I hadn't been shooting my bow much besides turkey hunting with it since I shot a mature bull elk in 12 so I knew I needed to get it set up different.
I had gotten this bow from an ol timer who had upgraded his set up and wanted his old pronghorn custom to go into good hands. My brother bought the bow for me for my birthday that year. It's signed by Herb himself to the previous owner which I thought was pretty cool.
I took the bow to RMS gear where Dan set me up well for what he recommended for moose. We got it shooting very smooth and I continued to shoot the bow daily, even twice a day for the summer.
The fall elk season approached quickly and I was already booked to guide for elk during the middle of September but I had the first week off so I spent it scouting and helping out around the base camp we operate.
I had found this bull during that first week and was really pumped to know there was such a bull around and just hoped they would stick around with the 3 others with him.
He was still in full velvet but in the 2 days before the season he had shed all the velvet. I even got some cool video of that process.
I found out that my first clients were not arriving until Sunday afternoon the opening weekend of the moose season so I would actually have Saturday to hunt! We had a full crew in camp for help with the busy upcoming elk hunt week so they encouraged me to go after this bull and promised to help pack it out and so I prepared for that one day to give it a shot.
I quickly found the group of bulls in the area they had been using and began my stalk. I watched this bull go into a drainage away from the others that had bedded and figured there was now a cow involved. Which became apparent as I saw her pop out and trot through a clearing in front of me at about 75yds followed by now 4 other bulls that included 2 that I saw bedded before. But the big one was not with them.
I had stalked this group that I thought this bull was in all day and wound up getting on them and passed on a smaller but still a nice bull at 30 yds that had shed his velvet as well. The cow showed up in my back door and pegged me. Tho not very alerted she took two of the younger bulls with her over a ridge. The other two that remained were some nice up and comers still sporting thier velvet. Once they left I realized the big dude wasn't with them. I figured he went back down drainage. I had a couple hours of light left so I made the sweep around and found him bedded with some deer. The deer took off but he stayed and was actually sleeping! His head would bob side to side. I snuck in with my decoy and set it up but realized I had a sharp ridge for cover that I could use to get really close. So I left the decoy to give him something to look at if he stood up and hoped would hold him there. He was in the perfect place for a bow stalk. I had a bedded shot at 20 but waited for him to stand. He picked me out because I didn't realize my flash was on in my phone while recording and it was strapped to my head haha . He got up and walked dead away, gave me a 30yd quartering away but I just couldn't settle. I let him go and he walked towards a cut in the terrain where I was able to make a short move to hopefully intercept him. It took a few seconds and I could see his huge antlers bobbing up the cut. The Good Lord put him right in my pocket and he walked in front of me at 15yards. I stopped him with a grunt at full draw, the arrow hit mid shoulder and wound up stuck thru an opposite rib. He went 40 yards and stood long enough for me to send another one fly but it went just left and under his throat. I knew the first shot was good as his legs went wide and he tipped over. Got it all on video so I can watch it again Lord willing when I'm 90.
Special thanks to RMS gear and setting me up with thier 250gr. Cutthroats.
Above are some part out pics from my pack out crew.
I'll try and get them rotated and repost. My bad
Congratulations! Well done!
Fred
Arrow is 9.5 or 9.8 gpi I think. I'll confirm that along with the arrow length tonight for ya when I get back to camp.
The bow is 65# @ 28inches. I draw about 29 inches on a good day.
I used thier longer original blade. I didn't use the short fat one. I like the longer cutting edge.
