few yards. 

Now we start to calibrate, jumping around, hugging, high fives are flyen around and we realize the other big 5 is standing there still looking at his buddy (wondering god knows what), so we glass him for about 10 min just admiring a really cool bull whit white tips staring at us as this is the most amazing picture ever. 

Well now we have to make it all the way down the mountain, get across the ravine and make our way up to him. 2 hours later we get there in the dark , gut him out and tie him to a tree with the gut pile down the hill hoping to get coyotes/bears/cougars to eat that first as it is cold an dark and we are not sure how close we could get anything or even tell people how to get in and help us. I pack out the heart and liver and we head back to gear up for a night of NO sleep so we can come in at day light to start packing. 

Next morning we got up at 500 and ran out there to start the hard work side of it. Got his IVORY and lots of meat, even his neck provided 50-60 lbs of meat as he was swollen up like he was still rutting. I bet i have 350-400 lbs of meat and could not be happier:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

Going to do a full shoulder mount , he is not the biggest 6 but he is a trophy in my book as you can see his fronts grew great but the back didn't finish off as they had a late winter like us and you can see it in the 5s and 6s . 

Any way hope the pics turn out and i will try to find a way to post the video we made as well.


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## olibooger (Feb 13, 2019)

THAT is a fantastic story!

CON-GRATU-LATIONS!
kənˌɡraCHəˈlāSH(ə)ns!!!!


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## hunting777 (May 3, 2009)

great story, congrats! can't wait to see the video.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Great bull and loved the write up!


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## gander311 (Dec 23, 2008)

Thanks for the full story and pics. Very enjoyable.


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## MadHunter (Nov 17, 2009)

Awesome story CD. Sounds like you had a great adventure.
Congrats on great bull.


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

how do i get the video off the MESSAGE+ app or from Instagram ?


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

Great Job! Very entertaining story!


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## BigT (Mar 11, 2011)

Awesome story... Did the shot come through on the video with the muzzle blast knocking the scope and phone over?

Great bull! Congrats


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

BigT said:


> Awesome story... Did the shot come through on the video with the muzzle blast knocking the scope and phone over?
> 
> Great bull! Congrats


as soon as i pulled the trigger it all went flying hahahah, i can post it if somebody knows how i get it from message+ or off Instagram ??


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Awesome job - thanks for wonderful write up!


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## 2full (Apr 8, 2010)

Very cool. Congrats. 
Heck of a shot.


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## olibooger (Feb 13, 2019)

cdbright said:


> BigT said:
> 
> 
> > Awesome story... Did the shot come through on the video with the muzzle blast knocking the scope and phone over?
> ...


This is what the forum is lacking. I would love to watch, or PM a photo even.


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Congrats CD!! He is a dandy!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

olibooger said:


> This is what the forum is lacking. I would love to watch, or PM a photo even.


PM me your Instagram or Facebook if you have it and i can send it that way, i can seem to be able to copy it out and save on my computer


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## 1trhall (Oct 18, 2017)

cdbright said:


> Well my OR bull elk hunt finally came and i drove up to the John Day area of OR which holds Rocky Mountain elk, no Roosevelts on this side. I get up to camp on Tuesday afternoon as the opener is Wednesday morning. Nice little cabin (old house on the property) , 3 bed- 2 bath house with 12 guys in it, still pretty nice for elk camp as we had heat and hot water so we by no means roughing it.
> 
> Got a shot off at 200 yards at camp and assumed we were still on so we were ready for the next morning. There was 2 guides in camp for the entire group and they sorted us as who could/would hike and who couldn't. So the young guide (26 yrs old) , lean mountain goat he was, took me and another guy who had been up there hunting 3 times previously and missed a couple years. He told us at camp he was good to 400 yards so off we went. I had my 7MM hitting a 4" target at 600 yards with wind so i was confident to at least a 500 yard shot with no worries.
> 
> ...


Great story. Congrats!!!!


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

this nice 5 point stood there watching us after i shot my bull , wish we had another tag in the ol pocket at that time :mrgreen::mrgreen:


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## Hunttilidrop (Jun 12, 2018)

Congrats man! That is a fine bull! Reminds me a lot of a bull 3A shot a few years ago.


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Hunttilidrop said:


> Congrats man! That is a fine bull! Reminds me a lot of a bull 3A shot a few years ago.


Ya! I was thinking the same thing. CDs bull is better on the fronts and my bull is a little better on the 3rd and 4ths. Almost identical on the 5ths which puts them at an identical scores of a 10!

For comparison sake here is a pic of my 2017 bull









I shoulder mounted my bull as well.









Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

Great story ! Congrats on a great bull! Nice shooting too!


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

3arabians said:


> Ya! I was thinking the same thing. CDs bull is better on the fronts and my bull is a little better on the 3rd and 4ths. Almost identical on the 5ths which puts them at an identical scores of a 10!
> 
> For comparison sake here is a pic of my 2017 bull
> 
> ...


Maybe they were distant cousins :mrgreen::mrgreen:


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

tried to add video, too big ?????


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

OK , i think i was able to upload the video ? it is a zip file


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

All was good up to the shot.....


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

my muzzle blast sent his phone and scope flying hahahahaha


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

That's what it looked like 

Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

Found the pic of the Big 5 point that stood and looked at my bull after i shot him. I was going to take this guy but he got behind a tree and wouldn't show his vitals so i went with the other one as dark was fast approaching. I loved this guys white tips , they just shine :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:


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