Tried and True: A Utah Elk Hunt

It was sometime in May, and I was in Texas for a work meeting when I got the draw results for the 2021 Utah big game hunts. With four points, I somehow got lucky and drew one of the best elk tags in the state!

The Work Begins!

I knew that I had to work hard to be successful. So, with my wife’s permission, I began buying a few “necessary” items – trail cameras, tree stands, ground blinds, arrows, broadheads, targets, etc… I watched hours of videos on the best arrow setup for great penetration and elk hunting tactics for the early season.
I spent countless hours devouring the terrain on Google Earth and OnX maps to get an idea of where to start. I knew that I needed to be very accurate with my bow, so I shot almost every day, sometimes twice a day, and made sure I was ready. I shot three different archery events this year and knew that if the opportunity presented itself, I would be ready.

Wildlife Photography

The first week or two of June, I started setting out trail cameras in hopes to pattern a few good bulls. After a few weeks, I checked my cameras, and, seeing the type of bulls I was seeing, I began to get more excited and anxious with every passing day. I saw a lot of great bulls on a lot of different cameras. I saw some awesome giant five-points, some great six-point bulls, and even a really big 6x7 bull, all of which I would be more than grateful to shoot. I knew this hunt would be hard, and I expected to work hard and maybe not be successful.

On August 21st, opening day, I decided to sit in a tree stand where I had the most bulls coming in. I hiked in with the wind in my favor, and it took me a little longer than I expected, but I got to my stand and sat opening morning and didn’t see anything come in. I swapped my card in the camera I had on the meadow and a bunch of bulls had been there the night before. I was confident that I would see elk that night, so I went back to camp.

Switching It Up

On Tuesday, August 24th, my third day of hunting, I decided to hunt just above camp. I had never been up this particular drainage before then, and I wanted to see if there was a lot of elk activity. Two weeks prior, I had marked a point on my maps. To the south of some big meadows, there was a big north-facing bench that I thought would be a good place to try some early-season elk tactics.

My good friend and hunting buddy McCarther Mitchell was planning on coming to camp to hunt for a few days. He had purchased a spike tag so that if he saw a spike or cow, he could hunt as well. Knowing that he would be in camp before lunch, I had a thought to cut my morning hunt short to meet up with him in camp. As I looked at the very large and steep hill that I thought to climb to try some calling, I debated whether I really wanted to ascend. “You’re here, you might as well do it,” I thought.

I found a game trail that began up the steep, thick hill. I slowly worked my way up and tried not to make a ton of noise, but in this country, it was impossible not to sound like a marching band coming up the hill. I made it up the first steep hill and onto a small bench, and what lay before me was an even steeper hill that was a hundred yards long or more. So, after catching my breath and taking a quick snack break, I started up that hill.

I soon found that it would be easier to crawl up it than it would be to hike. To my surprise, I made it to the top. When I did make it to the bench that I had intended to explore, it looked like an elk’s bedroom; tons of elk beds and rubs. I worked up the bench another hundred yards and found a spot where I thought I would try to call in an elk with some of the early season tactics I was learning.

The Setup

I had an elk butt decoy with me, so I set up in between two little Quakie Aspen saplings. I set the decoy up so the top of it was almost as tall as I was and a little more visible. I moved up about 15-20 yards in front of the decoy to draw the elk in closer to me so I would have a closer shot if the elk came into this setup. I found a good spot where I would have multiple shooting lanes while still being somewhat concealed by the thick cover I had in front of me.

I began to use a sequence that I had seen Paul Medel, “the elk nut” teach in one of his early-season elk tactics videos. I acted like an elk would during this time of the year. I started by raking a small pine tree in front of me for a few minutes, and then I let out one long, whiney bugle. I then went back to raking the tree. That bugle was the only bugle I made the entire time. I continued to rake that little pine tree, and I included some pants and grunts occasionally. This went on for about 30 minutes, then up the hill a ways, I heard a branch snap. That got my attention and had my heart pumping!

Getting a little discouraged with the lack of elk that had come in, I was looking at my maps for where to move to try this setup again, thinking I would move up the bench a ways towards a meadow or a water source. I did one last scan through the trees to make sure that there weren’t any elk coming in silently. To my surprise, I saw the top three tines of an elk coming through the trees at about 45-50 yards!

He came in without a sound. As I froze in disbelief, I could see him moving through the thick trees above me on the bench. As he got a little closer, I could see he was a huge bull. I recognized him from trail camera pictures that I had of him from July. He had super long fourths, and I knew he was a shooter bull.

As I had set up to do this calling sequence, I made sure I had a few good shooting lanes. I had one shooting lane in front of me that faced the uphill side of the bench I was on. It was about 6-8 feet wide to where I could shoot out to about 30 yards. As this bull moved closer, he came from above me to my right and slowly made his way to my left, towards this shooting lane. He moved closer and closer from 45 yards to 40, then 35, 30, and to 25. He then turned broadside to walk through the opening where I would have a shot. I thought, no way! No way could this just happen perfectly like that.

As he began to start into the opening, I thought to myself, once his head goes behind a small pine tree, I will draw my bow, so he doesn’t see me. As soon as his head went behind the tree, I drew my bow. I needed him to take a few more steps, and I would have a perfect broadside shot at 20 yards. He stopped right before the opening. Oh, crap, I thought. No! I am at full draw with a giant bull at 20 yards, and I don’t have a shot!

