My 2006 Elk Hunt

[BrianID]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]My brothers and I were able to draw one of the controlled bull hunts in Idaho this year. This is the first controlled hunt I have been able to draw in Idaho out of the 9 years that I have put in for deer, elk and antelope. In the four days that we hunted we saw at least 26 different bulls but didn’t see anything much larger than we shot. If I would have taken more time to hunt I think I would have had a good chance at killing a larger bull but I would rather stay married. I had a very enjoyable hunt and the meat is good. I hope I don’t have to wait another nine years to draw a bull hunt.

A brief story of the hunt:

Around 3 pm I spotted a bachelor herd of bulls in the timber about a mile away. A couple of them looked good enough to me but it was hard to tell because I didn’t have a good view of their antlers through the trees. We were able to move within a hundred yards of the bulls. They had no clue we were there. A few minutes later a rag horn moved even closer to us and was feeding only 50 yards away. After watching the bachelor herd for 10 minutes I finally decided to take one even though I passed on shooting at a couple slightly larger bulls only four hours earlier. Since I made the spot I had the first shot. My brother was able to drop his bull only 20 yards from my bull. If my other two brothers were there we could have had 4 dead bulls that were about the same size. Even after we killed our bulls the other bulls didn’t know were we were at and couldn’t figure out which way to run. One of the rag horns was still standing by our dead bulls until we got up and started to walk toward him.

Here are a few pictures from the hunt:
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This picture shows me glassing on the way back down the mountain after making a 3000 foot climb.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This picture shows my bull as he lays after I shot him. If you look behind him you can see my brothers bull.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This is a picture of my brothers bull as he lays.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This is a picture of us loading up the bulls on a sled. Even though they were a mile from a road, we were able to get them out whole. It is relatively easy to drag a whole bull elk with a sled when there isn’t any downfall and it is all down hill. This picture shows both elk on the sled. Two elk on the sled was too hard to stop from taking off down the mountain without us so we took one off and tied it up to the sled. It acted as an anchor. All we had to do was lift it's head and the elk on the sled would pull it down the mountain. All we really had to do was guide them down the mountain.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Here is a picture of us loading them into my truck. Two bull elk make a full load for a short box Toyota Tacoma.[/size][/font]
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[EZOP]

That is awesome BrianID, what a great report and story. Love the pictures and thanks for sharing with us. I need good stuff like this to read when I'm stuck at work. That 3000 foot climb would have killed me.(twice) But what a view when you got there.

I'm with you on this one, I hope you get another draw soon, because I would hate to have to wait another 9 years for another nice Elk report.

Nice Job.
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[Lunddude]

Great report Brian. You should send a picture of your truck to Toyota for advertising cause that's not something you see every day. Congratulations to both you and your brother on a successful hunt.
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[Kraizee_Skot]

[font "Times New Roman"][#ff4040][size 3]Great work on those bulls! It's nice when you get them close like that, especially when you have 2 tags to fill.[/size][/#ff4040][/font]
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[idahopanfish]

Great job Brian!!! Wish I could do things like that still.
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[vegasback2id]

Great report Brian love the pictures. It has been a few years since my last elk. 9 years is along time to wait but looks like it was worth. But you all don't know how lucky you are to be able to still hunt even if you don't get a controoled hunt. Have I said this before, I love Idaho sure miss it real bad.
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[PACKFAN]

Great Pics Brian, It's nice when you can get them out whole. I also drew a limited Entry tag for Utah this year and took a 6X6 with additional Devil points. I've tried to load pictures on this site but so far I have had no luck at it. Once again congrats on your hunt.[]
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[theangler]

WOW! Congraulations, those are great Bulls!

Great report and pics!!!!!!
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