on this episode of Sportsman's News television we're here in Utah on a Cooperative Wildlife
Management Unit A cwmu what that means is these guys get to set their own season dates roughly
90 days which is within the boundaries of the state wildlife agency so we get
to hunt elk from early in September all the way through November and you never know when
that's going to become very beneficial I'm hunting with Tony Johnson who's one of our Pro members
who took advantage of the opportunity to get a discount by being a pro member we're going with
one of our Platinum approved Outfitters Kobe hunt Utah big game Outfitters and he has put
together something with this cwmu Dana Jenkins and these guys are great everybody went out
of their way to make this a great hunt stick around this is going to be a good show
nothing says elk hunting like the golden leaves of autumn the glow of a wall tent in the cool evening air
and the bugle of a bull looking to defend his harem this is a great time to be in the elk
woods and have a tag in your pocket Utah is one of the few states that allows elk to be hunted
during the prime of the rut and with a rifle these are truly once in a lifetime hunting
opportunities for those fortunate enough to draw a tag however the cwmus sell these tags each and
every year in the Sportsman's news Pro membership sweepstakes purchase one of these great hunts
to give away annually as well as provides a few memberships an opportunity to purchase these tags
Tony Johnson from Arkansas is the lucky recipient of this great tag and we're going
to do everything in our power to find him a giant we covered nearly every inch of this 10,000 acre
plus ranch over the next three days and only turned up a few smaller bulls off the property
the severe drought had dried up stock tanks that hadn't been dry in over half
a century this property usually holds good numbers of cow elk which is essential when
you're hunting the rut and they had left with the lack of water and green grass
it was obvious that our hopes for harvesting Tony a bull was a bust yeah so far it's been
been pretty slow uh the elk haven't really kicked into the rut yet they're about 10
days behind with the drought and uh it's been pretty pretty tough pretty tough hunting so far
a conversation with Kobe and Dana about coming back late in
the season when the bulls are on this ranch which is their winter
range was a welcome with open arms they wanted success as bad as we did
I'm not sure how many of you people watching this understand how big of a deal it is to
have a customer come back after having a tough or in this case an impossible hunt
it's hard to harvest an animal that isn't there and both Kobe and Dana could have had us hunt our
other two days and try to make the most of it a platinum approved Outfitter is an Outfitter that
puts people before profit in both Utah big game Outfitters and Sportsman's hunting Adventures meet
this litmus test we're headed back late November to the same place we had hunted in September but
this time it's winter and the bulls are already starting to pull under the winter range
the first morning of our hunt put us smack dab in the midst of a winter storm
getting up on top of the mountain was going to be a job in itself let alone
trying to spot a viable shooter in this nasty weather twenty percent chance of snow today Mike
so what do you think I think we can make it think so yeah well Tony you were here
in September and now we're about two minutes into hunting and we've got a shooter what do
you think oh man I'm getting pumped seen a lot more already than what we did in September and
after some maneuvering Dana got us out to a lookout point which would give us a good
vantage point if the weather broke after an hour of sitting there didn't seem to be any break in
sight and the snow was piling up between gusts we were able to pick up a bachelor herd of bulls
cross canyon and in a good place for a stalk it took us nearly two hours to get back to the
area where the bulls were bedded due to the severe winter conditions we moved slowly and methodically
down the ridge peeking over the top and hoping they would be there we finally determined
that the bulls had their fill of the winter wonderland and probably moved into the trees
the next morning the skies were clear and the conditions were perfect to hunt elk we made it to
the top of the mountain in the fresh snow and we were out on top of prime lookouts as the sun rose
we would be able to see a good majority of the mountain face and more importantly
we could see the fingers where the bulls were the day before
Dana immediately spotted two bedded bulls across the canyon from us
after settling in behind the rifle Tony didn't feel comfortable and we moved up the hill for a
closer shot but the bulls got up and on the move Tony got in position and the bulls moved closer
to us towards their escape route at 450 yards the bulls stopped and Tony decided to take the shot
this spooked the bulls and they were gone before we could try again
yeah we come up here early September
for an elk hunt and uh with the drought and
just a very bad condition uh we've seen no life at all so I was able to come back on the late
hunt in November here and we've been able to see a lot of movement lots of bulls good bulls
and uh had three this morning that we was uh able to get on and uh just uh let them they've done
their thing uh missed shot and uh so we're looking at them and fixing to go after them this afternoon
since we had seen the bulls from the day before on our morning setup at long range we decided
to make our way to the other end of the ranch and try to make a play once we got through the
trees we immediately saw elk in the skyline and sure enough it was the huge 5x6 from the day before
this was an old mature bull and definitely what Tony had come to Utah for it took us nearly 30
minutes to get into position with only the crest in the hill and one small bush for our cover
right on him right in the shoulder
whenever you're ready
crushed him crushed him
first bull elk baby it's wonderful wonderful nothing but net crushed him
baby nice shooting thank you bring it home to daddy bring it home to daddy
oh that was sweet beautiful sun on him
He piled up too good Tony was able to bag this bull because of
Sportsman's news long time relationships with great outfitters like Utah big game Outfitters
we've hunted with Kobe for many years and they know that our members are special both
Kobe and Dana really went the extra mile to bring us back and it really paid off
oh yeah good job brother
oh yeah look at that son of a gun
you got a place on the wall for that guy?
wonderful day up here on the mountain like we said earlier it was a blizzard yesterday
the skies cleared out last night wonderful weather temperature warmed up elk come out
and uh we was able to sneak up on him and got a shot
it was a wonderful experience if you'd like to benefit from these great relationships make sure
you join the pro membership sweepstakes we have a winner every 10 days sign up online
at Pro membership sweepstakes.com where you get to hunt and fish like the pros thanks for
joining us on this episode of Sportsman's News television we'll see you next time