I just thought I'd share a few pics of this spike I shot last year in the Collockum. There aren't any pics of me with it since I was by myself (pain to pack this thing out of the canyon I shot it in). Anyway, I was just hiking on a nice little trail when I heard a heck of a lot of cow calls. At first I thought someone was playin a joke on my till I walk down the hill a bit and saw about 30 cows just trotting along away from me. So, I ran back up the hill and along on the trail to try to get in front of the herd. I started stalking down a little bit when I thought I had gotten far enough infront. After about 10 minutes of inching my way down, 2 spike bulls popped up out of nowhere about 10 yrds in front of me (I freaking love Scent-Lok). They didn't really spook, but the started walking away real slow. So, I stood up real slow to see where they were going and realized I was in a herd of at least 150 elk (check out the pics to see just part of the herd after they spooked). Of course, when I stood up it sounded like an explosion of elk freaking out. They all started running this way and that. I fixed my gaze on a nice 1x1 running broadside away from me. I pulled the trigger. Crap! Safety was on. That one ran behind some trees. Luckily, I spotted another spike bull running broadside about 150yrds away downhill. BOOM. The thing stopped running and walked around in 2 circles and dropped dead.
So that's just part of the story. It took me the rest of the day to quarter it and pack it out 3 miles back to camp. I was hunting with some random cop and FBI guys from down south (one of the from my church). At the beginning of the opening morning they told me to go one way, and they went the other. I felt like a loser, until I came back into camp with the hindquarters on my back and the head in hand. Haha, anyway, I think I have their respect now.
