 My quest for a big bull elk started nine years ago when I put in for
an elk tag in Arizona's draw system. Ever since then I have always looked forward to
opening the mailbox and finding an elk tag. As most of you have experienced, though, my
disappointment came over and over again. I began to get the attitude that the actual elk
tag itself was more of a trophy than the actual elk. Well, that soon changed when the
results of the 2001 Arizona hunt draw were published on the web. I frantically signed on
to the Arizona Game & Fish web page. At first I thought it must have been a mistake,
but after pinching myself several times, the computer screen still read, "you have
been drawn for early bull elk, you have been drawn for December muzzleloader mule
deer". Finally, after nine years of waiting and being disappointed, I had drawn two
of the best tags in the state. Within an hour I had called everyone I knew to brag about
my tag. I also found out that one of my best friends, Chris Dunn, had drawn the same elk
tag as I. This was a real bonus, because Chris is an excellent elk hunter and had drawn
this same elk tag four years earlier killing a 381 B&C elk with his muzzleloader. I
immediately began picking Chris's mind for where the elk would be. We began planning our
scouting trips and scouring over maps of the area. The hunt was in the end of September,
the peak of the rut for the big bulls.
One month later, while I was helping a friend on a bear hunt, Chris called me and said he
was watching a 370 bull right in front of him. He also wanted to know when I was going to
quit messing around with bears and come find a big bull elk. It didn't take long for Chris
and I to start finding big bulls. Two weeks later we found ourselves on a rock outcropping
surrounded by big bulls. Five bulls over 350 were bugling their heads off all around us,
but two of these bulls were special. One was a 6 x 7 and the other was huge 6 x 6, we
guessed both were close to the 400 mark. The 6 x 6 was a bull that Chris had watched for
almost five years and had named him the "Little Mountain Bull." As you can
imagine, we couldn't sleep that night with the thought of huge bulls racing around in our
minds. The next week, Chris decided he wanted to check out one other area just in case
these bulls disappeared. Chris located two more huge bulls, and one of them caught his
attention. The bull was a 9x9 non-typical with forked G-2's and a split fourth point. Now
the only problem Chris and I faced was keeping track of these bulls for another three
weeks until the season started.
As we watched these elk over the next
few weeks I began to become very disappointed. The bulls were rutting and fighting very
hard and they were breaking off a lot of points. The big 6x7 broke off his G-1 and G-3 on
one side and the 6x6 Little Mountain Bull with him had also broken off his fifth point.
However, Chris was happy to find that the 9x9 non-typical hadn't broken anything yet.
Everytime we had a day off we were out scouting and glassing for elk. By the time the hunt
started we had seen nine bulls over the 350 mark.
Opening morning found Chris to be the lucky
one. He found his bull in the same place he had seen it the night before, and his hunt
ended with him taking the huge 9x9 with a 200-yard shot. My morning was totally opposite.
My good friend Rom Dryden and I glasssed and called all morning and never saw or heard an
elk. The seven bulls that were in the area I was hunting had disappeared overnight. We had
a feeling that the bulls were moving into deeper country to get away from the activity in
the area. That evening Rom and I began glassing a huge canyon, and with in minutes Rom
yelled he had found two bulls. We soon realized that one of the bulls was the Little
Mountain Bull with the broken fifth point. He was very impressive and his bottom three
points on both sides were huge. We were located in a huge canyon and tried to stalk as
close as we could, but he was still over 1,000 yards away. Rom began bugling and the other
bull that was with him began moving towards us. Within 10 minutes the other bull, which
was a neat 7x8 non-typical that would gross around 360, was within 80 yards. After looking
him over, I decided I wanted to shoot the Little Mountain Bull. We waited until dark and
snuck out of the canyon. The next morning we drove around to the other side of the canyon
where he was. We hiked out to a rock outcropping and as soon as it was light Rom let out a
long bugle. The Little Mountain Bull quickly answered it. To our delight he had come up
out of the canyon and was off to our left. We quickly covered as much ground as we could
and bugled again. The bull answered back defiantly. He was across a little draw in some
thick junipers but we couldn't see him. I quickly range found the only two openings across
the draw and got set up to shoot. Rom picked up a big stick and began beating a juniper 20
yards from me. With in seconds of Rom hitting the tree, the bull stepped out in the
opening looking for the one making the sound. I centered the crosshairs of the 30-378
Weatherby on his chest and pulled the trigger. The bull dropped hard. After a few high
fives and some yelling, we raced across the draw and found a magnificent bull elk. There
was absolutely no ground shrinkage on this bull. As luck would have it the bull that was
named the Little Mountain Bull died on Little Mountain, not more than 200 yards from where
Chris had seen him five years earlier.
My bull officially scored 369 7/8 SCI,
but he had broken off his fifth point and some of two other points. I had found one of his
points, and after reviewing video of the bull, we guesstimated with those points he would
have scored 396 SCI. Pretty close to our first estimate of close to 400. Chris's bull,
which had not broken any points off the day before the season, broke two points off the
night before the season. He would have grossed in the 370's without broken points. The
hard rut took its toll on these bulls causing a lot of broken antlers. I found eight
broken points on my hunt, and a friend found a big 7x8 bull whose skull had been broken
and died in a fight with another bull.
As you can see the nine-year wait was
well worth it. My special thanks to Chris Dunn, a good friend, and an excellent elk
hunter. Chris gave up his time and secret areas to help a friend and I can't thank him
enough. |
= Story Included
-----> 