mtnrunner260
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 26, 2015
- Messages
- 311
Wife and I got out for elk.
Critical to the mission was having grandma come down to watch the kids.
We got camp set up about 10pm and set the alarm for the next morning.
Daylight found us on a vantage point looking over a large drainage but didn't turn up any elk. Did have another hunter moving below us but he didn't push anything our way.
So we moved to the next drainage and spent a couple hours in the shade napping and snacking.
She asked if hunting was always like this. I said when it's this hot and sunny there's not much else to do. We had glassed as much as we could and decided to gain another vantage point. We got there just before 3 and at 3:05 she frantically motions me over to show a bull at the edge of a clearing. Game on!
It's was around 3/4 of a mile away so we looped back out of sight and hustled over to the ridge across from the bull. Peaking over we couldn't see him. It took us 30 minutes to get over so a lot can happen but he must of been bedded down because he suddenly appeared at the top of his ridge. 306 yards away but facing away into a half circle of trees. Perfect, no way he can get through there without turning broadside. He racks a tree and gives a somewhat embarrassing bugle. Then he slips through the trees without presenting a shot. "What the crap"
I give a cow call and wife is able to pick him out through the branches. So still there and didn't drop into next ravine.
We wait a minute and I slide back 20 yards and give a whiney cow call. Still no movement. We both have tags and I was good to just look over her shoulder but she suggested I go up our ridge a couple hundred yards so hopefully one of us can get a shot. I wait another couple minutes and decide that me moving up does increase our odds.
I get about 5 yards from where I could see the area the elk is and hear a shot, run up to see bull and he standing there, she shoots again and I can hear a solid thwap. He stumbles down and I am just thinking "if her view blocked from that angle and should I shoot when she fires a third shot and the bull drops in his tracks.
I ran back down ridge and we moved over to her first bull and do the pics then get to cutting up.
That night she packed out a front, backstraps, tenderloins, heart and neck meat. I did a front and hind.
3.25 miles to road and dropping a pack never felt so good!
Went in the next morning for the head and other hind. It's the only elk we saw but she made it count and I could be more proud of her.
Critical to the mission was having grandma come down to watch the kids.
We got camp set up about 10pm and set the alarm for the next morning.
Daylight found us on a vantage point looking over a large drainage but didn't turn up any elk. Did have another hunter moving below us but he didn't push anything our way.
So we moved to the next drainage and spent a couple hours in the shade napping and snacking.
She asked if hunting was always like this. I said when it's this hot and sunny there's not much else to do. We had glassed as much as we could and decided to gain another vantage point. We got there just before 3 and at 3:05 she frantically motions me over to show a bull at the edge of a clearing. Game on!
It's was around 3/4 of a mile away so we looped back out of sight and hustled over to the ridge across from the bull. Peaking over we couldn't see him. It took us 30 minutes to get over so a lot can happen but he must of been bedded down because he suddenly appeared at the top of his ridge. 306 yards away but facing away into a half circle of trees. Perfect, no way he can get through there without turning broadside. He racks a tree and gives a somewhat embarrassing bugle. Then he slips through the trees without presenting a shot. "What the crap"
I give a cow call and wife is able to pick him out through the branches. So still there and didn't drop into next ravine.
We wait a minute and I slide back 20 yards and give a whiney cow call. Still no movement. We both have tags and I was good to just look over her shoulder but she suggested I go up our ridge a couple hundred yards so hopefully one of us can get a shot. I wait another couple minutes and decide that me moving up does increase our odds.
I get about 5 yards from where I could see the area the elk is and hear a shot, run up to see bull and he standing there, she shoots again and I can hear a solid thwap. He stumbles down and I am just thinking "if her view blocked from that angle and should I shoot when she fires a third shot and the bull drops in his tracks.
I ran back down ridge and we moved over to her first bull and do the pics then get to cutting up.
That night she packed out a front, backstraps, tenderloins, heart and neck meat. I did a front and hind.
3.25 miles to road and dropping a pack never felt so good!
Went in the next morning for the head and other hind. It's the only elk we saw but she made it count and I could be more proud of her.
