Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting A girls first elk, and a bucket list check off.

I know this is a long read, but I hope it is worth it if you decide to proceed.

I made reference to this little girl in headwatermike's post, "The best elk ever". Cam is no longer the three year old belly crawling for antelope with me, but it obviously instilled something in her. She is no longer "little", at 16 she is almost 6 foot and wearing a size 10.5 mens hunting boot, (poor kid). With it taking her about 2 years for her to draw any kind of special permit, not being able to find a cow at all last year, we drew again this year. This kid has a heart of gold, and I was proud of her last year when she dove right in to help a guy and his pregnant wife with a cow he had killed get it to the pickup. This year would be different for her, and she deserved it. Between volleyball and basketball, she had a week or two of free time so we took off for hunting camp.

We were seeing elk every day, but everything had horns jutting out of it's head. Fun to see, but still kind of discouraging knowing how badly she wanted to fill her tag. I decided to put a tree stand down next to the river where we archery hunt just to see if there was still anything hanging out down there. I dropped her off one afternoon about 2 pm and into the willows she went. I took a walk in an area not too far from where she was and returned when it was too dark to shoot. I get to where I dropped her off and no Camryn. I sat in the pickup for about 15 minutes with the pickup running and the park lights on and still, nothing. It is now dark! I'm beginning to have visions of one of three things now. She saw something, went after it, and is now turned around in the willows, she got hung up getting into or out of the stand and is now hanging from the tree by her rifle and sling, or she somehow managed to fall out of the stand and is now laying in a heap at the bottom! I grab my flashlight and leave the pickup. As I shut the pickup off, what sounds like a "huge" bull cuts loose with a bugle in the willows. I go in to find her still sitting in the stand in the dark. I tell her that it's too dark to shoot and to come on. Her response is, "this is cool, I don't want to leave, I want to sleep here".

Back at the pickup I learn that it took her forever to get to the stand because the elk were already out. She worked her way into the stand so quietly she didn't spook anything. She said there were elk everywhere and commented on one "huge" bull. She had seen what she thought was a cow and decided to take a second look before shooting. That's when she saw that elk was a spike. She said at that point she was second guessing herself as to whether or not there were cows in the bunch so she elected not to shoot anything. Before getting back to camp she said, "I'm going in there earlier tomorrow".

The next day I drop her off at 1 pm and into the willows she goes. This time I tell her, "I want you at the road when it's too dark to shoot so I don't have to fumble my way in there in the dark again". I return to camp to get ready to go for a walk when two older guys pull up. During our conversation I learn that Steve has an either sex permit and has been having difficulty finding much for elk. I'm heading into an area where I've seen bulls every time so I invite he and his partner to tag along. They readily agree and we meet to go into this area. As we're heading in I hear one lone shot from the area of the bottom where Camryn is. There weren't too many people around so I'm relatively certain she has shot. As Steve, his partner, and I are headed back to the pickup's at dark we jump a dandy bull, but he disappears into the trees. I then see two smaller bulls about 400 yards out looking at us. Once at the pickup I tell Steve that I don't know what I have in the bottom, but I figure someone ought to go back in this area in the morning.

I pick Camryn up at the bottom and she is sitting on the edge of the road playing a game on her phone. I ask her if we have to go in and get an elk and she said it wasn't her that had shot, and she thought it was me. She said that the only thing that had come out was a spike bull that she got the opportunity to watch for about a half hour. I told her about Steve and his partner and the fact that Steve had a bull tag. Her immediate statement was, "we can help you with that", lol. We go to Steve's camp and tell him that maybe we should all go in the next morning in case there are a few cows hanging around. He was all for it and we met the next morning before daylight.

During our fist meeting Steve had explained that he had been putting in for this tag for 25 years. He stated that he had killed a couple small bulls over the years, but a "nice" solid 5 or 6 point was on his bucket list. He said that his wife would not let him hang something in the house so what ever he killed would hang in the garage. We no more than get in where we want to be and we spot a smaller bull. I tell Camryn to glass the hillside while I look over the other side. I return and Camryn starts pointing out bulls all over the place. We see a solid 6 below us, and I tell Camryn and Steve's hunting partner to go look over the other side and Steve and I work our way down the ridge to get a better look. We got within 200 yards when the bull came into view again and I can see he's a solid six. Definitely not the bull we had seen the night before, but a solid 300 class six. I tell Steve that we can keep looking but he decides he's happy with it. as the shot breaks I see the bull do the lung shot "death hump", but I tell Steve to get another in him. The bull runs behind a tree and as Steve is trying to get a second shot I see the bull start to wobble and then he goes down. I send Steve down to the bull and I go back up and tell Camryn and Steve's partner after the pickups to drive them around where we should come out. The first words out of Steve's partners mouth was, "he missed didn't he?" When I told him he hadn't then next question was, "what is it, about a 4 point?" When I told him it was a six he walked away muttering, "I'm never gonna hear the end of it".

I returned to Steve who was very happy about his elk. He did comment that he was gonna have to find something else to put on his bucket list as this was about the last thing on it, and he didn't think he was ready to give up yet. We had the bull pretty much quartered by the time the others returned with the packs. I loaded Camryn's pack with a front quarter, she grabbed my day pack and took off, straight up hill to the pickup. We dropped the other front in Steve's partners pack and off he went. Steve's pack was loaded with a rear, and I grabbed the other rear and both back straps and tenderloins. With the exceptions of the head we had the elk out in one trip. I gave Steve one of my packs as I felt it would be better for bringing out the head and I told him to just leave it at camp when he was done. Steve was so impressed with Camryn, both her eyes and pack horse capabilities that he said he wanted our address and he would stop by later to get it. I told him we hadn't helped with the expectation of anything, and I had gotten my reward by watching my daughter perform.

