Well, after hitting it hard for 9 days, over 100 miles hiked, thousand's of vertical feet climbed and not even a bull sighted, I finally hit pay-dirt. This past Saturday I went into an area new to me... The trail started out at around 5,000 feet and I went as high as 8,200 feet trying to locate a bull. I combed the entire basin, finding plenty of elk sign. Thing is, every time I'd pick up a track sooner or later a big wolf track would jump in on it ahead of me! Friggin wolves were everywhere... they really had these elk out of sorts.
After hours of the same broken record I decided to get down the mountain and hit more open country... sure enough, found a group of three cows bedded on a big open slope next to some Junipers. Leaving them, I picked up steam down the mountain into an area I had climbed through in the am. I really wasn't expecting to find any elk, and as it was late in the afternoon I wasn't really hunting as "keenly" as I should have been. Anyway, I came into a tiny meadow on a ridge and there, standing in the sunshine feeding at 2:45 PM, is a bull! I quickly ducked behind a tree but he turned to look at me. I threw up my rifle, found he was a brow-tined bull and let him have it (95 yards). I wasn't about to let this guy leave the country! He dropped in his tracks... thrashing around, I put in a finisher breaking his spine.
What happened at the first shot is what haunts an elk hunter! I saw two other previously unseen bulls take off through the timber... one was a REALLY BIG six! The other two bulls (obviously smarter and older) had been in the shadows of the timber below the five point who was unwittingly playing decoy. Judging from the tracks around their beds these boys had been up and feeding for maybe five minutes when I jumped them.
Regardless, after a long, dry season I was happy to take what the hill had given me. After snapping a few pic's I took him apart and packed out the head, loins and tenderloins. Made it back to the truck at 7:00 PM.
The following day, here's an 87 lb pack of boned-out meat:
180 grain Nosler Partition... through both shoulders and lungs, found in the off-side hide (110 grains retained weight / Kimber MT 300 WSM):
After hours of the same broken record I decided to get down the mountain and hit more open country... sure enough, found a group of three cows bedded on a big open slope next to some Junipers. Leaving them, I picked up steam down the mountain into an area I had climbed through in the am. I really wasn't expecting to find any elk, and as it was late in the afternoon I wasn't really hunting as "keenly" as I should have been. Anyway, I came into a tiny meadow on a ridge and there, standing in the sunshine feeding at 2:45 PM, is a bull! I quickly ducked behind a tree but he turned to look at me. I threw up my rifle, found he was a brow-tined bull and let him have it (95 yards). I wasn't about to let this guy leave the country! He dropped in his tracks... thrashing around, I put in a finisher breaking his spine.
What happened at the first shot is what haunts an elk hunter! I saw two other previously unseen bulls take off through the timber... one was a REALLY BIG six! The other two bulls (obviously smarter and older) had been in the shadows of the timber below the five point who was unwittingly playing decoy. Judging from the tracks around their beds these boys had been up and feeding for maybe five minutes when I jumped them.
Regardless, after a long, dry season I was happy to take what the hill had given me. After snapping a few pic's I took him apart and packed out the head, loins and tenderloins. Made it back to the truck at 7:00 PM.
The following day, here's an 87 lb pack of boned-out meat:
180 grain Nosler Partition... through both shoulders and lungs, found in the off-side hide (110 grains retained weight / Kimber MT 300 WSM):
