The Hunt

My dad has been trying to get a "trophy" elk tag for me for the last 15 years. This year he succeeded. The only catch: Now I had to go and shoot an elk! So what follows are the gory details, literally. So if you don't want to read on, don't.

My dad and I headed out here

To try and find some of these

We spent a lot of time of roads like this

And a some time on roads like these

On opening day we saw a herd of 14 cows and calfs with I good sized bull. We tried to be stealthy and anticipate his movements by getting in position where he though he would head. He got spooked by an ATV and headed out pretty quickly. It was disappointing, but in retrospect, I was glad that we at least saw one on opening day to give me hope of ultimately getting one. The next day was Sunday and while at church we got some really good info on where the elk like to be and which way they head up into the mountains in the mornings. The trick was that they mostly travel in the dark and are long gone before it is legal to shoot anything. (You can hunt from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset). We decided to take his tips into consideration and on Monday morning positioned ourselves in a nice ravine in a draw where the farmer told us we might have luck.  

We got there around 6:00 and waited. When it started getting light we weren't seeing anything and assumed that the elk had left before we got there. We started talking about leaving and trying where we saw the other elk on Saturday when my dad spotted a herd. However, the herd turn up another draw and out of our range. All except one. This lone elk started to head around the fence of a field and up toward us. He just meandered along grazing and whatever. But sure enough he headed our way. We just sat in our ravine and watched this elk for about a half an hour walk right toward us. After watching and waiting and his getting closer my dad realized that I needed to get into position to shoot, but he was between me and the elk. So he bent over on his hands and knees so I could rest my gun on his back for stability. When he was about 50 yards away my dad plugged his ears and told me to shoot. At that range he was so close he filled up my whole scope and POW! I got him, right where I wanted. That was the end for that elk. It was amazing! I didn't expect the adrenaline rush I got after getting him. I can see why people like hunting.

He was a 6x7, which according to my dad is pretty cool

I am convinced that the reason I got one is because we were completely unprepared to shoot something. We didn't have the camera, a knife, coolers, nothing. So after I shot him we got into the truck and headed back to the cabin to get our gear and butcher the big guy before the meat started to spoil. The goal when getting back to elk was to get the truck as close as possible so as not to have to drag him anywhere. In order to do that we went through this ditch.

While going through the ditch this happened.

There was a random cable that came loose. My dad wasn't sure where it went but it made the starter not work. We figured it out when we tried to move the truck to keep the elk in the shade while my dad butchered him and the engine wouldn't turn over. We decided it was more important to get the meat off the elk and cooling down then getting the truck started right then, so my dad went to work.

It took a few hours of hard labor (on my dad's part), and helping (on my part) to get the job done. 

When we rolled him over to start on the other side we saw the exit wound, which I thought it was pretty cool. My dad wanted to know if I wanted another picture when he was just about done. I declined because although my stomach could handle it, I didn't think it would be blog appropriate.

While butchering, my dad figured out a way to start the truck with his screwdriver, so we loaded up our 4 coolers worth of meat (estimated around 300 lbs). We got back to the cabin and loaded up our gear and got home in the late afternoon.

All in all it was a lot of fun. I haven't spent much time with my dad for quite some time so it was nice to be with him one on one for a few days. Thanks dad for being a great guide/driver/gun rest.

My parent's freezer chest that was previously
empty and is now full of elk