Well I've been out non stop since the archery elk opener. This was my fifth season hunting archery elk and I finally got my first elk today. Long story short, I ended up putting a stalk on it not knowing for sure it was a legal bull or actually even a bull for that matter. I had just seen it wander off into the woods ahead of me and had just seen it for a split second. As I crept along I soon discovered it had bedded down and it spotted me. It was laying down between 2 trees and it was facing directly at me, I had no shot. I realized it was a legal bull since I was hunting in a 3 pt minimum unit. I thought crap, I'm screwed so I kept walking down the trail til it curved off towards the bull. I came to a spot where I was broadside to it but slightly quartered to me. The bull must have been hoping I never saw it.
Since it was laying down it was giving me even less of a target. I knelt down, started shaking a bit, then took a deep breath and started my combat breathing techniques and calmed right down. I aimed and shot and it hit right behind the shoulder and it punched through the other side and out. It got up very relaxed and stumbled away and laid down 35 yards away. That's the cliff notes version, there are a ton of other details but I won't bore you all to death. I am stoked and on cloud 9 right now.
