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Brother Steve, I hope your mom and dad knew where you were after dark, being 13 years old! <GRIN> Different times, different places, sigh.


John,

I killed my first bull elk when I was about 13. It was dusk and a quite decent 5X6 bull spooked our of a little canyon and ran broadside in front of me. The range was maybe 75 yards,

I was carrying a .30-'06 and planted two 180-grain Hornady Spire Points dead behind the near shoulder. Like your friends bull, mine ran into a tree ... in my case it was a jack pine.

It was really getting darksome when I approached the bull. He was quite dead and laying on his belly. And, of course, I moaned, "What the HELL have I done? And how the HELL am I going to take care of this huge critter alone?"

So, I figgered the best approach would be to roll him over and start cutting out anything that didn't look like meat.

I could not budge him.

After maybe fifteen minutes (flashlight is out by now), I saw a broken-off jack pine top. And in pushing the bull's body over a little, I spotted the problem.

My bull was literally impaled upon the jack pine stump. Waht are your chances?

Thankfully, I had a limbing saw and about five minutes later I had the tree cut off at the ground. Then, the bull rolled over quite easily.

To make a long story short, it took me about three hours to gut, skin, quarter and hang the quarters of that bull. Not bad, considering I'd never seen it done before and had only killed twenty or so deer at that time. Even in my prime, my record for gut/skin/quarter and hang was an hour and a half, and usually it too fully two hours.

It was way dark and way cold, but it was all worth it.

I'll never forget looking over the kill scene. My big old bull was dead and properly butchered. I threw the horns over my shoulders and marked my way out to the road with cruisers tape. Young, satisfied and really really happy.

It was one of my best hunts and one I will always remember.

BUT, in killing one hell of a lot of elk (almost as many as I am old) and seeing maybe another 200 killed, I have never seen another who impaled himself on a tree or anything like that.

What are the chances????

Blessings,

Steve

Brother Steve, I hope your mom and dad knew where you were after dark, being 13 years old! <GRIN> Different times, different places, sigh.