Some may have read my post about Yakima North Youth Cow tag help for my sons first elk. Thank you so much to all the folks that gave me tips. advice etc on where / when to go. I checked them all out and was able to get the boy into Elk. I debated on a public thank you to each of them here but ultimately decided not to because they sent me PM's with some of their go to honey hole type spots and I didn't want to get them slammed with messages. You all know who you are and I thank you and would greatly repay the favor if I can. Now on to the lesson learned.
**None of what I write is an excuse for the outcome, just part of the story...
HS Football was going to limit our time to get this hunt done so with the tips I mentioned above and 4 days of scouting I was able to get things narrowed down to where we could go and get him in Elk. Saturday AM we made it to where I had seen several Thursday and figured they would be in the same area. Found a heard of around 80+ by 715 am and figured they were heading up into a canyon to bed where I saw them Thursday. We (Me, Son, Dad) were able to drive to the top of this canyon, get on the correct side of it with the wind and set up for them to come to us. We were all pretty pumped as it seemed like this would be a slam dunk be done by 10am. Mistake #1 and the start of a LONG DAY. Heard got halfway up the canyon to us and got spooked. I don't think it was our scent as we were down wind but who knows.
The heard headed back down the canyon and then began to side hill over to the next one. At this point my son and I decided to parallel them up top and try to get ahead of them and had my dad go back to the truck and drive / parallel us from the ridge top. Again thinking this was going to be a short trip, we didn't put any of the food / extra clothes we had in the truck for the day cuz we were going to be done quickly right.... #2
Well, 1 canyon turned into 2 then 3, then 4,5, 6....... etc as we tried to get ahead of them but aren't as fleet a foot as a heard of elk that has likely been chased around for the better part of a month. By about the 7th canyon, my dad had made it to the end of the road and the elk had made it into the fog. OnX showed a road down towards where we last saw the heard going so we had my dad drive the 20+ miles by road around to get down there. In doing so, he took all our food, water and clothes with him. #3
We did have a few liters of water and we didn't really need any clothes but by the end of the day we were starving and could have used more water, but I digress.
After we sent my Dad off we head down into the fog to see if we could find them again. Initially we couldn't see them at all but I swear we could smell them. The sage sent in the air turned to stank and then there was a break in the fog and we could see them down at the bottom of canyon number 500 or so it seemed. Anyway, they were still out ahead of us and moving, so off we went again down into a canyon, back over a ridge, rinse and repeat.
About a hr after my dad left the top to head down to the road below he made it. We had now crossed several more ridges, found and lost the herd a couple times and were back in the fog again and lost them. I called my dad down at the bottom told him where we were, sent him a PIN from OnX and asked if he could glass them up. He called back 10 minutes later and said he found them. The fog had burned off and we could also see my dad but not the elk. We asked if he could see us, he said yes and told us that if we were facing downhill they were to our right and they had finally bedded down!!!!
I was a bit confused because we had last seen them headed to our left (East), but hey he says he sees them and us so we will head back over the ridge we just came over cuz he said that's where they are.
We snuck up over the ridge expecting to see the heard and all we saw was sage and rocks. I called him and said are you sure you were looking at elk and not the sagebrush. He assured me he saw them and said he was looking at them right now walking around. I asked if he could see us and he said yah you are walking right toward them... THats when I realized mistake #4. Trust but verify... He had seen 2 other hunters not us and we had gone in the exact wrong direction.
Once that was sorted out we go head back in the right direction and 2 more canyons and ridge lines later we all the sudden came around a corner and BOOM there they are bedded in a wide open, flat field with 0 and I mean 0 cover for us to get to / behind etc except a lone power pole. We dropped our bags and belly crawled to the pole. At this point we were still 490yrds out. Neither of us felt confident about that shot so we layed behind this pole contemplating our next move.
