# La Sal Muzzy Elk



## mikevanwilder (Nov 11, 2008)

My cousins wife drew a La Sal tag this year and asked me to help them, I was more than happy to assist.
We went down 2 weeks before and scouted some areas and set some cameras out. We found a few bulls but nothing worth a tag on. 
When we got down there on Sunday before the hunt we checked the cameras and found a couple bulls that looked promising. There was one that had 5" devil points that looked awesome. We put him on the hit list and made plans to pursue him.
We got up opening morning and headed in to the area. We had bulls screaming all over and had one on a dead run towards us. We barely got a look at him before he turned and ran the other direction. He was a decent bull but not the one we wanted. As we sat there wondering why he turned another bull behind us let out a bugle and he was close. We turned to get in position but he never showed himself. This is how it went the entire first day, never getting a good look at them before they bugged out. We did have a small 5 point come close. It was fun watching him go insane over a Ms September decoy we had out. 
As night came we found a giant bull who didn't notice us going to town on a tree. She decided he wanted to try and take him and we positioned her for a shot. Another bull behind us bugled and it made the bull we were watching start to move toward us. As he cleared the trees I got a good look at his antlers. This bull was massive. He was a 7x6 and had mass for days. It looked like he would walk right past us but then he stopped. I saw that he was stopped at a fence that we didn't see. I figured he would jump it but he turned and started to head back into the trees. We cow called and he just took off. It got dark and we headed back to camp. She told us she wanted to go after that bull again. We thought it would be impossible because this bull when he tried to bugle it was just a squeak and nothing more. We told her we would have to stumble upon him. 
Next morning we went out to the same location and couldn't locate him. We moved on and found some elk in a clearing, we noticed a bull raking a pine tree but could see his antlers. As we got closer he lifted his head and tried to bugle and we knew it was the bull from the night before. I was shocked we found him again. But like the night before he took off before we could get a shot on him. This time though it appeared he was pushing cows. We tried to keep up with him but couldn't and we lost him. 
That night we finally had a bull that was doing everything right. He was a good bull too so she decided to try and take him. He was on a dead run toward us and I knew she would have to turn to get a broadside shot as he past by. Well he stopped when she moved and there was a bush between her and him. So we told her stand up and shoot. The bull was less than 10 yards from us and facing us. She stood and shot. The bull took off and I couldn't see any signs of him being hit. We loaded up the muzzy and saw him run into the trees. 
We got to were he ran into the trees and found a little blood. We walked about 20 yards into the trees and decided to back out and let him go for the night. The next morning we went and picked up his trail and we searched all day Wednesday to no avail. The blood ran out and there was to many other tracks to make out which was his. We hiked and hiked looking for him passing on other bulls that ran just yards away from us.
That night we found a DWR officer and told him what had happened and he suggested moving on and try to find another. She was very upset about wounding him and not finding him. We told her that he was probably going to be fine since he didn't bleed very much and he never did lay down that we could see. 
Yesterday we decided to go back in and hunt the area we last saw sign of him and to just look around some more. We came to the area were she had shot him and in some trees saw a bull on the ground. We couldn't believe that this could be her bull. As we approached it though I could see it wasn't hers. This bull was a little small and had been shot in the rear end. We struggled to lift his head to check his chest for a bullet hole which is where she hit her bull. The smell was terrible and the bears had already been eating on it. After we were sure there was no other bullet holes we marked it on the gps and continued on. 
The woods were eerily quiet. No bugling, no crashing of timber, just quiet.
We walked another mile or more west and came to a big open area. We saw a spike and a small rag horn as they ran into the tree line and a few good looking bucks but that was it. 
We decided to walk up the mountain over the saddle and then back to the atvs. As we were about to go over the top we heard a bugle and then another. She decided that we should atleast go look at the 2 bulls. So we walked back down into the draw and started making our way toward the bugles. We came to a clearing and one of the bulls bugled and we could tell he was close. I thought he was making his way through the trees in front of us and suggest that my cousin and her should sneak in below and cut him off. As we were getting things ready I see the bull pop out into the clearing. I dropped down as fast as I could and basically pulled them down with me. Neither of them saw him come out. She got ready as he was moving broadside down the clearing about 75 yards. My cousin did his best cow call he could on such sort notice. The bull stopped perfectly and she let it go. The bull hunched up and dropped. She thought she missed because he fell into a little bit of a hole and out of sight. We assured her he was down. 
He is a great bull and she is very happy. She even helped pack the meat out. Shes like 100lbs soaking wet so it was quite the task for her, but she was a champ. I even got her to walk with the head for about 20 yards to get some photos.
I ended up getting ahold of the DWR on the bull we found and they said they would go in and get it. 
We spent the rest of the day hauling meat out and enjoying every minute of it. We also found some great new areas to hunt elk. 
By the way if you want to hunt grouse La Sal is where to go. They are everywhere. We saw about 20 every time we went hiking. We even had them running through camp. I only got one but that was because I didn't carry my shotgun with me and I apparently am not very accurate with rocks and sticks.


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## hunting777 (May 3, 2009)

Congrats on the great bull!


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## Buckfinder (May 23, 2009)

Cool story and great bull!!


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## AJ13 (Apr 28, 2015)

Thanks for the great story. Awesome bull.


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## Blackie6 (Jul 7, 2014)

That is awsome! A few guys in our group should draw that muzzy tag in the next year or two. Looking foward to that.


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## mikevanwilder (Nov 11, 2008)

Here's that devil point bull. He wanted us to get a good look at it!


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## bekins24 (Sep 22, 2015)

Congrats! That is a great story.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

congrats on a great bull


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## BigT (Mar 11, 2011)

Nice bull. 

I am pretty certain this is the same bull I saw Tuesday afternoon running off a satellite bull with only one antler knowing where it was taken at. Nice work!


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

Well done....

Good muzzy bull!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Nice!!! I love that unit! And I'll second what he said about the grouse down there, we took some cows first weekend in september and could hardly move without those birds flushing everywhere.


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