With the bull out of the way I take Cam back to the bottom at about 2 pm that afternoon. I drop her again and off I go for another walk. On this trip I see one bull and no cows so I return to pick Camryn up at dark. As I pull up she is sitting at the road and she says, "do we go get her tonight or tomorrow". She explained that she has been sitting at the road since 2:30. As she headed in and was about to the stand she sees a cow start running. She shot twice at the cow with her Colt LR 270 and missed while the cow was at about 75 yards. She jumped up on a huge downed tree about 25 yards from the stand and can see the cow facing away from her, and she said it looked like she was trying to figure out where the shooting was coming from. I was told that all Camryn could see was her head and neck in the willows at her last shot, and as the trigger broke the cow went down. Camryn tells me that she stood on the log for a couple of minutes and didn't hear a sound. She then went to the stand and got some elevation, but could not see anything. She tells me she stayed in the stand for another 10 minutes but didn't hear or see anything further. When I asked if she had gone and looked for her she said, "no, I was too scared for that", lol.

We did go in that night and fumbled around with a flashlight in the willows, but I could not find anything. I was beginning to think that she had missed and I think she was beginning to think the same thing. I told her we would go back in in the morning and see if we could find anything. After I went for a hunt I picked her up and in we went. Things looked a little different too her in the daylight and she was able to direct me to an area about 50 yards from where we were looking the night before. I found the cow stacked up right where it had stood, about 150 yards from where she had shot from. During the quartering process I found that she had drilled that cow through the spine at the base of the neck. That cow was truly DRT at the third shot.

Camryn's inner pack horse came back out when the quartering was done. I put a rear quarter on her pack and asked if she could handle that. She figured she could and I loaded my pack with a front and rear as well as the backstraps and tenderloins and off we went. We returned with one pack and I pulled the tree stand down. Once back at the carcass I loaded the last front and I told Camryn that I knew a native gal that had asked me for a hide if we had killed. Camryn told me to throw it on too and she would pack it out. Lol, loaded down with that, had she gone over she would have look like a turtle on her back, but she made it out with the load and I packed the stand. That was a super deal for me, lol.

A few days after returning from the hunt we received a card from Steve. I handed Camryn her card and she opened it to find a token of Steve's appreciation. She looked at me and said, "what's this for"? I told her that I thought Steve appreciated her help and she responded with, "He didn't have to send me anything"!

There is nothing that can take this experience away from me, and it will probably be one of the best hunting memories I will have. There is no way I could be any prouder of Camryn. I know that a lot of you guys already know this, but boy or girl, take them to the field with you. I will never push my passion on anyone, but when it came time for hunter safety I told the girls (I have two more that look similar to Camryn, one older, and one two years out from time for the class), they would take the class and they would go hunting once. If they were to decide, after that, hunting was not their bag, they would never have to go again, and I would not force them to. I simply wanted them to experience it more so they had an idea of what they were doing if the world went to hell in a hand basket and they had to feed themselves. As it stands right now, Cam has her elk under her belt and the oldest is out with a "boyfriend" today trying to seal the deal on a whitetail buck she has her eye on. I don't believe the youngest is going to refuse to go either as there appears to be a fair amount of interest there. Time will tell, but she is the only 10 year old I know that looks at me when I leave to go hunting and says, "bring me a heart if you don't wreck it"

Wow, no wonder you're proud. Great story and a fine young lady.

You've got a lot to be proud of, congrats to you both!

Great story thanks for sharing. Congrats to both of you.

Great hunt, you both should be proud. Congrats.

Very nice. Beautiful girl and story

Great story, worth the time to read!!

What a great story! Thank you for sharing it with us AND congratulations on raising such fine young adults.

Great story. Thank you for sharing.

I love this story. Sounds like you are raising some great girls. Congratulations to the both of you. My 16 year old daughter shot her first this year too. It was a great experience.

FH

Great story - it sure says something about you as a dad and a fellow hunter. Congratulations to everyone for the fine elk and outstanding hunting experiences! And my thanks to you for sharing this passion for the hunt with the next generations coming behind us. You are a great example for all parents (and grandparents) to follow.

Thanks guys, once I got going on it I realized how much fun I had, and I couldn't stop. Once it was done I was worried I got too wordy, lol. Glad it was worth the read for some. Fire Hawk, glad you got to experience something similar, it doesn't get any better.

From the pictures and story it looks to me like you are raising a pretty special group of young ladies! Congratulations all the way around not just for getting her elk, but even more for helping someone else realize their dream. Thanks for sharing the pictures and story and best wishes to all of you for many more memorable hunts together!

That is a great story and a very beautiful young lady. You must be awfully proud.

Great story. You must be proud.

Congrats to you and your daughter!

Took Daughter #1 on her first elk hunt this year, a quick 2-day trip before Uncle Sam sent her overseas. All the elk we saw were on private land but we have a great time anyway and she is looking forward to a longer hunt next year. She is already an avid antelope hunter.

Very, very cool. Great story.

Good for her! We need more young ladies like that today.

Great story, congratulations on a fine huntress!

She sounds like a really great girl. Congrats to her on filling her tag as well.......