The bull referred to in this thread, was a specific bull that we hunted, born on the property. He knew his areas, like no other animal that I have ever encountered.
He had a home valley where he lived, and we found him there 9/10 times. Just, you had to shoot across a valley, and the shot could get rather long, especially on a top price range animal like this. After every bust, I thought I figured out his escape route which would aid me in the next attempt, but he would use a different route every time of the 5 times he took off.
The last time, I went to the back corner, which is also the highest point of the property, and scouted from there. I could see his home valley, which was also where I expected to find him again. I found him in a different area, and my Leica Geovids told me that he was about a mile away.
When I turned to my tracker to send him to go and fetch an extra pair of binos and radios, and put the glass back on him, he was looking straight at us, from a mile away.
I turned to instruct my guy, turned back to look at him, and he was gone. I left my tracker on that ridge, and drove around to get to the cliffs above him. Once I got there, I scanned the thorny thickets below me. After about 5 minutes of scanning, I only picked up the tip of the one horn sticking out from the long grass. The range was a modest 170yds, and we waited him out until he stood up.
Very mixed emotions about this one. The reward feeling for the hard work was good, but can't help but feel that bitter sweet feeling once he's lying there. They are just sensational animals.
