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We walked quietly down the draw into the main canyon, is was about 80 yards across with grass and scattered brush and right across
in front of us was an elk with his head partially behind a scrub tree. Aaron glassed and mentioned this was our bull, and "don't mess it up".
I stepped along side him and he gave me a range of 85 years using his Bushnell compact range finder, which is identical to the one I brought for the hunt.
The moment of truth had arrived, would the muzzle loader fire and could I hold steady.
I've hunter enough with black powder weapons to see lot's of problems, but most were in wet weather and it was dry as a bone. I aimed at a spot right next to his shoulder and a little high of the heart and calmly squeezed one off. He lurched slightly forward and collapsed right where he stood. I have never seen a bull go down that hard. I reloaded in case he got up, dropping my sabotrf bullet when I inverted my quick load, boy was I nervous now.
We approached the bull, he was down and not going anywhere. This is the first bull I've shot that was bigger on the ground,
up close, than on the hoof, he was a monster big time 6X7 bull. As we watched from the side his legs kept twitching, more than death spasms, I thought he was suffering so I went around and shot a round thru
his diaphragm into the heart area, it was a mercy shot as he wasn't going anywhere.
Why this bull held in the bottom for us, I'm not sure, maybe the bugle calmed him down, maybe he couldn't hear us over his own
racket, maybe just maybe, he had my name written on him.
As all quieted down and we congratulated each other I pulled out my wife's, blue sewing measuring tape that I carry and proceeded to rough score this big boy' 22 inch eyeguards, 20 inch royals, 58 inch main beams and a 62 inch tip to tip inside spread, which our quick math, in the waning light, added up to 400 points. What a tremendous thrill to even see a great bull like this up close and even greater to harvest him with a clean kill. Aaron properly cleaned him out while I pulled up legs etc. and we headed for camp to give our report.
Next day we had Ross and Pat anxious to see and photograph this bull come along and also help pack him out on back packs.
Pat and Aaron did a great job of caping and packing. I packed out the antlers as if anyone broke them it better be me.
At camp a SCI score of 418 3/8 was taken and on Dec.15th a dry Boone and Crocket net score of 397 5/8 was taken which should be a
new world record LONG HUNTER SOCIETY for a typical bull.
Myself, my family and friends have taken several nice six point bulls but none to compare to this Big Time Bull from New Mexico!
Richard Westwood
© 1999, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!
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