By now it was like 2pm so we had been doing this for 6+ hrs over around 11 miles. We were exhausted, hadn't eaten, the water we did have was on the packs we dropped 200 yrds back to crawl to the pole. We watched the heard for around an hr or so. We counted 82 elk, with 70 cows/ antlerless, 2 mature bulls, 9
forkys, and 1 spike. We talked about the 1 spike and said even though he has the cow tag he is still good to shoot the spike if he wants but that he needed to be careful cuz a couple of the forkys were pretty iffy and hard to see. He said he wasn't going to chance it and would just wait for a cow. Good choice I thought.
By this time, we discussed that the elk finally seemed content and felt safe, every one of them was bedded down, some even appeared asleep. They had no clue we were there. We discussed that we didn't think they would move again until dark since we had been after them all day. We were 490 out and weren't going to take that shot and the between us and the elk was nothing but 8 inch tall grass, neither of us felt like we could crawl close to 300 more yards where he would be comfortable with a shot, without getting busted, so we came up with the plan that I would crawl back around out of sight go back to the last canyon and go up over and around them and walk in on them and see if I could get them to walk back his way
All of that worked perfect except the get them to walk back towards him part. As I walked in on them they stood up and looked at me then, unlike they had done all day where they slowly walked away from we were coming they waited until I was within 120ish yards of them (of course, mistake #5) and took off down hill, never moving closer to my son. Had the boy come with me he would have had an easy 120yrd shot...
As we watch them run downhill we see 4 other "hunters" (notice the quotes) coming up the hill. Seeing these other "hunters" location in relation to the heard and the terrain I figured the herd would end up running back West so I sent my son off and said head to the second ridge and I bet they will come right to you.
I grabbed all our stuff and he headed out towards the 2nd ridge as I walked down to the bottom where I had seen the elk go and 2 of the 4 "hunters" went on top. I kept going towards them to try and drive the elk towards my boy if they herd doubled back. As I began to climb the knoll I heard no less than 10 shots from a semi auto and not all in a row, there was a good 2 minutes between the 1st shot and last shot.
Jesus! I thought to myself these guys are either really bad shots or I am about to walk in on something like what happened in the Clockum the previous week.
As I got to the top of the knoll, the two "hunters" were gone, I looked down bellow to see if they or any elk were there and nothing. I looked over a couple ridges to my son and for a brief moment had some hope. He and they were on a Collison course. I figured he didn't see them as he was on a ledge and they were below him. I tried calling to get him to just sit and wait but we had long ago turned off ringers and he apparently didnt feel the vibration while walking. I tried 7-8 times and nothing. I jumped up and down like a mad man but nothing, then just as they crested the hill I saw him drop down. THIS IS IT I think to myself. We are just about done and by this point we have walked to within 3/4 of the truck and it's mostly flat or down hill. F yeah!!!
The elk appear to be no more than 50 feet from him and are in a big herd. I am waiting for shot but I dont hear anything. I am wondering to myself what the hell are you waiting for shoot, what seemed like 5 minutes go by (probably 30seconds) as it appears they are in a stare down. I am thinking to myself what the f are you waiting for? Then they all take off again and as they do I hear 2 shots and am waiting to see one drop, but I don't. Ugggh what the hell were you waiting for, you could have hit one with a rock, I am a bit frustrated.. #6. Why, who cares I am out here having "fun
" with my son and I am sure there was a good reason.
I start to head over to his location and I see an elk that was far behind the main heard limping his direction. He has the binos at this point so I can not see for sure what it is, but from where I was it looked like a smaller bull as I thought I saw antlers, but I wasn't sure and it was walking right towards my son. I start head down the draw and back up to the bench where my son was and I hear a shot from his direction. I am finally able to call my son and not in one of my finer moments ask him why he hadn't shot when he was in a stare down with the herd. He tells me "Cuz dad they were all in ball and I didnt want to shoot one have it go through and hit another one." Thats when I learned about mistake #6 and felt like an ass for my own impatience. As I was thinking that my son also said, but it doesn't matter I got the spike!!
