Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting two 'ol gals get er done

well as few folks on here might remember me talking about my mom and great aunt planning their first elk hunt.


It started last may when my uncle died unexpectedly. we were coming back from the funeral sharing stories of hunting with (my) Uncle Gale. he taught my mom how to hunt, came out west to hunt with auntie "phooey" since forever. so I suggested they do a cow elk hunt in his memory this fall. my great aunt hasn't hunted in 10 years and neither of them have taken an elk. they kinda laughed and thought yeah it would be cool, but didn't commit until I pushed (urged) them. they put in, and low and behold they drew South Dakota cow elk tags. one of the areas I had earmarked for them was outside their area, so I did some research and networking and we had a few spots to go.

first half of the season opened during the last 2 weeks of oct. We hit the forest service hard, lots of other hunters and very few sighting of elk. Had lots of good fellowship and reconnecting through stories and just good together time.

Mom came down for the second weekend of the oct season and we saw 3 bulls fighing at 150 yards and a herd passed at 280 yards just moving too fast for a comfortable shot.

fast forward to the second half of the season. (first 2 weeks in december) was warmer than usual and we sat on food plots, saddles and hit the forest service as best we could. no luck. we saw one on private land we couldn't hunt.


The final weekend I convinced them to come back for one last try. The evening they got here I got a text from a landowner friend, the elk were there and likely to come off the fields at first light. the stage was set. we met at his driveway at 5:45 am and headed up to the "spot". we sat for a while as the sun came up glassing the hilltops. the landowner snuck up to see where they were moving. after he informed us we needed to move we headed for some pines about 300 yards to the south west, got set up and waited. I spotted the herd first as they crested the rise. one by one they jumped the fence at 250 yards. 11 bulls were in the group and ranged from small spikes to a nice 300" plus. a few mews from a cow call and a small band broke off to investigate. then they got to 150 yards the herd cow turned broadside and stopped. my mom was off to my right about 20' and I was with my aunt. I told auntie to take the cow when she stopped, as soon as she got on it I heard mom shoot and the cow flopped over. my aunt looked at me and I said in a heartbeat "shoot the one next to her then". she got on it and made a good hit. she said she missed and I corrected her saying she had in fact hit it yet it was still on it's feet and she should shoot it again. with one shot it flopped over never to move again.
before the shooting we watched the herd for about 30 minutes as they approached. when we got up to them it was all the excitement you could imagine from two first timers. all the usual "wow they are so big!" and "I can replay the shots in slow motion in my mind" and recanting as we waited for the truck to show up. Mom reminisced about times with her dad and my uncle and how proud they would have been. she used grandpas 30-06 to take her first elk. I volunteered to do the brunt of the gutting, but they both insisted on helping some with the process. we got them loaded and headed to the headquarters.

we skinned/quartered them and got them in the walk in cooler right away.
processing took the evening and the following day. I couldn't have asked for a better hunt to a more deserving duo of ladies who needed this.

Uncle Gale, I know you're smiling down on them, they done well.