Well the unit we've hunted the last few trips seemed to have more and bigger bulls than in recent history. A wet year helped the elk herd and antler development. A warm archery season and a cold snap about the time we got started meant that for the first 3 days the elk were screaming all over the mountains. Two of our guys counted 14 bulls in the hills around them on opening morning. Finally at dark one of them shot a 300ish bull after failing to get a shot at the biggest bull that they estimated at 350. They said that throughout the day they never went 5 minutes without hearing a bugle. It snowed on days 2 and 5.
I shot this bull at about 250 yards on opening morning. We'd spooked the herd and they took off running. This bull was behind about 10 cows and he paused before heading up into the timber after his cows. When he paused I let him have a 180g accubond from my 300 WM.
Upon close inspection I discovered that my bull had the tip of another bull's antler stuck in his neck. It's an antler tip about 6 inches long. It was stuck in hard enough I couldn't pull it out with 2 hands. Imagine the torque needed to break that antler in his neck!
By the time the 5 day hunt was over we were 7 of 8 and the remaining hunter had several opportunities. One hunter killed his bull after this picture was taken. (I'm the guy second from the right in the black vest.)
Now I've got a week of bowhunting before the duck season opens.
