king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Best of 2007 Feb-March 2008 - Index

to know that we would be hunting his
favorite unit and we started scouting
immediately. To further prove our
dedication to our job, Matt and I
would send photos of the bulls we
scouted to our clients on a regular
basis. We had found an amazing
amount of huge bulls and quickly
noticed that this was going to be a
great year for antler growth. Our
team on Don’s hunt consisted of Jeff
Wright, Jason Scott, Craig Cormier,
my dad Jim Sr., my brother Matt and,
without a doubt the funniest and best
cook in the world, Zeke!
After extensive scouting,
we narrowed our search down to
our #1 spot - and with good reason!
There were several bulls close to
in this area. This is an area that we’ve
hunted for many years but, with the
type of terrain, most people overlook it
and stay away. We had several of these
bulls all to ourselves and the excitement
for the hunt was building. Several days
before the hunt started, Matt put me on
a ridge glassing for a huge 380-inch 6x6
that we hoped to reserve as a backup.
While I was glassing, I heard a bugle
coming in from the fl ats. I spun around
to get the video camera set up when I
saw a bull appear. At fi rst I thought he
was one of the many 360-class bulls
heading up to bed but, as he passed by
me at less than 100 yards, I saw that he
had extra points on top of a 360-class
frame. I never saw the big 6x6 that I
was supposed to be glassing, but I
didn’t care - this new bull was huge!
Matt and I watched the video later
and came up with a score of around
415-inches. This bull was a perfect,
typical 8x8 except for a broken tine
on his right side. Don Roach later
named this bull “Ocho Grande” and
he became our #1 bull for opening
day.
Jeff and I would be hunting
with Don Roach, while Matt and
Jason headed out with another client.
They would be hunting a bull that
Matt has a long history with – the
rest of the bulls were ours to pursue.
Dad and Craig would keep tabs on
our plan B and C bulls while we
hunted our plan A bulls. We usually
hunt the archery hunts in teams of
three. This allows one guy to run
the video camera while the hunter
or over that magical 400-inch mark PHOTOS: AUTHOR
February/March
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