Posting our hunt on behalf of the shooter

[winger7mm]

I will apologize in advance for poor story writing, grammar, and punctuation. But it was a great hunt and we all had fun! Long read warning also. This is the story of myself, James and Scott (this was his very first elk hunt ever) Elk hunt of Sept 28th 2013

We had a pretty crazy drive into where my valleys are, partly due to the muddy and snowy conditions and deep washouts lol. We hiked about 11-13km. We spotted where sheep were up on the divide but due to the snow we couldnt actually see where the sheep were. We found the night befores grizzly tracks too (of course), A momma cougar and 2 cubs we found the trail of aswell it would have been pretty sweet to find her but they were a couple days old aswell. 3 muley does we found. We also came across a pair of cow moose........ Which were under hot pursuit of a youngish bull. He didnt have very large paddles but man was he wide, darn near flat across lol. No elk sign WHATSOEVER though . We did manage to get some great video footage though, even had the camera on when we dropped down into a wash out and had 2 tires come off the ground........ This trip was and will be my last trip into the 400 for elk, I will not be going back until I have time to sheep hunt or pull my moose tag.

We got back to blairmore around 10am. During the food break we decided to head up into 305 and try for an archery cow and bull. The wind was blowing pretty good and we had made a good game plan (we went to the properties we normally hunt) for walking into the back basins and doing our regular loop. We walked through the trees on the north side of the ridge. Cow calling a bit as we went. As we are making our way through the trees calling and listening. After about 3km we figured we would take a quick water break and some munchies. I told James to give a quick locate bugle. Not even 2 minutes later we heard a branch snap...... We got scott (the 18yr old young buck out on his second attempt at an elk hunt) using the "heads-up" decoy to sit over on the right a couple feet. I was right beside James running the camera and range finder. Wouldnt you know it but a cow elk stepped out!!!! 35yrds was the initial range found. She looked right at us, But she seen that decoy and was not concerned 1 bit!!! She looked away, I told James "draw, draw, draw". He did, but since we started sitting down, when he stood up there was a fallen tree in the way. (Since we started the morning so early we were fairly tired) James whispered I cant shoot no lane, My arm is getting so tired I gotta let off!!! Just at that time she looked away again, he let off. Then she started moving again, moving through the trees a couple feet, stopped behind a tree with her head, I ranged James drew, "32, 32, 32". She took a few steps but she wasnt in good camera, Luckily james heard me say wait, I leaned in closer to james and right when I got the kill zone in frame, I didnt even finish saying "ok" before he let the arrow fly.

After she took off, we heard a crash right away, then another, then silence....... We discussed the shot (after trying to calm James down, after hunting elk for 5 years he finally pulled the trigger on one) I didnt see much of the arrow flight since I was looking in the camera, The luminock quit halfway through flight so james thought he went over her back. Scott swore on his life he seen the arrow go right into the vitals. We gave her 20 min before we got up to go and look for blood at the shot sight. The first couple minutes nothing, Not a drop. Scott found half of the arrow shaft about 8 yrds from the shot site. So we started from there. I noticed some tan laying down near the bottom, I knew it was her. James!! here, here get over here! We kneeled down I pointed through the trees, there she was!!! We skirted around to the left a bit cause it looked like she was just bedded up. But no that second crash we heard was her folding up while running. She didnt go 60yrds!! We found where she fell the first time and im sure she was dead at that point, before going another 25-30yrds and that was it.

James finally got to punch an elk tag, not only did he kill his first elk, it was with a bow! AND it was his SECOND bow kill!! AND EVEN BETTER I got it ALL on camera!!!

We made a plan to drag her down to the bottom to where we could drive the truck to her, when we got to that point, I left to get the truck while they cleaned her out. After I got back to where the gate was to get into that particular field, the gate was locked (at which point I remembered them saying they were gonna keep it locked due to a theft) It was only about 2km hike in to where the cleaning site was so I grabbed the packs and made my way. I was only about 200 yrds from the boys when I heard a bugle! At first I figured they were screwing with me so I kinda jogged a bit until I could see them. No they werent screwing with me at all! It was actually a bull. They hollared "wheres the truck" I was throwing hand signals trying to get them to shut up hahaha it was hard from that far. I ran to them and asked if they heard that. "Nope" was the answer I got. "James, rip a bugle quick". We got an answer!! The elk hunt was back on!!! I grabbed the bow, he donned the camera and range finder, scott was on the decoy again. We had a perfect wind and we had a bull responding to EVERY call we made, he was thrashing trees, we were doing the same. He was coming in and he was doing fast. We made our way to a spot 50 yards from a strip of smaller new growth trees. He was on the other side of that strip!! 80 Yards we figured. We each knew our role in this and we all set up and were ready........ FRIGGEN WIND did a 180 and blew straight towards him, we got one bugle from him then nothing........ Silence nothing at all, he caught or smell and that was all she wrote!

