Droptine Is Mine - GuideRite Adventures

T rail C am P hotos
of B ryan ' s E lk
B ryan T rudeau • E lk • Washington
A
fter 9 years of putting in for a quality elk tag I finally
got the results I had been waiting for — “Successful.”
Now what do I do? Of course the year I got selected my
wife and I were expecting our first child on August 11th,
with my archery hunt opening on September 1st. At first
I was contemplating not taking the tag and trying again
next season, but after talking with my wife she said that
it would be easier now with a newborn than with a 1 or 2
year old down the road.
Now the scouting began for my trophy bull. One of my best
friends, Luke Carrick, was excited to start setting trail
cameras and trying to find a shooter bull. We had hiked and
scouted this unit years before, so we knew that there were
350" plus bulls in it. Being a self-employed contractor, I
could never seem to break away from a job to go scouting,
so Luke made the trip by himself. He made the 2 1/2
hour trip to my draw unit to set cameras up where he had
found a watering hole on a previous hiking trip. This unit
is horseback or hiking only, so everything we needed for
my hunt would be packed in on our backs. After letting the
cameras sit for a few weeks Luke made the trip back to see
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if there were any good pictures. I clearly remember when
he called me to tell me that there was a photo of a 7x8
with a droptine at the watering hole. I knew this was the
one I would try for on the start of my hunt.
With the due date of our first child approaching fast I knew
things were going to get crazy, and boy did they. My wife
ended up going 10 days past her due date of the 11th, and
on August 21st our healthy daughter, Valen, finally arrived.
With a newborn you know that sleep is limited, and I only
had 10 days before my hunt opened. During the time that
she would be sleeping I would practice shooting my bow
and make sure I had everything packed for the hunt. Since
my hunting buddy, Luke, happened to be climbing Mt.
Rainier the weekend of my hunt opener, two of our other
great hunting friends, Chuck and Nancy, would join me for
the first few days.
Chuck and Nancy are true outdoors people. They have a
passion for hunting and were more than excited to be with
me on such a great hunting adventure. Chuck, his wife,
Nancy, and I met at the trailhead of my unit to start the
hike in to where we would set up camp for the next week
or so.
B ryan with his
Washington E lk
That night in camp we could already hear the bulls bugling
all around us. Early the next morning we set out to see if
we could locate any bulls. Chuck, a master at calling elk,
let a few bugles out, and sure enough we had some bulls
answer back. We had what sounded like a mature bull
answering him back, which was moving in our direction, so
we quickly set up with me out in front to see if he could
draw the big bull out. Chuck kept the cow call steady, but
this bull already had a bunch of cows with him. He would
just stay in the deep, thick timbers, out of my sight, and
bugle at us.
Finally the bull had enough and gathered his cows to slowly
move away from us. The three of us got back together to
talk about how cool that was when we heard a small bugle
behind us. We peeked over the edge of the ridge we were
on and coming right at us was the droptine bull. He never
got within bow range for me, but we had now seen him
with our own eyes and knew that he was still in the area.
Knowing that my buddy, Luke, would be joining us in 2
days to help with the hunt, Chuck and I decided to scout
another area and not put too much pressure on the dropper
bull the following day. We hiked about 10 miles and did a
lot of glassing. We saw a nice 6x6 far away and heard some
bugles way down in some deep canyons, but in the back of
my mind I was still thinking about the droptine bull.
On the third day of my hunt Luke finally arrived at camp
to help. We set out just before light and headed in the
direction of where we thought the droptine bull would be.
Chuck let out a couple bugles, and we had bulls answer him
back instantly. They sounded like they were moving away
from us, so we took off fast down the trail to try and catch
up to them. We got close enough where we thought it
would be worth a try to lure one of them back. Chuck and
Nancy dropped over the edge of the ridge we were on, and
Luke and I set up right on top. Chuck started cow calling
like crazy, and a bull was answering back aggressively,
coming right in my direction. Luke was standing right at
my side and could see my leg shaking uncontrollably. He
whispered to relax and get ready. I could hear a huge
bugle, and the bull was coming over the top of the ridge,
right at me. He had his head down when he crested the
ridge and was charging for the cow call that Chuck was
making. The bull stopped and lifted his head up, and that
is when I saw the droptine on his left side.
Right in front of me was a dropper at 40 yards. I drew my
bow back and settled in my pins; all of my nerves seemed
to have gone away. I was steady as could be and held at
full draw for a few seconds, staring at this massive bull. He
started to get spooked a bit and began to turn away from
me. I knew this was my chance, so I let my arrow fly. I led
him a little too much, and my arrow struck him in the lower
neck. He spun and took off down the other side of the hill
like a bulldozer. I looked at Luke and said that I had hit
him, but it was forward in the lower neck.
We all sat on the trail and talked about my shot for at least
45 minutes before we decided to start tracking the blood
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B ryan with his
Washington E lk
L uke , B ryan ,
N ancy , & C huck
trail. I had a bad feeling that he would just keep on going
away from us with such a bad shot placement. As we started
to track the bull we all noticed how much blood there was
on the brush; we kept seeing more and more. This blood
trail was one of the easiest ones I had ever followed. We
had only gone about 100 yards down the hill when Chuck
yelled out, “There he is!” He was piled up right below me.
As we walked over to the bull we could not believe how
massive he was. I yelled out, “Droptine is mine!” as I gave
Luke a high five.
After all the photos and staring at the bull we knew the
hard work was going to begin. As we quartered up the elk
we started to think about how we were going to get him out
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to the trucks before the meat would spoil. It was at least 8
plus miles one way to the trucks. With all the gear and meat
it would take us days to get it all out. Luke mentioned that
he knew a guide in the area who had mules. He said it would
cost me, but it might be the best option. He climbed the hill
to make the call and came back down and said it would be
$500 to pack out the elk. I thought about it for 2 seconds
and said, “Let’s have him do it.”
We packed the meat in game bags and hung them from
downed trees for the night. Luke took the horns and hiked
the next morning to meet the mules. Chuck, Nancy, and
I packed up camp and headed for the trucks. This hunt
could not have turned out any better for me because
I had a newborn baby girl at home that I was missing
very much.
My 19-day hunt was over in 5 days, and I was on my way
home. I will cherish this hunt for the rest of my life.
Spending time in the wilderness while hunting with great
friends is hard to beat. I can’t thank Luke, Chuck, and Nancy
enough for all of their help on the hunt. It would not have
happened without them.