Kevin's Archery Bull

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything.  We have been super busy and are trying to stay caught up.  We wanted to take a minute and thank all of you for your business.  We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and also that you all will have a very merry Christmas.  Thanks again for your loyalty to our shop and we will continue to bring you the very latest in the archery world as well as bringing to life your awesome animals that you all continue to bring into the shop. 

Well my dad and brother both drew early archery bull tags this year.  My brother however was just accepted to veterinary school and knew he would not be able to hunt.  He was kind enough to give up his tag to hunt of a lifetime.  A young man was able to harvest a bull.  We are very thankful to work with Mathews Inc. as they donated a crossbow to this young man as he battles his physical challenges.  We are grateful for these opportunities to help out and applaud Mathews for their kind act!  A big kudos goes out to my brother Vaughn for giving up his tag to help a young man fulfill one of his dreams!

So off we went to hunt.  The first morning brought a ton of excitement but the swirled a few times not allowing us to get a shot.  Also my dad passed on a few 6 points that were not what we were looking for.  The 2nd evening brought the most excitement for me as we were in elk all evening long and the rut was on!!!  We called in a bull to 15 yds but my dad was pinned down and was unable to draw his bow.  The bull spooked and I stopped him at 60 yds but my dad missed judged the distance and shot just under the bull.  Check out the footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezduZYqtaDE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I had to go home after opening weekend, however my dad continued to hunt with Dustin and my uncle.  My dad missed one other time at a 320 class bull and we thank Keith for stopping him from shooting a spike at 5 yds!  My dad was tempted but I told Keith not to let him shoot a small bull early on.

The hunt wound down to the last day and I told my dad that I would take the last day of the hunt off and would come up to hunt.  I told my 3 yr old son he could come with me.  Well I was leaving and my 5 yr old daughter said she wanted to come to.  I said lets go and let her ditch kindergarten for a day.  Boy am I glad I did.  The wind was almost unbearable but we were able to get in on a few bulls in the morning, however were messed up by the wind.  We went and got some breakfast and headed back to a place we knew there was some respectable bulls.  I took the kids and went to push off the point as my dad made a big circle to meet us.  We bumped 3 little bucks out and a coyote.  My dad never showed up.  I was starting to get a little concerned about my dad because it had been quite a while.  Finally he showed up and said where have you been?  I said looking for you.  He said I shot one but can't find him.  We headed down to the location and sat for another 45 minutes to give the elk time.  We starting following the blood trail that ended in a manner of 25 yds.  I was worried that we weren't going to find the bull.  We started tracking the bull and ran right into him about 200 yds later.  What an incredible day!  My kids were ecstatic.  I hiked the 4 quarters out and another load of 100 lbs of meat while my dad was boning it out.  It was a blast and a hunt I will not soon forget.  Thanks again dad for having us along!

Enjoy the pics!

Found a Broadhead in his shoulder

Found a piece of arrow in his neck

Over the Counter

Well we just had an awesome weekend taking Shane Frost out for his first ever elk hunt.   This was the over the counter elk hunt.  Elk numbers are few and it is difficult to find them in such a small area.  Here is what Shane said about the hunt.

