Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Another 2005 story

Although not quite as beautiful as others' bulls, still looked pretty darn good to me!
It was an absolutely wonderful hunt: I arrived at the parking lot at 4:45, hiked out at 5 am. By 7 am I was on the ridge, hiking along quietly. I heard a few gunshots far away and felt a bit envious, but heck - the morning was so wonderful, I figured its worth it even if I see nothing.
At about 7:45 am I got over a small knob on the ridge and sat down to glass. I sat quietly for some 15-20 min and blew a cow call a couple of times, glassing. It was a good thing I leaned the rifle to a tree closeby when I was making myself comfy for glassing: I caught the movement with a corner of my eye and saw this bull walking towards me some 100 yards away, he just came out of the trees in the gulch on the other side of the ridge. I slowly picked up the gun and the binocs to glass him making sure he's at least a 4-pointer, and he was. I had to shoot quarter-turn to the right and it was awfully uncomfortable, but fortunately he stepped behind a pine tree and stopped, giving me a chance to move into a bit better position. I fired as soon as he stepped from behind the tree, and he dropped on spot as if hit by lightning.
180 gr Failsafe passed through with virtually zero bloodshot meat on either side. The distance was 90 yards. I was done hunting at 8:15 am. I finished de-boning at 1 pm, called home and had my wife and 15-yr. old son come out to the parking lot to meet me. We met there at 3:30 pm (took me 2.5 hrs to get there, 3.5 miles downhill). My son and I went on the second trip at 4 pm and were at the kill site at 6. The sun sat at 6:30, and we were at the car at 9 pm, hiking 2.5 hours in the dark. Anton, my son, was a bit nervous about all the noises in the darkness; I have to say I could care less if something caught me and ate at that moment. I carried a .45 just for comfort, for its lightness. The kid was great help: he carried my 65 lbs pack some 300 yards, and carried his 35 lbs all the way. He was BEAT by the end! I don't even want to think of what I looked like - 14 miles of mid-elevation country, half of it with 90 and 65 lbs of meat, were very noticeable.
Next day we cut and wrapped, cooked some meat, had a few drinks and told a few stories. It was great! Would not trade it for anything in the world.
Still got black toenails from the downhill hike with 90 lbs of meat, the rack and the rifle... Brings up memories <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
-P