On and on about bullets and distances and elk are targets.
Still nothing about hunting.
Nothing I write is intended to please any particular person, including you.
I write about what interests me or I don't write anything at all. In this case the hunt went pretty much as expected right up until we failed to find the cow in short order after finding what started out as - by far - the most massive blood trail I've ever seen. What interested me, and still does, is what went wrong with the shot so I can correct it in the future. Deal with it.
A herd of elk standing around a saddle maybe a little out of range, man that is the kind of rare opportunity I wait years for.
Not because there is an easy kill there, just the opposite.
It is because it provides the opportunity to hunt.
If I can somehow find an approach, solve the terrain puzzle, use the wind, or think a few moves ahead, then that becomes an animal that I've earned. My definition of fair chase. That is beating them at their own game. That is a story worth telling.
If I can't outsmart an elk I don't deserve an elk.
Risking a long shot at first the sighting? I can understand that if it is your first or second elk. If you have traveled across the country and your only chance � I get that. Local, experienced, private ranch, WTF?
Before I left the house I told my wife and daughter my primary goal was to help my son-in-law get his elk. " Risking a long shot at first the sighting? " No. He was unprepared to taking the shot, said as much and suggested I do so. This was some 3 hours after first sighting, 3 hours of trying to figure a way get closer without spooking the herd and miles from the truck. The range was well within where I practice and we were both in agreement on taking the shot. My thought was to get mine down and to the truck and return my focus on helping my son-in-law. If you want to judge with 20-20 hind sight go right ahead but as I said earlier, you weren't there.
Novices chase bulls for antlers, but the real thing that is so enticing and so much fun about hunting bulls is they understand, they know the score, and they are good at it. I'm getting better at it.
That goes to the heart of the game. Reach the stage where it's not much about meat or antlers.
Hunt for the hunt itself.
For me it is all about the hunt. The best ones are where everyone has fun and returns home safely with good memories, regardless of whether or not any animals are taken. That said, my family enjoys the meat and if antlers were the only reward I wouldn't bother with the hunt. I generally have two elk tags, one for either sex but two cows this year, and one or two hunting buddies that also have tags they want to fill with limited time to do so. As a result I generally take the first healthy adult that I can get back to the truck with my bad hip - and I do so with no apologies.
Perhaps you missed it - or more likely just chose to ignore it as it doesn't support your rant, no surprise there - but I wrote pretty plainly that I was more distressed about losing a wounded animal and causing it needless suffering than not getting an animal at all.
That encounter with elk on their own terrain, in a place of their choosing, that is where the real hunt begins.
I can't imagine throwing that away on buck fever.
I'd never waste that great opportunity on a long shot.
It's not about what your rifle can do - hunt using your mind.
It's a lot more enjoyable stalking the quarry than trying to clean up a mess.
Watching and waiting 3 hours to take a shot is hardly "throwing it away on buck fever". You do it your way, I'll do it mine.
Don�t bother to try to notify a ranch you�ve hit an elk there? I couldn�t carry that on my conscience. Keep hunting? Not the sort of example I would want to set.
What elk would that be? Once again you read into what I wrote just what you want to so you can continue your rant, not what was actually written. All we know is that we couldn't find the cow down anywhere near the end of the blood trail and that a fence was fairly close to the west and another was much further to the north. What we didn't know was which way the elk went. For all we know it went south and didn't approach a fence at all. Depending on which way it went the elk could have been on one of two other ranches, more if it made it a little further, or none of them. Just which ranch were we supposed to notify?
Want to see what kind of experience someone has? Pay attention to what they do and the choices they make - beware what they claim to have done.
You hunt your way, I'll hunt mine. I make no apologies for making the decision to shoot.
