bowhunterbruce
10-07-2009, 10:57 AM
well after going up north for the wife and i's unsuccessful moose /grizzly hunt and breaking down south of 100 mile on the way home getting help from srupp made that experience much more barible.i was invited to go to the koots for a try at elk.
i have been going out there for the last 7 yrs during both bow and rifle season and had never once connected on a bull or a cow,if fact elk had become a creature that i had almost givin up any hope on connecting on.they had out smarted me so many times or where just not in any of the areas i was in at that piticular time.
well i get the invit to go this year with hotload and his wife and one of very good friends boyd050
we got to where we were gonna camp around 730ish on the 30th of sept
just in time for the opening of the leh cow draw (they had tags for) the next morning.
1st morning out boyd and i head down to a favorite spot of his where we walked in for a cpl km's and then we seperated with him knowing his land and prey he sends me down a trail and off he goes into the bush.
within 1/2 an hr of still hunting i come accross 2 wt does on the move to thier beds right at first light,i go on full alert and within the next 20 or so yards i spot the ass of what turned out to be a big cow about 60 yards away,i drop to 1 knee just incase thiers a bull around,dble check i have a round in the chamber,good to go.then the cows turns and starts heading for the trees right across in front of me,she was being followed by 3 more cows then out comes the bull and man was he close i count only to see his left side had 5 i stop him with a cow call and he looks right over my head only 30 or so yards away and you guessed it 5 on the other side.
i hadn't been that close to an elk ever so i was totally pumped.
well that was thurday morning.
not much around thursday evening or friday morning.
friday afternoon comes along and after we set the game plan in motion mr.boyd the man sends me south to check out another spot of that he new of with instruction on how to find it saying dont worry about natural grasslands as you never see them out in the open just head for the trees along the river at the other end.then draws hotload and his wife a map to a completely different spot in the opposite direction as me.well running out towards where i supposed to check out i decieded to check out a couple other spots along the way with nothing promicing in the way of any fresh sign, so i continue in the direction i was to check out.
arriving to the open grassland location i spot several whitetails including 3 -3point bucks out feeding very near treelines 500 yrds away, yet very skidish.i start going towards the spot i was supposed to be checking out and the ruts along the road averaged a foot deep making it very difficult to navigate through while on my quad so the going was a little slow.as i clear a couple of treelines what the hell is standing right in the middle of the grasslands but a bull elk,i glass him and think i see 5 on his left but i cant see the right side clearly and he starts to run towards the nearest treeline to him that ove a 1/2 a click away.i boggie closer to him along the road as i didnt want him to cross in front of me before i could determine if he was leagle or not,sure enough he hits the brakes and stopps behind a little clump of trees ,just as i bring up the 16 x 50 bushnells he starts running back towards where i just came from doing a very large loop around.thats when i see he has 6 on his left not five as i oringinally thought as there was a stubby after the last one 1 more confermation count confirmed 6 so i got off the quad,loaded the 180 grain into the rem 300 win mag and just as i found him on a full gallop in the xhairs he dips into a large ditch/dry slough,with only his rack still visible i follow him until he comes back out and stops slightly quarting away.
now earlier this year i was out sighting in 2-300's and 3 -06's up to 400 yard shots so i was comppletely firmiliar with what they did and when i saw him in the crosshair i roughly figured him to be somewhere closer to 500 yrds away at this time.knowing what my gun was capible of and drops i didnt hesitate when he stopped as i squeezed of the one lone bullet with complete confidence.
he took off into the trees like he wasnt even touched.
i pic my way over to the dry slough a pic up his tracks,located his approximate stopped location when he hit the brakes and after a couple minutes of search finally foound a splatter of the deep dark red we all long to see.the treeling on being about 20 feet away from the dry slough ment i was in the trees fast and it took all of 3 minutes to find him down
after opening him up i had completely taken off the bottom hald of the heart with the bullet just going through and lodgeing into his far knee joint.
with a bit of tricky manovering i was able to get the quad right up to him and dragged him back in 1 piece to the main road that put me in thier in the first place so we wouldnt have to drive any truck through those greasy ruts.
the 12 km rided back to camp was one of complete satisfaction and the smile on my face was a mile wide when i got into camp just as high as anyone could be when i tell everyone that i had nailed down my first 6 point, there on the ground right in front of me is a cow being skinned out.
man what a day 2 elk down on one evening hunt and from completely different spots when mr boyd walks over to his truck,lifts the canopy ,drops the tailgate and who would have ever thought that a third one would be down all from one camp
a TRIPLE HEADER all in 1 evening hunt and as it turned out all 3 animals were downed between 5:30 and 6:30 pm
in 1 hr we had put over 1/2 of a ton of prime elk meat on the ground
i so want to thank hotload and his wife for being such good honest careing people,i know truer friends could never be found and to my new found friend mr. boyd who accually deserves the title of sir in my books for unselfishly helpping me achive a very long time quest of mine, my first 6 point elk is also my very 1st elk, period
he isnt the biggest or the baddest,nor was he the brightest, in fact he is just legal with abit to spare 6x5
but hes mine and he is going to make the most beautiful european mount on my wall.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/6_point.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=15590&size=big&cat=recent&limit=recent)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/6_pt_close_up.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=15592&size=big&cat=recent&limit=recent)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/6_point_side_pic.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=15591&size=big&cat=recent&limit=recent)
thier will be more pics of me with the elk back in camp when hotload and his wife get back from the remainder of thier hunt.
and i dont think any pics of the 2 cows were taken however we had the most incredible day that will be forever etched in all of our minds.
i have been going out there for the last 7 yrs during both bow and rifle season and had never once connected on a bull or a cow,if fact elk had become a creature that i had almost givin up any hope on connecting on.they had out smarted me so many times or where just not in any of the areas i was in at that piticular time.
well i get the invit to go this year with hotload and his wife and one of very good friends boyd050
we got to where we were gonna camp around 730ish on the 30th of sept
just in time for the opening of the leh cow draw (they had tags for) the next morning.
