I had missed one out of this same group of 6 cows the day before in the afternoon on one side of a clearcut. It didnt spook em much, watched from across the clearcut at last light as they pulled up the hill to their bedding area. Friday morning was crazy, cold east wind with fresh powdery snow. Just about an inch maybe. Enough to promis that any tracks you see would be super fresh. The snow was so powdery and lite that all you had to do was breath on a leaf and the snow would fall off. When I got on the tracks it was like a highlighted green path through the snow that lead right to the animals. I came around the corner of a tree and there were 2 cows at about 15 feet away in the brush. I fired and they all took off. I swore I had a good sight picture on target when I shot so I looked close for blood as I followed up the tracks. I noticed now one set of the tracks was dragging one hoof as it walked. I zeroed in on those tracks and followed her. Had one glipse of a shot at the back of her neck and head and missed clean. I caught up to her and noticed the first shot was a non-fatal wound so I kept after that cow on a mission, I wanted to fix my screw up and put her out of missery. She was moving slow. At a fast walk down the hill I was keeping 20 yards behind her so I knew she was hurting. It was too noisy to let her lay down and try sneaking on her because of the frozen crunchy ground. So I started sprinting after her. I closed the gap to less than 10 feet behind her heels but couldnt get a shot. She fell once and I had my chance but I slipped and fell at the same time. I got after her again and she stopped on a log road below me about 15 yards. Facing away slightly angled to the left. I was abover her on the hill so I aimed for the close side high and towards the back of the ribs. My bullet went straight through both lungs. She took 2 steps and her legs started shaking and she went down. 3 more feet and she would have fallen down a 500-600 yard long super steep hill with no roads at the bottom. She fell right on the road. The gates were shut for logging work so I went back to the truck to get the pack and game cart. Loaded front quarters on my pack and the rest on the cart. Started out. Covered half of the 3 miles out and hunters came up behind me in trucks. They said the loggers just got off work and left the gates open for weekend hunters. Too bad I hadnt thought about that, I would have been able to back the truck right up to her if I had just killed a couple hours at the truck. But the other hunters helped me load it up in their truck and gave me a ride out. Hope they had some good karma come around for em as I had nothing to offer but a thank you. I am happy to have my tag filled. Even though I lost my ramrod while I was running like a crazy man through the woods. Luckily my last shot did her in.