I immediately said was that you that just shot a few seconds ago and are you sure that one was a spike. He told me yah it was limping and coming my way and I got it. I again said are you sure it was a spike and she tells me yah I am sure it was. I was super excited for him, I was proud of him for not taking the shot when they were all bunched up so he didnt hit two and he was rewarded with the spike, but with 20/20 hindsight in the back of my mind I was still not sure.
I called my dad and told him the news and while I was on the phone with him, my boy called me back. I knew before I answered what he was going to tell me.
I answered the phone and he was crying. Dad I really messed up, I am in big trouble it is not a spike, I thought it was, I am in so much trouble.
I told him to calm down and I would be up the hill to him in a minute. I got there and my initial fears were concerned. It was one of the forkys we saw. My boys was sitting on the ground next to it sobbing. I killed it for no reason dad I thought it was a spike, I heard them (the other "hunters") shooting at it and saw it limping so I thought it was the spike. He then pointed out the 3 other bullet holes in the thing besides the one he shot. His was a perfect 2x long shot that dropped it right in its tracks. The others were through the neck, one through the back right leg right by the knee shattering the bones, and one that literally blew the hoof off. It was at this point I realized what had happened with the 10+ shots I had heard. Those guys had likely shot this thing, hit is 3x missed 7+ realized it was a forky and took off. Part of this was confirmed later when some witnesses saw them shoot the 10x then take off running and get in a truck and leave. No plates unfortunately.
I felt horrible for my son and we discussed some things about this. I remined him about the firearm rules about knowing what you are shooting at. I told him that just because someone else shots at an animal whether they hit it or not does not mean he can too. They may have a special permit he does not have and if they did hit it and are tracking it, it's their animal not yours. We talked about rushing things. There is NEVER a reason to rush a shot but here especially, it was limping, it was not going to get away quick, he had the binos and should have confirmed it was a spike before taking the shot. He took all the blame, made no excuses and kept apologizing to me and even the elk.
I told him I didnt need and apology and pointed out that while he shouldn't have shot the elk, he did put it out of its misery as there was no way that it was going to survive with a neck shot, blown off hoof and broken leg. Likely would have been slow painful death or eaten by coyotes / cats.
Got in touch with WDFW agents and reported what happened. We had left the animal in the field as I wasn't sure if I should touch it or what until they came out. The Sgt I spoke with asked me to send him the GPS location and asked me to start field dressing it. I gave him the location then headed back out to start that and told him my son and dad would meet him at the gate. I told my boy that when the Sgt go there he needed to tell him everything that happened, not to make excuses and own up to his mistakes.
About 45 minutes later the Sgt, my son, and dad all ended up driving out into the field where I was. I was 1/2 wayish through getting it processed. We talked about what happened and he explained that all the other officers in the area were busy with other violations so he had come from another county and even had an illegal elk from another guy already in the back of his truck.
I am not the best field dresser of an animal but having a WDFW Sgt. standing around while you are dressing the illegally harvested elk your son shot really puts the pressure on you. It was definitely not my best work. I stayed out of it while the Sgt spoke with my son and explained the process / next steps of what was going to happen to him, his tag, license, fines, elk etc.
My son took some solace knowing that the elk meat would be donated to a food pantry and the Sgt. also told him that he did do the elk a favor by putting it down because it wouldn't have survived, but that still didnt make this all go away and that there would be some consequences.
I had prepared my son for that and he knew it was coming and was ready to face whatever that was. I'll leave the exact details out but let's just say he learned his lessons in what was probably the easiest way possible for this situation.
I was extremely impressed by the professionalism of the WDFW Sgt. He made this whole, horrible situation for my son much better by how he reacted and treated my son. I have reached out personally to him on my own to thank him.
Needless to say, my son learned several very valuable lessons this weekend. Along with the hunting related lessons I mentioned, being honest and owning up to your mistakes goes a long way to making things right and getting things resolved.
I'm bummed for my son as far as him getting an elk and certainly wish he hadn't had taken that shot, but very proud of every other decision he made that day.
That is all, just wanted to get my thoughts out.
If anyone read this whole thing. Thanks
