Wyoming Bull Elk Hunt: First of Many

My son Grayson is six. He wanted to go elk hunting with me last year, but it was a tough year with lots of miles between elk, so I didn’t get the chance to take him. He’s been mimicking my elk calls with his voice since he was three or four years old, and we were both excited to get him into some elk.

I’m usually not one to miss opening day, but my wife finally convinced me that it usually isn’t worth it. This year, I waited and headed to the mountain by myself on the evening of September 5th. I hunted for three days before I had to come home briefly. The first couple of days were decent hunting, and the elk were in the area.

On the morning of the third day, I had been on a ridge just glassing and listening when a faint bugle across the canyon had me on the move. Working slowly through the timber, I finally spotted an elk. I was able to pick out two cows, a calf, a spike, and a rag horn bull. The wind started to shift, so I backed out and came in from a different angle. I soon saw the spike again, bedded down. I sat and watched him for a minute until something above him in the shadows caught my eye.

Missed Connections

I pulled the binoculars up and there was a big 6x6 bedded with a couple of cows around him. He was 99 yards away from me. The spike eventually got up and moved off. I had come up with a plan to sneak to a bush that would put the big bull 50 yards from me. I belly crawled until I was 60 yards from him. A cow then got up and walked down to the bull and bedded between us. With 10 more yards to go, I slowly inched towards him.

Suddenly, the cow and spike got to their feet and looked nervous. I watched as they ran right towards the big bull. He was clearly agitated, and he got to his feet and ran at them with his head down. He walked down to some lower trees and started raking a pine. I ranged him at 46 yards, quartered to me in the thick trees. After a few minutes of raking, he eventually turned and walked away without offering me a good shot.

On September 10th, Grayson and I got up at about 3:30 and headed for the mountain. We had talked about what our plan would be if we got into elk. On the drive up that morning, he had seemed a little worried and said, “Dad, I haven’t been practicing much lately.” I said, “Don’t worry, and if you start a bad bugle, just finish it. Bulls don’t always sound perfect.” We got all of our gear ready and left the pickup still in the dark. A few hundred yards in, he asked, “Dad, when is it going to get light?” I told him it would be
soon. We headed for the area where I had seen the big 6x6 two days earlier. As we approached the ridgeline, we heard a bugle. He was close – just over the top of the ridge and moving up to bed.

As we came upon this bull, we went over the plan again. I set him up behind me, and the bull and Grayson answered each other a couple of times, but the bull just kept working uphill. We followed, and Grayson kept him talking for about an hour, but we weren’t able to catch up to him. He had gone silent. Then, a few minutes later, a growly bugle sounded off behind us. I asked Grayson what he wanted to do. “We can sit here and this bull might bugle again, or we could go after this other one. The other one sounds bigger,” I said. The big bull bugled again, and Grayson said, “Let’s go!”

As we got back to where I thought the bull was, he screamed again. He was close! He had to be less than 100 yards, but I couldn’t see him yet. Grayson and I quickly went over our plan and I moved down toward the bull. I hadn’t gone 50 yards when the wind changed. I decided to back out and let it settle down. We sat down, ate a sandwich, and just listened. It had been about an hour, and the wind had steadied. When we worked into the spot that I had earlier, the wind was perfect. We were above him now, and the late morning currents were blowing in our face.

Speaking the Language

I told Grayson that I was going to bugle at the bull and, if he answered, I was going to cut him off and give the tube to him as I worked towards the bull. His eyes got big, and I asked him if he remembered what to do. He said, “Yeah, I just bugle right after him, right?” I said, “You got it. Before he’s done, you come in right on top of him.” I figured I only needed to move about 50 yards. Before I even got to my spot, the bull had bugled and Grayson cut him off twice! I knew I needed to hustle to my spot so I would have a good shooting lane.

As I was just about there, the bull screamed again. Grayson stepped on him, and I could hear the bull crashing through the timber. He came to the edge of the timber and started tearing up a tree. As soon as I saw him, I knew he was an absolute giant; he had at least eight points on his left side, and the mass went all the way to the top. He raked the tree for about 30 seconds before he bugled again.

Grayson hit him again; absolutely perfect! The bull turned left and he was coming uphill. I had drawn, and I held my 40-yard pin on his heart as he was walking. I slightly moved my back elbow to get him to stop, but a small pine obscured his vitals as he gave me a quick glance and kept moving. He cleared, and I moved my elbow again. He stopped, and I let it go. It was a solid hit, maybe a little back, but I was confident that he would be down.

I walked back to where I had left Grayson, and we moved back out to our packs. Once we got there, I knelt next to him and said, “Grayson, we just put an arrow in a giant!” “We did!?” He was so excited. I told him he did such a perfect job of calling on that bull. He said, “Let’s go find him.” I told him we were going to wait because the shot had been a little far back. He asked how long, and I told him a couple of hours. We finished eating our lunch, and he asked how much longer. I told him we had another hour. “I’m going crazy, Dad!”

Seeing it Through

Two hours passed, and we slowly moved down to where I had made the shot. Not far from there, I picked out an elk in the trees. There were about 15 cows, and they slowly trotted off. I couldn’t see the bull with them as they left. We followed blood for about 100 yards and saw that he had gone in the opposite direction of the cows and downhill. I had texted a couple of friends, and they were soon on their way to come help. They would be there soon, and we needed to get back to the pickup to meet them. On our way back to the pickup, we moved in the direction the bull had been headed. As we were going downhill, I saw an elk. I pulled up my binoculars and saw that it was my bull, standing in a thick patch of timber. We skirted around him and headed to meet the guys.

We made it back to the pickup to meet John and Jeff, and I told them what had happened and that I had seen the bull standing, still alive. We decided to move in on him and try to get another shot. We got to the location where I had seen him but couldn’t pick him out. Jeff, John & Grayson stayed behind while I slowly worked towards the bull’s previous location. I was 50 yards away before I spotted him, laying down. It was so thick that I didn’t know if I could sneak a shot through it or not. 40 yards turned into 30, and I finally had him at 26 yards.

I was 50 yards away before I spotted him, laying down. It was so thick that I didn’t know if I could sneak a shot through it or not. 40 yards turned into 30, and I finally had him at 26 yards.

I only had a small window to put an arrow through the trees, but I let it go and hit him perfectly! He stood up, stumbled three or four steps, and crashed down. We had just put down a giant! As we walked up to him, I couldn’t believe that I just got to experience this with my six-year-old son! This was an unbelievable trip in God’s country, and what an experience he gave us. It was my son’s first elk hunt and definitely won’t be his last!

After the 60-day drying period, this bull officially scored 393” gross and 381 2/8” net as a non-typical.

Gear List:

Broadheads: Grim Reaper
Optics: Vortex
Camo: SKRE
Backpack: Mystery Ranch
Elk Calls: Phelps Game Calls