Bulls when it Boils

Though I have hunted elk more than a dozen times, I'm probably a lot closer to the average elk hunter than I am to the top dogs of the sport. Like most, I have struggled to kill big bulls. There are always too many eyes, or the wind swirls, or they catch me in the open, or any one of a dozen other reasons why I have killed very few trophies. However, in my experience, I have seen people just like me shoot some awesome bulls when they give up on the traditional methods and simply hunt waterholes. Ambushing elk is much, much easier than chasing them - especially when you are targeting the herd bull. And there are few ambush sites as consistent as water holes during hot dry stretches.

Maybe the ambush isn't quite as pure or as exciting as the traditional cat and mouse game, but try to tell that to the three guys I hunted with last September in New Mexico.

We had a tremendous hunt on a tremendous ranch during a very tough dry and hot week. The temperature in mid-September last season ran up to 90 degrees each day. If we had stuck with traditional elk tactics, it is questionable if we would have shot even one decent bull let the size bulls we actually took.

When it is hot, bulls are very reluctant to answer bugles making it hard to pinpoint their locations. Under these conditions, a water hole is best bet for success on a herd bull.

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Doug Adams shot this giant bull as it walked past on a trail leading to water hole. His ten-year-old daughter, Sarah, joined him in the ladder stand. Also shown is nine-year old son Jesse.

The first person to score on a big bull was the one of the ranch owners, Doug Adams. Doug shot the bull the day that I arrived in camp and what an eye-popping introduction to New Mexico that was. Doug loves to take his children with him when he hunts and this time his 10-year old daughter Sarah was in the big ladder stand with her daddy when a huge bull came past following a trail that led to a stock pond.

The bull had choices because several trails converged on the pond from every direction. Luckily, the bull chose a nearby trail bringing him past Doug and his excited daughter at a range of just 25 yards for an easy broadside shot. When the arrow struck, Sarah started whispering, "You got him, you got him." But, Doug wasn't satisfied until the bull fell to the dry, dusty earth just 100 yards away. It was indeed a monster, gross scoring over 360 inches.

Doug is probably your typical eastern elk hunter. He lives in Georgia. He was not orphaned as a boy and then raised by elk, as some of these experts seem to have been. He was able to shoot a monster herd bull for one reason; he was sitting on a trail leading to a waterhole during a very dry time and the bull couldn't wait to get a drink and wallow in the mud.

Doug and his brothers own the Southern Cross Ranch in west central New Mexico and they have taken on many projects to improve the quality of the habitat as well as the hunting. The most important of these projects was the installation of dozens of water guzzlers throughout the ranch to maintain a steady supply of fresh water for the ranch's elk and mule deer. Windmills and solar powered pumps with high-tech panels that follow the sun across the sky keep the tanks and ground-level ponds well stocked with fresh water.

Joel Maxfield was next to score and it didn't take him long at all. He tagged a dandy bull his very first evening out. Joel is the sales and marketing manager for Mathews Archery and he is a great guy with whom to share a camp. Joel seems much less like an important executive in the hunting industry than he does a buddy you grew up with. He is down to earth and loves to hunt. That is what drives his passion for helping to make Mathews such a successful bow company.

For his first afternoon of hunting, Joel chose the Forest Drinker, a cattle tank that was being used regularly by a herd of elk. The legendary predator hunter Ed Wimberley is the ranch foreman, and Ed saw at least one big bull at Forest before we arrived. Mike Cox was filming Joel's hunt for the Outdoor Expeditions television show on the Men's Channel. Joel knew that he had to keep his distance if two guys on the ground were going to avoid detection from an entire herd of elk.

Joel chose to make his blind under a cedar tree fully 50 yards from the tank. I watched him shoot in camp, and Joel is an excellent archer, fully capable of connecting with the 20-inch kill zone of a large bull elk at this range. Therefore, it was ethical for him to set up such a long distance away. Staying a safe distance from the tank actually made a lot of sense and surely influenced the outcome of the hunt. It is a good tip for anyone hunting water. Set up just inside your maximum range so the elk are less likely to see you.

