After a stellar day yesterday, today was a bit of a bummer. We woke up to terrible weather that never wanted to break. We went back to where we saw the wide bull yesterday and just hoped to get lucky. We found a pocket of timber that looked like an old moose bed, the ground was cleared and flat, and it was nice and open with a canopy of trees over us to somewhat keep the rain off of us.
It was cold and wet, and the longer we sat the colder we got. The only living creatures we saw today were each other and our horses. We tried hard though…considering we couldn’t really move around. We glassed all day and picked apart every piece of timber and every willow until our eyes felt like they were bleeding. We knew they were here though, and we knew they were probably doing what we were doing all day, sitting motionless in the timber trying to stay dry.
Tomorrow’s a new day and we knew exactly where we were going. We knew there’s a big bull there, so we’re going to ride that spot out. It’s either that bull or no bull, we were going to give him hell.
Day 12
They were a long way off but it looked to be a few of the same bulls we had seen a few days prior. I remember Leif and I talking in the middle of the day about how not an hour has gone by when we weren’t looking at a nice bull.
Several good-looking bulls made their way across the valley but after the giant we had seen two days ago, we were holding out for him and nothing else. At about 5:00 p.m. with four hours of light left we caught our big bull 1200 yards away.
He was feeding on the other side of the creek from us with another bull, hugging the timber line. We watched in shock for about an hour drooling over him. He was with another really nice bull but just absolutely dwarfed him.
After a while the big bull fed into the timber and shortly after, the smaller bull bedded in the willows just below where the big bull had disappeared. After watching the smaller bull bed, we were pretty relieved, and quickly realized that the big bull probably just bedded in the timber. We kept our eye on the smaller of the two for two hours. I don’t think I ever put the glass down. With about 1.5 hours till dark I caught a big white paddle in the timber as the big bull got out of his bed and made his way into the open.
He woke up in a totally different mood. The bull that he was buddies with just hours before, quickly became his enemy. As he came out of the timber he was cocky and posturing to the smaller bull. They both showed off for a bit, but as soon as another bull made his way out a little ways past them, the bigger bull turned his attention to him and made a B-line in that direction. The problem was he was moving straight away from us.
We made the decision to get aggressive, get on the horses and head straight to him. He went behind a small hill and we made our move. We caught his paddle moving after a while about 800 yards away. We tied our horses up and as quietly as possible made our way to him. We came up over the small hill he was behind, thinking he would be around 600 yards away. He was 300 yards sparring with another bull. I had nothing to rest on so I took a knee and fired a free handed shot. The bull of my dreams fell down. We had a long night ahead of us, but these are the days we dream of.