Post by: Heetor on September 12, 2012, 10:34:14 PM
We drove through the night after work on Friday and got down to the coast just as the sun was coming up Saturday morning. There was a lot of guys hunting the area, and most the guys were saying with the heat they were having trouble finding Elk, though there were reports of a few having been taken. I had to be back for work on Wednesday morning so we had a short window.
Saturday Morning through Monday night was one long series of bugling in the evening and stomping through swamps and canyons all day, never saw an elk or any sign that wasn't a week old.
All of sudden it was Tuesday morning and I was almost out of time, it just takes 5 minutes to turn a tough trip into a trip of a lifetime but after 3 days but I was getting down. We made our plan for the last day Monday night and picked a spot to head into Tuesday morning for our last crack. A truck pulled up about 2 minutes before we did and we watched them get out, while we started working on Plan "B".
We headed up to the next gate about a 1/2 mile above the swamp they were hunting, and started to walk in on an old logging road with a 7 foot berm on the side facing down the hill. I climbed up the berm to glass the cut above the lower swamp, and 80 yards away on the clear cut side of the berm was a nice 4x4 eating and watching a herd of 20 cows feeding a little farther down. I climbed down the berm and we crept along the road to about where we saw the bull, we could see his antler tips showing over the berm every time he lifted his head from feeding, not 20 feet away. He busted me and by the time I got up the berm to get a look at him he was running for the herd of cows, which also bolted. (I am sure there is a lesson or two to be learnt here if I was a wiser man).
The herd headed down the cut right towards the swamp the other hunters were setting up in, and I remember thinking they were going to get lucky. The herd stopped before they got to the tree line, seemed like they knew the hunters were down there. They spun around and came back up the ridge and crossed our logging road about two hundred yards further up the road, and ran into the timber just above us. You could tell it was a small stand of timber left in the middle of the cut, so probably another swamp they didn't log. The road headed around the stand and back up above it near the top of the hill.
We huddled up for a few minutes and decided to head up above and I would setup on the best trail we could find coming out of the stand, while my buddy went back down below and crept into the timber to either get a shot or if he spooked them out the back they might come to me. We got above the swamp and started down the logging road where it petered out to a trail above the swamp, and the bull ran across the trail about 100 yards in front of us. The berms on either side of the road were so tall all we could see was straight down the road. It looked like they didn't stay in the timber long and were moving up to the top of the hill. We started hot footing it as quietly as possible and I nocked an arrow, hmm trying to run silently, nock an arrow and keep the heartbeat under 1000 bpm, (I wanted this pretty bad), that was probably a funny sight.
A spike came up on the road next and stopped 40 yards in front of us, but it was cows or 3 points so we crouched down in the grass on the side of the road and waited. By this time the heart was up to about 10,000 bpm and I am not sure if the tunnel vision was caused by the road or my brain ceasing to function, next on the road was a big cow and she stopped on the road and was looking behind her. She was standing almost broad at 60 yards and I drew, I have taken a lot of deer with a bow and some hogs in the south, but 60 yards eye to eye is a lot different than 20 at a white tail from a tree stand. I had time so I took it and let fly, not sure if she heard the bow or had just decided to run up the berm, but she jumped just as the slow motion arrow was arcing towards her, honestly felt like it took a couple of seconds to get there :)
I lost sight of the arrow as it got to her but a heard it hit her as she headed over the berm, felt like a good shot, but I was worried about how much she had moved. My buddy said he saw it and he was sorry but I shot her in the rear quarter. I sat there stunned for a minute trying to figure out how that happened, it had felt like a good shot, but she had jumped as I was loosing the arrow? I watched the rest of the herd cross the road a few hundred yards up.
I think most of us have experienced that feeling at least once when we go from mind numbing exhilaration to sickening dread. One second our whole season is coming together and the next you feel like throwing up as you have to live with the knowledge that you have both just completely screwed up your season, and some animal is laying up in the bush suffering because you failed to hold it together, and it will be a hard miracle to recover the animal. Hasn't happened in a few years, but that doesn't make you feel any better.
I could hear her making a lot of noise running out of the clearing, she stopped for a bit, then went over the top of the hill and into the timber on the back side, this all happened in a few seconds. I wondered if she had a calf and stopped to look down for it, or was having trouble with the leg, didn't make me feel any better.
We walked over to the blood trail and had a look, it was heavy. She was bleeding badly which made me hopeful, maybe I had hit the artery. We crept up the ridge and stopped just short of it, there was a lot of blood. We could see over the top of the ridge and there was a large lake about 150 feet down in the timber. I thought she might lay down there, and we decided to give her an hour and stalk in. I wanted to creep out and come back in the afternoon, but there was a lot of blood and my buddy thought an hour would be enough.