Just to make sure he was ready, Joel took a practice shot at a cow patty next to the tank before settling into the blind. A little cloud of dust rose from the dry, parched September earth. When it cleared, Mike and Joel grinned. The arrow was sticking from the middle of the patty. After going down the hill to remove the evidence, the pair settled in with fresh confidence.

Elk benefit from water tanks that are managed for livestock. Any game animals in arid regions will gravitate to areas with water, making these natural spots for an ambush.

Well before dark that evening, the first elk appeared and approached the water. As elk often do, they came with the timidity of a thunderstorm. Cows and calves started running as soon as they got within 200 yards of the tank and the bull fell in behind them bugling all the way in.

Unbelievably, the bull walked to the tank and stood exactly on top of the cow patty Joel had thumped with his practice arrow just a short time earlier. There was no guessing at the range or Joel's ability to make the shot. The only thing the bowhunter needed to control now was his pounding heart and surging adrenaline. This was the biggest bull he had ever stared at across a sight pin. Instinctively, Joel brought the release aid to its customary location at the back corner of his jaw and took solid aim. He had done this exact thing thousands of times in his life. Now it was the real thing and he willed himself to be extra patient on the trigger - make a good squeeze.

The bull looked so big standing over the cow patty Joel had center-punched earlier that the bowhunter felt like he was shooting at a 2,500-pound Angus steer. The release took Joel by surprise just as it was supposed to. The arrow flew like a dart, right through the bull's lungs. Elk exploded everywhere. But the bull quickly fell behind the spooked herd and slumped to the ground just 75 yards from the tank.

Mike Disario was filming me as we hunted a different water hole on the ranch that first evening without success. When Joel and Mike were slow to come out from Forest Drinker that evening, we keyed them on the walkie-talkies and were excited to hear of their success. We quickly drove to the drinker and joined the celebration.

I kept hunting water holes and occasionally tried to run down bugles, but my hunt didn't produce a sighting of the kind of bulls that have made the Southern Cross famous. But my luck didn't rub off on everyone.

There were several of us (mostly Doug's brothers and nephews) hunting on the ranch last September, but one of them was a professional photographer named Lon Lauber. Lon lived in Alaska for many years and now resides in Washington state. He has killed just about everything that walks in North America. But Lon had never shot a big elk. For that matter, few people have - even many serious bowhunters from the western United States have trophy rooms barren of monster bull antlers.

Lon spent most of his time hunting one secluded water tank. He often whisked away the tracks around the tank with a cedar bough when he left only to find a single big bull track at the tank the next time he arrived. As a result, Lon was putting in long hours, often hunting right through midday. Despite his best efforts, he never laid eyes on the mystery bull.

After my five days of hunting was up, Lon drove Mike Cox and me to the airport in Albuquerque. I was jealous that he was going back to hunt and I was going home, and I told him so. I just knew it was only a matter of time on that great ranch under those dry conditions before a person would get a chance to slam a whopper over one of the water tanks. Lon felt like he had found such a bull, but now he just needed a little luck.

My words were like prophecy. Lon drove the three hours back to the Southern Cross for two more days of hunting and arrived with just enough time to shower, change clothes, spray down with his favorite Scent Killer odor eliminator and get into his familiar ladder stand over the big bull's tank.

I got an e-mail the next morning. Lon had called Mike Cox at his home in New England at midnight with the good news. He had finally shot that giant bull. It crept in just at sunset, very slow and very quiet - completely alone. He was wary and reluctant to expose his flanks during daylight, but the lure of water was finally too much for him. Lon told me later on the phone when I called to congratulate him that the bull had walked right under the ladder. Lon thought he could have reached down and touched the bull's antlers. Wow, talk about an adrenaline rush.

Lon was afraid to move until the bull finally put his head down into the tank and started to draw water. Then he very slowly brought the bow into position - studying the bull's eyes all the while. Several times the bull detected the slight rustling of Lon's outerwear on the still evening air and looked around. Lon froze until the bull again dropped his head to resume slurping. This continued for nearly an entire nerve-wracking minute until Lon finally reached full draw. Even though the shot was short (less than 20 yards) Lon concentrated hard on the spot he wanted to hit until the bow went off. In dramatic fashion, the bull smashed into the tank, caving in one side and then jumped into the water and out the other side before dropping nearby with a perfect hole through both lungs.

