Wasatch LE Elk Muzzleloader

[fish_or_die]

With "only" 14 bonus points my dad and a friend finally drew LE muzzleloader elk tags, this time on the Wasatch.

We made it up on the mountain Tuesday night and my dad and his friend were stoked, having scouted out several good canyons with bulls screaming in them. The best part was there were no hunters in the areas they had been scouting!

Opening morning came as it always does with cool air, excited whispers, a hasty breakfast and a long wheeler ride in. No bulls sighted that morning but we did have one coming in to us through black timber, man is that exciting!

After lunch at camp we hit another canyon that we'd heard bulls in. An hour into our hike I spotted a raghorn through the trees. Not the bull we wanted but we set up and called at him anyway. From our right another bull screamed and came running in. The wife and I scrambled to get hidden and my dad set up and no sooner than we were set a 6pt bull came screaming into our clearing...this guy was looking for someone! He stopped broadside at 20 yards and looked around. I turned my gaze over to watch my dad pull the trigger...click! His gun didn't fire! He'd forgotten to put a cap in after the wheeler ride in! As he quietly writhed on the ground trying to find a cap in his pant pockets the bull just stood there looking for us! Finally my dad got a cap in and raised the gun, shaking like crazy, and pulled the trigger! Boom! The bull hunched, walked slowly up the hill and then crashed down! Wahoo! I tackled my dad and then we walked up to the bull. Not a record, but a trophy for sure and with the three of us watching at 20 yards, an incredible experience for our family to share for years to come!

The week went on and the bulls went quiet but we were able to pull out another bull for my dad's friend, this one a wide 5pt that we got butchered and packed out before the big rain storms hit. We came home with every cooler full of meat and some great stories to tell! I love fall!
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[RILEYFISH]

Fantastic. Congrats to all and the opportunity to share in a memory building experience that you will cherish forever. Very nice.
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[fishinfool]

What a great story!! Congrats to your dad and his friend. Thanks for sharing that amazing story I felt like i was there!!

fnf[cool]
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[PACKFAN]

Congrats on your hunting success, the wife had a LE Wasatch tag as well but she ended up not punching it. The first evening we had several bulls come into the small spring we had built a ground blind at. The 1st was a beautiful 5X6 with long main beams as well as good length on all of his points I figured he would have been a 330 bull. I had been cow calling to him and he came down the canyon on a string, 190 yards out a shot rang out from above us and he stopped in his tracks, we found out later it was a woman above us on the ridge that shot a 2X2 buck, the bull wheeled and took off back up the canyon, damn the bad luck! Twenty minutes later a 300 class 6X6 came down the same valley to within 50 yards, the wife had her heart set on a bigger bull so she passed him up. He hung around for ten minutes or so as we were putting our packs on to head back up to the truck and didn't take off until we stepped out of our blind. Her next chance came the 3rd evening (Friday) when the bulls really opened up prior to the storms moving in, we were walking a ridge I like to bow hunt on. We would walk along slowly with the ocassional bugle mixed with some cow calls. A bull bugled straight in front of us and popped out of the scrub oak at 77 yards. I judged him to be a 320 class 6X6, but he was facing us with only a chest shot offered. We were kneeling in the tall grass but the bull knew we were there. She passed on the shot not having a rest to shoot from, the bull soon wheeled and headed back into the scrub oak. The storms kept us in camp for the next two days and when we got back out Monday the bulls had pretty much quit bugleing and it became hard to locate them. We had alot of muzzle loader deer hunters who were also carrying cow elk tags. There was alot of bugleing and cow calling going on and I think that may have shut them down. The wife was a little disappointed in not taking a bull but I told her that I was very proud of her for turning down a smaller bull that first evening in hopes of getting a better one. She still has cow tag to fill on a later hunt so I'm hoping she can bust one for the winter's meat supply.
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[fish_or_die]

Bummer bud, that's a crappy feeling to have such a rare tag and not be able to pull the trigger. Condolences to the wife!
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[PACKFAN]

She could have pulled the trigger on the first bull, she was hoping for something better. By the end of the hunt if she would have seen a bull like the one she passed I think she would have drilled him.
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[submoa]

This post is what hunting is all about! Congrats!
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[submoa]

Bummer on your wife not filling the tag. Hope you get some meet for the freezer.
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[PACKFAN]

She still has a cow tag and I will be headed to Canada the 2nd week in November on a whitetail hunt, so we may be able to put some venison in the freezer.
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[submoa]

That's good, I bought a co tag for Chalk creek, but the elk aren't where I have permission to hunt after it snows. Total roll of the dice for me. I may be buying a side of beef this year unfortunately.
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