Manti LE Early ELk hunt

[gunsrme3]

The picture of him with velvet was taken from my friends camera that had a archery tag in the area. This bull had last been seen a week before the hunt started. The evening before the hunt we were down looking for him but happened upon another bull that was bigger then this guy. We hunted hard every day of the hunt. The first few of day's we seen some bulls but not the one we were looking for. On wed the 19th we finally found the bull I was looking for again so the next morning we went in where we had put him to bed. There were bulls all over going CRAZY we got into the middle of them and 100 yards from the one we wanted but never could get a shot at him the timber was a little to thick. SO we came back in there and the elk had all moved out of the area into the next canyon over but between all the bugling we could not pinpoint the one we wanted. That evening we came back to find the elk had moved again and and were not talking nearly as much. So the search began again for him. I am not sure what happened but the elk had gone from going crazy to barely talking again. SO we went back down into the canyon where we had see the big one the first time. We had a few small bulls in the canyon but nothing worth shooting. On Friday evening we had decide to go down the canyon to the west but when we got to the head of the canyon we found someone else was parked and just starting down this canyon. So we decide to just go back to where we had gone that morning hoping that these other hunters would push something up to us. Well as we started hiking down the ridge we spot a elk to the west across the canyon from us. As we watched this cow and little satellite bull we heard a shot come from where we were planning on originally hiking in. Well we had a cow and a smaller 5X6 run by us at 91 yards. SO we went back up over the ridge to look to the east of us and just meandered down to the end of the ridge. As we were glassing off the end of the ridge we heard a bull bugle a ways up the canyon form us ( this being the first we had heard all evening). So we decided to wander up the canyon in that direction just to see what we could see. As we were walking up the canyon we had a bull bugle just a few hundred yards from us. We just kept moving very slowly and quietly we got to a point that we ran into a cow that was feeding up the hill and we just stopped and watched as a bunch of cows started to follow. The Bull bugled again and was just up the hill from us and working his way down. I got to where i would have a shot if he showed himself. As he came out from the pines he had 3 cows in between myself and him. I had a shooting lane up or down if he made his move. But he made his move faster then i thought he would and i did not get a shot off. I quickly and quietly made my way to where i had a shot at him. I quickly pulled up ranged him. 60 yards. Put the scope on him and squeezed off a shot. He turned and ran straight at us. I stepped out from behind the pine tree and put a second one in him at 14 yards and he dropped in his tracks.

[MuleyMadness]

What an absolute gorgeous bull, congrats BIG TIME. Just an awesome animal. Thanks for sharing the pics/story.

[derekp1999]

Wow, congrats on a great bull. 14 yards, huh? That must have been an adrenaline rush!

[gunsrme3]

Thank you. It is unofficial but he should score 367

[waspocrew]

That is an awesome bull. Congrats! Thanks for sharing!