mobility impared muzzleloader hunt

[hornart]

Here is the bull that I harvested opening morning of the muzzleloader hunt in unit 52 New Mexico

[bnsafe]

great lookin bull, congrats

[WapitiTalk1]

Nicely done Sir! Great looking bull.

[JimKirk]

nicely done and congratulations. some big one have hit the dirt this year in new mexico. lots of calves this year too so the population should be good next year too.

[Harmy]

Nice one Hornart. Good to see another smoke pole success.

[hornart]

Here is the story to my hunt,first I must apologize,I`m no writer like Harmy,,anyhow,,I have hunted unit 52 muzzleloader for 4 years now,,Opening morning,,my son-in-law and I headed down to a meadow from camp that we have had some success in,,as we were hiking in in the dim light of morning we spotted some elk feeding in a small meadow,,after a look at them thru the scope we realized it was just a spike and cow,,they wandered off to the south and we continued on our way to the big meadow,,as we were walking thru the meadows and aspen groves we could hear some bugles down the mountain from us,,we hurried along following the timber line to the upper edge of this meadow,,we had several bulls bugling back and forth to each other,,we had one bull on the left and one bull on the right and several in between them,,the bull on the right sounded closer to me and so I told the son-in-law to stay and I was going to cross this open meadow area and try to get a look at this bull to our right,,I didnt know if the bull on the left was going to see me or not but I hurried as fast as I dare across the meadow to a patch of aspen trees,,as I was sneaking thru the aspens I could hear this bull bugling at his cows to get moving,,then I realized that 2 of his cows were facing me but were feeding and had not seen me,,all of a sudden the bull apeared,,a good solid 6 point,,he was ready to leave the area and he came up and hooked those 2 cows with his antlers and sent them on their way across the meadow,,he turned and started to follow the cows and then the bull on the left bugled and my bull turned broadside to me and all I had was a small opening between 2 aspens to shoot,,he stepped up and I sent him a TC sabot at 30 yards,,it connected right behind the front shoulder and he took off,,the son-in-law had watched me shoot and he came over to where I was and while I was reloading we saw several cows and bulls run around another aspen grove on the other side of the meadow,,I told the son-in-law that I needed to look for blood and so we walked to the outer edge of the aspens to where the bull had been,,when we got to where the bull had been standing we could see down the meadow hillside and there he was,,piled up,,a 30 yard shot and a 30 yard run,,he was down,,I hope you enjoy the story

[planebow]

Nice bull and nice story. Congrats!!

[T/H]

great story Steve and congrats on a great bull! sounds like a great hunt for sure. thanks again for your advice/confirmation regarding my elk hunt this year.