1st morning out boyd and i head down to a favorite spot of his where we walked in for a cpl km's and then we seperated with him knowing his land and prey he sends me down a trail and off he goes into the bush.
within 1/2 an hr of still hunting i come accross 2 wt does on the move to thier beds right at first light,i go on full alert and within the next 20 or so yards i spot the ass of what turned out to be a big cow about 60 yards away,i drop to 1 knee just incase thiers a bull around,dble check i have a round in the chamber,good to go.then the cows turns and starts heading for the trees right across in front of me,she was being followed by 3 more cows then out comes the bull and man was he close i count only to see his left side had 5 i stop him with a cow call and he looks right over my head only 30 or so yards away and you guessed it 5 on the other side.
i hadn't been that close to an elk ever so i was totally pumped.
well that was thurday morning.
not much around thursday evening or friday morning.
friday afternoon comes along and after we set the game plan in motion mr.boyd the man sends me south to check out another spot of that he new of with instruction on how to find it saying dont worry about natural grasslands as you never see them out in the open just head for the trees along the river at the other end.then draws hotload and his wife a map to a completely different spot in the opposite direction as me.well running out towards where i supposed to check out i decieded to check out a couple other spots along the way with nothing promicing in the way of any fresh sign, so i continue in the direction i was to check out.
arriving to the open grassland location i spot several whitetails including 3 -3point bucks out feeding very near treelines 500 yrds away, yet very skidish.i start going towards the spot i was supposed to be checking out and the ruts along the road averaged a foot deep making it very difficult to navigate through while on my quad so the going was a little slow.as i clear a couple of treelines what the hell is standing right in the middle of the grasslands but a bull elk,i glass him and think i see 5 on his left but i cant see the right side clearly and he starts to run towards the nearest treeline to him that ove a 1/2 a click away.i boggie closer to him along the road as i didnt want him to cross in front of me before i could determine if he was leagle or not,sure enough he hits the brakes and stopps behind a little clump of trees ,just as i bring up the 16 x 50 bushnells he starts running back towards where i just came from doing a very large loop around.thats when i see he has 6 on his left not five as i oringinally thought as there was a stubby after the last one 1 more confermation count confirmed 6 so i got off the quad,loaded the 180 grain into the rem 300 win mag and just as i found him on a full gallop in the xhairs he dips into a large ditch/dry slough,with only his rack still visible i follow him until he comes back out and stops slightly quarting away.
now earlier this year i was out sighting in 2-300's and 3 -06's up to 400 yard shots so i was comppletely firmiliar with what they did and when i saw him in the crosshair i roughly figured him to be somewhere closer to 500 yrds away at this time.knowing what my gun was capible of and drops i didnt hesitate when he stopped as i squeezed of the one lone bullet with complete confidence.
he took off into the trees like he wasnt even touched.
i pic my way over to the dry slough a pic up his tracks,located his approximate stopped location when he hit the brakes and after a couple minutes of search finally foound a splatter of the deep dark red we all long to see.the treeling on being about 20 feet away from the dry slough ment i was in the trees fast and it took all of 3 minutes to find him down
after opening him up i had completely taken off the bottom hald of the heart with the bullet just going through and lodgeing into his far knee joint.
with a bit of tricky manovering i was able to get the quad right up to him and dragged him back in 1 piece to the main road that put me in thier in the first place so we wouldnt have to drive any truck through those greasy ruts.
the 12 km rided back to camp was one of complete satisfaction and the smile on my face was a mile wide when i got into camp just as high as anyone could be when i tell everyone that i had nailed down my first 6 point, there on the ground right in front of me is a cow being skinned out.
man what a day 2 elk down on one evening hunt and from completely different spots when mr boyd walks over to his truck,lifts the canopy ,drops the tailgate and who would have ever thought that a third one would be down all from one camp
a TRIPLE HEADER all in 1 evening hunt and as it turned out all 3 animals were downed between 5:30 and 6:30 pm
in 1 hr we had put over 1/2 of a ton of prime elk meat on the ground
i so want to thank hotload and his wife for being such good honest careing people,i know truer friends could never be found and to my new found friend mr. boyd who accually deserves the title of sir in my books for unselfishly helpping me achive a very long time quest of mine, my first 6 point elk is also my very 1st elk, period
he isnt the biggest or the baddest,nor was he the brightest, in fact he is just legal with abit to spare 6x5
but hes mine and he is going to make the most beautiful european mount on my wall.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/6_point.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=15590&size=big&cat=recent&limit=recent)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/6_pt_close_up.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=15592&size=big&cat=recent&limit=recent)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/6_point_side_pic.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=15591&size=big&cat=recent&limit=recent)
thier will be more pics of me with the elk back in camp when hotload and his wife get back from the remainder of thier hunt.
and i dont think any pics of the 2 cows were taken however we had the most incredible day that will be forever etched in all of our minds.