Out West

[buckpro]

Just got back from an awesome trip out west. Few months ago I had a chance at a tag that was too good to pass on short notice in eastern Oregon. We knew it would be a tough hunt as these elk had been pushed down on the prairie and avoided the timber due to wolves. Hunting wide open country had me a little worried to say the least.
First afternoon we get there and scout, I could tell my guide was worried, there wasn’t a single bull on the area we had to hunt, they were all on a refuge and the big bulls had anywhere between 20 to 100 cows with them. On top of that they weren’t fired up much.

So they next morning within the first hour we spot a single bull that was worth taking another look at, so we slip around to a small knoll that offered a little cover in the rocks. The bull immediately responded to our first call but offered little interest. We had 3 other bulls come over the distant hills to check us out but none got any closer than a thousand yards. Still playing with the first bull we saw, the sun finally hit the decoys we kept flashing from behind the hill and he started to get fired up a little bit but was moving no closer. For the next 30 or so minutes he slowly was getting fired up, but I honestly thought I was going to pass on this bull. At 980 yards he stopped again but we were still bugling back and forth and I told Rob to take the decoy down and make him think we are leaving.

The moment the decoy went down and Rob bugled, he broke loose and headed our way disappearing in a draw. He got to a fence where we couldn’t see him and let out about 10-15 bugles, we knew if he crossed that fence, it would be on. Then he shut up, I knew what that meant, and within a minute I could see tine tips coming over the hill at about 250. I got a really good look at him then and decided I’d be a fool to pass that kind of elk in that kind of country. As I dropped down behind the rocks in the shade, Rob dropped off the hill below us trying to pull him to the side of the hill we wanted him on.
A soon as I saw tines I drew, I had ranged a rock at 43 yards and he was well past that. Perfectly silhouetted, he looked like a turkey peaking over the side of the hill looking for the source. I figured around 50-53 yards, settled in and let it fly. I felt the shot was a bit back which had me worried but my wife was sure it wasn’t as she was 2 feet to my left watching the entire thing. He made it 100-150 and laid down and was done in a short time. Only bad part was it was over entirely took quickly. Scored 320 on the dot.

Spent the rest of the day and Sunday getting him cleaned up and hanging out with a few locals, even got to take a ride in a supercub. Rode up the eagle caps and took a hike to 9000ft and then went to hells canyon for an afternoon, then drove to Jackson Hole and almost got locked in Yellowstone due to a blizzard. I could just drive around out there and be happy. Unreal trip.

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