Mogollon Hunter
Well-Known Member
Someone suggested I make a post going over the details of my grandpa's hunt so here it is. He's been putting in for and talking about this tag for as long as I can remember. So when he finally drew it I knew I was going to do everything in my power to make sure it got filled. It's a rut tag so I started scouting about a month in advance, mostly looking for areas with a high concentration of cows as the rut hadn't kicked off yet. After a couple weeks of watching cows the bulls finally started coming out of their holes. The bugling started and in the evenings it was all you could hear. I started to narrow my search down to one area where there was a good volume of mature bulls and fairly easy access. During the time spent scouting I must have seen at least 25-30 bulls many of which were mature.
There were lots of good options for grandpa in this spot with new bulls coming in all the time as the rut intensified. A few days before the start of the hunt a real giant walked in and I turned all of my attention to him.
The night before the start of the hunt me and my buddy put this bull to bed through our glass. I was feeling really confident about our chances of killing this bull and opening morning we found him again mixing it up with a big 6x. He was all the way at the top which was unusual for him and as we watched he went into some timber and disappeared. We continued glassing and saw some hunters top out on the ridge we were looking at the heard 2 quick shots. Later that day we watched them pack out our target bull and got rained out shortly after that.
This left all of us feeling somewhat discouraged and grandpa let me know that if we saw a good mature bull he was ready to shoot it.
So the following morning when we glassed this guy up we immediately started getting set up to shoot him as soon as legal shooting light hit. It took all of us working together to make it happen from running the rangefinder, watching through glass, ballistic calculations, helping get the gun on target, and talking grandpa through the shot as he's never shot an animal this far. This is where all the time at the range and all the time setting up and testing/verifying gear paid off. Grandpa was able to fill his bull tag with a 1,030 yard shot with my 28 nosler from a tripod standing up. The conditions were perfect for a long shot with zero wind and excellent visibility that morning. His first shot went through the back of both lungs and the bull hunched up then started to cough. He was dying on his feet but we had grandpa shoot 2 more times which hit him in the neck and put him on the ground. Then we watched him roll down the hill into a small stand of oaks. The rest of the story is the same as many others and has been lived by most of you. Here's some pictures after we got the bull of the mountain.
There were lots of good options for grandpa in this spot with new bulls coming in all the time as the rut intensified. A few days before the start of the hunt a real giant walked in and I turned all of my attention to him.
The night before the start of the hunt me and my buddy put this bull to bed through our glass. I was feeling really confident about our chances of killing this bull and opening morning we found him again mixing it up with a big 6x. He was all the way at the top which was unusual for him and as we watched he went into some timber and disappeared. We continued glassing and saw some hunters top out on the ridge we were looking at the heard 2 quick shots. Later that day we watched them pack out our target bull and got rained out shortly after that.
This left all of us feeling somewhat discouraged and grandpa let me know that if we saw a good mature bull he was ready to shoot it.
So the following morning when we glassed this guy up we immediately started getting set up to shoot him as soon as legal shooting light hit. It took all of us working together to make it happen from running the rangefinder, watching through glass, ballistic calculations, helping get the gun on target, and talking grandpa through the shot as he's never shot an animal this far. This is where all the time at the range and all the time setting up and testing/verifying gear paid off. Grandpa was able to fill his bull tag with a 1,030 yard shot with my 28 nosler from a tripod standing up. The conditions were perfect for a long shot with zero wind and excellent visibility that morning. His first shot went through the back of both lungs and the bull hunched up then started to cough. He was dying on his feet but we had grandpa shoot 2 more times which hit him in the neck and put him on the ground. Then we watched him roll down the hill into a small stand of oaks. The rest of the story is the same as many others and has been lived by most of you. Here's some pictures after we got the bull of the mountain.
