king' s outdoor world - Index

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

M
My quest for a huge bull elk started back in 2002
when a couple of my good friends bought me
a landowner tag on the San Juan Elk Ridge,
limited-entry unit in Utah for helping them with a land
development project they were working on. Since then, I
guess you could say I have become a bit of an “Elkoholic.”
I spend hundreds of days scouting and hunting both for
myself, my wife and my friends. As far as I am concerned,
there is nothing better than getting up close and personal
with a big, bugling, bull elk.
Over the years, I have been very fortunate to take
a number of bulls ranging from the low 370’s to the low
390’s. But in 2007, I was fortunate enough to take a true
giant 7x7 typical bull. It all started at the end of July when
I started scouting to see what type of bulls I could turn up.
I knew it was going to be a good year when, after only a
day and a half of scouting, I had turned up two bulls over
400-inches and two more that would break the 380 mark.
One of the two bulls over the 400-inch mark was the one
that I ended up taking. I knew he would go over 400, but I
honestly did not know he would push the 420 mark.
The afternoon of September 5th, 2007 turned out
to be one heck of an afternoon for me. I was pulling down a
side road to park my truck and walk to a lookout that allows
me to see for miles. The location where I hunt is relatively
fl at, and there are only a few vantage points to glass from.
I was about 500 yards from where I like to park my truck
when I spotted some cows in between a 30-foot opening
through the cedar trees about 400 yards away. I stopped the
Barry Fullmer (right) poses next to his
trophy 6x6 bull elk that offi cially scores
400 6/8 gross and 391 net B&C
truck, glassed the opening, and could see one cow standing
and a few more lying down. Just as I started to move
forward, one of the cows that was lying down got nervous,
stood up and instantly started trotting away from me across
a CRP fi eld. This caused the entire herd to start running. As
I glassed the opening, it turned out that there were about 25
elk and it was one cow after another until, out of nowhere,
bringing up the rear, there he was - the big 7x7. My eyes
just about popped out of my head. I had not seen him since
the end of July in the velvet. At this point, my excitement
level was as high as it had ever been. I pulled my truck up a
couple hundred yards into the cedar trees, parked it, grabbed
my gun and started running the 400 yards to the edge of the
CRP fi eld. As I reached the edge of the fi eld, I leaned up
against a tree, looked through my scope, and could see the
last three elk up against the cedar trees on the other side of
the fi eld 480 yards away. It was two cows and the big bull.
I decided that it was now or never. I shot and the big bull
acted like he had been hit, but was still standing. I fi red a
second shot and the bull walked fi ve steps and into the trees.
I felt confi dent that I had hit him the fi rst time, but due to
excessive shaking, I felt like I had missed him the second.
As I was walking across the fi eld to get to where he went
into the trees, I called to let my buddies who were hunting
another part of the unit know that I was pretty sure I had hit
the big 7x7 and asked them to come and give me a hand.
I hadn’t walked more than 25 feet into the trees
when the big bull jumped to his feet and took off. It was
obvious he was hit, but I was not sure how hard. I got on
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