I was sitting on the ridge feeling lower than a worm when we heard a few groans right below us, it sure sounded like a white tail when they die from a lung shot, but that didn't make any sense. We waited it out and crept about 100 yards down the tree line, guessing she might be laying down by the water watching her back trail, and we might be able to creep around her and get another shot. We worked our way down to a ledge 50 feet above the water and started to look for her down below as we worked along the ledge. I looked over and there she was lying dead not 100 feet from where we had stopped to wait it out earlier in the morning. It had been her we heard dying.
I watched her in my binoculars for a minute and she was dead, eyes wide open with the sun beating down on them. I crept up on her anyway, but she wasn't going anywhere. I got a look at her and she wasn't shot in the butt, my arrow was further back that I would have liked but it went through a lung, her liver and diaphragm, it was as good as could be hoped for with her bolting when I shot.
I did the rooky dance, handed out a few hugs, re-found christianity, and got to experience that feeling that keeps us coming back. Then I told my buddy to get some new glasses as soon as we got home, and started getting ready for the work. What a roller coaster ride, first elk and she was a nice freezer filler, and I did it with my bow. I can wait a year before I go after the bull, I was pretty damn proud of myself.
Got the fun part done with the camera, then started the long day of getting her to the butcher. I had released the arrow at 7:30, got her quartered, up the hill and loaded in the truck and headed out of the bush at 7:00 PM. Bought a small mountain of ice at the local gas station and built an igloo around her to make sure she wasn't going to get warm, (Ok OK I went a little overboard but had to be sure she was going to be tip top when I got her to the butcher).
I dropped my buddy off and drove most of the night to make it to work this morning. Stopped in at the house for an hour to have breakfast with the kids, shower and shave off the stubble. I got to work for 6:30, and parked my truck and trailer, (still containing a small mountain of ice), out back in the shade. Had to run out and check on her every hour to make sure a pack of wolves hadn't moved into the city and were trying to eat my elk, then took her up to the butcher at lunch. Man I love that feeling of backing your truck up to the meat hoist to get unloaded :)
I think I drove the butcher a little nuts when I tried to show him how to put the hooks in without ruining any roasts :) I am sure he was about to throw me out of the place as I asked him 300 questions about how moist his cooler was, and if he thought he could keep her dry enough to hang her for a full 2 weeks, then I got the neck and threw it in the cooler to head back to the office. He looked at me a little funny when I told him I would be back every 3-4 days to see how she was hanging, (it was supposed to be a joke).
Worked all day and pretty much cleaned out the coffee room of anything with caffeine, got home late and trimmed the neck into strips with the kids. Then we fried it up southern style for dinner, (my wife even ate some and she usually goes vegetarian in the fall).
Just finished cleaning up my gear and sat down to write this all up. Honestly how can it get any better than this!!!
Post by: Bean Counter on September 12, 2012, 10:52:48 PM
Post by: SniperDanWA on September 12, 2012, 11:02:31 PM
Post by: NBhunter on September 13, 2012, 12:18:58 AM
Post by: carpsniperg2 on September 13, 2012, 01:42:56 AM
Post by: Camp David on September 13, 2012, 02:05:52 AM
Post by: C-Money on September 13, 2012, 02:22:49 AM
Post by: blackveltbowhunter on September 13, 2012, 04:17:05 AM
Post by: fj40chance on September 13, 2012, 04:39:04 AM
Happy dining!
Post by: Labs07 on September 13, 2012, 07:41:37 AM
Post by: engelwood on September 13, 2012, 08:26:53 AM
Post by: HUNT on September 13, 2012, 08:47:04 AM
Post by: poopooheaddad on September 13, 2012, 09:15:52 AM
Post by: FSTaxidermy on September 13, 2012, 09:25:56 AM
Post by: shanevg on September 13, 2012, 09:26:25 AM
Post by: bearpaw on September 13, 2012, 09:52:22 AM
Post by: deadwoodbuck on September 13, 2012, 11:15:49 AM
Post by: huntnphool on September 13, 2012, 11:22:21 AM
Post by: runningboard on September 13, 2012, 01:01:13 PM
Post by: Quackwhacker on September 13, 2012, 02:26:44 PM
Post by: SemperFidelis97 on September 13, 2012, 02:43:49 PM
Post by: MLBowhunting on September 13, 2012, 03:28:44 PM