My son's awesome season!

[DLS]

My son, Danny, just finished a season he won't likely repeat for quite a while. First, because he managed to draw two quality, tough to get muzzleloader tags. Second, because he killed a really good bull in Arizona, followed by a very nice mule deer buck here in California. The one thing common to both hunts was that he passed up both animals the first time he found them ( he also was very fortunate to find them a 2nd time and let common sense prevail).

First, the elk... Danny had drawn this same tag 10 years earlier and killed his first elk, a334" 5x6 bull, when he was 16 years old. This time, the goal was to improve upon that bull. I headed down to AZ a few days before the season and found several nice bulls with the help of a friend who lives near the unit, the biggest of which was a very large 7x7 that we thought was at least a 370 class bull. There was also a clean 6x6 that we thought would go into the 360's and finally a 6x7 that we estimated to be high 340's.

As the hunt turned out, my son stalked the 6x7 to within 38 yards on opening day and watched him bed with his cows , before sneaking away. My son later explained that he didn't want to end his hunt the first day. We managed to find the same bull the next day and enjoyed an action packed morning filled with watching the bull spend about 20 minutes destroying a tree and lots of bugling before finally ending his hunt.

 

[WV Hunter]

I only saw one picture. It should be showing. That's a very nice bull, congrats to him!

What did he shoot it with? Load, distance, etc?

 

[JStanley]

WOW!! Awesome bull!

 

[cayuga]

That is a great bull elk there. Lots of good eating I suspect. I too am very interested in the load he used and the particulars of the hunt. What's an elk like that produce in actually meat? Last but not least... Congratulations to a great hunt and harvest there.

 

[DLS]

The load he used was a 290 grain Barnes TMZ with sabot, pushed by 2-50 grain and 1-30 grain Pyrodex pellets and a Remington 209 primer. Shot was about 90 yards broadside, basically a chip shot. Don't know why the picture displayed upside down, it is right side up in Photobucket. Someone asked about weight; the butcher shop weighed 302 pounds of meat, nearly all boned out (the only bones left in were front shoulders). It was a very heavy bull even though I doubt he was over 7 years old.

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Congrats!

 

[ronald horne]

Great Bull. Congratulations.

 

[Bearkiller]

Great bull :applause:

 

[WV Hunter]

The load he used was a 290 grain Barnes TMZ with sabot, pushed by 2-50 grain and 1-30 grain Pyrodex pellets and a Remington 209 primer. Shot was about 90 yards broadside, basically a chip shot. Don't know why the picture displayed upside down, it is right side up in Photobucket. Someone asked about weight; the butcher shop weighed 302 pounds of meat, nearly all boned out (the only bones left in were front shoulders). It was a very heavy bull even though I doubt he was over 7 years old.

To me, the pic looks perfect. Not sure what you are seeing upside down. :huh?:

What rifle was he shooting? Them 290 TMZ are a awesome bullet especially for big game.

Got a pic of his buck?

 

[DLS]

Sorry that I'm slow in posting the deer portion, been busy duck hunting.

The deer tag my son drew is one of California's premier deer tags, not only black powder, but one of the best hunts, period. I've been applying under our preference points system since inception and have never drawn a single tag. My son, on the other hand, has already killed a real nice pronghorn here and now drew a muzzleloader buck tag with a season opening date of November 15th, prime rut dates.

We scouted the weekend prior to the season and saw very few deer, which we expected as it's largely a migration hunt. The first day of hunting, we split up and found about 30 bucks. One buck was a definite shooter, except that he was a few hundred yards into Nevada so they had to leave him alone. On the 2nd day of hunting my son was hunting with one of my friends and his buddies (I was scouting in another spot) and they found a nice, wide buck with a large herd of does. The buck was wide, but Danny thought (naively) that he could do better so he let the buck go and kept looking. His buddies were pretty upset with his decision and they talked him into going back and giving the buck another look. This time, Danny decided that he wanted the buck and stalked to about 40 yards, where he shot the buck from. Needless to say, we were a pretty happy bunch when this guy got loaded into the truck.

 

[WV Hunter]

WOW! I can't imagine anyone thinking that was one to pass up. Glad he came to his senses!

What an awesome buck! Looks like he's gonna have some hefty taxidermy bills this year :mrgreen:

 

[ronlaughlin]

....they found a nice, wide buck with a large herd of does. The buck was wide, but Danny thought (naively) that he could do better so he let the buck go and kept looking.....

If i have seen a wider antlers, i don't remember when..

 

[DLS]

 

[rwbaker]

Nice job love the mule deer.

 

[dave19113]

Congrats on a Nice bull....



:yeah: :yeah:

 

[doggzoe]

WOW! Great season. Congrats.