While you girls were arguing over the effects of the word crap, I decided to go out and shoot something. Just kidding. Filled my winston tag, no hoof rot. She was healthy, but not a lot of fat on her. Getting chased around
all fall will probably do that. Hunted three days. Not used to using a rifle. I read about people shooting the wrong animals and finding dead ones that were mistakenly shot. Archery is very intimate. You spend a little time watching the animals at a close distance before you shoot. This rifle hunting has a lot of room for error. More then once I was trying to acquire an animal in the dark woods. Not being able to identify the spike, antlers, or lack of them seemed to be a problem. It would be very easy to take a hasty shot, which I am glad I did not, and have to walk away from a dead elk.
I saw this herd moving across the hillside and climbed the hill to get in position for the shot. As I was moving in I noticed two people stalking the herd on the hill. I stayed out of sight from the animals and tried to give the couple a chance at the animals without busting their hunt. After some time without a shot I figured the elk were way out of their range because they were moving away from them in the first place. I moved into place for a shot and caught the herd before it moved into a woodlot. I aimed at the lead animal and after a second realized it was a bull. Then it donned on me that there could very easily be spikes in the group. At a distance of 220 or so, I can definitely say it was grueling trying to pick the spikes out from the cows. I let the herd go and moved to a new postion, found a stump and looked real hard. I'm not sure how you guys do it. Even though I picked out a cow, I was still panicked as I walked up the the elk. Not a good feeling. A buddy came and helped a few hours into the dressing. Took about 5 hours.
