7 by 7

Well, Tyler finally drew his Wyoming elk tag and wanted to make it one of his best elk hunts of his lifetime. Spoiler Alert: It was probably the best elk hunts either of us have been on or ever will go on!

He came up to the house in June and we spent a day up in the backcounty to get an idea of maybe a campspot and hopefully see some bulls. I don't have a pic, but the first group of bulls we'd seen in the morning included a heavy, wide bull that I told Tyler if he keeps growing he's gotta be 380ish!

We found more bulls, all kinds of wildlife, and some amazing scenery on our 6 mile loop. I think Tyler was a bit taken back by how open the country was. But I think he enjoyed that part as he is a glasser as well.

September finally rolled around and Tyler made another trip over for a little archery action. We spent a weekend looking at different bulls. Amazingly, one of the first bulls we found was ol, Mr. wide we had seen in June! He did finish his antler growth out well and was a phenomenal 7x7. Tyler was ruined. Every other bull was just a bull. He wanted 7x7. He was too far for us to chase him the day we'd found him, so we waited till the next morning.

  

We found him the following day and tried the entire day to get on him. We ended up 6 miles from the machine as the sun hit the western ridges, Tyler ended up getting 80 yards from 7 x7's cows and 130 yards from him but never could cut the distance.  We looked for elk the last morning and found a good bull, but Tyler was fixed on 7x7. The plan was Tyler would go home for a week or so and comeback for the last couple days of bow-season and the first week of rifle. 

"I missed", Tyler told me on the phone. I had been at Hunter and Gwen's wedding in the end of September and Tyler beat me on the elk mountain by a couple days. I was actually surprised he shot at another bull besides 7x7, although the 345-50" bull he shot at dubbed "cabin creek" wasn't a slacker. I got up there and Tyler seemed like he wasn't as interested in archery equipment and he just wanted us to find 7x7 and wait for the rifle opener so he wouldn't push him out of the country...but if the right bull gave him the chance with a bow, he'd take it.

The next three days before the rifle opener were exciting but Tyler never pulled his bow back nor did we try and get close to rutting bulls. We spent those days searching from high perches for his bulls he'd put on his hitlist. The rifle hunt started Thursday, Monday night we found 7x7 off in a canyon bottom and we could tell he had snapped his third off one side but still looked like a giant and worthy of waiting for. Tuesday and Wednesday we sat in two spots the entire two days and picked apart each bull, ranking them and there were several over 350", but, we never saw 7x7 which I thought would send Tyler into a panic but we were so entertained with other great bulls all around us. 

We got to watch two bulls locked up their antlers while fighting, with one being a 350" bull (The Cabin Creek bull that Tyler had missed with his bow) 400 yards away. Tyler tried to make it to them but "Cabin Creek" snapped his antler off above his left third point before he could get there. It broke into three pieces flying like a ricocheted bullet through the air. "Cabin Creek" retreated exhausted and the ornery bull ran back to his harem of cows. Tyler picked up the antler pieces and brought them back to our lookout post. 

Wednesday eve fell upon us and the next day would be the rifle opener! We had seen dozens and dozens of mature bulls. Tyler would have to make some pretty tough decisions if we couldn't come across his favorite bull in the morning. We put two bulls down in the 350+ range as darkness fell. How many hunters will be around? Will we see 7x7? Should Tyler shoot his #2 or 3 bull if he sees them first thing in the morning?

There was a lot of excitement no doubt. By 4:30 am we were hiking with one of the brightest moons I've ever walked under. We had about a 2-3 mile hike to get where we needed to be. We could see the headlamps of horseman way across large canyons but nothing real close to us yet, except a couple of bulls hanging out right in our glassing post. They finally got out wind and let us creep up to our post at first light, with no one else around. The wind was blowing around 10 mph in our faces and made it harder to hear bugles but as the lightness took over the dark skies, we stated spotting one elk after another!

