My Sister and I both drew Antlerless Elk LEH Tags this year, so we set out for a weekend trip to the Peace Country in Mid-February. The road conditions through the Pine Pass were horrendous, fresh snow and ice everywhere. There were numerous cars in the ditch, including a Snowplow. Just past Powder King Ski Hill there was a lady that had spun out and got her car stuck in a snowbank. As we were first on the scene, and she was blocking the road I pulled out my tow chain to pull her out. Once we had her out of the snow, we helped her pick up the pieces of her car that had come off when she hit the snow and got her on way. We got back on the road and into our hunting area in late afternoon. With the help of some family friends, we had been put in touch with a couple of local landowners that were willing to allow us to pursue Elk on their property. One lady in particular had had a lot of recent Elk activity in her fields. We decided that this would be our best bet and headed there first to check it out. We checked out her fields in the late afternoon and surveyed where clear shooting lanes would be away from any livestock or other properties. There was lots of sign in her field. We checked out some other areas throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, as the sun set, we came up with the game plan to go back to her field at first light.

The next morning, we headed out early to get to her field and be ready for first light. We got to the bottom of her driveway and waited a couple minutes for legal shooting time to settle in. We grabbed our gear and set out up the hill to her fields. Ally waited in the truck while we headed up. As we walked up the access road the wind was absolutely howling. Huge gusts, trees shaking, some falling. I wasn't overly concerned about our scent as I figured that Elk in a farm field would probably be exposed to human scent fairly frequently and shouldn't be spooked by it. The loud noise from the wind also provided good cover for any noise that my Sister and I made as we hiked up the road. As we crested the hill, I was able to look out into the field and could see several animals in the mid to far side of the field. I put up my binoculars to confirm a good size Cow to make our approach on. We used a horse trailer for cover and approached the field, as we got closer, we moved over and hid behind a hay bail. I leaned over one side of the bail, my sister on the other. "Whenever you're ready Jenn". She takes a shot at the big prominent cow closest to us broadside, I see the bullet shake her chest and she hunches up for a second. I squeeze off a backup shot and the big cow drops in her tracks. Now, when we made our approach, we could only see about 4 or 5 animals, however now that we have barked off a couple of rounds the herd has begun to run down the hill and there's a good 20 animals. They run down the hill and not realizing where the shots came from, they turn and curve back towards us down below. They get about 75 yards from the timber and they stop, wait, what, they stopped? Was the first Elk the Matriarch and they're waiting for her? Without overthinking it I say a mental "thank you" and line up on mine and squeeze off a round. Even in the noise of the wind I can hear the echoing "Smack" as the bullet hits and then that one too is on the ground. 3 Shots. 2 Elk, about 1 Minute (probably less).



The second Elk is flailing and thrashing around in the field below us so Jenn heads down to coup de gras it as I hike back down the road to get Ally and the truck. Through the trees I hear the finishing shot as I approach the truck. I get about 100 yards from the truck and another Elk runs across the road in front of me. I get another 50 yards closer, and a second Elk runs across between the truck and me. I get to the truck and Ally tells me that she just saw an Elk run in front of the truck. "Did you see it, Dad?" she asked, "Yep, actually there was 2 that ran across the road". "Why didn't you shoot it, Dad?" She followed up. "Well, first off Ally, I couldn't shoot that Elk because that would mean I would be shooting towards the truck, and you're in the truck. It wouldn't be a good idea to shoot towards you, would it?" "Oh Yeah" She answers. "And besides, we already have the 2 Elk we shot laying in the field up top." I add. "Wait, what? Really?" she asked excitedly. "Yep, we got 2" I respond and jump in the truck and drive it up the hill. Now the real fun begins.

I was able to open the fence and drive straight into the field to the first Elk. I hook a rope to it and haul it out of the field. The second Elk is down the hill further in the field and I didn't think I'd be able to drive down to it without tearing the field up when I drove back up. The Landowner has a few rules for us to follow when hunting on her land and one of them is "Do not gut it on my property" So I dragged the first Elk down the driveway behind the truck and got onto the road below her field, from there we hiked up to the second Elk. I had brought my ice fishing sled to use to recover any animals should it be required. We rolled the Elk into the sled, it was a tight fit, I don't think this would have worked with a larger animal. We start dragging the sled down the lightly snow-covered hill, we get about halfway back to the truck when we hit a depression in the landscape that is covered with a snow drift. Instantly the front of the sled drops about a foot and a half into the deeper snow and we're stuck. "Go get the winch" my sister says, "you know, that thing that's been hanging on the front of your truck for 4 years with the shiny cable, THAT YOU'VE NEVER USED." "Oh yeah, that thing". I turn the truck to face the field, spool out the cable and haul the line up to the Elk. We get hooked up, my daughter gets to press the switch while I guide the cable neatly back into the fairlead as my sister guides the Elk down the hill. We scoot it out under the fence and get it out onto the road beside the other one. Now what? This is the part where we cross reference the fact that an Elk is too heavy for us to throw into the truck whole with the knowledge that we can't dress and quarter here.

Now I don't know what the maximum distance is that you can drag an animal down a lightly snow-covered gravel road is, but we clearly exceeded it. We dragged the two Elk slowly behind the truck for about 3k to a spot where it would be more appropriate to dress and quarter them. This next part is either going to be humorous or appalling, depending on your point of view. Have you ever been shopping at the outdoors store and seen targets? Did you know that they make Zombie Targets? They even make Zombie Animal Targets, where parts of the animals' flesh and hide is torn away, and you can see the muscle, tendons and bone underneath. Well, that was the affect we got on this one. While meat loss was quite minimal, the visual is difficult to unsee. Both Elk had worn through the side, even though a rib bone, thankfully not through the gut bag. There were also wear spots on their back hips, shoulders and face. In some spots, where the hide had worn through, it created a pocket in the hide and scooped up several pounds of gravel that had to be cleanup out when we got to skinning. We finished cleaning and quartering the Elk, loaded them up and headed over to a friends' house to hang them up.



After lunch we got the quarters skinned out and washed up, went to the Hotel and got cleaned up and headed out for a celebratory dinner. The next morning, we packed up and headed for home.