it's the first week of october we're here with our home winner dan in southern colorado run big bulls
they're still in the rut it's going to be a lot of fun so stay tuned right here on eastmans hunting
tv we're going to chase big bulls with our 2012 hunt winner dan miller how you doing nice to meet
you sir thank you you're the lucky guy huh i'm the lucky guy well you're in for a treat last year was
a really good year and he said this year's just as good or better so i'm excited the elk should
still be rutting um they were a little late this year so they should be hitting the peak of the rut
right now after meeting up with dan we headed straight to the range to check at zero in the
meantime we'll let dan introduce himself and tell you a little bit about his hunt winner experience
my name is dan miller i'm from nahanka nebraska which is a small town south of
omaha i'm originally from wisconsin pretty much whitetail hunted i have done a little bit of mule
deer hunting shot a very respectable 185 class mule deer it was a very rewarding experience
and now i'm i'm here with an expectation of killing a bull elk i've never killed a bull
before i have elk hunted before on public land late season for cow only now that we have dan
all set up with some new gear it's finally time to head out in search of a big bull
unfortunately elk sightings were few and far between that afternoon
we still managed to spot one good bull off in the distance but with a storm front quickly
approaching gusty winds and sporadic rain made hearing bugles and glassing difficult
by daybreak the following morning the weather cleared up
and it wasn't long before we were hot on the trail of a few bugling bulls
i haven't heard that one in the canyon though
after covering quite a bit of ground we finally closed the distance on these bugles
after the break we'll see if we can get dan
up close and personal with some rutting bulls for the first time
let's pick up the action as we try to close the distance on some big bugling colorado bulls
nice
as we watched this bull herd his cows in a small opening in front of us we realized that another
satellite bull had snuck in on us to our left determined to come check out all the commotion
being so early on in the hunt and knowing that there were
bigger bulls around we decided to sit back and enjoy the show
guy eastman can't help himself he's found the benchmark and he says nope
we can do better than that don't shoot that one looking for the next level up
it's the third day of our elk hunt with our 2012 ebj hunt winner dan miller
as we approach the heat of the day after a slow morning of hunting paul has decided to
do some blind calling in hopes of firing up a bull before we head back to camp for lunch
after stopping to call several times without a response a bugle finally rang out from the
bottom of a steep dark timber canyon
let's get set up over there get set up down there okay
and i'm gonna try and pull him up all right
calling a bull uphill out of the bottom of a deep dark canyon like this
doesn't happen very often but eventually paul's calling became too much for this bull to handle
and he finally appears from the thick timber
this is a pretty good bull but unfortunately somehow he's managed to shear off most of his left
antler but with at least one other bull bugling we decided to stay put and see what happens
frustrated that he hasn't found the cow he was looking for but one horn bull takes out
his aggression on the oak brush hopes that the commotion will cause the hot cow to expose herself
is that worth your 25 subscription dan
i told these guys i said get ready he's about ready to blow your eardrums out
he came right over there and just ripped it didn't he
needing a change in luck we've decided to head to a different part of the area
to check out some very large meadows just below a massive burn
real quiet slow
after quietly slipping out to the edge of the timber we quickly spot
a big bull working a herd of cows out in the middle of the meadow
look him over make sure it's the right one yeah that spool we want to kill this area is a great
place to find big bulls later on in the rut as cows like to congregate in these meadows
drawing bulls from all over the surrounding area however it could be a tough spot to hunt because
when the elk get out in the open there often isn't any way to get close enough for a shot
as the sun began to fade the herd slowly drifted further and further out into the meadow as the
bull worked hard to keep his herd in order and fend off the smaller satellite bulls
too far got to let him get closer
we made a last-ditch effort to close the distance crawling to the last set
of pines on the edge of the meadow but the bull never came back into dan's range
and we were forced to pull out until the next evening
well we're going back in after that big bull we saw last night there's even a bigger one there now
that we saw this morning so we're gonna sneak in it's early in the afternoon we're gonna get all
set up and just set up an ambush we've already seen them working their way down that canyon
and out into this meadow so we're gonna get set up hopefully the wind cooperates with us
and that bull comes out of the uh into the meadow where we think he's going to or we can get a shot
that's the big six
they're gonna start making a move for water now i hope
but we carefully crawled out to get dan set up on this dead fall the huge six point and his
new herd slowly worked their way out into the meadow with no more cover in front of us all we
can do is sit back and hope that something causes the big bull to work within range of dan's 306
for the next hour we watched as this huge bull worked tirelessly to keep his herd in check
literally running back and forth to keep the satellite bulls away from his cows
while he looks for a second cycle cow that has not been bred yet
this is mother nature's way of making sure that every single cow in the herd gets bred
suddenly out of nowhere the big bull from last night emerges from the timber
and what happened next was almost too good to be true a huge six point charges over
running off another satellite then turns to posture up with a bull from last night
and now we have two huge bulls making a beeline straight for us
350
he's still gotta come they're both coming to us
whichever one you like
three one zero
he's a three take him
hit him
the hunt winner strikes again that is a huge bull huge huge bull hey paul
give it a thumbs up i'm gonna send it to the office crew say this is another happy hunt winner
before we came up here we made the decision we shoot either of those two bulls because we knew
they were in here what did they do so then they both come over to under 300 yards from us so what
do you do take the closer one well can i put my hands on him yet yeah let's walk down today today
we've probably seen four bulls that were in that 350 range and he's just a great bull a lot of toad
dan i just want you to ease your way up have a shell ready and just uh touch him in the eye
okay he's done dunbar high fives guys high fives yeah good job good job buddy thank you
well here we are with dan miller our 2012 hunt winner for eastman's hunting journal and eastman's
bowhunting journal actually this is the ebj hunt winner and he hammered this humongous bull
this is a giant bull we watched him for two days and finally as paul says patience kills right paul
patience kills
so what do you think dan for your first elk hunting experience for bulls
kind of almost speechless you know it's something i've always dreamed about and
you guys made the dream come true so well it was a lot of fun having you we hope i hope you
have a good had a good time here had a wonderful time here everything everything's been way above
what i ever expected it to be and remember fair chase is the only way to hunt and take
trophy big game i'm guy eastman we'll see you next week right here on eastman's hunting tv