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Friends,Family,and OILtag

My friend Tom Vanasche had elk point’s that he needed to burn as he’s now a Wyoming resident. The unit we hunt in needed less than he had so he offered to share with one of my kids. I called my son Wes and son in law Zach and got Zach first. He jumped on. My youngest son Lucas didn’t want to trust me or Ron Niziolek to help Zach so he made arrangements to come from Alaska to hang out for a good part of September. After the Wy draw my daughter Aleishia drew a OIL elk tag in North Dakota so Lucas figured he’d take her first. Aleishia’s mainly just wanted to get one with her bow. Finally it was September and family friend and wrestler Hunter Corcoran and I picked Luke up at the Billings airport. We hadn’t been around Hunter since he was little so it was a great reunion. The next morning Luke was off to watford city to figure it out. He had a connection with a bowhunter from Watford who offered to help as he found elk while scouting for mule deer. Aleishia had also gotten permission on a ranch west of town. So Lucas went and scouted while his sister taught school. Also he went and met the rancher where they were allowed to hunt. He called me pretty excited about the giant bulls and the fact that the rancher was one of the best guys he’d ever met. Now came the checking of arrow flight and sighting in with leish’s new sight.

Let’s go!!!

Finally the two went to the ranch for the evening to see if there were elk. There were. Bulls were bugling everywhere and so Lucas let out a call. Response and a rag horn came right in. Aleishia said she was so excited to see horns that she may not have made her best shot. No luck, or maybe good luck they decided to come back in the the morning to retrieve the low arrow from the hayfield. The whole family went out and while walking through the timber a giant bull bugled and charged into the family. Almost resulted in a shot but the two little blonde boys dancing around scared him off. Arrow recovered and now Aleishia wanted a bigger one. After a day of practice they headed out to locate the elk for in the morning. The Rancher was super happy they we’re having a good time and told them where the bulls had been bugling all day. They set up on a ridge and Lucas sent out a bugle. Screaming response and the bull charged there one tree they had called from. The bull stopped and stared at them with Leish at full draw. Luke said 30 yds and no shot. He said 30 yds again and thump. She was so excited and said she got him. Lucas said he thought he saw a low exit wound and found out that was the wrong thing to say. She was furious and said”I don’t know why you have to introduce all this negativity “. Negativity aside they decided to trail in the morning. Back with family and brother Wes and after a short blood trail recovered a bull of a lifetime.

Way to go Aleishia!

Positively Fantastic ;) Congratulations!

Excellent!

Can’t do more than one picture per post. Everyone was excited including the landowners. The ranchers daughter and grandkids were out to help and he was glad to see the whole family out enjoying his place. After a couple days of butchering Luke and Zach were on their way. Tom and my long time hunting partner Mike Turner were already up at camp with Ron showing them around which is a great deal. I think they they had a couple chances and Tom passéd up a nice bull because he believed all the lies that I had told him.

Looking forward to this one! Good stuff so far, Randy!

Good stuff! Keep it going!

Beautiful bull congratulations

Nice start…

Very nice guys.

Pam and I showed up in camp on Saturday. The first trip up the hill with Pam,Zach,Luke, and Fred the beagle was up a steep ridge that I had never hunted. They found a herd with a couple satellite bulls. Pam and Zach set up and Luke called. Lucas figured one of the satellites would come where his mom could shoot. Zach said the big one finally got mad and started to come to fight. Zach adjusted and the bull came to 20 yds. As he drew the bull caught the movement. After the shot the bull went a short distance and just stood there. They determined the bull must’ve quartered on a little as Zach shot. They decided to leave him overnight in the patch of trees he’d walked into. I heard Lucas recruit Mike for the recovery saying that he’d hang with Mike until he killed a bull.

So Luke,Zach,Mike,and John Smith a friend from Nebraska headed up to recover and carry the bull off the mountain. All of us carry handguns and John had a 270 and a wolf tag. The bull didn’t go anywhere and they packed him down and back to camp. It was great to see how excited Zach was to have killed a great 320 bull.

The next morning Mike and Lucas left camp at 430 and made it back at midnight with Mike too tired to eat, and with a bull. Mike had been within 10 yards of two big bulls but no shots then killed a nice 5 pt at16 yds. They ended up a long way from the truck and packed the meat away from the carcass and some back to camp.

The young guys headed up to pack and us old guys headed up to hunt. Tom Ronand I heard a couple bugles and were in business at first light. I was already lucky to be hunting with two good friends in beautiful country when a huge bucket of luck spilled on me and I killed a bull beyond my dreams. Ron posted the photos on here and the day was as good as they come for me. Us old broken down guy’s got the bull broken down and a load back to camp. My plan was to wait for the young guys to show up and have them carry the rest off the hill. After sitting around for awhile my conscience got me, or maybe Ron said we’d better get back to the meat before a grizzly got on it. Up we went,no bear,so we loaded up and headed down. Thankfully we met Lucas jogging up the mountain. To say he was happy for my success would be an understatement. They weren’t having any of us finishing out the pack even though we tried to hold on to our loads, not. It was a lot easier hike without that hindquarters. Ron’s still not on board with not carrying more than his share but I think he’s ok with Luke loading up.

I got to spend some time with Tom in antelope camp a few years ago. First class guy for sure. I sure hope his hunt turned out as good as the rest of yours did ;)

Tom, Zack, Luke and Mike. All great guys to share camp with!

We kept hunting hard but the bulls never went crazy. Ron’s nephew Sam showed up with a limited time to hunt. Turns out that was more than he needed as uncle Ron called a PnY 6 pt in to 20 yds. That was close enough for Sam to get a couple good arrows in the bull. Maybe Ron will put up a picture. Luke drug his mom around thinking she was 30. Nothing close enough. One evening they were close to closing the the deal on a bull when Zach thought he saw a bull closing fast. Turns out it was a pair of grizzlies. Zach moved up and said bear he was drawn and Luke drew his 44 and charged the bears to even up to mom and brother in law. He said he cocked the hammer and Zach said he heard Lucas say” get away from my mom “ as he closed to 8 yds. I wouldn’t have thought that bears understood English but they backed off with no shots fired. Funny when we got out Luke’s brother and sister were mad at Zach and Luke for not killing the bears for being that close to mom. We ran into bears everywhere for the last week. Tom hunted hard for 18 days and I was trying hard to keep up and not be negative but when Tom said he was done I was thankful as I was also worn out.

congrats to all and special thanks to the rancher!

Nice start…

That is a whole lotta awesome elk hunting right there! Congratulations all around!

Great stuff Randy thanks for sharing!

Awesome stuff Randy! Congratulations to all! Love it!

Great stuff!!

Awesome! Congratulations to all!

Congratulations to all! What a nice bunch of mature bulls!!!

Good group to be with is an understatement! Lots of great people as well as bowhunters in that group!

Incredible elk bowhunting success! Congrats to all the bowhunters on tagging fine bulls!!!

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