Was able to fill my second elk tag mid-December.
Found a small herd real close to the boundary, as in half on public, half on private. Whipping winds made me want to get close. Hands and knees through the cactus to close the distance, ended up at about 160. Kept feeding on to public so I waited and waited and waited. Something spooked them and after a few chirps and barks they started to turn back to private. Picked a big cow and squeezed off a shot. Shot felt good but lost her in the mix, had another tag but no chance to double up as I was watching for the one I hit. Herd crossed back to private but she peeled off and tipped over before making it to the top of the hill. Feels so good to have a clean kill.
Seemed like a real big cow. Gave half away to a buddy’s dad. Moved here from KY to be closer to his kids/grandkids. Lost all his stomping grounds. I can appreciate that, hope he enjoys the meat.
Third tag might just go unfilled. Hope to get out tomorrow some more. I admire the ability some have here to consistently fill all three elk tags year after year. The time involved in sussing these little sections out is really incalculable, which is really why I find spot burning/sharing so frustrating. It’s really not so hard to get them killed, but the hard part (for me at least) is sorting out these spots and figuring out when/where they’ll be there in relation to all the other variables.
Found a small herd real close to the boundary, as in half on public, half on private. Whipping winds made me want to get close. Hands and knees through the cactus to close the distance, ended up at about 160. Kept feeding on to public so I waited and waited and waited. Something spooked them and after a few chirps and barks they started to turn back to private. Picked a big cow and squeezed off a shot. Shot felt good but lost her in the mix, had another tag but no chance to double up as I was watching for the one I hit. Herd crossed back to private but she peeled off and tipped over before making it to the top of the hill. Feels so good to have a clean kill.
Seemed like a real big cow. Gave half away to a buddy’s dad. Moved here from KY to be closer to his kids/grandkids. Lost all his stomping grounds. I can appreciate that, hope he enjoys the meat.
Third tag might just go unfilled. Hope to get out tomorrow some more. I admire the ability some have here to consistently fill all three elk tags year after year. The time involved in sussing these little sections out is really incalculable, which is really why I find spot burning/sharing so frustrating. It’s really not so hard to get them killed, but the hard part (for me at least) is sorting out these spots and figuring out when/where they’ll be there in relation to all the other variables.
