This past week I was fortunate to be able to help guide a client, who has become a good friend over the last 20 years, to a heck of a local Tule elk bull. He used a .375 H&H with a Sako action using a barrel he made himself (that’s his business) and a reloaded 250 gr. Barnes TTSX. We almost had a shot at 250 yards and the fog got too thick (in July?!?). We got another opportunity at a steep uphill angle at 125 yards and one shot put the bull down.

The rancher had seen this bull on the trail camera before the season and was impressed, but we were still considering some others. But when we saw him in person while scouting the day before the hunt we quickly forgot about the others... The next day we were lucky enough to find him within a mile of where he’d been the evening before.

The ranch is near Paso Robles, CA and is over-run with elk. With this drought the ranch had to sell almost all their cattle to avoid overgrazing their nearly 7,000 acre ranch, but these elk are eating them out of house and home. Through a lot of negotiating, begging and threatening with CA Fish and “Wildlife” they were able to buy one Private Lands Management elk tag and they’ll probably be able to buy another tag for later this year (that hunt is already spoken for and has a waiting list). Two elk being taken off the ranch won’t give them much relief for the over-grazing, but at least it will help pay for some of the feed they’re eating.

The elk on this ranch are part of a herd of roughly 400 Tule elk that DFG transplanted to the area in the 1980’s (with or without permission from the landowners). It’s neat to see a new species in this area to (theoretically) hunt and they’re a great conservation success story, but it’s pretty frustrating that the government can put whatever they want on your land and you have very little say or control over it. I’ve seen a few ranchers get so frustrated that they get depredation permits to shoot them out of their crops just to teach DFG a lesson, but that’s equally sad.

But I digress…. The bull hasn’t officially been scored yet. I think he should make a good dent in the top 10. My friend really had to break his hunting piggy bank to buy this private lands tag on this ranch so I’m really happy he got such a nice bull. He’s on Cloud 9 and I’m sure he won’t come down for quite a while.

I thought you folks might enjoy a couple photos:





All the best,
Kyler

man, as hot as it is right now, i bet you didn't waste much time getting down to the recovery. and i am guessing that the tags/hunt were well over $10k. congrats to both of you- that is a fine Tule elk!

Wow! That is really a nice tule. Good work

Awesome bull! Congrats to you and hunter.

Awesome bull Kyler. Congrats to you and the hunter.

Very nice Bull
Interesting rack for a Tule, usually they end up with "crown" points but this one reminds me of a Rocky Mountain Elk, beautidul specimen.
Congratulations!

That's the biggest Tule I've seen.

Frickin rookie guides shootin raghorns

That is a dandy, I used to hunt all over that area (including on the base) in the late 80's through mid 90's. DFG had put that small herd on Fort Hunter Liggett and they quickly expanded to Lockwood and the surrounding areas. It was fun to watch the herd grow, and there were always some nice bulls to be seen.

Stunner of a bull!
Congrats to you and the hunter.

Congratulations on a great bull!

Awesome bull!

Ok Ok...I guess it's an ok Bull...LoL

Congratulations Kyler and your client, that’s an awesome elk.

Hi All,

It's that time of year again and I've got a chance to find a hunter for a Tule bull on the same ranch where we took the monster last year.

As I stated in the story last year, they've only been able to get 4 bull tags over the years for this ranch/herd. All four bulls have made B&C and I'm told the bull we took last year in the photos above will be #5 in B&C and #3 in SCI.

A recent count during one afternoon on this ranch showed over 50 bulls and they'll only be able to get two land owner permits this year. The chances of taking a truly great bull are very good. But the price is equally unusual. It's going to take around $30K to get the tag. One tag is spoken for by the other outfitter who hunted it last year. The rancher is giving me a week or so to find a hunter and then he's passing the opportunity to another outfitter who supposedly has a client ready to pay the price.

The hunt should be taken in July while the bulls are in velvet to have the best chance of getting one of the larger bulls on the ranch.

This hunt is all low fence/fair chase. The ranch is on the Central Coast of CA near Paso Robles.

Here are a few recent trail camera photos. While we're still experiencing a drought, the feed conditions are better this year than last year.





Feel free to email ( khamann@boaring.com ) or PM with questions.

Thanks,
Kyler

Only 30K.

I spent 3 years of my Navy career in CA around the Bay area. Tried for a Tule tag every season but never drew one. I hunted blacktails north of Napa in the Mendocino Natl Forest and the Cache Creek Wildlife Area. I saw lots of Tules but never had a tag in my pocket and my pockets weren't deep enough for one of the private land tags.

Nice bull.

What a great Bull!

Piggy bank?
Why not head north into Oregon and do a real hunt that is much cheaper?
Why do people pose way behind there harvested animal for photo shoots? It's so obvious, might as well as put a cucumber in your pant.

quote:

Originally posted by Norseman:

Why not head north into Oregon and do a real hunt that is much cheaper?

I didn't know they have tule elk in Oregon.

You beat me to it Todd!

