Actually 1st year for a BCD, last year was a SCD, year before that was a RBD... BCD= Big Cow down, SCD = small cow down, and RBD = raghorn bull down... Well I wasn't so stoked about shooting a cow, but that 3rd morning of the hunt my dad mentioned that he was low on elk, and my sis's family was as well, so I figured first legal elk was getting a G5 Montec. Had some bulls/cows play with me that morning, I whipped out a Montana decoy, the Miss September, and it did calm the bulls/cows, but my screw up on a cow call (mouth diaphram) sent them the other way
It was so hot that by 7 am most elk were hitting the timber, so I ended up going into the timber and caught this cow about a mile away from the first group at 8:20am. She didn't know I was there, but was broadside feeding, and I couldn't range it, but estimated 30 yds. I used the same arrow from last yrs elk, let it fly, aiming low on the chest. The elk jumped, back, and continued feeding. I truly expected to see red showing in the vital spot, just like last year, but the elk just kept feeding. I was confused, so nocked the next arrow, then re-estimated the distance as 40 yds (after coming to my senses). I let arrow #2 fly, elk was quartering away at this time. Hit it perfectly, I heard a whack (I assumed it was the arrow going through and hitting the tree on the other side). After 15 min wait, I walked over to the spot, found blood (not a lot), looked to my left, and saw the elk dead, 22 yds from where it was hit. The hit was perfect, and the whack was the broadhead hitting the offside shoulder bones, pure destruction internally. I will mention that I feel it is VERY important to wait a little time after shooting to let the animal die, if it didn't really know you were there. Otherwise I think they can move some distance if spooked.
After getting this one down, I was really worried about spoilage, we were 6 miles in, and it was supposed to get to 89 degrees, just my and my retired dad. I called him over via radio at 9am, he helped me bone it out, we took 1 quarter boned meat each and packed it out 2 miles. Then 4 miles on bike.... Then came back, and did the second half. Basically I got back to the rigs at 1am Sat morning! What a long day..... Lots of water was drank... Kudos to my dad for hanging in there. Heck, he is going back tonight for some unfinished business with these elk! Fingers crossed for him! Next year for me, BBD! Oh, and I want to give an endorsement of First Lite wool shirts, the shirt in this picture is a merino wool shirt, I re-discovered wool, from members on this site (thanks Bone and others that discussed this in the past). Wool behaves much like Underarmour, but feels even better, and works better in all scenarios. Only thing negative I could say is it doesn't dry as fast as polyester, but that was not a problem till I was back at the rigs.
