.300winmag
Handloader
- Oct 17, 2011
- 660
- 1
I was looking through some old photo's on my computer this evening and found these pictures from a bull I took in 2005, my last year of college. I was hunting with my dear high school friend for a cow, and the first spot we started to glass we spotted this bull bedded down about 400 yards away. We were looking him over, enjoying mother nature when we noticed he was bleeding very heavily on his back left hip. We then proceeded to watch him struggle to stand up from his bed and he kept collapsing. It was heartbreaking to watch. Luckily my friend works for the BLM and had the Division of Wildlife's head honcho's personal number in his phone. A quick phone call explaining the situation and we were asked if I would mind taking the bull and bringing it to the DOW's headquarters so they could extract the slug for ballistics and confiscate the antlers for evidence. I was fine with this, as I was meat hunting so the antlers didn't concern me and I wanted them to find the guys that had shot the bull to leave it suffering to die a slow and painful death. That is unethical and completely inappropriate in my eyes.
Anyways, the bull had wandered off into the oak brush and junipers while on the phone, so we began our trek. It was not a hard trail to follow as the bull was bleeding badly and stumbling to the ground and into trees the whole time he was on his feet. , But while in the thick oak brush,I could hear the bull breathing heavily but could not see him and I could not help to relate the adrenaline rush to stalking a cape buffalo through the thick brush of Africa (I'm sure it's not the same, but, it was exhilarating to me). I ended up shooting the bull at less than ten yards, and in all honesty I didn't even have my scope caps off when I took the shot. I was happy to put the bull out of his pain and suffering, but it wasn't until I noticed the uniqueness of his antlers that I was disappointed to have to give them up. He had a tine (not sure what to call it) that to me resembled a brow tine that went down the back of his neck, and some webbing in the 4-5th point area of his antlers. Something I've not seen before.
We took the bull to the DOW's office and they pulled a .45 caliber slug from it's hip. They checked our pistols (as to be expected) But I was carrying a .40 S&W and my buddy a 9mm. The wound also showed signs of infection, indicating an older wound. They confiscated the slug and were comparing it to known poachers slugs and took the antlers (unfortunately), but they allowed me to put my cow tag on the meat and take the ivories. Overall I feel very good about the situation, what had happened to that bull was morally and ethically unjust. I do wish I could have those antlers though, just because of how unique they were. The good news was the ballistics came back to a known poacher in the area and he was successfully convicted. He will never hunt in Colorado again. This gives me a great deal of relief, knowing someone who has caused so much pain and lack of ethics is paying the price for their actions.I've included photo's of the bulls antlers below. Has anyone here ever had an experience like this?
Anyways, the bull had wandered off into the oak brush and junipers while on the phone, so we began our trek. It was not a hard trail to follow as the bull was bleeding badly and stumbling to the ground and into trees the whole time he was on his feet. , But while in the thick oak brush,I could hear the bull breathing heavily but could not see him and I could not help to relate the adrenaline rush to stalking a cape buffalo through the thick brush of Africa (I'm sure it's not the same, but, it was exhilarating to me). I ended up shooting the bull at less than ten yards, and in all honesty I didn't even have my scope caps off when I took the shot. I was happy to put the bull out of his pain and suffering, but it wasn't until I noticed the uniqueness of his antlers that I was disappointed to have to give them up. He had a tine (not sure what to call it) that to me resembled a brow tine that went down the back of his neck, and some webbing in the 4-5th point area of his antlers. Something I've not seen before.
We took the bull to the DOW's office and they pulled a .45 caliber slug from it's hip. They checked our pistols (as to be expected) But I was carrying a .40 S&W and my buddy a 9mm. The wound also showed signs of infection, indicating an older wound. They confiscated the slug and were comparing it to known poachers slugs and took the antlers (unfortunately), but they allowed me to put my cow tag on the meat and take the ivories. Overall I feel very good about the situation, what had happened to that bull was morally and ethically unjust. I do wish I could have those antlers though, just because of how unique they were. The good news was the ballistics came back to a known poacher in the area and he was successfully convicted. He will never hunt in Colorado again. This gives me a great deal of relief, knowing someone who has caused so much pain and lack of ethics is paying the price for their actions.I've included photo's of the bulls antlers below. Has anyone here ever had an experience like this?
