moosehunter12
11-30-2008, 06:31 PM
I was lucky enough to get a draw for Roosevelt Elk On Vancouver Island. I was so excited about the chance to try for one of these Magnificent animals. Our First trip was from oct 10 till 13.From what people had been telling us about the area we were going to see Elk all over the place.We did see 5 bulls but they were a 1000 yards away at the top of the mountain. The country is like nothing i have ever hunted in before.There was one elk taken opening day while the rest of us would have to wait. One of the days we decided to hike to the top of the mountain and sit there for 5 hours till dark to see if anything would come out and just before dark 2 bulls came out but we were waiting for the "BIG ONE" to show him self but no such luck. For such big animals they are so quiet.It was sad to come home with no elk but it was a great time.I was not sure if i wanted to go back for another try but it is a trip of a life time.One of the guys we met had this draw 4 years ago.On our second trip which was from oct 31 till nov 3.We left after i got off work at 5:30 am and tried for the 630 am ferry but missed it by 10 mins so we had to wait for the 830 am boat. We got into gold river at about 1:30pm. We met a member of The Gold River Rod and Gun Club who was going to come out on saturday and help us try to find a bull.We also saw the same guys we met on our first trip at the gas station and they got a nice 5 point and were telling us that the other group got a big bull on wed so that left us being the last group to get our elk. So off we went into MCcurdy to see if we can find any bull to take. Once there we droped of our jerry cans and a cage we had on the back of the truck and started to drive in and as we were glassing we saw a bull and a cow on the hill side so we decided to try and drive under(222 yards )them and they are not moving so we get ready and BOOM not moving second shot BOOM and now he is stagering and then he is gone. We wait what seemed like forever but was maybe 10 min.He was down at 4 pm 15 min into the trip and took us 4 hrs in the pouring rain to get him to the bottom of the creek where we left him for the night.We just slept in the truck and would turn the lights on to make sure it was still there. Then in the morning we had to put on our wet clothes again as we only had one pair of dry clothes.It took us another 3 hours to get him about 20 feet across the ditch.I was glad i went back and was lucky enough to get myhttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/elk16.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=11594&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=313) First Elk.He dressed out to 468 lbs and tastes great!! Thank you to everyone who helped me out with all there knowledgehttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Picture_0217.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=11666&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=313)