Clouddog
10-20-2011, 12:26 PM
After 5 days of scouting hard on foot, my girlfriend and I took down a 5*6 Peace 7B region Elk.
Since we did not have an ATV, big *ss truck or private farmland permission to venture, we built a strategy around evenings, scouting by foot, and areas outside the core group of hunters. With the high number of hunters, we surmised that the game was spooked and on the fringe or in forest cover. We might have been right.
While scouting in mid afternoon and observing little sign of game we came upon two elks cows grazing off a small block on the fringe of the forest. Of course they disappeared in a blur. If there were cows, there were bulls and decided to plot a plan for an end of the day hunt. We filled the rest of the afternoon grouse hunting eagerly anticipating our later hunt…..
Late afternoon we began scouting about 4 kilometers from the cows, periodically using a cow caller. Then we came upon a grand bull elk, we knew the lay of the land, a river to the right and a 40% grade 200’ hill to the left. He saw us first and bolted left and I thought, ok "big guy" go direct go to the hill. At the beginning of the week the popular trees were full color providing excellent game coverage; however two days prior a storm passed thru and stripped the leaves, in essence the perfect storm for this hunt! I moved quickly to a clearing where I was able to scope, the Elk was grunting, kicking up dirt while navigating the hill. Head-tree-body-tree-head was the sequence in my Leopold scope of vision waiting for the right shot! Finally, he crested the hill at 225 yards (I measured later). With the sun setting bright orange on the Elk, he stopped, and turned broad side to look for me. Scoping for what seemed forever and relaxed, I squeezed my Browning Xbolt 30-06 trigger. His head instantaneously knocked back (lucky cranium/neck shot), stood for a second and fell down the hill with the antlers dragging, breaking one point and body rolling. I ran to my girlfriend and told her I got him, she said, "I know, I saw the shot, how did you cut the bridge of your nose?". Mmm. It was a scene from a big game hunting show; we will never forget the moment.
We are avid hikers and mountaineers and love the hike aspect of the hunt. However, we had never field dressed large game. This was an interesting problem but thank goodness for YouTube I knew what to do! This is another story……
3711https://picasaweb.google.com/Clouddog/HuntingOctober2011#5665747262462753170http://https://picasaweb.google.com/Clouddog/HuntingOctober2011#5665747262462753170
Since we did not have an ATV, big *ss truck or private farmland permission to venture, we built a strategy around evenings, scouting by foot, and areas outside the core group of hunters. With the high number of hunters, we surmised that the game was spooked and on the fringe or in forest cover. We might have been right.
While scouting in mid afternoon and observing little sign of game we came upon two elks cows grazing off a small block on the fringe of the forest. Of course they disappeared in a blur. If there were cows, there were bulls and decided to plot a plan for an end of the day hunt. We filled the rest of the afternoon grouse hunting eagerly anticipating our later hunt…..
Late afternoon we began scouting about 4 kilometers from the cows, periodically using a cow caller. Then we came upon a grand bull elk, we knew the lay of the land, a river to the right and a 40% grade 200’ hill to the left. He saw us first and bolted left and I thought, ok "big guy" go direct go to the hill. At the beginning of the week the popular trees were full color providing excellent game coverage; however two days prior a storm passed thru and stripped the leaves, in essence the perfect storm for this hunt! I moved quickly to a clearing where I was able to scope, the Elk was grunting, kicking up dirt while navigating the hill. Head-tree-body-tree-head was the sequence in my Leopold scope of vision waiting for the right shot! Finally, he crested the hill at 225 yards (I measured later). With the sun setting bright orange on the Elk, he stopped, and turned broad side to look for me. Scoping for what seemed forever and relaxed, I squeezed my Browning Xbolt 30-06 trigger. His head instantaneously knocked back (lucky cranium/neck shot), stood for a second and fell down the hill with the antlers dragging, breaking one point and body rolling. I ran to my girlfriend and told her I got him, she said, "I know, I saw the shot, how did you cut the bridge of your nose?". Mmm. It was a scene from a big game hunting show; we will never forget the moment.
We are avid hikers and mountaineers and love the hike aspect of the hunt. However, we had never field dressed large game. This was an interesting problem but thank goodness for YouTube I knew what to do! This is another story……
3711https://picasaweb.google.com/Clouddog/HuntingOctober2011#5665747262462753170http://https://picasaweb.google.com/Clouddog/HuntingOctober2011#5665747262462753170