Joe Hulburt
Well-known member
Well I gave the big bulls 16 full days and a handful of evenings. I was fortunate to get three really good chances at heavy horned bulls but I wasn't able to get the job done. Wednesday morning I hugged the wife and said I was going to kill an elk today as the idea of eating on the tag all winter is very unappealing to me.
I was crawling up out of a steep canyon and hit and old grassy road and looked to my left and there is a cow at 68 yards head on. Right away she is annoyed by my presence and let out a number of waring barks but the wind is in my face and the fog was thick enough to cut with a knife so she couldn't ID me. She decided to start coming closer so I kept ranging her and setting my sight to the correct yardage until she got to 40 yards. There she continued to bark and carry on but held there for several minutes while I was being eaten alive by No See Um's. I was getting pretty vested in killing this elk for putting me thru this agony! I drew and held three times hoping she would turn and finally she did and I took my shot hitting a touch high but still got both lungs. She ran about 100 yards and the woods went silent again telling me she was down as it is thicker than the hair on a dogs back and I would have heard her crashing a lot longer had she headed into the hole. After giving her ample time to expire I followed up a solid blood trail and finally saw a large white patch thru the huckleberry and salmonberry brush. What the hell??? It's an antique ice cream style freezer 1/2 mile from the nearest vehicle access and my elk laid down right next to it. It's as if she knew her lot in life was to fill my freezer. True story! This is how she laid down except for the fact I repositioned her head.
Beautiful old girl and I felt a lot more remorse than I do when killing a bull but we rely on elk meat and she will provide a bunch.
Good luck to everybody still packing a tag.
I was crawling up out of a steep canyon and hit and old grassy road and looked to my left and there is a cow at 68 yards head on. Right away she is annoyed by my presence and let out a number of waring barks but the wind is in my face and the fog was thick enough to cut with a knife so she couldn't ID me. She decided to start coming closer so I kept ranging her and setting my sight to the correct yardage until she got to 40 yards. There she continued to bark and carry on but held there for several minutes while I was being eaten alive by No See Um's. I was getting pretty vested in killing this elk for putting me thru this agony! I drew and held three times hoping she would turn and finally she did and I took my shot hitting a touch high but still got both lungs. She ran about 100 yards and the woods went silent again telling me she was down as it is thicker than the hair on a dogs back and I would have heard her crashing a lot longer had she headed into the hole. After giving her ample time to expire I followed up a solid blood trail and finally saw a large white patch thru the huckleberry and salmonberry brush. What the hell??? It's an antique ice cream style freezer 1/2 mile from the nearest vehicle access and my elk laid down right next to it. It's as if she knew her lot in life was to fill my freezer. True story! This is how she laid down except for the fact I repositioned her head.
Beautiful old girl and I felt a lot more remorse than I do when killing a bull but we rely on elk meat and she will provide a bunch.
Good luck to everybody still packing a tag.
