The one that got away

[Lefty]

Twice Ive cut sturgeon off after 2 hours On th Columbia River I wasnt going to win either of those battles,.. Once a big cat on the Minnesota River

No fish stories, nothing but bull here!.
Whats the story behind the biggest bull , that got away.
I was going through some pics I hunted this group of bulls. Passed on their slacker little spike that was with the herd
And the smallest in the picture I blew a shot on him
Two years later the biggest in the pic may have been the one I watched all August and the wolves ate, he was old and cripples,.. and still big. Well they bedded in the exact location.

A bit after 3:00 , I was going to glass into the lava f low and work my way into the wind. 250 yards from the lava I see the cows. I laid down( right on a cactus) that side tracked me for minutes, laying on my side I pulled out cactus needles. I looked up and 5x5 got out of bed, then each of the two bigger bulls. I was on them as soon as I could. Walked right past a bedded spike. He got up. stopped to take a look at me, then hurried to his bigger brethren and all the girls.
The big guy bedded back down while the harem grazed near him. the other bulls milled around near me 50-100 yards, not interested in eating, or so it seemed, nor getting near the big bedded bull. I cow called and bugled. The big bull popped up and chased the girls a couple miles. The wind is changing, now sunset. Im closer to a dozen elk, with a few bulls the biggest a nice matched set 5x5. Night falls , I ran out of time and it was a long walk back to camp

Minutes after 7:00 Am the sun shines in the broadside of a bull elk a miles away two hours later at 21 yards is the small bull in the pic

Ive posted these bulls before

bullscopy re (Small) (Custom).jpg (47.07 KiB) Viewed 1353 times

[Swede]

I have had some excellent bulls get away. Maybe the biggest was one that passed by Oly and me on the run back in about 1994.
Another time a very large bull came in toward my stand. He had one cow with him in the early season. It was about 9:00 AM. I heard him first then saw the two as they made their way up the wide draw toward the water hole and wallow where I was waiting at. They were into the very last stand of poles in front of me. As soon as they came through they would be in shooting range. I was going to wait until they were at the wallow or wallow and not moving around before shooting. Suddenly a cold down draft hit me in the back and took my scent right to where the were. Game over.