I (finally) brought home the bacon!

[LittleKiller]

I did not like to rifle hunt for elk. I live in Pacific County, and it feels like a war zone. Well, an argument could be made that it IS a war zone during rifle elk season. With that in mind, I switched to archery elk a couple of years ago.

We have the huge privilege of archery hunting on a small piece of private land that has a resident elk population. (That’s all I’ll say about that to save the landowner from you punks pleading for access  ) The first year I pretty much sucked at archery hunting, I hadn’t learned how to be aggressive with my pursuit; I was so worried that I would blow it for the others hunting in my group!

This year I scored a multi-season elk tag. That didn’t change the fact that I really wanted ANY elk during archery season. It feels like so much more of an accomplishment, despite the truth that elk tastes the same whether it was poked with an arrow or a hunk of metal.

During archery season I had SO many close calls. (That’s why I love it). Opening day, minutes after we set up in the timber where we expected the elk to pass, my cousin and I were full draw on cows and a bull at maybe 15 yards. I don’t know what happened. I stopped because the bull was FEET away from me, and looking, and I wanted my cousin to whack him before I released and spooked him. The cow I had my pin on was clueless. My cousin on the other hand, was too amped up that I might get my first archery elk. It was an embarrassing “you shoot, no, you shoot” moment. 

There wasn’t a day that we weren’t on elk, though. When everyone else was working or at school (man, I sound like such a bum) I would go out with a retired neighbor to put a stalk on the elk. We still laugh because it was always CRAZY when us two went out. We were always in the MIDDLE of the elk, running around, out of breath, and sweating like pigs with wild creepy grins from the adrenaline and excitement! 


One particular time, I was following the herd down a ridge (maybe 50yds between us), and I was going to let her fly when we broke out into the meadow. The second they made it out of the timber, I was bouncing down the hill as fast as I could to catch them close to the timber’s edge. I had maybe 10 more yards until I could get out of the forest for a clear shot when I swung myself around the trunk of a tree…. And TIMBERRRRRR! The base was rotten, I heard the loud crack, the herd paused, and then fled across the slough to safety as the dirty rotten (literally ROTTEN) alder crashed to the forest floor. 

Now THAT’S the perfect story to describe the kind of luck I had. So close, but always so far from a real chance. Heck, the one time I FINALLY had a cow lazily stepping out from behind a tree at only 10 yards, clear shot, trespassers made a very untimely appearance! I was nice. Well, I had to be nice, it was me (120lbs, 5’4) against them (big girl with a bow and the boyfriend?) but I made it clear that they really sucked and needed to leave immediately.
I had plenty of chances. That first day, a couple times where it was just barely too dark in the reprod to feel comfortable that the cow wasn’t one of the 7 spikes in the herd, and I ALWAYS had the chance to make 50 yards shots. But guess what? I didn’t sight in a 50 yard pin, because I didn’t spend enough time building up my strength (to increase my draw weight) so that I could actually make a good clean shot at 50 yards. Next year’s promise to myself is to buckle down and get that issue taken care of!

And oh, I don’t even have enough fingers to count how many times I could’ve shot a spike. They are so incredibly dumb. It got to the point that when a spike had eyes on me, I would still put the stalk on the cows with him because he didn’t care or alert the others. If only!

Rifle season on the other hand…. The landowners graciously extended my permission to hunt there with my rifle, and I was thankful because as I’ve said: elk season on public land is terrible. The neighbor I hunted with also had a multi season tag (hunter’s ed instructor) so we hunted together again. Also, my dad would accompany us when he wasn’t working. It’s nice to have him around (I have to say that because he’s my dad) and also nice to have a guy to push ‘em. 

Opening day was nice. The elk were making occasional appearances out of the property that I did not have permission to hunt on, but were very uneasy. When they finally settled into the meadow for the afternoon sun’s warmth, I could see that two of the three bulls from archery were still with the herd! Yahoo! Coyote spooked them shortly after we made a plan…
The days wore on, and the elk were completely missing from the property. All I could do was make the trip out every morning and evening to check and see if they reappeared. Which I did. It was really rainy; adding to “Bummer duuude!” of it all.

