After last years 2 mile treck to the retrieve my bull this years plan was simple= Shoot one close to the road down on the prairie!
Opening rifle season had too many hunters coming in from the bottoms and pushing the elk up to the high country, they are safe from me up there so I pulled the plug eaarly and went home to winterize the campers to get ready for the first snowfall.
Last Saterday we saw one satalite bull right at dusk and would have been a ruff haul out after dark.... another safe elk!
This morning, with only two days left to fill the tag with a bull we head out before dawn. We get just about to where we were going to unload the side x side down on the flat and there they where right in the middle of the road
Problem was we where too close to the ranch and 15 minuts too early to shoot. So we pull up by the gate and unload the side x side. By this time the herd is nowhere to be found but we got a good idea where they are going? We take off but when we top the first hill the elk are 450 yards on the hillside Get set up for a shot but the are milling and the largest bull in the herd is protected in the middle= no shot and off they go over the next hill. I bail out when we topped the next hill to get a shot when they crossed the creek. The largest of the seven bulls in the herd is open so I send a hurried round. Hit him but not very good....and off they go again. We take off in a hurry to get ahead of them before they hit the safty of the mountain. It works and I'm on the ground steady on the bypods as the herd starts to file out of the creek bottom. Was waiting for the bull I hit to finish him off when my sidekick says to stand up the bull is on our side of the hill 100 yards out. Another shot has him hurting but still on his feet but now I have time to get on the ground with the bipods. The angle aint good for a shot but I realize he aint big enough to put on the wall so a bullet is sent into his neck= WOPPP and its lights out!
You can see him 7 yards off the road in the bottom and the rest of the herd heading for safty up the mountain.
Not the wallhanger I was hoping for this year but a 6x6 none the less and bigger than last year.
Opening rifle season had too many hunters coming in from the bottoms and pushing the elk up to the high country, they are safe from me up there so I pulled the plug eaarly and went home to winterize the campers to get ready for the first snowfall.
Last Saterday we saw one satalite bull right at dusk and would have been a ruff haul out after dark.... another safe elk!
This morning, with only two days left to fill the tag with a bull we head out before dawn. We get just about to where we were going to unload the side x side down on the flat and there they where right in the middle of the road
Problem was we where too close to the ranch and 15 minuts too early to shoot. So we pull up by the gate and unload the side x side. By this time the herd is nowhere to be found but we got a good idea where they are going? We take off but when we top the first hill the elk are 450 yards on the hillside Get set up for a shot but the are milling and the largest bull in the herd is protected in the middle= no shot and off they go over the next hill. I bail out when we topped the next hill to get a shot when they crossed the creek. The largest of the seven bulls in the herd is open so I send a hurried round. Hit him but not very good....and off they go again. We take off in a hurry to get ahead of them before they hit the safty of the mountain. It works and I'm on the ground steady on the bypods as the herd starts to file out of the creek bottom. Was waiting for the bull I hit to finish him off when my sidekick says to stand up the bull is on our side of the hill 100 yards out. Another shot has him hurting but still on his feet but now I have time to get on the ground with the bipods. The angle aint good for a shot but I realize he aint big enough to put on the wall so a bullet is sent into his neck= WOPPP and its lights out!You can see him 7 yards off the road in the bottom and the rest of the herd heading for safty up the mountain.
Not the wallhanger I was hoping for this year but a 6x6 none the less and bigger than last year.
