Vinny
09-11-2013, 02:01 PM
After spending 6 of the 9 days of bow season out pounding trails and talking to elk it finally came about...my first archery elk...the year after my first ever elk.
After a short 1 hr hike me and my partner "smelled" elk and began a slow stalk/spot down the trail. After 15 mins with no fresh sign, no elk spotted and no elk talk we were discussing our options when a bull ripped a bugle about 200 yds up the cut block we were standing at the bottom of. We bail over the edge of the trail and get set up on the well used trail that we know they use and start the fun but the bull, with his harem of cows, decides on heading across the top of the cut block.
We discuss and decide that we should hustle at a slow pace around the ridge and see if we can cut the herd off before they are lost until another day. Drop the packs and begin the stalk, slowly and silently. As we round a corner we hear a branch break, but its below us. Hustle to the edge and after a quick peek see an elk coming up not more than 50 yds away, and in line to cross the trail we are on!!
I quickly nock a Maxima Hunter 350 with Ulmer Edge broadhead on my Bowtech Destroyer 350 and range him...43 yds...he steps onto trail broadside...I see bone...I draw and aim and pull the trigger. String slaps my jacket(not the usaual gear I wear but other was soaked from previous day) and the arrow sails over his back and he is gone down the bank.
My partner quickly chirps a few cow mews as do I and we wait...nothing...not a sound. I decide to take a quick peek and there he is, walking DIRECTLY towards us. I quickly nock another arrow and take another peek...he is now 19 yds and broadside directly below us...I draw and stand in a crouch...pick my spot through a small hole in the brush and...WHACK...string hit my jacket again about the same time the arrow hits the elk.
The elk takes a couple of strides down the bank and we watch as he piles up 60 yds away...wow...my first elk with my bow. We cheer and bump fists and then call wifey for the game cart. I am still not sure how big he is, I just know he is not a spiker so we wait for 10 mins and with no movement from him we walk down and I find a very respectable 250ish 6x6 lying where I watched him drop. While cleaning him up we find the arrow has gone through the front right shoulder blade, broke 1 rib on right side, broke a rib on left side and embedded itself in the other shoulder blade. In this line it has severed major arteries to the heart and that is why he only traveled a short distance.
I will never forget this experience and although the 3.5 km pack job was not the funnest thing to be doing, I wouldn't give it up for anything. Thanks to a great hunting partner and I hope he will be able to post his story soon...with me packing and him shooting.
Pics to come...just couldn't wait to post my story!!!!
After a short 1 hr hike me and my partner "smelled" elk and began a slow stalk/spot down the trail. After 15 mins with no fresh sign, no elk spotted and no elk talk we were discussing our options when a bull ripped a bugle about 200 yds up the cut block we were standing at the bottom of. We bail over the edge of the trail and get set up on the well used trail that we know they use and start the fun but the bull, with his harem of cows, decides on heading across the top of the cut block.
We discuss and decide that we should hustle at a slow pace around the ridge and see if we can cut the herd off before they are lost until another day. Drop the packs and begin the stalk, slowly and silently. As we round a corner we hear a branch break, but its below us. Hustle to the edge and after a quick peek see an elk coming up not more than 50 yds away, and in line to cross the trail we are on!!
I quickly nock a Maxima Hunter 350 with Ulmer Edge broadhead on my Bowtech Destroyer 350 and range him...43 yds...he steps onto trail broadside...I see bone...I draw and aim and pull the trigger. String slaps my jacket(not the usaual gear I wear but other was soaked from previous day) and the arrow sails over his back and he is gone down the bank.
My partner quickly chirps a few cow mews as do I and we wait...nothing...not a sound. I decide to take a quick peek and there he is, walking DIRECTLY towards us. I quickly nock another arrow and take another peek...he is now 19 yds and broadside directly below us...I draw and stand in a crouch...pick my spot through a small hole in the brush and...WHACK...string hit my jacket again about the same time the arrow hits the elk.
The elk takes a couple of strides down the bank and we watch as he piles up 60 yds away...wow...my first elk with my bow. We cheer and bump fists and then call wifey for the game cart. I am still not sure how big he is, I just know he is not a spiker so we wait for 10 mins and with no movement from him we walk down and I find a very respectable 250ish 6x6 lying where I watched him drop. While cleaning him up we find the arrow has gone through the front right shoulder blade, broke 1 rib on right side, broke a rib on left side and embedded itself in the other shoulder blade. In this line it has severed major arteries to the heart and that is why he only traveled a short distance.
I will never forget this experience and although the 3.5 km pack job was not the funnest thing to be doing, I wouldn't give it up for anything. Thanks to a great hunting partner and I hope he will be able to post his story soon...with me packing and him shooting.
Pics to come...just couldn't wait to post my story!!!!