The bull had a gross score of 380 inches with excellent mass. It would be hard not to call this the bull of a lifetime, but on a ranch like the Southern Cross, Lon may one day top it. But no matter where you hunt, shooting a tremendous old mature bull is very, very difficult on the ground stalking and probably close to impossible with a call to your lips. Reclusive and shy bulls are hard to take by any aggressive method and the ambush becomes the best method.

This isolated wallow is located in a valley in Arizona. The author hunted it one evening and watched a 290-inch bull come in and drink and wallow at a range of just 25 yards.

I have hunted elk the traditional way for many years and to very little avail. I have had some close encounters with big bulls, but they always seem to find a way to stay alive. Now when I am saying big bulls, I am talking about the herd bull, not just a good satellite. I agree that you can call in nice satellite bulls using a variety of tactics. I've seen it done and done it myself several times, but when it comes to shooting the biggest bull on the mountain, you have to change your approach. If this were not so, every elk hunter would have a trophy room full of them.

Many of you reading this are whitetail hunters considering a western elk hunt. You are surely more familiar with the methods required to pattern and ambush your quarry than you are with stalking and maneuvering on a big bull. Play to your strengths. The ambush is a great way to shoot a herd bull. In my opinion, it is better than any other method for the average bowhunter. It takes a more thorough understanding of the animal to hunt him successfully on foot than it does to shoot him from a tree stand overlooking a water hole, wallow or even a funnel of trails leading through a mid-mountain saddle.

It is not that I always opt for the easier method of hunting, but when it comes to elk, I don't hunt them enough to be really adept at reading their minds, so I must be satisfied to read their sign instead. That is realistic for any respectable whitetail hunter.

When it is hot, elk will water at least once per day. Timing is everything. Often this daily watering will occur when they first rise from their beds in the early evening hours after a long hot, dry day. But bulls will also occasionally rise at midday to water and wallow while the herd rests. You can use Lon's tactic of sweeping the dust with a cedar or juniper bough to reveal fresh tracks. Check the ground every time you arrive to hunt the water hole and sweep any existing tracks clean every time you leave so you have a fresh slate.

Another option if you are hunting private land is to use a digital trail camera pointed at the water hole. On public land you risk losing the camera, so it not worth using unless you are hunting a particularly isolated location.

Obviously, finding a water hole that is not being hunted is more difficult on public land than on private land, but it can still be done if you are willing to hike long distances. You may also be surprised by the amount of action that you will see when sitting on proven water holes and wallows even in areas with a lot of water. I once hunted a herd of elk in Idaho that were watering and frolicking on the shore of a lake every evening.

Use all the resources at your disposal including aerial photos from websites such as mytopo.com and others. Such photos often reveal waterholes if you look closely. If nothing else, in dry terrain you should see a spoke pattern of cattle or game trails converging on one spot. You can be sure that spot is a water source. Some topographical maps also depict traditional water holes since they are the fabric of life in arid regions of the west.

Bulls aren't very active when it is hot so they won't bugle or tear things up like they will when it's cool. This makes them very hard to hunt on foot. When they aren't telling you where they are, it is pretty easy to blunder into the herd and scatter them clean off the mountain. During these times, it makes a lot more sense to put your time in over a water hole. You are likely to find just the opposite of what you thought you would find. Your odds of shooting a big bull are actually highest when it is hottest.

Southern Cross Ranch
Southern Cross Ranch is one of many properties Doug and his brothers have for sale. The group owns OEI Properties, a recreational land business and all their land is for sale. They buy and sell hunting land, and act as brokers for land they don't own. If you are looking for a great elk ranch like the 46,000-acre Southern Cross Ranch in New Mexico or just a 100-acre whitetail property in western Illinois, OEI can help find your dreamland. I have hunted other OEI properties and they are all premier destinations.

Contact them at (800) 211-8638
www.oeiproperties.com

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