Is anyone hunting the North slope this weekend?

[submoa]

I'll be up and down and all around if so. Say hello. White chev 4 door with topper and stinger sticker on back window.
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[HookJaw_Brimhall]

Good Luck, don't get shot. I'm sure there will be plenty of people to talk to up there. [cool]
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[CROSSINEYES]

hunt low... dutch. good luck.[]
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[submoa]

So the hunt was good but turned out kind of bad. I scouted an area I thought held elk. They appeared to be still in there as of Friday night still so I didn't push to far in there for fear of scaring them out. Saturday I got in there early and put myself in the right spot. A big bull with his cows came bye about 100 yds away, 5X5 which is massive on my standards. In any case the cows winded me and were grouped all around the bull. I got what I thought was a clean shot at 100 while they were trotting (low chest) and another at 150 at a dead run (embarassed to say in the rear end). The elk didn't blead much, my family and friends tracked this thing all moring and about 1230 as the rain was starting to fall we jumped it out of where it was laying down, a 70 year old man shot it a couple hundred yards away from me, 40 yds from him. I wanted to cry. I know the law is it's his elk but dang it I'm still not thrilled with the outcome for obvious reasons. We tracked that thing forever, did all the homework, did all the work and didn't get the elk. I wish those cows would have stayed away from the bull so I could have put another one into him but they stayed all around him. It prevented me from taking an ethical shot. I'm truly bummed!
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[fairwayphilly]

it's a bummer, we have all pushed animals that we were on to other hunters over the years. That is really one of my biggest issues with how hunting is set up in Utah. There is someone behind every tree on any general hunt. I really wish that there were either numerous, small hunting areas or multiple hunts to break up the number of people in an area at once. It forces hunters into making decisions they normally wouldn't have (not saying you did anything wrong) and pushing animals when they would normally back off. You have to make a move because if you don't, someone else will. Best thing you can take out of the situation is that the elk was taken and tagged and not wounded and lost, especially with the rain coming in. Did you get a chance to see how well the bull was hit from the first shot?
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[submoa]

I did see where I think I hit the bull (he shot it as well to put it down). I hit it low in the chest and in the rear end. The guy who ended up dropping it was in the shoulder and he shot it in the neck because it wiggled on the ground he said. He was an older guy who couldn't walk well at all from Iowa. The guy didn't have any idea that the elk was being tracked by our party and that we had jumped it from where it probably would have died if I would have left it lay. I didn't do that because of the rain which was starting. I thought I'd lose the ability to track it if it rained which is correct. It took us a while to get to the animal as we kept tracking in case he didn't hit it. The guy who shot it last had tagged it already. I'm sure if it was a spike or small bull he may have given it to me if it wasn't tagged already but with the size of the bull and the fact that it was tagged there was no option not that he would have considered that anyways. I've driven game to people which is a bummer as well but the truth is this animal was wounded and we were tracking it, it's a whole lot worse feeling for my family and friends which were tracking this animal for hours on end only to jump it and have a guy shoot a wounded bull and tag it. I know legally it's his bull, he finished it off. I don't know how proud I'd be to tag it if the shoe was on the other foot to be totally honest.
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[pookiebar]

That sucks, sorry to hear you didn't get your bull. Hell that is just the way it goes in Utah. Where I used to hunt the general elk season I pushed 3 bulls to the same guy over a 5 year period! Nothing huge, but still sucked every time.
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[Igottabigone]

Just an FYI, just because he put the animal down does not mean it is his bull to tag. Legally, the person who mortally wounds the animal is entitled to tag the animal. So, if your shots on the animal would have killed the bull, which it sounds like, then you should have tagged the bull, especially if the bull would have died in his bed had you not jumped him.
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[submoa]

I appreciate the tip. Honestly he had it tagged by the time I got to it. It would have died in my opinion from the wounds it had. Today I walked my rear off and pushed another 5 X 5 to some lucky hunter. Maybe I need to stop pushing and just sit somewhere.
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