Re: I'm happy with my caribou bull!

Thanks for the kind comments.

I'm not sure what he weighed but he was a mature bull based on the rack size as compared to everything else we saw - plus his teeth were very worn.

Notwithstanding the negatives about the outfitter, taking this bull was a highlight in my hunting career. It was the third day of the hunt and we had been sitting on high ground glassing for bulls. After not seeing anything all day, we were about to head out when Marcel (my guide) spotted several bulls heading toward us. They were at least 2 miles away and he spotted them looking toward the sun. I was impressed.

As we watch them, they seemed to be heading toward another water crossing about 1/2 mile away so we started heading that way to intercept them. Once there the caribou passed that crossing and started heading toward the crossing that we had just left. I'm not in the shape I need to be in and it was taking starting to show!

We got back to our original location and sure enough, they started crossing toward us. We were well hidden and I'm sure they didn't see us but they turned slightly in the water to come onshore out of sight behind a point to our left.

We watched carefully and as soon as the last caribou's head (my bull) was out of sight behind the point, we took off running to intercept. Even though it was cold, I had removed a couple of layers of coat to help me run. I remember that I REALLY needed to take a leak right then but didn't have the time.

We went down the side of a draw, across a bog, and up the other side as fast as we could go. About halfway up the other side my chest was exploding in need of air! I actually thought to myself that if I was going to have a heart attack, what better place and time than chasing a big bull!

I got to the top and had to advance on two feet and one hand while carrying the rifle for about 40 yards to a large rock. It was a perfect setup as my bull was just getting out of the water and shaking himself at about 150 yards away. All of the other caribou, except for a smaller bull had exited straight away from me up the side of a hill.

I tried to get some breath to hold the crosshairs steady but it wasn't working. I took my best shot and knew I had missed as the crosshairs were in front of the shoulder and below the neck when the old 30/06 went off.

I racked another round in and intentionally tried to hyperventilate to get some air in me. Marcell kept saying that I needed to get some lead in him.

I settled down and found the bull again in the scope as he was going up the far hill, following the smaller bull. As I was on higher ground and he was going up hill, I had a pretty good look at his back and knew that he was getting pretty far away going straight away. I saw them on a trail that went along the right side of a large rock outcropping and the smaller bull passed the rock face and turned left out of sight.

It happened very quickly but I estimated that if I held at the center of the shoulders, and slightly left since the bull was turning left, the drop of the bullet would allow it to hit in the middle of the back and go down into the vitals.

It was time to do something . . . I held my breath and squeezed the shot just as the bull's head went behind the rock face. Another 1/2 second and I would have never seen the bull again.

I heard the bullet hit while the rifle recoiled and it sounded like a good hit. When I got back on target the bull had turned to the right and went into a stand or short trees and stopped. I could only see the tops of his antlers and he was moving his head back and forth. Marcel said that it was a good shot and that he was dead but just didn't know it yet. He said we could start down to the bull but I told him that I wasn't going anywhere until the antlers stopped moving. (I remembered a friend on a deer hunt in Nebraska that had hit a huge deer hard that got back up and walked toward some brush. He didn't think he needed to shoot it again and when it reached the brush we never saw it again. I wasn't going to make that mistake.)

I sat for what seemed a couple of minutes, watching the antlers occasionally move when I remembered that I REALLY REALLY needed to take a leak!!! I told Marcel to watch him and got up to go . . . (sidenote - it's hard to watch for a trophy caribou while taking a leak! I think I was able to miss my foot, though!).

As soon as I got back down to the rifle and picked the bull up in the scope again, he took a couple of steps toward the water and stepped out behind a tree. It was a perfect standing broadside shot and I put the crosshairs at the top of his shoulder and squeezed. The rifle went off and the bull dropped in his tracks.

We estimated that the first shot (the miss) when the bull got out of the water was about 150 yards. The second shot, with him disappearing behind the rock was about 400 yards. The final shot that dropped him was about 425 yards. When we got to him I found that the first hit, instead of hitting him in the center of the back just left of the spine, had hit him just in front of the left ham. I thought about it and decided that I had allowed for the bullet drop, but forgot to factor in that the bull was moving away from me and up a hill, causing the hit to be farther back than I wanted.

The bull later green scored at 356 7/8 with only 9" of deductions. His symmetry is remarkable with 6 points on each side at the top (even configured the same) and 7 points on each of the bez. He had a single shovel and it is only average size with only two points on it.

He's not a book bull but for my first caribou he'll look magnificent in my trophy room as a pedestal mount.

Thanks for listening!

JDS

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