Woulda been nice to take my first archery kill, But truth be told im mighty happy we didnt have 2 elk to deal with!! MY GAWD lol. We decided to drag the cow the rest of the way, as it woulda taken just as long if we quartered her. We dragged her to within a distance where I could run my 140' of tow ropes and 100' of winch cable. As I was pulling her out, they wanted me to stop after she got across the small creek and we would load her up. I told them thats dumb, theres a spot just up there we can pull her to and flip the truck around and drop the tail gate so we only had to lift her like 3" lol. Well Ill be damned my first attempt at driving up that edge failed (thanks in part to the open diffs on my truck) and as I rolled back I was at such an angle where the tail pipe dug into the ground folded up against the tire, then when I tried again, pooofffff. Flat tire That little screw up was also caught on camera lol. got the spare on and used the terrain and 4lo to bend the pipe enough to where we could drive home...... If there was any time to have a hacksaw on hand that woulda been the time lmao.

The craziest part about this whole hunt, he pulled the shot literally within minutes of when I pulled the trigger on my bull last year!! We both pulled our first elks off this property, and have the best luck in 305 hence the will to never go into 400 for elk again lol.

His dad was super stoked, his mom had a couple tears since she was so proud of him. We got her hanging, had a case of beer while telling the hunt to many people, grilled up the tenderloins, Had a great night. Man was that awesome, that was probably the best hunts iv been on so far. I cant wait for him to get all the footage edited up and on some DVDs.

Scott, hahaha. Being a fairly new hunter (been on some deer hunts with his uncle, and some goose shoots with me) He never put so many km on foot while hunting before. He got to see the archery kill, he got to hear a raging bull coming in (granted we got busted). He slept most of the time in the truck and was extremely exhausted by the time we got home, BUT im sure hes gonna be addicted lol. Couldnt really have asked for a better outcome of the hunt for him to experience lol.

[hunterfisher]

Thats a great tale and one i'm sure you'll all remember. Thats what sharing the experience of hunting is all about. Good job

[NEWMAYOR]

Great story, good job, congrats

[threeforthree]

Great story..thanks for posting

[James_B]

That was the most exciting hunt ever. All day was epic. One crazy adventure. Thanks for being there. The movie is almost done. I will post alink once finished.

[Stop Staring at my Rack]

Sounds like a great hunt!!! Congratulations!!!

[Stinky Buffalo]

Thanks for posting! That was a good read. Congratulations!

[Tundra Monkey]

Great story Winger....can't wait to see the footage

Congrats on a great hunt!!!

[bagwan]

Quite an oration. Well done in all ways.

[winger7mm]

Originally Posted by James_B

That was the most exciting hunt ever. All day was epic. One crazy adventure. Thanks for being there. The movie is almost done. I will post alink once finished.

Hey man, im glad I convinced you to bring the bow lol. Most definatly one of, if not the best hunts iv been on to BTW. Cant wait to get out again after that bull lol

[James_B]

Here is the link to the video. Have a couple beers and sit back and watch our adventure. About 31 Min. Enjoy and please comment. Cheers.


http://youtu.be/v4_5nTRDbbY

I just noticed that it starts you in at about 7 minutes in. I don't know how to correct it so it starts from the beginning. So just slide it to the beginning!

FYI * There is some swear words in here so just a heads up!.

[ABwapiti]

I can not get it says it private.

[James_B]

How do you get it off private?

[sheepguide]

Works for me just fine

[winger7mm]

I was about to post the link but looks like it works!


Please be warned there is some swearing!!! First timers and a rig pig on the cam....... Next video will be more PG I promise!!!

[ABwapiti]

Works now

[Alberta Bigbore]

Sounds like a great hunt

[Mike Rae]

Way to go guys, congrats. Thanks for sharing and the video. Great work.

[Stop Staring at my Rack]

Neat video!!!! Thank you for sharing!!!

[Sako300]

Awesome video, well done!

[winger7mm]

Thanks folks for the kind words. Not to bad for a new guy running the cam, and not to bad for an older cheap camcorder to!