Brittany Chukarman
Well-known member
Everything fell into place yesterday morning and my wife filled her cow tag. She came close Monday when we hiked up to a herd we had glassed. They had moved uphill onto a bench. As we were climbing up 3 heads peaked over the edge and busted us. We got on top and spotted them and crawled 50 yards to a slight rise for a shot. She got settled in for a shot but the elk were bunched up tight with no good broadside shot. They whirled and took off over the break. We found them later that day on private ground that didn't allow hunting. We found them the next morning on BLM on an open south facing slope but there was no way to approach them without being seen. We took a couple days off to let them settle down and get back to where we could get at them better. We got to our glassing spot at daylight yesterday. They were in a good spot to make a stalk. It had snowed a couple inches the night before on top of 5 inches of old snow. The new snow softened the sound of the old frozen somewhat but we were still noisy. We had about a 3/4 mile hike to a knoll where we should have a shot. We peaked over the knoll and the elk had moved off into a better position. It would be about a 200 yard shot.They were in a little basin feeding and if we backtracked a little there was a little cut that led up to the peak of the knoll and a rock jack that x'ed on top for a perfect rifle rest. There was a dozen mule deer 500 yards off to the left and they got antsy and took off up the hill. When we got to the top the running deer had alerted the elk. They were grouping up and facing away from us. The whole herd turned broadside and started to go. I hit a cow call and they stopped. Sandy picked one out and missed high. They started to go again and the cow call stopped them again. This time she made a good hit. The herd took off and her's went down after about 70 yards. Heart shot. She was so relieved and happy to get one after many days of not seeing any. We are now two more fans of the 7mm/08.