My 2017 Elk

[835]

I waited months!
x2 Blainer....... your on "epic level"
wording is great,,, not all one paragraph, easy reading.... pics in there .... except the jeep,,, lol...
writing a book not a magazine... magazines you just look at the pics.... books you read.

[Salty]

Nice pooch c_h
Awesome write up bud I'm going to be on the road for a bit, and will be eager to come back to this and read it all when I've got lotsa time. Just what we need here this time of year!

[DeepJeep]

charlie_horse is online again... getting the popcorn out.

[charlie_horse]

DAY 3, THURSDAY OCTOBER 12TH


Russ and I wake up extra early and get breakfast made, coffoatmeal. Coffoatmeal saves time and is more efficient according to Russ. I hate oatmeal so I think this could make it a bit better. Nope. So we gag that garbage down and head back down towards the ocean on the quads to the same spot we put the elk to bed the night before. We’re there and sneaking in almost 2hours before first light as quietly as we can. Once again it’s Rosie hunting so its pissing, fresh snow above us on the hills and cold…easy to be quiet in that monsoon, so count our blessings??? It made for a very cold and still and wet wait for first light. First light comes and nothing is moving, I can see through the Swaros before I can see with my eyes and nothing is moving. Finally start hearing some birds for some life. We sit there for an hour and nothing is moving, then all of a sudden about a km up river. ELK. Cow and spike standing in the middle of the river. I tell Russ what I’m seeing. “Well we’re not gonna shoot them from here”… “Lets go”. Refill my lip and we’re off.

[charlie_horse]

I waited months!
x2 Blainer....... your on "epic level"
wording is great,,, not all one paragraph, easy reading.... pics in there .... except the jeep,,, lol...
writing a book not a magazine... magazines you just look at the pics.... books you read.

I really wish I got pictures of the jeep. It was up there for about a week. I seriously think they might have needed a helicopter to pull it out hahaha. It was hilarious. "Why aren't you using your Jack-all". "whats a jack-all" "the thing attached to your roof rack". "ohhhh"

[charlie_horse]

THE STALK


So we start heading up river to catch up to the elk, and other than where we put them to bed we went slow and made sure we glassed the hell out of that timber for a bit hoping that Trex (Thats what Russ has now called the big bull). We’re moving at a pretty good clip to cover that km to where we last seen them and the wind was perfect and the River and pissing rain covered our sound. Things were looking good. All of a sudden we are moving too fast, I damn near walked right into a cow feeding away from us. Like literally 5 feet away, how she didn’t bust us I’ll never know. At this point I’m mouthing to Russ to keep quiet and not move a muscle. He peeks around a bush and just a big smile on his face. That was seriously fricken cool. Then another cow right there, and all of a sudden they just start chirping and mewing away as they were feeding. No bull but vision was so limited and it was so thick we just ducked out of sight and prayed the wind didn’t swirl so we could let them get ahead and try a different approach. So we start still hunting behind them catching a white ass here and there and constantly scanning the timber and shitbox bush for horn or bull at the back, figuring he has to be at the back. He has to be at the back right? Why haven’t we seen him? Is this the 7 points herd?


So the cows start moving around a big bend in the river, which puts them completely out of sight. So instead of creeping right to the bend, I decide to start wading out into the Indian river, so I can peek around the corner and still keep some distance. At the point it is still monsooning so Russ is my personal scope defogger, he no sooner hands me my rifle back before I have to give it back to him so I can see out of it and being in the middle of a river really didn’t help on that front. So I am half way sitting in these rapids when all of a sudden out on the sandbar about 100 yards ahead of me the two BIG cows run out. At this point I immediately just sit in the river keeping binos and rifle above water. Pro-tip: Rubber pants are still a poor substitute for waders. The cows know something is up immediately and just staring in our direction on edge. They just stared at us in our direction didn’t move for a solid 20 minutes. We’re soaked, we’re both in the river at this point and we’re both wondering why the hell we do this and more why the hell we enjoy this and no sooner does that thought leave our heads when out he comes. TREX. Holy shit he’s here, he walked right out to the cows for a quick second, scope is fogged, dammit no shot and as fast as he was there back into the shitbox he went. I wasn’t too mad at not getting a shot off as I was happier to see that he was here and that circumstance was out of my control, just not the right time. Cows have loosened up a bit but you can still tell they are weary and start feeding off out of sight, which was the best thing to happen that morning so now we could both get out of the damn river.


Rinse and repeat, we let them get ahead again before we start making another move on them after nearly being busted before. We start slowly creeping our way around the bend and there is a dried up creek bed there. Out walk two cows and start feeding, so we sit there and watch them, while we’re crouched down in the bush constantly handing my rifle back to Russ to clear the fog from my scope. I’m not sure if the wind swirled or we made a sudden movement but once again the two cows (not the big two) go from calm and feeding at 30 yards to weight on their fronts ready to sprint and eyes locked on our position. DONT MOVE A MUSCLE, doesn’t need to be said! After what felt like forever the cows go back to feeding and move up river some more. A couple more cows cross the creek bed and I set up for a shot if he walks across the creek bed. Cow, cow, calf, cow, cow cow all start slowly making there way across the creek bed. Spike, fork cow calf cow cow cow more and more elk start moving across this creek bed. It took forever, every 3 minutes or so one or two elk would present themselves and move across my narrow shooting lane at 50 - 70 yards. Where is he? At least 30 elk have passed through. He has to be at the back, there is no way he’s at the front right. Out walk the two big girls, across the creek bed they go. Jesus those cows were unmistakably big. Up goes the rifle, I know who’s next. I feel calm, I’m ready.


BOOM

[DeepJeep]

Here it comes.....

[tomahawk]

the best is yet to come............................................ epic story continues

[charlie_horse]

As expected, the dinosaur walks out, solo, no cows in the way. Smoked him, but I didn’t feel super comfortable with the shot I knew I hit him a bit further back not too sure what happened. I figured liver. Russ and I, trying not to get too excited and discuss what we should do. Its pissing rain so we decide instead of giving him time, we need go see if there is blood and we figure we will just check out the area where he was shot and then give him some time if need be. We walk the 70yards to where I hit him and just walk around the corner. HOLY SHIT, there he is in all his glory just standing there. Russ and I just look at each other in disbelief at the biggest elk we have both ever seen standing at 10 yards. Up goes the rifle, behind the shoulders goes the cross hairs. BOOM, hit number two. Off he runs. I was comfortable with this shot, I figure he’s done for with this one so we give it a bit of time before starting our search but we never heard him pile up. But it was hard to hear out. We search and search and nothing. No elk, no blood. We’re trying to follow his track but there was just a herd of 30 plus elk going through there, it was tough to stay on him. We thought he went up towards the road and the other side of the valley, and we were going to start heading that direction and I hear Russ yell at me. One small piece of blood on a rock right beside the river. Shit, he went across the river.


We wade our way across the river and just hit the other side and look in the bush and there he is bedded just inside the tree line. He stands up and I throw up the rifle. Fogged out and he turns and run. So at this point I realize he isn’t going far, before stopping or bedding so Russ and I give him a legitimate 40 minutes or so. Long 40 minutes, cold and soaked. So we figure enough time has gone by and it’s time to begin our search again, I’m a bit worried because I’m certain it was a liver shot and I clearly didn’t hit lung on the second shot or I’d have a dead elk and when we walked up to where he was bedded there was hardly any blood at all.

[.308SLAYER]

Ahhh I love elk hunting...this is good stuff mate keep er Coming I'm hooked