Bull elk archery

[Okanagan]

Grandson R, hunting solo, mostly stalk, a bit of calling.  Classic long arm distortion pic.

R played hide and seek with this bull for quite awhile, closing, having the bull sneak away, dodging cows, etc.  35 yard shot with the bull above him, angling away and heading uphill.  Arrow entered low behind last rib on right side and angled forward and upward through the chest cavity, exiting tight behind the shoulder high on the left side. 

Big blood trail contouring the mountain for 200 yards, then absolutely nothing, not a drop of blood for the last 200 yards when the bull turned and went straight downhill. About 30 cows with this bull, so elk tracks everywhere.  Cousin Code finally found the bull by painstakingly following each set of elk tracks, and a very faint set led to the bull that had been walking slowly and not kicking up divots or making hardly a mark in the mossy ground.   The most experienced elk hunter we know said that 90% of hunters would never have found this bull.

Good hunting, good shooting, superb tracking:  I am proud of the grandsons.

[HaMeR]

Great Elk!! Congratulations!!

Observation,, Is that commonplace when hunting in the mountains and you shoot uphill,,,, to turn back downhill when the blood trail ends? If it's going uphill that is. The lower entrance wound would now be up high and no longer leaking. We have hills here. Not mountains.

[Okanagan]

Great Elk!! Congratulations!!

Observation,, Is that commonplace when hunting in the mountains and you shoot uphill,,,, to turn back downhill when the blood trail ends? If it's going uphill that is. The lower entrance wound would now be up high and no longer leaking. We have hills here. Not mountains.

Good observation!  We think that is exactly what happened.  Going downhill, the blood runs to the front of the chest so nothing leaked out of the entry hole on the back end which was now the high end of the rib cage.  Likewise the exit hole was high on the rib cage so nothing leaked out of that. 

[Okanagan]

Can you believe the size of the second tine on each side?  Massive.  But like is common with Roosevelts, the top end of the antlers aren't as big in proportion to the lower tines.  Great bull anyway.

[nastygunz]

Thats a monsta!

[Hawks Feather]

He has to be proud of that harvest and being able to make a stalk like that.  Since you taught him all he and the stalker know, it seems only proper to share some of that will you.

[nastygunz]

Big ole elk steak over a wood fire..sign me up!

[Okanagan]

Big ole elk steak over a wood fire..sign me up!

A lot of fat on this bull and superb taste. I swiped a small steak the first night they got him home, and another one last night after cutting and wrapping part of it with them.  They boned him out gutless and came home with the  cleanest meat I've ever helped them process.  They packed out something like 310 (318?) lbs. of bonelss meat, plus the peeled down skull and horns, about 350 total. I didn't write down the total as they weighed meat sacks, can't recall the exact number. Three men packing meat, two trips each for a total of 6 trips to get the whole bull up to the road.  Sounded like about a mile from kill to road, much of it up an overgrown abandoned logging road that is a mere trail.

Man this is a heavy weight rack.  My fingers can't touch around the left side main beam till above the 4th tine, and above the 3rd on the right side.  The right side second tine is 19 inches long, and the left side 2nd is 17 inches long. Quick rough green score went 296 gross and 285 net.  I think Boone & Crockett for Roosies is 290.

[Okanagan]

To add some closure on this bull:  four months later it was officially scored.  Gross total is 301.5 and net is 294.5.  Boone & Crockett minimum for Roosevelt elk is 290, so this one scores high enough for entry into B&C.