Clay Bowers, aka UngulateFoe, wrote the following in our talk forum.....

"My buddy and I drew some great elk tags this year. The hunt started well; bulls were bugling everywhere. We honed in on an area that held multiple bulls that sounded very mature, and on the second day of the hunt we both had an opportunity. He was a nice 6x6, and upon release my arrow found a tree that appeared out of nowhere. My buddy attempted a follow up shot, but his arrow did not connect. That night, we found ourselves in the same area with active bulls all around. We followed bugles to a nice open meadow where 3 bulls were feeding, bugling and fighting. The biggest of the three just happened to be the closest, 64 yards. My buddy snuck in to the edge of the meadow and released. The bull died 70 yds later.

The next few days were tough, little to no bugling and full moon. We abandoned our core area and went deeper. The morning produced nothing but a sighting of a cow and one unknown bull that we blew out of bed at 20 yds. That evening, we were sneaking through the dark timber just waiting to grab sight of an elk or possibly hear one sound off. At about 1820 hrs, we heard a massive bugle just upslope of us about 300-400 yds away. The wind was perfect for an approach. We closed about 200 yds and decided to sit and bugle as we encountered an area that was too thick to sneak through. The bull immediately responded. A few more bugles by my buddy and the bull was CLOSE. His bugles were deep, loud and honestly scary! He topped out on a rise about 20 yds in front of me and all I see is antlers. He comes over the rise and is now about 15 yds from me. He takes one more step and his face goes behind a tree and I draw. He heard me draw and made a 10 yd dash to my left before my buddy stopped him with a cow call. I guessed 25 yds and released. The arrow passed through the boiler room and he died 60 yds later.

It was the hunt of a lifetime and couldn't have done it without my hunting partner. We put on a total of 41 boot miles packing these bulls out. Well worth it and those backstraps will taste that much better!"

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