By the way that is a tremendous Bull no matter what angle you photograph it from or where you place your self in the picture....

congratualation

quote:

Originally posted by Norseman:
Piggy bank?
Why not head north into Oregon and do a real hunt that is much cheaper?
Why do people pose way behind there harvested animal for photo shoots? It's so obvious, might as well as put a cucumber in your pant.

It is bull shit like this post that taint this once great forum

I don't know anything about Tule elk....but I know what a big elk that one looks to be

Congratulations

Congrats on a great hunt...

Kyler
Any more info on this Monster?

Ravenr,
I wasn't able to find a hunter in time so the ranch offered the tags to a couple other outfitters. They each took out a hunter. They found guys right away that would shell out the big bucks for these tags so I guess I just don't hang with enough high-rollers.

I know the first guy got a nice bull in the high 340's at the beginning of this month. I didn't hear how the second hunter did, but there are plenty of big bulls roaming that ranch so I'll bet it was also a good one.
Take care,
Kyler

Does this ranch allow any cow hunts?

Moose,
It's a weird situation on this specific ranch in that typically there aren't any cows on the property. Against the ranchers wishes Fish & Wildlife issued him two cow tags this year, despite that he told them he hasn't seen a single cow on the ranch for 3 or 4 years.
These bulls travel to the neighboring military base for the rut and then right back to hang out on this ranch. You either have to shoot them in the velvet before they leave for the rut or hunt them after the rut and risk that they're broken up from fighting.

Ravenr,
I realized maybe I misunderstood your question. If you were asking about the bull last year I'm told it officially scored 359" (they took a 338" and a 348" bull this year). The hunter from last year was told that his bull should land in #3 for SCI and #5 for B&C, but I don't know if he has any of that confirmed yet. At least for B&C apparently they require that a panel of measurers review a trophy if it's going that high in the book and from what the hunter said he hasn't been able to get it into a panel to review.

Thanks,
Kyler

quote:

The ranch is near Paso Robles, CA and is over-run with elk. With this drought the ranch had to sell almost all their cattle to avoid overgrazing their nearly 7,000 acre ranch, but these elk are eating them out of house and home.

quote:

Two elk being taken off the ranch won’t give them much relief for the over-grazing, but at least it will help pay for some of the feed they’re eating.

quote:

A recent count during one afternoon on this ranch showed over 50 bulls and they'll only be able to get two land owner permits this year. The chances of taking a truly great bull are very good. But the price is equally unusual. It's going to take around $30K to get the tag.

So there aren't any cows on this ranch, yet there are so many bull elk that they are eating them out of house and home and $60,000 won't pay for it? I didn't realize you pay $210 per AUM in California!

I'm sorry, but this whole situation smells like an excuse for a landowner to get transferable landowner bull elk tags to sell off to the highest bidder. This doesn't sound like a conservation "success" story for anyone but the rich.

Moose,
I'm curious how you would handle it if you owned the ranch?
I'm not involved in the ownership on this ranch (and didn't tack any fees on the hunt I guided last year), but I'd like to learn from you how you think they should handle this resource on their property? Keep in mind every bull taken on the ranch has gone in the top 30 of B&C. Should they just price the hunts at management or meat bull prices to make a few hunters happy?

These ranch owners can control the cattle grazing pressure, but aren't allowed to control the elk population. As the drought got bad they didn't feel like they had enough feed to continue to run their cattle with all the elk there. So they sold the cattle off a couple years ago in hopes of more feed when the rains come back (we've always had drought cycles here). The cattle are a big part of the living for the three generations who live and work on the ranch. The taxes alone for the ranch are tremendous, not to mention the loss of income from the lack of cattle.
But I'd like to know what these folks should do different in your eyes? Regardless of the cattle situation, should they sell the tags to the lowest bidder instead of the highest?

Congrats to the both of you! That is one incredible bull.

One of the things I do love about this site is that it is so remarkably self-policing.

Kyler - GREAT bull. I've spent plenty of days in Tule country and seen the scat...but never actually seen the Elk. Outstanding work!

Here's hoping that Bull hangs proudly in the Home of the Hunter.

Couple of thoughts here.

If they sold off all their cattle how does this "rancher" make a living? That just doesn't make sense.

Who gives a ratts butt what these bulls score if the landowner considers them vermin.

I think they will recoup some of their grazing loss with $60000. Highest AUM payment in history.

To me this is just another fake rancher who probably doesn't allow any public access to help him control a problem he is partially responsible for (by not allowing hunting) yet bitches about it so he can get the F&G to give him some tags so he can sell them off to the highest bidder. Why not put up a high fence amd call it what it is or let the state eradicate these animals since they are such a nuisance?

Hunters are losing access because of outfitting and dollar amounts put on wildlife, how can any true outdoorsman celebrate this downeward spiral?

Moose_drool,
What's your deal? You obviously know nothing about our current drought situation or ranching and seem to want to beat up on anyone trying to make an honest living off the land any way they legally can.
If you don't have anything constructive to contribute, please log off.

Nice!