Hey everyone. Thanks for the compliments. Below is more on my hunt.
Yeah, I can bring some jerky out to Yuma. I'm picking everything up from the processor Saturday. Talk about an expensive bill! Well worth it though.
I took the bull outside of Walden. He wasn't the big bull in the herd, but I didn't see the big one until after I had shot. Read more below.
16 points for elk! That is great. You should have one heck of a hunt once you finally draw your tag. Let me guess, your thinking the NW corner of the state? I only have 2 points for elk. I don't know if I want to keep saving them, or spend them in the next year or two. I've been applying for moose, sheep, and goat for some time. Hopefully, I get lucky one of these days and pull a tag. Anyway here's more on the hunt.
Unfortunately, there was a bigger bull in the heard, but knowone was able to get a shot on him. My old man was stuck watching from the truck the whole time. I didn't even have a radio or cell, so I couldn't talk to him if I wanted to. It was crazy the way it worked out. I got out of the truck to poke my head over the hill and see if I could see the heard; sure enough, they were closer than we all expected and they had us pinned down for a while. When I finally could move, it was mostly army crawling through sage until I could get into a draw where they couldn't see me. By that time, if my dad had tried getting out of the truck, we would have been busted.
Fortunately I was able to work my way around the back side of a couple of knobs, and eventually the elk fed in my direction. I made the decision to shoot when I did because elk were starting to surround me and I was getting nervous theat I would get busted. I found this guy and was able to connect. After the shot I held tight becasue the heard didn't bust out like I thought they would. My buddy Brett was stalking the herd from another location and did all he could to get a shot, but never had an opportunity. Finally, after about 20 minutes I was able to back out, go back down around the knobs, into the draw, and back to the truck to deliver the news to my dad and one other buddy. We waited for an hour or so and Brett tried to make a stalk, but the herd ended up moving back onto private property.
The big one was BIG! I never did get a real close look at him, but he had to have been at least a 6x6 that was long wide and seemed to have good mass. He also had awesome whale tails. When you saw him, you knew he was the man! In the attached picture, you can see the big one coming up the hill. He is the last elk. Its hard to see his antlers, but it's the best picture I have. Maybe it will give you an idea of his size.
It's crazy; this whole hunt was possible because a couple of coyotes chased the entire herd off of the refuge. We watched them and they fed on private land and eventually looked like they could make there way to BLM land. Never in a million years would I have guessed they would actually jump the fence and give us the opportunity. I thought they knew there safety zones! But as luck would have it, we got into position, and they did indeed cross the fence. Unbelievable!
I hardly ever hunt open country like this. It's usually the nastiest thickest timber you find us in. But we decided to try something different for the morning, and it worked out for us. My bull was taken south of Walden, not far from the refuge. I've seen trucks out there many times glassing from ridge tops. I guess maybe they have the right idea.
Oh, one last thing. It took a lot longer than it seems for all of this to materialize. I would say it was about two hours rom the time I got out of the truck, until I was able to pull the trigger. It took a lot of patience and manuevering to make it happen. I'm just glad the elk finally cooperated!
