After 17 years I finally drew a trophy bull tag for the Tucannon-Wenaha Wilderness unit in my local Blue Mountains.
I hooked up with a packer and my dream elk hunt was set for Oct. 20-27.

My ride on the two hour trip up to camp.


There were 18 mules and horses in the pack train.


Base camp for the next week.


It's big country up there, 2000 yds across this canyon. The far ridge is where I eventually killed my bull.


After four days and with only two days left to hunt, I came up with a plan to make a play on one of the bulls we had seen in the same area on two occasions. We watched him until dark and walked out of camp the next morning at 5:11am. When we finally got on that far ridge, we had two bulls bugling within 100 yds. It was about 8am and I knew they were going to bed down in the dark timber where they were now. We just rested on the ridge until the afternoon, hoping they would get up and move again into an area I could get a shot. Finally we heard a bugle farther out on the ridge and we carefully made our way out there. The ridge became very narrow and open with steep drops on both sides. The bull continued to bugle but we weren't sure of his location. With the ridge narrowing down to only about 15 feet across, we were easing our way out and glassing down into the timber on both sides. He was with two other bulls and was raking the limbs of a big pine tree. I snuck up and shot down at 75yds. He hunched up on the first shot and I hit him two more times very fast before he made a step and tipped over.


I used my Mod 70 30-06 with a Leupold VX6 2-12 and a 180gr. Nosler Partition hand load. It felt great to score with old Reliable. I think I was the only hunter up there without a Super magnum and a huge NightForce scope.


There were no mules or horses in camp during the hunt and after leaving at 5:11am that morning, we practically crawled back in at 10:30pm after a GPS'd 18 mile round trip.
We got a hold of the packer and he informed us that he was coming in from a different trail head and would meet us at the bull at 2pm the next day. That meant we only had a fifteen mile round trip the next day.

Thank God for Francis.




Yes, It is wonderful !!

What a monster, and hunted fair n' square, bet you slept really soundly THAT night! Congrats!

Awesome bull - congratulations!

Great bull! Well done.

I'd still be hungover after shooting a monster like that. Congratulations, nice bull, earned fairly.

Now THAT will work. Congratulations.

Dog Man you definitely earned it; beautiful country, very nice bull!

As we say in the South, "that dog will hunt!" Congratulations!!!

World class elk! Way to go!

Touché ! You earned him and beautiful scenery to boot. Enjoy the back straps !

Congrats on a Great bull!
17 yrs is a long time to wait.

Fabulous bull. Looks like some great hunting terrain. Sounds like the 17 years was worth the wait.

Wow! That is a great bull and some beautiful territory - congrats!

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Way to go man!

Beautiful bull, beautiful country, fantastic adventure!!
Congratulations, and by the way, if that's more backstrap than you can handle, PM me for my
shipping address!

Nice story and photos, congratulations!

congratulations! i grew up in GMU 154, and have done a (very) little hunting in the tucannon. it's BIG country! you did well!

Way to go
A hunt like this would be the bomb

Well done...CONGRATULATIONS Dog Man!!!

Very nice! Someday I will draw a bull tag down there. My dad filled his cow tag in 175, and two days later my buddy shot his spike and first elk in the same area as dad.

Awesome! Love the old reliable.

Congratulations on taking a great bull! That is some awesome country. That left bez tine is interesting, it looks like he perhaps suffered an injury and the tine kept growing afterward. That adds neat character to that rack.

I was putting in for Mt. Emily for quite a few years, but gave up as I was 1 point behind the guys getting drawn and got tired of chasing that tag. Gonna use my 12 points somewhere else in Oregon now. All that country - Wenaha, Walla Walla and Mt. Emily is some neat, classic elk country. Wish they gave out a few more non-resident trophy bull tags and way fewer spike tags.

Very nice bull; I really like all the character he has.
That's beautiful country and it sounds like you really earned him.

Outstanding bull!

Excellent story.

This is way after the fact of the initial story, but a real elk hunt and one he should be proud of.

None of this 400 point bull in a section of high fence with dozens of other bulls, and we cut the ear tag off before photos.

Thanks for positive comments.

DM, did the antlers on that horse make you nervous? Sure would have me on edge! Yikes!

Great story & a lifetime of memories - Congratulations!

friar

Great photos and awesome bull.

Good stuff!! Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations on a great hunt. My only elk hunt in the Blues was cut short by the Forest Service. It snowed so much that they ran us off the mountain for our own safety. Had to follow a D-8 Cat out of the woods. One of the wranglers' horse trailers slid off the road and when he was unloading his horses, one reared his head and the lead rope wrapped around his thumb and pulled it off! He just picked it up and wrapped it up in his bandana and stuck it in his pocket. Proceeded to get his trailer out of the snow bank and then loaded up again and drove down the mountain. He was a tough son-of-a-gun.

Nice bull with a classic hunting set up. Congrats.