Here is the whole story (without all the BS). I normanlly get a deer tag but last year I missed out on the drawing. I wanted to get out and do some hunting so I bought a left over bull tag. Months before the hunt I started talking with my neighbor and buddy of mine Jake about getting an elk. Jake grew up working on a ranch where they hunt elk like something crazy. I wanted to pick his brain and find out how to kill one of these beautiful animals. We decided that we would go up together and I would get some one on one lessons.
Our first time out we spotted some cows several miles up a canyon. We hiked like mad men to try and cut them off before dark. Threeforths of the way up Jake got side tracked by a large buck. I never did see it that night, but Jake seemed pretty excited about it. The next day he went up with his horses and killed that buck. It was a 76 yard shot straight through the lungs. Jake's buck scored 170+ not bad for his first animal with a bow. : )
A month later, after my busy season at work ended. I finally had time to make it back out. Jake and I decided that we needed to get out and spend the night camping. We made some tinfoil dinners and enjoyed sitting by the camp fire. We woke up at 5:30 am to get a head start and this is where our long day begines...
After a quick egg and sasage breakfast we headed as fast as we could to the high peak ridgelines. After about a two hour hike we finally made it. We sat down and looked over the second large bowl. As I was glassing a far mountain side Jake came running up to me pointing to the bottom of the bowl. There in military fashion we counted 50+ cows in single file line running between two patches of pine trees. They were headed stright to the ridgeline to our right. Jake started making cow calls while we ran like olympic sprinters down the ridgeline. We could hear them crashing through the trees and we set up where we knew they'd be coming out. As we were sat there catching our breath we heard something running down the ridgeline. When we looked up we saw two 4 point bulls running striaght at us. As quick as we could be notched our arrows. Jake notched his a lot faster than I did and made his shot. His arrow flew past the first elk and they dashed off into the trees on the other side of the ridge. As we went to find his arrow (about 90 yards away) a large group of cows came out right where we where standing. "I missed my chance" I kept thinking to myself.
We knew that there was still elk in the bottom of the bowl. So we started down into the bowl (later through a GPS we would find out that the bowl was at the bottom of a 1,500 foot steep drop). After about 30 minutes into the trees I saw two groups of cows. I was so excited I knew I was going to get a shot. I quickly pointed them out to Jake and we notched arrows in our bows. As I was ranging them on my rang finder Jake took his shot. BANG! He hit a tree about 30 yards in front of us.The elk just looked up at us. They were out of my range. Trying to stay behind the thick timber I took about 4 or 5 big jumps down the hill. Jake was right there behind me. Again, as I ranged the cow I heard another BANG! Jake had hit another tree. 56 yards was within my range. I pulled back, put my pin on her heart, and let that arrow fly! Right after I shot she turned down hill and fell flat on her face. I got her! After taking some deep breaths and calming myself down we waited a few minutes before heading down.
This is the blood trail that we found. Not bad huh? I love the T3's by G5 and would recommed them to everyone. We found her at the bottom of the hill. She dorpped about 15 feet from where she was shot and then slid a good 60 yards to the bottom of the hill.
She was a yound cow maybe 2 years old. The arrow went through the lung and stuck into the heart (I will resist myself from putting that picture up). AS you can tell from my smile I was so excited. My first elk. I know that it is not some big bull, but I had a great time anyways! I can only imagine how I will feel when I get my huge 6X6 one day.
Congrats !! I've killed a few elk but I've never got one with my bow.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the meat.