Panhandle Bull Down! (Update: story/pics)

[Panhandle Archer]

Finally sealed the deal last night on a bull in the panhandle of Idaho. Nice satellite (4x5) bull. Not record booker, but a trophy in my book (3rd elk with a bow, but first bull!). I hit the woods yesterday morning at 3:30 a.m., shot the bull at 4 in the afternoon, and didn't make it out with the last quarter until 4:30 this morning! HA! Bless the Lord, I was able to make a devastating shot on the Bull-- it only ran for approx. 30 yards before it stopped and flipped onto its back (I'm pretty sure it was dead within second of the arrow striking it).

The only reason I'm even awake right now is because I had to get some more ice for the meat to keep it cold until I can get in hanging in a cooler tomorrow. Rest assured, I will provide tons of pics and a blow-by-blow tomorrow after I get some sleep and recover!

Best wishes to everyone.

[JimKirk]

can't wait to hear the story. unless you are in a clear cut, that panhandle are only takes a 20 yard pin max. it can be a jungle.

[Swede]

A Boone & Crocket bull would be fantastic, but for me a spoon & crock-pot one will always do. Congratulations on the bull & I agree: thank you Lord.

[Panhandle Archer]

2012 Elk Hunt: Here’s the full story of my 2012 bull. Yeah, it’s kind of a novel—if you would like to skip all of the background and get to the exciting part just start reading the section labeled “The Bull.”

Background: In my elk zone the season started on the 6th for bulls only. I decided to hunt an area that is privately owned, but it is open to anyone who requests permission—and quite a few people have permission. Another bonus of hunting this area is that there are many old logging roads and skid trails, but motor vehicle access is restricted. In light of this, my strategy this year has been to hike in 2 hours before light to get past any other hunters who hunt the same area.

Access to the property is only allowed during hunting season. Luckily, I am quite familiar with the area due to hunting it over the last few years, but I didn’t have an opportunity to locate elk before the season began. As such, I spent the first few days of the season covering as much ground as possible—logging miles upon miles each day (6th through the 9th). We heard some lone bugles throughout this time, generally at first light, but we couldn’t engage any of the bulls and spent most of the mornings trying to catch up with them as they made their morning commute from feeding to bedding sites. After a few run-ins with other hunters I decided that we needed to change things up and try and get into an area away from the other hunters. Instead of hunting the usual spot we parked a few miles away from our usual loading area and began hunting a different portion of the property that was less accessible, which I hoped would receive less pressure. Little did I know that I was about to discover a new honey hole. Within 30 minutes of our first hunt in the area we had 2 bulls bugling and even had a cow at 15 yards. We decided not to pressure the elk, stayed out of their bedding/feeding areas, and planned our assault for the following weekend.

9/15/2012

I called my hunting partner and told him to meet me at my house at 3:00 a.m. so that we could get an early start. My friend, who is a rookie hunter, also tagged along so that I could show him the ropes and help him get prepared for his rifle season, which begins next month.

We reached our destination by 4:00, pounded some energy drinks, put on our war paint, flicked on our headlamps and slipped into the woods. After covering a mile or so in the dark we set up in what looked like a good transition area and waited for the sun to rise. I let out a few sequences of herd talk and a locator bugle, but the woods remained silent. Roughly a half hour after first light I decided to move on. We worked our way down an old logging road, pausing every 10-15 minutes to let out a locator bugle. It wasn’t long until we got the response we had been waiting for—a bull sounded off from the top of the mountain above us. We left the road and began the brutal, near vertical climb, up the mountain. When we reached the top we set up and began cow calling, trying to elicit a response. Again, the woods were silent.

