all right guys today we're going to saddle up the horses and we're going to
head into the back country and rifle hunt some elk
ready yeah
bull's gonna be screaming
long beams long points everywhere he's a little thin but
look at his width too look at his thirds I'm not trying to talk into killing him but he's strong everywhere
when it comes to elk hunting I I love hunting for myself but I also love taking other people
it probably started back over 10 years ago when I took my passion and my obsession for
elk to the next level I became a guide and I took so many people elk hunting and there's
nothing better than taking somebody elk hunting and watching their dreams their
hunting ambitions and their passion come true to share that passion with somebody
and that excitement is so much more fun and so this is just one of those hunts it was a
special year my wife Eva she had an elk tag she's never been elk hunting before so this
was really cool and then my good friend Dustin he also had the tag and so we went in together
our mission was to find some big bulls hit it hard and see what we could come up with
all right we uh made it in the backcountry now we're a ways in here we got uh
Eva Dustin hopefully we can find some big bulls so
got in a little late maybe 4:30 into camp came a little farther than we thought
and uh we'll get camp set up here and uh get up on the hill and see if we can't find any bulls so
day before opener anticipation's high hopefully we can find a good one
what do you think Daz it's Dazzle
this is Dealer
good looking buckskin Timber
even got microphone but
so these guys Eva and Dustin they stayed on the ridge and I was like I have to look in this basin
I have to so I ran over there and it was just chock full but saw a couple big bulls
with big backs had a busted second and then down in the gully there was a good bull with nice
beams but he's kind of short up front and then there was a compact six point down there but
then across the other side there was a nice solid six kind of short points but once again long beams
which was cool
so there's lots of potential targets it's just so much fun observing elk
during the peak of their rut doing their thing interacting usually I find in areas that have high
populations of elk their vocalizations and just their interactions are just exponentially greater
just because of the population that's back there and the density of bulls so that gives you an
opportunity to learn so much and to really listen to what these elk are saying and how they're
acting and you can get a lot of experience just observing elk when you're in settings like this
what do you got there have some delicious teriyaki chicken and rice Dustin when he got over
there we got some I have the same teriyaki chicken and rice Mountain House style house style
well until tomorrow the next time you guys see us the bulls are gonna be screaming
oh here we go we're getting ready just taking a little bit yeah we're letting it get light
listening for bugles
i think we head over that gully right there
right over there
of course we all had a sleepless night we woke up the next morning and that big busted tined
bull was right back in the same place that he was the night before and he was all by himself
and I I talked to Eva and she she loved the look of that bull and she likes those massive bulls
we got a big bull spotted
try to get on him and kill him
so this big bull that I found the night before just a big frame and the first thing I look for
when I'm judging a bull is what what does this frame look like usually if you can look at a
bull and the frame looks big compared to the rest of his body proportionally you know that
you're on the right track to have you know a higher scoring animal next obviously you
got to have the width but you have to have tine length and lastly I look at mass now this bull
he's shorter up front great frame nice back end he has that snapped second point too so got to
take that into factor so that was definitely a shooter bull I mean that's a big bull
ready yeah
all by himself
send it when you're ready there you go
reload you hit him
again
take him take him
reload
he's still standing
yep take your time now take your time
done done
yes
congrats big bull the decision was easy for her she laid right down and made a
couple great shots on that bull and her hunt was over just like that
big bull
yeah
nice bull awesome
yup that's him that's alright that's alright yeah
he's heavy he is super heavy
look how heavy he is this is awesome
yeah that thing's a giant
(he's amazing) look at how massive that
(i know right) that first point is though
it's crazy yeah look at that mass
yeah he's awesome
that's a that's a easy 350 bull
he's amazing
how do you feel right now killing such a monster yeah I don't it's it's I'm still shocked
still shocked it's gonna take me I don't know take me a while
for it to uh actually sink in
he was just so easy
that day was gonna be pretty warm so we moved pretty quick we got that bull broken down and
packed out on the horses and spent the rest of the day and night getting that elk out as soon
as we could and got Eva back on the road uh to the meat processor to get that meat taken care of
the next day we woke up and me and Dustin went out for his bull we once again
we're going to be selective we were able to look over a lot of elk again the second day
we found ourselves in a really cool situation where the herd was moving from their feeding
area to their bedding area and the bow hunter in me wanted to cut this herd off and get as
close as we could to observe these elk and so we slipped in we used the terrain to our
advantage and we just watched elk do their thing anywhere from 30 yards to 90 yards as
they move through so check out this footage and just enjoy the sounds of the elk rut
he's got a cheater
ah they can't see us the sun's right in their face
he's a 39
that's a big bull yeah
that's a bull up in the chimney right there
we had some really cool bulls file by us nothing too big so we let them
all go and we decided we were going to check another basin so we got our
backpacks on and we headed out once again to find some new elk
we're just headed up we're gonna look into a new basin tonight try to find some new bulls
oh we're not not too far from camp and uh probably just relax for a little bit and catch a view and
see what we can find tonight who knows what's gonna show you never know that's
what's so cool about hunting you never know you never know what's going to show
change in an instant absolutely
as we crested into the next basin we saw a herd of elk at least two miles away it was too far to
even tell what there were we knew there were some bulls in there it looked like by their emotions
there was some bugling going on so we just laced up the boots and and we went for it we hiked right
up the bottom of the drainage we had that creek for cover noise and we were bumping into elk
so as we work closer to those elk they ended up down in the bottom of the creek drainage and in
the thick timber now this area was burned and so it's not deep dark timber like you would
normally see elk hunting but there was enough standing dead timber where it made it there was
a lot of cover and we couldn't really see what was down in there so as we just wedged our way
into them and we stayed close to the creek we had those downward thermals that wind it was
later in the evening and those elk moved from the timber side to the hillside the open side
of the mountain to feed we really were able to take a look at the herd bull so this was a cool
scenario we're within 300 yards and we had all the time in the world to judge this bull up
okay so
dude
long beams long points everywhere he's a little thin but look at his width too look
at his thirds yeah I'm not trying to talk ya into killing him but he's strong everywhere yeah
after taking maybe a minute of looking this bull over and getting a good side
profile and a good front profile we knew it didn't take us much time to know that
this was the bull that Dustin was going to harvest
we're going to kill this bull right here
big bull
right in the shoulder
he's down he's it's over dude it's a big bull I think it's
gonna surprise you okay he's a big bull he's beautiful just everywhere
look look at his seconds
look at his thirds
dude
those beams
back scratcher back scratcher
look at this
it's back to the middle of his back i know
dude he's exactly what I thought he was yeah
it's symmetrical too he's perfect absolutely buddy congrats thank you congrats heavy pieces
heck yeah wow that's what we liked about this bull was just long points everywhere and then these
beams that just go and go and go just a beautiful bull all right well we got like 30 minutes of
light left and we're a long way in here probably like a little over two miles from camp so we're
gonna gut him get them propped up get the gut pile away from him we're gonna leave him on this hill
so we can see him when we come in in the morning for G bears and I'll be in first thing in the
morning to quarter and get him home congrats again buddy thanks Dan congratulations what a bull great bull
when I first went elk hunting back in the day I went with a couple of brothers
in Idaho that were old Seminole Indians
and they taught me an old seminal tradition and what you do is you take and you cut the front legs
off right at the knee and you stand them up and they believe that lets the elk spirit run forever
I've been doing it for over 30 years and it has brought me nothing but luck it's just
it's just something I've always done it's just you know means a lot to me
and it just kind of you know pays homage to this incredible creature these bulls are
yeah there we go spirit can run free forever good mojo for the next time