"So the story starts out a few months ago as I talked to TC about the grand opening of the new shop. I made mention to him that I had never seen an elk in person. After he was done being shocked he said he would have to have me come up around the shop and they (TC and Dustin) would see if they could show me some elk. I had been to the shop a few times to pick up a Coues mount for my dad and for a bow (best price in town by the way). So I picked up a tag and made the trip from the Valley to Holbrook. We got to the Taxidermy shop and we went out for an afternoon hunt. We saw a few tracks but nothing too fresh. The next day we met at the shop again to go out in the morning. We glassed and walked a bit but couldn’t find any fresh sign. We had some heavy wind and some rain so our chances were pretty slim as we figured the elk were bedding down. We headed in for lunch and pretty much had no luck in the afternoon either. Saturday we got to the shop and headed out. When we got to our spot, Dustin cut some fresh tracks as TC and the others went to cut sign the other direction. We were on what looked like a cow track based on the size. After tracking for a max of 15 minutes, Dustin motioned to me and there was a Bull Elk no more than 75 yards in front of us. He was quartering away and soon gave me a broadside shot. I put the cross hairs of my 300 WSM right on his front shoulder. I was sighted in for 200 yards so my first shot went high and was a clean miss. The elk didn’t spook and stayed there and after a quick adjustment I put the 180 grain Barnes Triple shock right on his shoulder. He took off out into the open plains and could not put any weight on the front right leg. He bedded down and we stayed back to not push him thinking he would expire. Shortly after he got up and headed off. We followed the blood trail and didn’t think it would take long for him to go down as we were seeing good dark red foamy blood that let us know we got at least one lung. As we came over a hill and down the other side to a shallow ravine I lost the blood trail. There was a canyon and we didn’t think there was any way the Elk could make it down the ravine with only three good legs. Dustin worked his tracking skills and picked up the blood trail again and sure enough he had made it down the ravine.  The tracking was easy as there had been recent rain and the creek/river bed left great tracks. We could see that the Elk was dragging its leg that took the shot. As we continued walking I saw that look on Dustin’s face again and saw some antlers in the thickets and reeds. I grabbed Dustin’s gun as I had used my 3 rounds (rookie mistake to not bring more rounds with these tough animals) hitting him twice in the shoulder. I took aim and put one right behind the front shoulder. He reared back a little and stumbled. It was a good shot, he went down right there and after a short time he was down. When we finally got close to him I was ecstatic. He was still in full velvet and Dustin and TC estimate him at 2.5-3 years old.  He has some really good and thick bases with a cheater on his right side. I was thrilled and extremely happy and thankful for Dustin and TC’s help. They are definitely the real deal. I can’t wait to see what this thing looks like on my wall. Thanks again Dustin and TC for a trip I will never forget!"

Enjoy the pics.

One thing about being so close to the shop we got to bring our kids out.  I hope we all take a little time and let our kids come with us to get a feel for this awesome sport that we all love so much.  My kids haven't stopped talking about this!

Thanks to Shane and his family for the fun time!

450" Bull Elk

We just finished this bull up.  The bull was killed in Nebraska by Ross R.  The bull scored right around 450" and is an absolutely amazing specimen.  A big thanks goes out to Ross for using BCT!  Enjoy the pics.

This puts into perspective how massive this thing is!

All In the Hunt

Well this past October we had an absolute blast chasing the grey ghost.  Although we came up empty handed we had an incredible time scouting, checking the cameras, and of course hunting.  We saw a ton of animals just never could turn up one of the bucks on this video.  During the hunt we saw quite of few elk including one that might touch 370.  We saw more coatimundi than I have ever seen in my life.  If we didn't see a hundred we didn't see one.  We glassed up 3 bears.  We have video of two of them but I am having some problems with the format of the video.  We saw tons of does and a few bucks.  More importantly we got to spend a week in the mountains with family and friends.  I hope you enjoy this video as much as we did getting all of the pictures together for it.  Enjoy!!!!!

Predictable

Here is a video of a small bull that we took footage of while coues deer hunting last October.  He didn't move 100 yds the whole week we were there.  We glassed him up everyday.  This bull looked pretty beat up.  We saw one bigger bull during the hunt probably a 370 class bull.  We have a few other bulls on our trail cams as well.  I hope to be putting a little video together with our hunt preparation and those pics will be on there.  Enjoy.

440" Bull

Here is a 440" bull that was killed by the auction tag hunter a few years back.  These are replicas that we purchased from good friend Steve Stayner.  In one of my next posts I am going to put together some pictures of some of the replicas that he does.  He does an incredible job.  We did a pedestal of the bull and it looks incredible.  Enjoy the pics.

Dumb Luck!