We waited for a half hour, calling intermittently, thinking that perhaps the bull would come in silent to check us out. It didn’t. However, not all was lost—we had found what looked like an elk super highway running along the crest of the hill. While working our way slowly down the trail we heard a couple of bugles… close… within 1-200 yards. I sent my hunting partner in ahead of me and I dropped back and began calling. After some excited cow talk, we received two responses. One was directly off to our left approx. 200 yards away, while the other was within 100 yards straight in front of us. With the wind in our face we decided to pursue the closer of the two. While my buddy inched forward over the next crest I setup in the bushes and began trying to coax in the bull with whiny, demanding calls. I lost sight of my partner as he slipped of the next little ridge. A few minutes later he popped back over on my side of the ride, walking with his bow in hand—no arrow nocked. I could tell from his demeanor that something was wrong. As it turns out, we had chosen the wrong bull to follow. Unbeknownst to us, some other hunters had followed us in that morning. While we went up the mountain they had continued on the road below and had gotten past us. Looking back, it’s pretty humorous. Not only were we hunting them, but they were hunting us—rather than hunting the actual bull that had been in-between us!

While we were bummed out after wasting the morning, we continued on and scouted out the area. Within a short period of time we located a wallow and a large spring feed watering hole. As the temperature began increasing I decided our best bet was to sit on the water hole for the afternoon. We set-up in the bushes 40 yards from the pool and got comfortable. It wasn’t long until I felt myself start to nod off. And, as hunting goes, as soon as I began to doze we had a visitor. I woke up to my buddy nudging me and looked down the hillside to see a 4x4 buck work his way to the water. As I reached for my bow, my buddy knocked an arrow and drew back. He zipped an arrow down at the buck, but in all of the excitement he used the wrong pin! Out of the corner of my eye I watched the arrow fly low and left of the deer, striking a huge stump. Not going to lie, I almost died of laughter on the spot as the deer bounded off. In fairness to my buddy, it is only his second year of archery and he suffers from a terminal case of buck-fever.

THE BULL

With no other better ideas, and due to the hot weather, I decided that our best bet was to stay seated and watch the water hole. Over the next few hours we patiently waited. Finally, perhaps simply due to boredom, I decided to mix things up. I gathered up some sticks that were nearby and threw them into the water below us. During the same time I began to let out some soft herd talk (trying to imitate a cow and a calf getting water). After doing this for a few minutes I put the call away and waited.

Roughly 10 minutes later I heard by buddy whisper, “Bull… dude… bull… above us.” Ha! Feeling a surge of adrenaline, I calmed my nerves and slowly rolled from my side over onto my stomach and looked up the hill. Sure enough, there was a bull up on the skid road 60 yards above us. He walked down the road a few yards, looked around, then turned around and walked a few yards the other way, again stopping to look around. Not seeing anything in either direction he turned down hill towards us, stepped off the trail, and began slowly walking down. The wind was in our favor, and I doubt he was aware that we were there. He didn’t appear to be nervous, rather I believe that he was simply looking for the source of the cow calls that he had heard 10-15 minutes earlier.

While the bull hadn’t seen us yet, I started to get nervous because the three of us were basically sitting near a clump of bushes out in the open—I hadn’t expected on to have an animal sneak up directly behind us (isn’t that how it always works though?! Ha). With the bow in my left hand, I eased up onto my hands and knees. There was nothing between the bull and I except for two trees, which made a V. At this point in time I knew that time was running short until the bull figured out something was wrong or spotted us. He took a few more steps into the opening of the V and stopped, looking directly at me (remember: I am crouched like a freakin’ tiger on my hands and knees!). I kept my head low and prayed that he wouldn’t see me. The bull took a baby step to his right, turned his head, and I made the snap decision that it was either now or never—seizing the opportunity I quickly leaned back onto my knees, drew the bow, and let my arrow fly. (Now, I’m sure I’ll get some flack for taking the quartering-to shot, however, this is a shot I feel comfortable with due to my shooting ability and gear. I practice hard, shoot the heavy FMJ carbon arrows and 125 gr. G5’s, for this reason alone.) My arrow split the uprights of the V and found its mark. The bull jumped, ran approx. 30 yards, and flipped over onto its back!

