I say “Once In A Lifetime Hunt” because nowadays that’s what it really is. Really, it was a limited entry hunt here in my home state of Utah that Mindi and Bob had both drawn this year, 2024. I say once in a lifetime hunt because point creep is a real thing. Mindi had drawn this tag with 16 points and Bob, 26. Here is the story.
It was that time of year again where we all patiently wait for that special email.
Especially after a long awaited 16 years. Putting in for a unit that takes max points of 26
points, one wouldn’t think that that email would appear. At least one that says the magic
word “successful”. Well, the day finally came for Mindi and the email said the word we
all anticipate for, “successful”.
I was receiving phone calls and text messages from friends and family about who drew
what tags. Making plans for the season and figuring out dates. When Kerry Packard
called me and told me his wife, Mindi Packard and Jake Hitt’s dad, Bob Hitt, both drew a
premium tag in Utah for the Mid season hunt in a limited entry unit. Mindi drew the tag
with only 16 points and Bob 26. It’s not very often that two people in a friend group,
draw together without being in a group application. But somehow, they did. They
immediately started making plans for scouting trips for the summer and I started making
phone calls to buddies that live in the unit.
They spent most of the summer going down to the unit, learning the lay of the land.
Figuring out where they want to be for the opening day. They narrowed it down to a
good camping area, with access to a lake with good fishing and premium elk country all
around.
After many scouting trips, October finally came around. I had 9 of the 15 days
scheduled to be down with them and help. I’d be lying if we all thought we would have
two bulls down within just a couple days and nine days wouldn’t be needed. The Friday
before the hunt I headed down to meet everyone at camp. I pulled up to camp and we
immediately started making a game plan. We decided I would go with Jake and his dad
to one area and Kerry and Mindi to another.
Opening day.
We woke up early, had our coffee and breakfast and headed out. To our surprise the
mountain was crawling with hunters already. This hunt runs the same dates as the spike
hunt. We tried going to two different places where people blew by us to get the spot first.
Third spot we were able to secure. Kerry and Mindi had the same issue. That morning,
we were only able to turn up two elk far out. For the evening hunt I went with Kerry and
Mindi. We went to a spot I wanted to check out. This spot looked over a huge canyon,
into a big burn and with shot opportunity all around. After about an hour of sitting there a
herd of elk stepped out followed by a big herd bull. The elk were too far out for that
night, but I knew we needed to be there first thing in the morning.
We hunted “dark hole” pretty much every day after that. Venturing off to a couple other
places that we saw elk in. After opening weekend things calmed down and it seemed
like we had most of the mountain to ourselves. We would see bulls every day in this
spot but just no shooters. The third day sitting there we had a bull bugling just off the hill
from us. I got Mindi positioned to make a shot where I thought the bull would walk out
and sure enough, he did. The first thing I noticed was the bull was broken on his right
side right above his 2nd and had a broken 5th on the left side. He was a great bull,
around 340 not broke. I would cow call and stop the bull when no cows were around
and tell Mindi if she wants to shoot him, now’s the time. She carefully looked the bull
over and after the sixth time stopping the bull, decided she wanted to wait and pass him
up. I was proud of her for making this tough decision!
A couple days passed with seeing smaller bulls and no shooters. I headed out with Bob
and Jake to a spot we had been seeing quite a bit of elk. Kerry and Mindi went into the
dark hole. I received a text from Kerry that a shooter bull was working his way up the
ridge into the opening where she would have a shot. The next text was “shots fired”.
Mindi had shot twice at the bull but unfortunately, without hitting its mark. Come to find
out, her scope on the gun was off after taking a good fall. Kerry got the gun zeroed in
again and they were ready to go.
A couple more days goes by with only seeing a couple of small bulls. We had to make a
run to town to resupply and get a bite to eat. While in town, we got talking to a couple
guys that were hunting spikes. We told them that we had two big bull tags in camp, and
he immediately told us he had seen a nice bull. He explained the area that he had seen
the bull and that evening we headed to the area.
It was day eight and was supposed to be my last evening hunt before I had to go home.
We got to the area the guy had told us about around 4PM and found a great vantage
point looking across the canyon into a big dead fall, burnt hillside. We sat there all
evening anticipating on a nice bull to walk out. Nothing. Not a single elk came out that
evening. I could tell after the evening hunt that the drive was depleting. But I knew this
was where Mindi was going to harvest her bull. I told Kerry and Mindi we needed to be
back to the same spot before the sun came up the next morning.
“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP”. 430 came around and the alarm clock was going off. We got up
and were getting ready. There was not a lot of talking going on due to the anticipation
and anxiousness of if there was going to be a bull in there or not that morning. We
started up the side by side and atv and headed out. Not a far drive. 15 minutes from
camp and a 15 hike to our vantage point. We got there 30 minutes before sunup. I got
Mindi positioned in a prone shooting position. We made sure she was super
comfortable and was okay to lay there for a couple hours if needed. We set up her
scope for where we thought the bull would walk out to and I set up my spotter. Now for
the patience game. As the mountain sides were starting to turn the dark orange and
pink from the sun coming up, I began looking for elk. Not two minutes passed and
boom, I see an elk right where I thought they would be. I couldn’t tell how big he was
due to still being dark, but I could tell he was a bull. As it got lighter, I could make out
antlers and knew right away this wasn’t the bull we were looking for. We watched him
for 15 minutes. I noticed he kept looking up above him and I told Kerry and Mindi that
the big bull is there, we just couldn’t see him yet. I looked through my spotter and there
he was, behind some tall brush I could see the tops of his antlers. I told Mindi I found
the bull she is going to shoot. She had plenty of time to calm down and wait for the
perfect shot. The bull fed out and turned broadside. I told her “Shoot when you’re
ready”. And after a few shots, the bull took 10 steps where he stiffened up and fell right
over. A perfect heart shot.
The bull falling over was immediately followed by hugs, hooting and hollering. I’m pretty
sure the next town over could hear us. All the hard work finally paid off with this once in
a lifetime bull down in the dirt. Watching Mindi put her hands on her first bull that she
waited so long for, was worth all the hard work we put into this hunt. With the way point
creep is nowadays, these limited entry hunts are now pretty much once in a lifetime
hunts. This bull checks off everything on the list for a once in a lifetime bull. The rest of
the day was spent deboning, caping and packing the bull out of the rugged, dead fall
canyon. Luckily, we had a few guys that came down to help.
Thank you, Mindi, for letting me help and be apart of this awesome hunt! It will be one I
will never forget!
