Well, you may recall a thread I had posted three years ago. (On a whim and against the odds). This story is not all that different. It's been three years since the wife and I've been in the Koots and on an Elk hunt. We departed for our trip on the same day, September 9 as we did back in '14 so we could start the hunt or at least get to a destination for the opening on the 10th. On this day, a Saturday, we were making our way, this time coming in from the North thru Revy and making our way thru Nakusp to get to the Southern region of the Central Kootenays where we wanted to hunt. About 3 clicks past Nakusp we pulled over for a stretch and let the pups have a pee. Remembering what happened last time, the wife and I joked about the truck not starting like it did last time we were here. We laughed and laughed...Sure as shit and I shit you not, THE EFFING TRUCK DIDN'T EFFING START AGAIN!!!!! LOL. THREE YEARS TO THE DAYYYY!!!! (wtf?) lol. Not getting fuel. Fuel pump failure...great. Hello, BCAA? Got towed into a shop in 'kusp where they just shut down for the day and the rest of the weekend so I tried whacking the tank to try to get the pump working. Nope. We spent the next couple of lovely days lakeside in the Leland. Nice place. A couple meals and a few drinks later Monday morning comes and I head over to the mechanic. I need a pump. I don't have one he says. How do we get one? I can order one and have it the next day usually but we're closed Tuesdays (WHO'S CLOSED TUESDAYS???) so it'll have to be Wednesday then there's a couple vehicles ahead of yours so I probably won't get to it 'til Thursday or Friday he says. Well that would be conducive to my hunting plans I say. He asked if I tried giving the tank a whack. Of course I gave the pump a whack. He passes me an 8lb sledge and says try giving it a whack with this. I whack away and the truck fires up. Now, he says, go, and don't shut the truck off, there's a pump in Castlegar Lordco and if you can get it and bring it back here I'll fix it. We make it to 'gar but I can foresee things so I purchase the tools to drop the tank if I don't make it back and have to do it myself on the side of the road. Now on our way back and at the side of the road lol, I drop the tank and replace the pump. Vroooom, 35 minutes done, let's get out of here. Wife reminds me of the trailer with the ATVs and gear back in Nakusp. Faaaak! Went back, got the trailer, a 180 and we're outta there... Spent the next two days scouting areas we've never put much thought into and hadn't seen any sign. I figure hey, let's just get ouuta here and in a couple more hours we could check out the place where we found that one last time, it's a long shot but where there's one there must be another right?. Again, nothing for the next two and three days. No tracks, no sign, no tweets or bugles. Saturday morning and a week into the search I go for a walk behind the same camp the bull walk in on us three years ago and tweeted the cow call. RESPONSE!!! Got a good loud and close reply. I ripped back to camp and summonsed the wife. They're here there here!!! lol lol. I need ya... Back down into the hole we went. Calls and responses and we called in a heard of cows with three bulls screaming behind them across the river but they wouldn't come out. Sooo, we went in. We crossed the river, chilly water and waist high (brrr) and stashed ourselves within the grass and ferns. More calls and more calls until we were surrounded by Elk. It was surreal. Not 10 feet away were cows standing literally right over us with blinking eyeballs and bulls yelling from just behind them. Those chills that thrills are made of.We stayed hunkered down for quite a while but none of the guys showed themselves, just glimpses here and there. All of a sudden all went silent and with thundering crashes they all stampeded out of there. Guess they caught wind and busted us and booked it back across the river. Well I'm pretty jacked at this point so I give chase and cross the river and run thru the sticks behind them. I see them, the bulls, a huge bugger, a big bugger and a smaller dude at not 30 yards. The first two larger ones were gone behind some green stuff by the time I could get the 'ol .270 up and the smaller dude was just about into some shrub and out of sight before I whistled and hollered at him. He stopped turned left broadside then bolted again. I threw another whistle and holler as I ran, HEY!! lol He stopped, not 20 yards away turned broadside again. Gave him a quick third count and tripped the trigger. It was a good hard hit right in the boiler and I watched him stubble off. I performed a couple back-flips cartwheels and a few fist pumps until the wife caught up then some huggin' and the 'ol traditional booby grab!!! lol. We got him. We went straight in as I knew he wasn't going far and there he lay still flinching but out within a few more seconds. A good younger 7x6 bull. Spent the next 4 and a bit hours quartering him and packing him out and a few hours after that swilling whiskey. I love it when a plan doesn't go as planned...
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Originally Posted by Phil