Well I just finished a November archery elk hunt.  It is funny how things happen.  When the draw results came out I found out that I drew a tag.  I was all jacked up calling everyone telling them I drew an elk tag during the rut....then I looked at the regs and noticed I had written down the line below the one I wanted to put in for.  Well I had a late archery elk tag and had to call everyone back and let them know it wasn't that great after all.  Well after a long coues deer hunt and no success on the bucks we had scouted out it was time to go out and try and kill a bull with my bow in November.  I heard where a good bull was hanging out and decided to go and try to find him.  The first morning of the hunt my brother in law, Win Wright, and I were up glassing and within ten minutes had found three bulls one of which was a decent six by six with sweet little kicker on one side he was headed right for us so I snuck down in the trees and got in as close as I could.  I was forced to take a long shot and missed.  I was disappointed but thought I would have never even release and arrow on this hunt.  That evening we glassed up another group of elk but no bulls.  This particular herd  is one that will come into play later in the hunt.  The next morning found us right back in our glassing spot and immediately we found two of three bulls that we had seen the day before.  One was a small 6 by 6 and the other a small 5 X 5.  I had told myself before the hunt if it has 6 points on both sides I would give it a go.  We watched these bulls until they were bedded and off I went on the stalk.  Closing the gap to 140 yds and was in perfect position to close it another 100 yds when a truck pulled over the hill and a couple of hunters got out and scared them off.  That is hunting I guess and I really couldn't help that the elk were bedded on the side of the road.  The evening of the second day Win and I decided we would try and find the big bull that was supposed to be in there from a different angle.  Once again with in 15 minutes of sitting down I had elk in the Swaros.  The silence broke "oh my gosh look at this T.C."  quickly I ran over to the spotting scope and Win and I were galking and putting a plan together to kill this bull.  Well darkness beat us to the punch. The next day that I made it up hunting my brother in law Jay Wakild showed up as he had drawn the tag with me.  My dad Kevin got a tip on an awesome bull (thanks to Burnt Timber Outfitters) and we were off first thing in the morning after him.  Within 15 minutes we located him and were at 46 yds and he was bedded down.  Jay quickly put an arrow in and the bull stood and the arrow was flying.  Clean miss!!  I think Jay had a little buck fever as it was only his 2nd big game hunt.  After this I told Jay I wanted to go after the bull we had seen the weekend before and off we went.  With in about an hour of the hike I located the elk.  Oh yea this is the same heard as we saw on the morning of the first day.  The bulls must have been hiding that day.  Jay and I put a short 3.5 hour stalk on them and found ourselves in the middle of the heard as the fading light was approaching.  The cows were talking to each other and the young bulls were fighting.  One particular 6 by 5 caught my attention as he chased off all the smaller bulls.  Searching everywhere for the big one he was no where to be seen.  A few of the cows had moved into a range of 88 yds.  I told Jay if he makes it to those cows I will take the shot.  About 10 minutes later the 6 by 5 came at a sprint to make sure the cows were doing ok.  I quickly drew my bow and locked into my 90 yd pin and let it rip.  It felt great.  CRACK.  I said Jay I am pretty sure that I just smoked that bull.  The elk ran off to about 188 yds.  The bull was humped up bad and didn't move an inch.  The cows started feeding again an didn't really know what had happened as Jay and I were tucked away in the only cedar tree in the meadow we were in.  The darkness soon overcame us and we pulled out the flashlights and I told jay lets go see where I shot and see what we got.  No blood nothing.   Well we kept walking around for about 20 minutes in the area and all the sudden jay says here is your arrow.  It was covered in blood but the broadhead wasn't beat up at all.  I got nervous.  My first thoughts were guts.  However, in the back of my mind I thought that is really red blood on my arrow to have hit the guts.  Not wanting to bump him, we GPS'ed the location where I shot him and backed out.  First thing the next morning we went to the location of the shot.  On the way in you will never believe who we saw.....yup the Big One.....he eased out when we came into the shot location.  We headed out to the spot where he had stopped and then I got the confirmation I needed.  Where Jay and I had watched him stop and stand still the night before there was a pool of blood about 2 ft in diameter and it was good blood.  I was feeling a lot better now.  From that point on it was a steady stream and approximately 500 yds later there he was up under a tree.  At last my first bull. (only my 2nd Tag)  Who would of thought it would have been in November with archery equipment.  Like the title says Dumb Luck.  I put in for the wrong hunt. Although this bull isn't giant I am proud of him as it was in November with a bow.  A big thanks goes out to all who helped during the hunt.  Enjoy the Pics.  

Daman Williams

Good friend Eric Fish sent me pics of this bull that he helped harvest.   Eric said "on the 5th morning we got right into a great heard of elk with 9 bulls and 20 cows , as the sun started coming up they took us on a rough 2 mile chase but @ 7 o clock we finally got right in the middle of an elk  and caught this bull beating the heck out of a tree and were able to close the distance with a 35 yard shot, Daman nailed the bull right in the middle of the heart and we had a 60 yard blood trail to the bull. rough score 330 but not to bad for a unit that typically doesn't produce lots of big bulls."

Win Wrights First Big Game Animal

Win killed this bull in the 09 season.  This was his first big game animal and he killed it at 65 yards with his bow.  Enjoy the pics.

Even though the bulls were not bugling good we had a blast.  This bull was tough as win shot him early in the morning and we tracked him all day and win put 2 more arrows in him and we finally found him at about 8:00 pm that night.  The only bad thing was he was in the one of the steepest canyons around.  Needless to say we made it home around 4:30 am.
Here is the bull completed.