Bull for the books

Dan Agnew invested time and a small fortune for the chance to bag what is sure to be a Washington state record bull elk.

Last winter the Vancouver hunter saw a picture of the bull’s antler sheds and a video of the animal. He’d talked to another hunter, a friend of his who’d bid on a Washington’s Governor’s Tag in an effort to bag the big 9-by-10 non-typical last fall. Agnew learned the bull was secretive, elusive and lived in tough country characterized by tall ridges and deep, timbered draws – the kind hunters call holes, where an animal could disappear.

When Agnew set out the first week of September to hunt the monster bull in Game Management Unit 162 near Dayton, he was prepared to spend lots of time. But nothing prepared him for the way the hunt played out.

“I took enough gear to last a month and had the shortest, easiest hunt I’ve ever been on,” he said. “Less than an hour after we left camp, we saw the bull on an open ridge top and, a short stalk later, the bull was down.”

The hunt was on public land, he said.

Agnew, 62, had hired outfitter Jim Drennan of Hood River and Walla Walla guide Corey Reynard, who had scouted the bull before he arrived. Its general location was known, but the bull hadn’t been showing itself and it hadn’t been hanging out in the open.

“They had seen him a couple of times and each time he was a long way off and a long way down in the hole.

“Last year’s auction tag hunter said he hunted this bull hard. He said my best chance was to get there before the archery season opened.

Last winter, Agnew bought the privilege to do that by out-bidding the competition for the Washington’ Governor’s Tag for Eastside elk. The state offers the tag each year in a fundraising auction at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Banquet in Reno. Other trophy hunters had heard about the Dayton unit bull and the bidding was intense.

Agnew set his first Washington elk record by paying the highest ever for the tag: $65,000.

But it’s just the ticket for a trophy hunter, enabling him to bypass most of the limitations on general elk tag holders.

The Governor’s Tag allows the holder to hunt any elk with any weapon, Sept. 1-Dec. 1, in any Eastern Washington unit where branch-antlered bulls can be hunted.

The tag holder gets first shot – a full week in the woods before the first general elk seasons open.

“Last year’s hunter said that as soon as activity picked up in the area, this bull went into the deep, dark timber. That’s how he lived to get so big. Every guide and rifle hunter or archer with a special permit for this area has been trying to find this bull for the past two years.”

But on that morning, for some reason, the bull was high on the ridge in open view.

After a short stalk, Agnew took a shot from about 250 yards with his .30-378 Weatherby. He saw the bull buckle and knew he hit it. But the animal didn’t fall.

The shot spooked the 20 or so cows with the bull toward the bottom of the draw. The bull followed, but lagged behind. Agnew took a second shot that ended the hunt.

The bull’s antlers had a gross green score of 449. When they dry, they should easily exceed the current 421 7/8 record killed five years ago by a bowhunter.

Word and pictures of Agnew’s pending state-record bull have been spreading via e-mail and hunting chat rooms across the Internet.

“A lot of people have really given me a hard time because it sounds like I kind of showed up and shot him and went home, and that is kind of what happened,” he said. “But that has never happened to me before. I’ve spent months looking for big elk and come home empty-handed.”

Agnew is a trophy elk hunter and proud of it.

“It’s my hobby and my passion,” he said. “I’ve killed one bull that is bigger than this one, in Arizona, and had my share of success over the years.”

“We had some pictures of the sheds in the booth at the Elk Foundation convention and it piqued some interest,” said Pat Fowler, district wildlife biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Dayton. “We had some video at the presentation and I think that is what really got their interest.”

The Dayton unit is one of the most productive in the Blues, Fowler said.

The Eastside Governor’s Tag had been selling for about $20,000 in recent years. But last year it jumped to $47,000, largely because of this bull. Agnew said he was happy to pay such a high price, not only for the opportunity to hunt the bull, but also to help restore elk habitat.

Agnew is co-owner of Mt. Hood Beverage Co., a beer and wine distributor.

“I’ve been a supporter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for many years. One-hundred percent of the money goes to restoration and enhancement of elk habitat. That is very important to me and gives me a fun way to support something I really believe in.”

As of Tuesday, Agnew had not received the elk meat from the processor. “Older bulls aren’t quite as good, but it’s still great to me,” Agnew said. “I love elk meat.”

Fowler said it’s not the only big one out there. He said there is video of a bull with an 8-by-8 rack that is as large as the one Agnew shot. That should keep Washington in the sights of trophy elk hunters.

A bowhunter killed a 6-by-6 point bull with a green score of 370 in the Wenaha Unit in September, Fowler said.

“We have managed our elk herd to be very careful to maintain our age structure,” he said. “When you maintain age structure for fully mature bulls, you are going to have some large bulls out there.”