Well I finally killed my first Bull Elk. I have hunted Elk twice before here in Arizona, once archery in 1996 and once with a Muzzle loader in 1999. Yes it takes that long to get good tags here! I did not draw an arrow or pull the trigger on either hunt. But I finally drew an early rifle permit in our unit 4B. Due to work I was not able to scout the area prior to the hunt. I had two days off work since my return from Namibia with my family in early August.

A good friend that I was in the Marine Corps with came out from Ohio to help me on the hunt. He had never been on an Elk hunt but is a hell of a Whitetail hunter and woodsman in general. I got up in the hills three days before the hunt. I saw a few small bulls but the numbers and movement were not promising and they were practically silent. The rut had not started yet. The archery hunters were still all over the place so I tried to stay out of their way and still get some scouting in.

I found an archery killed bull in a remote bottom that was nearly identical to the bull that I ended up taking. He was shot through the guts and died without being recovered by the hunter. After I was done hunting I turned it in to the game and fish. I did not want them crashing around an area on a quad to investigate the bull in an area I might still want to hunt.

I drove back to Phoenix to pick up Tony at the airport the day before the hunt. We sat on a good looking water tank that night but nothing came in. We found one lone spike north of our camp that evening. Opening morning I chose to hunt out of the camp towards where we saw the spike. There were no camps past mine and there was no traffic past us either. I figured if it was quiet and the spike was unbothered then we might find some cows and maybe a bull trying to pick them up.

We silently padded down the road about a half mile. Then we heard two bulls bugling at each other about a half mile to the east. We listen to them for a bit and decided to see if we could close the gap and get a closer look/listen. As we crossed two deep valleys try to close the gap, the bulls were chasing each other around and away from us. We tried a bugle to them but they totally ignored it. So from there on out I stuck to my cow call. As we started to close the distance I would hit them with my cow call. They would hold up for a bit and then blast off again. As we closed on a huge ravine that forced us to follow until we found a place to cross, we had a third bull on a point bugling. He was not part of the mix and we had just worked in the opposite direction to the wrong side of the ravine from him. I chose to keep after the first two. We worked around two cow elk at the top of the hill and got back after the Bulls. As we worked up the next hill over, the bulls were approximately 450 yards up the mountain and bugling loudly. I was using the cow call as we caught our breath and I tried to get one of the bulls to come down to us. They seemed to be holding there at the top of the hill and the next thing I knew, I heard a bull bugle on the opposite side of the hill going away about 700 to 800 yards out. I figured both of them were on the move again. I did not even un-sling my rifle thinking we were back on the chase. We slipped on to an old overgrown fire break road and started up the hill. Just as I had a clear view of the top of the hill a bull stepped out and looked right at us at what I estimated to be 80 yards. I think he was confused thinking that we were some dam ugly looking cow elk. I dropped to my knee, shouldered my Kimber .300 WSM took a deep breath settled the scope and squeezed the trigger and let loose a 180 grain Barnes TSX. His left shoulder was covered by the fluffy top of a jack pine so I picked a spot where I knew his vitals were. He lunged forward at the shot and was out of sight. We walked to the top and searched for blood. We found nothing! There was a tall stand of pine with a thick run of jack pine in it in the direction he ran. In Africa I shot 10 animals. A few of the larger animal’s left very little blood after a good solid heart/lung shot. But not one animal went more than 60 yards. So I decided to make a 60 yard circle in the direction we saw him bolt. As soon as I cleared the pines I spotted my bull with his nose in the dirt dead. It was a huge relief.

The bullet passed thru and we had to search to find both the entrance wound and the exit wound. There was no blood to speak of at either hole. The shot hit him just slightly to the forward part of the shoulder. After gutting him we found that the bullet destroyed both lungs and took the arteries off the front of the heart.

I could not think of a person that I would rather have killed my first Elk with. Tony and I have been fast friends since the early 90’s in the Marines and try to hunt together every chance we get. He was a huge help in the recovery and a great motivator in the chase. In all my GPS tracked two miles of chase and we had my Bull down in under two hours on the opening day of the hunt. He is not a monster bull like some of the bulls taken this year but man is he good eating. The tender loins are excellent. And I love him!!!

Now I can hardly wait to get the chase on with my son in unit 4A this November. We were both fortunate to draw tags this year. We spent three days scouting my sons unit and got up on seven bulls in 4A one was slightly bigger than my bull the rest equal or lesser.

This has been the absolute best year. Turning 40 has been great!!!

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The bull where I found him
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Me with my first Rocky Mountain Elk.
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Tony with Chevlon Canyon in the back.

Nice write-up, and big congrats! It's always special when success comes when hunting, but to share it with a dear friend is something really, really special.

Thanks for sharing.

KG

What a terrific story -- not to mention a happy ending!

Congratulations are definitely in order!

Outstanding!

Looks like the season treated you well. Which unit were you in?

Ken....

Congrats Will! Great hunt report. Fine looking bull. Great picture off of the Rim, I love that country! There are some very respectable bulls running around 4A right now. Best of luck to your son on his hunt.

Kind regards,
Mary

Well done, and hope it's just the first of many more wapiti for you sir!
MM

Congrat's on a nice bull...and Thanks for a great story!

FN in MT

Congrats!! Great bull. Thanks for shareing.

Lovely bull! third times the charm eh?

now I'm envious!!!!....I leave in a week.....

Thanks for sharing and Congrats on a fine Bull

Sounds like a great hunt. Nothing wrong with that bull at all. I'm sure lots of folks are envious!

Huge bull I don't know but he sure looks like a nice 6x6 to me...

and how many of us would pass up a 6x6????

none I am thinking

Great hunt, great Bull, and great story.
Thanks for the posting.

Don

Outstanding write-up and great bull!