Then the bigger bull was shot by a neighbor. Coincidentally a girl I graduated with, I’m really happy for her. And also grateful, because she would send me updates via Facebook as to whether the bull and herd passed through to the property. Thank God, two people had missed the second bull. Still alive for the taking!

On Tuesday I woke up feeling pretty sick. Immediately I had 2 spikes and 4 cows walk to the edge of the slough. I might’ve poked them with a long stick. If only one would’ve been a bull… I imagined myself making one of those cool (albeit dangerous and improbable) from-the-hip shots you see in movies, and then we moved on in search of the other little bull… I think I might’ve fallen asleep for a minute when I was huddled up in the timber that morning… When I got ready to go back out that evening my husband discouraged it because I was getting really sick. I told him “No! I have to fill the freezer!” and left. My dad accompanied us and lo and behold! Elk! The bull! Bedded! Meadow! Perfect! We shimmied, and crawled, and wiggled our way to the edge of a grassy road that runs the length of the edge of the meadow and made 100% sure that our eyes hadn’t been deceiving us. It definitely was the little 4pt bedded there.

The neighbor was a perfect gentleman and told me to take the shot. We finally found a tiny shooting lane that I could poke a bullet through if I laid on my belly. 150 yard shot, in his bed. Piece of cake. For some reason, I was nervous. I’ve never been nervous, ever. I’m a picture of calmness when I take shots, usually. When I FINALLY pulled it together I pulled the trigger and hit him right where I wanted. He hopped up, and we were freaking that he might run off the property. So I took another shot, perfect hit, but he did a literal (I mean literal) front flip. I dubbed it “the somersault of death” and he landed directly on his head….

I think I was nervous because this is the hardest I have ever hunted for elk. I took the time to learn the habits of this herd, the land, and I committed a lot of time to hunting them. Two seasons (archery, rifle) of hard hunting all added up to that moment, and I didn’t want to blow it! He is obviously a little bull, much smaller than my last, but I’m proudest of this bull over all of my other animals I’ve ever killed.

BIG thanks to the landowner, my padre (“willapawapiti”, for you regulars) for being my pal and hunting partner, and the neighbor Jim who was such a cool and dedicated hunting partner. Here’s my pics!

[runningboard]

congratulations on a good bull and great hunt   

[T Pearce]

Way to go!

[mfswallace]

 

[grundy53]

Congrats! Nice work!

[outdrsguy]

 Great story and a very nice bull LittleKiller 

 How about deer hunting?

[LittleKiller]

outdrsguy; Not as exciting of a story. Took a wrong turn, driving through a new clearcut, saw a 2pt chasing a doe. Jumped out, popped him, turns out he was a 2x3, tagged, gutted, and outta there in 20 mins. Will post a pic in Deer hunting tomorrow maybe

[Jason]

Congrats on the bull!!

[rtspring]

Congrats! Dont let dad have all the fun!!

Ha ha

Getsum
Rtspring

[Halo]

Congrats. I have some property on the Palix and have hunted elk down there for a lot of years until the last couple with everything leased out around my 80 acres its hardly worth it and I have had out of state tags to keep me busy. Your story and pic's sure make me miss it though. There is just nothing like pushing elk through some of the thickest country around, across the slough's, being in the middle of the herd and trying to catch'em on the flats. Shoot straight and keep those Pacific County elk on their toe's.

[deerhunter_98520]

Great story...congrats on a great bull

[chucker]

Great story, very nice bull. Congrats on a fun season. 

[wasalmonslayer]

Congrats!!! 😃
What a great elk job well done...

[bearpaw]

congrats, well done 

[Todd_ID]

Cool story!  Great bull to be very proud of.  Now you get 8 months to dream about what it'll be like when that photo has your bow there instead of a rifle!  You won't be able to hide the pride in your smile with duct tape.