Not the Donkey Bull but.........

[WapitiTalk1]

One of my 2015 Idaho hunting partners Joe headed into an area not too far from our camp the evening of 21 September and came back with tales of "a donkey" loose in the elkwoods. Well, it wasn't really a donkey, just a herd bull that had a braying voice similar to a donkey. As we compared notes that evening, I agreed that we need to go after the donkey the very next morning. We headed in at 0620 down the ridge from camp to see if we could hear the old boy again and make a game plan to get up close and personal with him. After a bit less than 1/2 mile down the flat ridge, I gave two or three cow calls to see if anybody was interested. We immediately heard three bulls across from us, down in the draw, probably on the other side. One was a real melody maker, hitting the entire scale of sweet elk notes; one sounded like an upstart bull hanging around one of the herd bulls; and yep, the third bull we heard was Mr. Donkey, braying away. We knew we had to work the thermals to have a chance so down, down, down the ridge we went to a place we figured we could safely drop down to the bottom of the draw and work our way back up.

This process took a bit over an hour and we started working up the long, deep draw. By this time, the bulls had seemingly went silent (at least there was no unsolicited bugling that we could hear as the elk bedded and we started up the long, deep draw). We did our first setup much farther down in the draw than we had heard the bulls initially. In this area, the bulls come high to feed and bed down low in the deep, cool draws so we started low. First setup/calling resulted in another/different bull just across the draw and up the sidehill answering, promptly grabbing his handfull of cows, and heading out (wanted nothing to do with us). No problem, there were other fish to fry up the draw. Onward we went, up the draw. Located several wallows on the bottom that had been used weeks ago.. and, I actually stopped to snap a picture of one when I realized my little Canon Elph camera battery was on its last leg (dang it). OK, lots of elk sign so time to set up again. Moved up the sidehill 20/30 yards from the bottom, set Joe up to my right, and I deployed the Poison Arrow Gear cow face on my Alpine and sat and listened for 5 minutes... nothing. Threw out some sweet cow sounds and immediately heard and saw several cows above me standing up and slowly moving to the right. A few more cow sounds resulted in a bull coming off his cows (see, greed kills..lol) and directly at me down the hillside.

Joe had no shot from his position when the bull stopped 25 yards from me but I almost did but it was a frontal shot with too much debris between me and the shirt pocket of the bull. After a few seconds of staring at the PAG pretty cow face decoy, he wheeled slowly and headed back up to his girls. I immediately moved to my left and up about 10 yards where I would have a clearer sight pic if I could once again turn him (the threat was on my list next), and threw two very whiny cow calls out right before I stopped. The bull turned on a dime and down he came down again to "collect me", this time stopping about 25-28 yards but this time broadside, quartering slightly downhill, and stopped and made eye contact with the PAG decoy where I was kneeling.. My arrow was on the way immediately when he stopped and the 125 grain Shuttle T smacked home exactly where I was aiming. Now this is where it gets good but a bit puzzling at the end as you'll see. The bull bolted up to the right, jumped over a 3 foot log, stopped and collapsed dead in less than 5 or 6 seconds (traveling less than 15 yards)! Sweet...heart shot I figured. I saw Joe up above me to the right moving towards where I thought I saw the bull collapse through the vegetation and gave him three quick cow calls (our signal to come my way) but Joe kept moving towards where I'd last seen the bull standing.. He was in a position to see the bull moving after I shot (he did not know I had shot) and was actually drawing on the bull when it stopped and dropped. I saw Joe standing looking at where I thought I had saw the bull drop and quiety said "Joe"... he responded with "ya". "Is he dead I asked"? Joe said "ya, as a doornail". Five point? Joe said "ya".

After a few knuckle bumps and high fives, I had enough life left in the Canon for a few pics but that was it and the battery died. My arrow entered in the V right behind the front right leg bone and the arrow broke in three pieces. 4" of the front 14" of the BH tipped arrow was protruding out high on the left rear side and one 5" piece of the middle of the shaft was found inside the animal. I never did find the fletched end of the arrow. The heart was "not touched" and from what we could see, only one lung was shot through and here is the odd part, one of the loins had a hole poked through it but no arrow piece exited the skin there. Not sure exactly what killed this bull so quickly, perhaps the power of the Alpine bow and Shuttle T shock power, lol. I do know it was a great day in the elk woods. After boning out the bull, placing the meat bags on logs to cool in the shade doused in chili powder, and heading up the steep side hill to an old logging road with the straps, loins, one boned out quarter, and rack on our backs for the long march back to camp, my other 2015 Idaho hunting partner Ern came cruising by on his quad at the moment we stepped onto the road. That saved us a mile walk back to the camp.

The bull was shot at 0923 and his nose hit the dirt promptly at 0923. It seems that there were probably 5 or more bulls in that long draw. All in all, a great hunt where the elk gods were smiling on me and by gosh, that Poison Arrow Gear pretty cow face quiver mounted decoy is some kind of great product! Joe shared with the processing costs, and, worked his butt off with the boning out of the elk so he took home a good handful of processed/frozen treats for all his help (thanks Joe). I'll share a bit with Ern for his packing help when I see him again. Still left me a good bit of elk meat in my little freezer in the garage. Thanks for reading my long tale of the tape. Now, I just need to figure out what killed the 5 point bull so quickly?

The Donkey bull surfaced again down below camp again a few days later and Joe was able to get close but no shot. I stayed at camp to try to help call something in for the guys (and help pack if needed) but no more shots at camp this year. We'll see if he's there again next year.

[Elkduds]

Congratulations! Good hunt, great shot, excellent writeup. Makes me hungry.

[Ponyboy_jonas]

Great story! Congrats!

[BRazz]

Nice job RJ!!!!

Just curious - where is that draw with 5+ bulls in it?

[Lefty]

Great story!!!

Congratulations

[Elkonthebrain]

Nice work!

[zpd307]

congrats rory! elk 4, gary 0....

[ElkNut1]

Great job & even better story! Thanks a bunch for the play by play Rory, congrats again!

ElkNut1

[Toothy]

great story! thanks for sharing so much, congrats.

21 days and 2,600miles left for me.. ugh

[Ridgernr]

Way to go Rory , that a great bull and story

[WapitiTalk1]

Thanks guys. Was a good hunt.

[Trophyhill]

Sweet! Congrats on a very nice bull! And may I say..... finally after a few years of passing on inferior bulls you decided to take one. Awesome hunt!

[Backyard]

Way to go!
Looks like a happy freezer!

[Stick]

Sitting in the deer stand with my 9 year old son read the first sentence of this post and died laughing. Quietly of course but had my son making funny faces at me.

Great story. Good kill. Congrats

[Swede]

Congratulations on a great hunt. I think I like that last picture of the bull in the freezer best. lol

[Old school]

Thanks for sharing the story - with the recap stories of your hunts that you and Paul write, its almost as good as being there.

--Mitch