Well my wife Anna got her bull yesterday. About 3/4 mile from the nearest road and almost 3000 feet higher. A good shot and then the work started. I fired too at another one elk, but missed and got scoped. I held what I thought was the correct amount of hold-over and found I guessed wrong and the shot went right over the top of the elk. We were on real steep ground and I tried to curl around the rifle to keep from slipping down hill, but it didn't work very well for me as you can see from the dripping blood.

The shot was across a large ravine between 2 crests, with us being near the top of one and the elk being only about 25 yards below the crest of the other. Anna got on a large rock and shot from prone. I was on the slope below her about 10 yards, and in the snow.

It took 3 of us 7.5 hours to get the elk down to that road. We had to make 2 trips. The slope is steep enough to make going up empty easier then coming down loaded. The pic of Anna with the head and antlers was taken on one of the flattest places we could get to, about 1/3 the way down. The others were taken where the bull fell, and that was not too steep, thank God. We all had to wrap the loads and roll them off the steepest parts and then follow them down on all fours in 2 different places. VERY steep with loose rock covered in about 4" of snow.

What fun!

Anna earned every single ounce of this bull
AnnaElk3 by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
AnnaElk2 by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
AnnaElk1 by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]

Congrats to Anna!

That's awesome - congrats to your wife.
Hope your battle scar heals quickly.

great job chicka

Congratulations to Anna! A nice bull, and worthy of the work getting him home! And the “scope eyebrow”.....it helps give you “character”! memtb

Fantastic job....proud for Anna!!!

+1, Congrats.

Nice work!

Congrats!

Congratulations

Good stuff, congrats.

Sway to be. Nothing like workin' for your supper.

Nice job Anna......

Very cool!
What did she use to drop the beast?
Congrats

Congratulations

Nice work!!!

Great job to Anna! Sorry to hear about your miss. If Anna is anything like my wife then you haven't heard the last of it--that's experience talking.

Hell yes congratulations...

Heavy loads, steep downhill with snow. What could be worse? Some deadfall thrown in?

Congrats on the elk...

Congratulations! Those that think going downhill is easy have never done it with a heavy pack!

Lots of good eating ahead.

Great experience. Thanks for sharing.

Well done. Congrats.

szihn, I believe that you should receive an award for “honesty in journalism”. Not only did you confess to a miss (on the “fire” ) but also to a “scope eyebrow”! I’m honored to have read your post! memtb

Congratulations

I will third this; congratulations on the Elk and the wound will heal and gives you character. Cheers NC

Congrats to you both......

Congrats, Anna. Let us know how it tastes.

Congrats to Anna,

Awesome. Especially so you have your wife to share the hunt with. Kudos!

Good stuff szihn.

That’s awesome man nice work on both your parts! Congratulations on an awesome experience with your wife!

Congratulations to the hunter on a successful hunt.
I do think I woulda left that 5 pounds of hoof and lower leg on the mountainside though.

Good going there, but do be careful on those slopes.

A couple of hill stories.

I once bagged an elk, and had to go back to camp and bring every rope we had and lash the animal to the hill before beginning work up. Had the carcass kept going, it would have taken days to complete the retrieval. Also, one does not want to be on the downhill side handling knives when things start moving.

A couple of my buddies were once packing mule deer halves out of the Snake River Canyon. They reached a spot where they could just kick them over the slope and let things slide to the bottom on the snow. The front half got airborne started cart wheeling, and they never did find the right shoulder.

Great job. Nice to see family hunting together.

Well getting "scoped" is something that seems to be going viral in my little world.
I like to report the facts to anyone that may be interested, but maybe I should not have posted THAT picture and reported THAT fact. As the "old guy" with over 1/2 century of experience in shooting gunsmithing, hunting, gun-building and a lot of military time in my younger years I am supposed to be the guy that tells others about the "don't do that's" of shooting. So I am now the recipient of about 40 e-mails, some posts on line, and about 25 phone calls ------all poking me about my nose-job, the last one of which was 5 minutes ago from MY 87 year old MOM!!!!!

Even Jesus was smart to stand mute before Pilot and although he didn't lie at all, he didn't tell Pilot ALL the facts at that time.

I guess I should learn from Him.

I didn't.

Oh well.......................... I wish I'd done better that time.........but I didn't.
That's just how it happened.
How's the saying go................warts and all?
(or blood and all)

Great job Anna. You got game, girl. Nice shooting.

That's great!

Would add, anyone that hasn't been "scoped" just hasn't done much field shooting...

Nice elk, congratulations!!

Congrats to your wife and her support team !

Taking Daughter #1 elk hunting in a couple weeks, still trying to get her first.

Great job Anna!!!

Well done!

Great job Anna! And next time, if Steve won't do his fair share of the pack-out, don't punch him in the face. Body blows are just as effective and they don't leave visible marks... just some advice from my dear little wife.

Nice eating bull

congrats

Congrats to you both!

Well the 2919 bull season is over and I didn't get one this year. I will try for a cow in a few weeks I guess. This year I was involved in the taking of 5 bulls, one of which was Anna's above, but I had one shot myself -------and missed. So I can't blame anyone but the guy writing this -------for my lack of horns this season.

On Thursday, just 2 days ago, I and Anna helped a friend with his 75 year old grandfather's deer and elk. We found him a nice buck and a VERY nice 6X6 bull on the last day of both seasons. At 75 with bad knees and a bad back he can still hunt, but he can't bend much and he can't pull or pack. So we 4 (Anna, the man's grand-son in law, another mutual friend and I) did the grunt work for him. Anna was there helping again too. It was not as steep as the ground we got her bull on, but the pack-out was about 1.6 miles. She was "true to form" and was a super-trooper on that one as always. We took the sled and she pulled it her self for over 1/2 of the trip loaded to the top with elk meat. On a few places she was able to ride the sled down the slopes in the snow (over our knees at time) laughing and squealing like an 8 year old girl. We finished up at about 10:30 at night and we started that morning at 4:30. That was a GO GO GO type of day, but it was great. Last day of the season for bucks and bulls and the old man got both. So I didn't get my bull, but I still have to say it was a day for the books.

Anna's not a wife that stays home and reads a book in hunting seasons. She out hunts men I know.