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Got back yesterday from our final elk hunt of the year. We had only my tag to fill in a limited draw area. On the 1st morning we passed on 16 bulls 6 point and smaller looking for the older bulls. On the 3rd day of hunting we finally found a bull that would score around 380-390 B&C. I took a shot at about 150 yds. The sound a hit clearly heard by both of us. The bull staggers into some pinyons and appears to go down very hard. My son says he is down hard and I told him that that bull was all done. The bull was next to a 2 track hidden in the pinyons. Jake went and got the pickup and we drove up there to gut him and get him loaded both of us remarking how easy this one would be to get out. As we got within 20 yards of where the bull was I see this GIANT bull jump the fence and run down the 2 track in front of us. This bulls rack is so large I have the impression I am looking at a Tule elk with a rack so big he can hardly carry it. We stop and as I line up the cross hairs on him again and start to squeeze he takes a hard right into thick pinyons. As it is getting dark we run onto his track and I circle below trying to catch sight of him. No such luck. We take the trail for as long as we can see it in the fading light. No blood anywhere that we can see. The bulls track look as if he is drunk! He stumbles, runs into things but does not stop. His feet are placed so wide that he appears to be waddling off. He never breaks out of a slight trot. We quit his track and figure on finding him in the morning.

The next morning after a slight shower we are back on the track of the bull after about a mile of following his stumbling track we still have found no blood and he has still been falling and running into trees. We stay on the track for most of the day. Up and over several big steep Mesa's and down in the canyons in between. No luck catching up to him and finally lost him in a huge rocky canyon.

I was so sick over losing that monster that I could not eve get intereested in taking a different bull. We had a great hunt and looked at over 40 bulls while we were there. I was a shitty way to end the season and I doubt I will ever lay eyes on a bull of that class again.

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