Working The Problem

To my surprise, he began to rake a pine tree right before the opening I had to shoot through. He was showing this “bull,” me, just what he thought about me coming into his bedroom and raking like that. Still at full draw, I thought he might be there for a little while. I let down my bow as slowly and as quietly as I could. When I let my bow down, it made a little noise and I just closed my eyes, hoping that he wouldn’t bust. When I opened my eyes, he was still raking the pine tree. What a spectacle it was to watch this bull at 20 yards, just raking a tree. He was so huge; his body, his rack, everything.

I knew I had to move to get a shot. How do I move without him seeing me at just 20 yards? I thought if I could move every time that he raked the tree, I might be able to move over far enough to get a shot. Each time he would rake the tree with his giant rack, I would take a very small (6 inches at most) step to my left. I had a clearing to my left that I had been moving around in while I would rake the tree and snap branches for the past 45 minutes or so.

I took a few steps to my left to where I almost had a shot, and I could see a window of about eight to ten inches that I could get an arrow through. All I could hit right now was his butt and guts. I needed to take one more step. Right then, the bull stopped raking the tree, turned, and looked right at me. I froze, and as he turned, I just stared right into his eye. It looked as big as a softball. I could feel him staring into my soul. It felt so intense just being so close. Don’t move. Don’t even breathe!

I thought for sure he would see me and take off running. Then, the craziest thing happened; he turned his head back and kept raking the tree. He didn’t even see me! I quickly took the last step to my left so that I could see his front shoulder. I pulled my bow back, and I gained my composure long enough to go through my shot process that I practiced thousands of times in preparation for this one moment. I pulled the string back with ease due to all the adrenaline, and I put my knuckle on my ear, my nose on the string. I held the top pin between the gap of the two trees I had to shoot through, right behind his shoulder, pressed the trigger on my release, and let the arrow fly. The arrow disappeared quickly through the big bull elk.

As I waited in shock for something to happen, I don’t think I was even breathing. The bull flinched after I shot him, but he didn’t run; he just stood there. I could see where the arrow hit him as the blood was slowly pooling out of his side. With the bull not knowing what had just happened, I took advantage of the opportunity. I quickly nocked another arrow. After the first shot, I was shaking and in a rush to shoot him again.

The second shot was not as well-placed as the first. I hit a tree right in front of the bull, and he startled and ran a few yards up the bench to my right. At this point, the bull was facing away from me, just standing there, still. I didn’t have another shot. He stood there and started to cough blood. I knew I hit him good. He then took three or four steps and bedded down behind a thick wall of trees.

As he bedded down, I could now see the other side of him and could see that the arrow had passed completely through him. I had total confidence in my arrow setup and broadhead choice. I could still see him, and he didn’t know I was there. With him coughing blood and how he bedded down that quickly, I knew he was hurt. I stayed put to hopefully watch him expire. At this point, I just knelt and said a quick prayer. I asked the Lord to please let this bull die quickly.

The wind started to shift now. When I had set up, the wind was consistently downhill and to my left. Now, the wind would shift and go from left to right and back again. The sun was peering over the trees by this time and was heating up the air. The wind wasn’t going towards the bull yet, but it made me nervous that if it did shift and the bull winded me, he would take off. I made the decision to let the bull sit and die. I quietly slipped out of sight and down the bench. I had a million things running through my head now.

Finishing The Job

I tried to call my wife Kati and then my dad because I knew they would be on their way to camp. My dad didn’t answer, but Kati did. She was so excited she cried. It was so good to hear her voice. I called Kati’s brothers Ray and Dave, and they were on their way. I called my cousin Matt Clark, and he took off work and came over. I also called Brandon Seamons, and he assured me the bull was going to be dead.

It took me what seemed like an eternity to slowly get back to where I was when I shot. My heart sank into my stomach when I saw the bull elk was not where he was when I left! The utter disappointment and doubt were overwhelming. I slowly worked my way to where I hit the bull and found my arrow and quite a bit of blood. Dave and Kati decided to follow the blood trail which led them over a small hill up the bench, maybe another 30-40 yards.

I was still where I was standing when I shot the bull. My heart was in knots, and I had a million thoughts of what might have happened to this bull. Just then I heard Dave yell, “Jeff! Get up here!” My head snapped in that direction, and my heart almost dropped out of my chest. “Get up here! Hurry, nock an arrow, get up here!”

I ran through all the thick deadfall as fast as I could to the top of the hill. There, I saw the giant bull laying down with his head up, just looking at us. I gained my breath for a few seconds as I pulled out my rangefinder; 28 yards. I took another deep breath, and where I was standing, I had a good shot at the bull, but he was slightly quartering to me. I just needed to get another arrow in him.

I lifted my bow up, slowly drew, and settled my 30-yard pin on his shoulder. WHACK! The bull thrashed and lifted his head. I grabbed another arrow from my quiver, drew my bow again, and let another arrow fly. WHACK! I looked at the bull and realized that he was dying. I dropped to my knees as all the emotions overwhelmed me, and I put my head in my hands and just sobbed uncontrollably; I just let it all out. It was all a blur to me at this point. I gave the bull another minute or two to make sure he was dead before I approached him. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I couldn’t believe this really happened.

This giant bull became so much bigger as I approached him. What an amazing experience to be able to finally put my hands on this amazing animal after all the emotional highs and lows. All the hard work and effort to get to this point was now justified. I couldn’t have asked for a better bull.

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