Aw Guys - I'm Sorry ! RJ
Appreciated VLD. Thank you for that. I gave it my all for a couple days. Boss man even gave me an extra day off I was so hurting. imagine texting your boss in New Jersey "hey man stuff happend, need another day". Slight possibility another member tagged it a couple days ago, just waiting to hear back on details.
Just felt obligated to reply to that other post. I'm sensitive to doing the right thing. Integrity to me is "doing the right thing while nobody is watching". For years before I had ample video of WT in R2 I was saying be careful to ID and guys would say "there's no WT in R2, you can shoot anything with wood and if you don't think so you don't deserve a hunting license". It's just more of the same. There will always be oddball remarks.
My takeaway from all this is pretty simple. You gotta be relaxed and zen no matter what the distance. Little flinch or anticipation and you have a blown shot, period. Hunting with a bow made me a much better shot with a rifle. Going forward, I need to make sure I stick to the same discipline. That's my personal lesson from all this.
And LBM... that was pretty presumptuous, but I'll just chalk it up to creative imagination with a cynical twist. I appreciate you and your posts too.
Last edited by caddisguy; 05-09-2021 at 11:38 PM.
It happens.
I have reflected upon similar situations.
Twice, i kick myself "for rushing"
A WT buck that was damn big, but far off (365m).
He saw us, and there was no chance to stalk closer.
My mistake, having a piss poor rest and knowing i had a few mere seconds to shoot before it left the area.
A bull Elk, that i should have allowed to walk a little further out into the open rather then taking the shot between 2 bushes.
The gap was there, but he was standing low due to a worn in game trail he was on (that i knew about), so that was going to
make it a hard shot, and it was a 295m shot, of which i have taken plenty of elk on this same distance and within 10m of
this exact spot.
Why didn't I wait? (and again it was due to lack of patience).
Because all week there were other hunting parties around as well as GO, and they were constantly riding up and down the river
past us.
And there quite often was a set pattern as to what times they would be in the area.
This elk was bugling and was coming in right around one of those times.
I should have waited, as it could have been only seconds until a better shot, or it could have been 1/2 hour????
Only other loss was a bull elk, same location but at much closer range.
Basically as ideal as it gets.
Dont know what happened?
Lots of blood at first, and bull ran about 150m away from me and into timber with his cows (reason why there were no follow up
shots as the cows were too close running away).
Bad shot i suppose.
My big mistake!.....
Was that i tried to cross the river with less than 10 minutes of light to check for blood and also mark where i best saw him run
into timber for the next morning, and to be honest, see if he expired just inside the timber.
Got across without taking boots off (that was a miserable 12km walk back to camp!!).
Saw all the blood, so took to the area where he walked in.
Got there and suddenly saw 2 cows standing there.
And could smell the bull!
Then there was crashing in all directions as elk scattered.
Next morning, went in, and found where the bull had been standing in a spot and drooping a blood pool.
I walked his trail for 2.5km, with just a spot of blood here or there in the end, and sometimes taking 15 minutes to move
10m from one drop of blood to the next as it was damn near impossible to find.
In the end, lost his trail.
Spent 2 days, looking, and nothing but thought he may have gone up a mtn side.
Last night and packed to go home, and riding out just before dark, i saw raven heading out of the mtn side, another .5km
beyond my furthest seeking.
I was on the wrong side of the river, and almost dark.
I just reported the loss and and where the elk may lay.
All i could do as i was 10hrs away and the following week would be too late.
My mistake, is that i should have "not gone looking" just before dark!!
Mistakes happen, especially hunting.
Why do I make it public knowledge?
Because the "truth" can benefit others.
Lying about it, or "preserving Ego" does not benefit the hunter nor the wildlife.