Immediately, I found a large herd of cows in a saddle where we had left them the night before. The herd bull was over 350, and a brute. He was also just barely out of range so we'd have to make a move if Tyler wanted him. Tyler was frantically spotting one bull after another hoping to find 7 x 7. "Tyler, are you going to go after that big old bowl?" I asked keeping my eyes in the scope to avoid eye contact.  He swiveled his tripod and spotting scope to get another look and never gave me a verbal response. His quiet demeanor worried me that if he would be passing such a bull, we might be here for several more days. I turned my back to Tyler and began glassing a big open ridge that we had seen many elk on in the past few days. The ridge stretched out 5 miles and it seem like every half mile to a mile there was a group of elk. I began wading through each herd with my spotting scope hoping to find 7 x 7, and although I saw several big herd bulls, I never picked up the giant. A closer bull caught my attention with a bugle below me so I swiveled my scope back down in the canyon, but in the back of my mind I did see some cows coming into view a couple miles down the ridge, I took a mental note to come back to them to see if a bull  would would show up. 

There were so many elk that we were constantly swiveling scopes back-and-forth whispering there’s  two 6 points on that far Ridge, there’s a nice bull coming out of the timber, there’s about 30 elk on that far slope… It was a crazy morning. I had remembered the cows on the ridge line a couple miles away and decided to go back as the sun was just touching the elk. A large framed bull was standing with them. He turned his head and I immediately recognized his big deep back forks and  long main beams, but before I decided to say anything I wanted to verify 100% I knew what I was looking at. The sun touched his heavy six points and the look was unmistakable, "I found 7 x 7!"

Tyler whipped his tripod around and took his first look of 7 x 7 after a couple day hiatus. "That’s him!" he shouted. We began shoving all of our supplies back into our backpacks and without another word just took off running across the ridge as fast as we could.

It’s amazing how fast you can cover country with a bull of that quality waiting for you. Our minds were than frantically racing whether there was another hunter in the area, or if we could get through all the other elk and open country to even get a shot at this warrior. We got about halfway to him, and noticed there were multiple herds in between us, We knelt down to come up with a plan when a rifle shot rang a mile to the east. The elk didn’t like the sound of the shot and began herding into tight groups and moving across the ridge to the west side for protection. Tyler‘s favorite bull from Tuesday was in the herd  500 yards away, "Should I shoot him?" He asked. "Are you crazy? The bull you came for is only a mile away, let’s go!" I responded.  The nearby elk had all disappeared over the divide, but 7 by 7 and his cows appeared to be still on the ridge feeding so we tried to stay out of their eyesight and close the distance as fast as we could!

Our legs were rubber as we neared the ridge overlooking the herd, but I was afraid the distance of the ridge to the elk would still be too far for a solid shot. Meanwhile elk bugling chaos was ringing from the west side of the ridge line we were on. It sounded like multiple herds had collided and the bulls we’re trying to sort out their differences. We peeked over to where we should see 7x7 and noticed a solid bull and his cows but they were still 910 yards away. Tyler laid prone in case this was going to be his shot, but it didn’t seem like all the elk were there. It looked like part of the herd had left. "That’s not 7 x 7!" Tyler barked looking through his scope.

 Our minds were racing on where the big bull could have gone, bulls continued to scream just west of us, and I thought there was a possibility 7 x 7 may have followed some of his cows into the chaos, so I shimmied up and over the divide to take a peek. There were around 100 elk in the little basin with multiple big bulls, and like a dream, 7 x 7 was there and ripped out a bugle/chuckle 340 yards below broadside with the sun just touching the tips of his ivory antlers. I looked back and frantically waved for Tyler to get up here. Tyler settled in and with in the worst case of bull fever I have ever seen finally put the legend bull down with three shots from his 7 Rem Mag. There is a reason his nickname is "two-shot"

We fell on our backs, listening to bugles in every direction completely exhausted physically and emotionally. There are moments in life that you wish you can freeze time, that moment would be one. We made our way down to the bull and what an honor to alongside the king of the mountain that morning.

As we caped and quartered the bull, other bulls and cows came streaming through distracting us from our chores. We took a few breaks and called several 6-points in closer than 20 yards! One little six point was 4 feet away before it spooked.

We hung the meat up high in a tree and made the long hike back to camp, it was the first time we were at camp during daylight hours and it was nice just to kick back with a fire and enjoy the evening. The next morning I was to pack back down the mountain with camp and Tyler would take the packhorses to get the elk out. The weather was perfect,The elk numbers and quality were perfect, like I said, this will be a hard elk hunt to beat. Thanks for letting me be a part of it Tyler.