The next few minutes were full of grown men hugging, laughing, and flipping out. Seriously, we were all as giddy as school girls! While the Bull wasn’t a monster, and my 3rd with a bow, it was my first bull with a bow, which makes it perhaps the greatest trophy in my book.

With the fun over, the hard part of the trip began. Unfortunately, my hunting partner had to leave after the first pack-out trip was completed. So it was left to my other buddy and I to finish the job. After hours of back breaking work, we stumbled out the woods at 4:36 Sunday morning with the last quarters strapped to our backs. The hunt was everything I could have hoped for. Not only did I score my first archery bull, but I was able to do it with some of my best friends.

The Bull:

elk1.jpg (131.43 KiB) Viewed 3507 times

elk2.jpg (49.35 KiB) Viewed 3507 times

The water hole:

elk pond.jpg (178.2 KiB) Viewed 3507 times

[Gevärssmed]

Nice Job Panhandle Archer. That's awesome!! Great story too. My hunting partner Levergun and I are hoping for the same success as we hunt the Panhandle too. He's at camp right now by himself but I got called back into work until Wednesday

Great story and pic's.... Thank you for sharing.

[Magic]

You earned your trophy. Congratulations.

[Panhandle Archer]

JimKirk: Sounds like you know the Panhandle well! The terrain is nothing but steep, vertical mountains, and narrow finger ridges. To make things even more interesting, the mountains are covered in 3-6' high bushes. Fortunately, the spot I was in when I shot the bull had been logged recently (last few years), so I didn't have to fight the terrain as much as usual.

Gevärssmed: Thanks. It's great to hear from another Panhandle hunter. What area (generally speaking, of course) are you hunting? Cda river drainage/4th of july? I have been all around unit 2 and 3 so far this year. I also hunt unit 4, 5, and 6 quite often... but I only have heard second hand reports from those areas this year.

Swede, Magic, theelkhunter: Thanks guys!

[Gevärssmed]

Hello Panhandle Archer,

We are up in unit 4A mostly. Probably going to be another bad year up there though. Wolves were howlin like mad tonight about an hour ago. Last time that happened (2 years ago) elk hunting sucked!!! That won't stop us though... We'll still hunt our butts off till we find em: )

I talked to some friends over in the Kingston area and they said the elk hunting was tough and they got a couple of those land sharks. I can't confirm that right now but will real soon.

Good job again with your Bull elk. Congrats!!!

Sent from my iPhone.

[gagodfrey]

What in the world are you wearing on your back to haul the head out? It doesn't even look like you have a pack on! It looks like one of those big fanny pack deals! Please tell me you had packs to haul with, but you just chose that pic because of the contents of the photo.

[Panhandle Archer]

What in the world are you wearing on your back to haul the head out? It doesn't even look like you have a pack on! It looks like one of those big fanny pack deals! Please tell me you had packs to haul with, but you just chose that pic because of the contents of the photo.

Ha! Funny story about the packboards actually. We only had two packboards, because the 3rd guy had just been tagging along that day. So, on the first trip down the hill the other two guys took a quarter each on the packboards and hauled them. I, on the other hand, just carried a meat-bag of scraps and strapped the head/antlers to the back of my Sitka pack (not a fanny pack, just their smaller day pack with straps across the back).

Things got more interesting on the way down the mnt. when my hunting partner broke his packboard. He had to carry his quarter over his shoulder the last couple hundred yards. And, to make matters worse, his wife called him pissed off cuz he hadn't checked in. So, he had to go home to salvage his marriage

I ended up giving my other buddy my packboard and I instead used a huge internal frame pack to get the last front quarter and meat bag out.

It was an adventure to say the least.

[Vanish]

Way to stick out the middle of the day to make it happen!

[one_elk]

Congrats on the bull and thanks for the pictures and story