Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Let's See This Fall's Cows

I finished out the season helping a co-worker shoot her first big game animal. Even though she grew up in MT, she didn't learn to hunt then. Now, in her mid-40s, she has decided it is something she wants to do. So we bought her a Tikka T3 in 7-08 and loaded up some 140 Partitions. In practice over the summer she got quite steady out to 300 yds. She didn't draw any tags, so we were able to buy her a landowner cow tag.

Took us three trips to get into the elk because a lack of snow had them much higher than usual. You can see the road we started from snaking along the valley bottom.



We had expected a wide open shot at 200+ yards, but she ended up with a "hurry up" shot at about 75 yards through the junipers. She hit it a bit far back, so we had to do a follow up shot. The elk was on a very steep slope, and it rolled under a rootwad that we could barely pull it out of.



Given how far from the road we were, and how steep it was, I was glad it was but a calf. I doubt she would have grinned bigger if it was a big bull. I am glad to have helped her get her first animal.