Well, I'm home and happy to be on flat ground again.
And wish to once again extend express my gratitude to iddave.
The unit we were hunting in doesn't exactly have stellar success rates but it's obvious Dave's year-after-year success is because he's willing to do and go where others won't.
The day prior to the opener, Dave turned us on to a particular drainage and gave me directions in how to access it from a trail - only we missed the trail and ended up on the other side of the mountain.
We reached a meadow that looked rather elky and immediately heard a bull screaming and some cow calls. The meadow and our view of the hill was quite narrow so we backed out and planned to be there before daylight the next day.
We were in position the next morning just before daylight and could see/hear a couple of cows followed by some bugling in the brush just up the mountain from the meadow. We ducked back into the timberline to close the gap and snuck out behind some rocks to ready for the shot. While pops set up, I scanned/ranged the hillside the cows and a spike we were feeding. I readied for a shot as well and Whelen Nut whispered, "we'll both shoot on the count of three when he steps out."
Almost on cue the bull stepped out from below with his backside towards us. At 302 yards, he angled back toward the cows, I whispered the 1-2-3 and two Accubonds (140 and 160) hit home behind the front shoulder. I put a couple more in him for good measure and he soon began his roll down the hill.
Dave and his friend Chuck graciously helped us quarter and pack him out. I gotta tell ya, Dave is a
freaking animal - he strapped up a front and a rear quarter and off he went. I "may" have exaggerated when conveying the amount of downhill packing involved prior to going back in to get the bull.
This was my first time ever chasing elk and was really looking for a bit of an education on how to hunt the animals. Dave gave that in spades. Our camp (of four) could have tagged out if we'd have chosen to do so which is really saying something in that ridiculously inhospitable country.
To get to hunt with Dave and to be able do it with my dad puts this hunt at the top of my all-time-favorite-hunt list.
Thanks again, Dave!
iddave, Whelen Nut, SKane