By Brian Trujillo

I have been hunting elk in New Mexico all my life. Every year I look forward to chasing these awesome animals. I was excited to find out that I had drawn an elk tag in my favorite unit this year. I Knew I had to spend lots of time shooting my bow to prepare myself for this hunt. I wasn't going to shoot just any elk. I was hoping to find me a nice big bull.

I was excited that I had an elk hunt coming up, so this made the summer drag on. Time was moving way to slow and I wondered if hunting season would ever get here. Well, finally it did and I was ready to go. I had done lots of practicing with my bow and I knew that if I could get a good shot, I would have my bull.

The begining of the hunt started off slow. The elk weren't bugling much, but I was seeing some animals and that kept my hopes up. On the fourth morning of the hunt, the elk were screaming their heads off when I got out of my truck. It was still dark outside as I headed in the direction of the bugles. I could hear 4 or 5 bulls bugling back and fourth. This was an exciting morning and I thought I might get my chance at a great bull.

It finally started getting light and I was about 300 yards from the elk and moving in. All of a sudden I could hear a bull raking a tree not too far in front of me. I starting jogging toward the elk to close the distance quickly, while he was preoccupied tearing up the tree. I got about 50 yards from the bull and could just barely see him through the trees. I couldn't tell how big he was because it was so thick. I started sneaking in closer with an arrow knocked. The bull stopped raking the tree and walked off before I could get a clear shot at him. He bugled as he headed towards the other bulls.

Right after the bull walked out of my sight, another bull bugled off to my left. He sounded like a monster and I decided to go towards him. I gave a couple of cow calls and the bull bugled right back at me. I thought I might have a chance at him. I moved in as close as I could and got set up to try to call him in closer. He sounded like he was less than 100 yards from me, but it was really thick with trees. I knocked and arrow and got ready to call. All of a sudden I heard elk running everywhere. Something spooked them. I heard them running for a while and then everything went quiet. I had no idea what happened. Frustrated, I got up and started walking, thinking I had spooked the elk. I thought the wind was good from my position. I walked about 20 yards from where I was and I saw 3 guys walking up in front of me. They had spooked the elk! I was mad. Once I saw them, I turned around and headed back to my truck. I would go somewhere else for the afternoon hunt.

I was disgusted from the morning hunt and wanted to try out a different area. I was hoping I would have some better luck there. I parked my truck on a fence line and started walking. It was about 4:00 pm and I was just trying to get back to an area about a mile away. I was pretty close to the ridge I wanted to get to when I heard a bugle back behind me. I had just walked through that area. I turned around and started walking back in the direction the bull had bugled. I didn't hear anything else for a while. I was pretty close to where I thought the bugle came from when I heard him scream again right in front of me! I knocked an arrow and slowly walked around a big juniper tree. Nothing. I walked a little farther and couldn't see anything. I gave one soft cow call and the bull answered me. He sounded like he was right there. I kneeled down and got ready for him. The bull finally came into my view and I could see him moving through the trees to my right. Then I spotted a cow walking back to my left. She gave a cow call and the bull let out a scream and turned right around and started to come through the trees right in my direction.

The bull was about 40 yards from me walking like he was going to cross in front of me. When he got to 30 yards I noticed an opening that I would have a shot in if he walked through it. The bull kept coming. At 20 yards he let out another scream while he was walking. I finally could see that this bull was big. I knew I wanted to shoot him. I drew my bow back as the bull was nearing the little opening through the trees. He came through it perfectly broadside at 12 yards. Once I could see the spot I wanted to shoot at, I let it fly. The arrow hit him perfect behind the shoulder and the bull took off crashing through the trees.

I found the bull about a half an hour later. He had gone about 150 yards after the shot. It was a great feeling to finally get a good bull with my bow. This bull is 51 inches wide and scores 330 7/8.

Species: Elk Location of Hunt: New Mexico Outfitter: Self-Guided Weapon: Hoyt Bow Equipment: Sworovski Binoculars, Carlton Call