Daughters first general cow hunt

[Shooter McGavin]

Well now that my daughter can no longer put in as jr, she and I put in for cow elk in 6A together. The draw gods were on our side and we got drawn. I used my oldest sons archery 6A bull hunt as a pre-scouting trip for our hunt. Well needless to say, everywhere we saw cow elk a month earlier these spots were empty. Opening day turned up nothing, Saturday in a new spot heard some bugles, high tailed it up the mountain in chase. While trying to get ahead of the bull I notice movement about 60 yds away. It was a black bear lumbering our way. I did buy an OTC bear tag because during my sons hunt we came across 2 different bears. I asked my daughter, should I shoot this bear and then hunt elk later, she said yes. I take a knee and squeeze the trigger. The bear buckles, does a summersault and is rolling around. I’m just completely beside my self that I just shot a bear. I look up and the bear gets up and runs down hill. Now I’m wondering…. Uh oh, where did I hit this bear and how pissed off is this bear if it’s not dead. We both unholster our sidearms and cautiously walk up. We find blood, bits of bone and the ground is all torn up where the bear was rolling around. Reading and hearing stories about bears, especially hurt bears I wasn’t going to put my daughters life in danger rummaging around the thick brush. We backed out and we’re going to give it a day to possibly bleed out. Obviously after that gun shot the bulls quit bugling. We went to a new spot where I was able to tag a very small cow elk…..aka calf.

Yesterday after miles and miles of hill climbing my daughter was able to tag her 3rd cow elk. She was completely exhausted and of course the $hit talking hasn’t stopped since hers was so much bigger. We did end up going back to where I shot the bear, but with the amount of rain we received all the blood was washed away and we both still were very wary about looking through the brush. Take away…..shoot again and  again if uncertain!!!

Great trip all around, county was absolutely beautiful with the leaves changing and memories that will last a lifetime!!!

 

sorry for the sideways pics.

[stanley]

Outstanding!  Best of times!!!!

[PRDATR]

Congrats to the both of you. That was the right decision to back out after the shot on the bear. They can cover a lot of ground in a few seconds and the last thing you want to do is to get charged.

[jdown]

So shoot a game animal and don't try and recover for days and that's ok with you all?  WTF?  Congrats on the elk! 

[stanley]

57 minutes ago, jdown said:

So shoot a game animal and don't try and recover for days and that's ok with you all?  WTF?  Congrats on the elk! 

I didn't intend to comment on the bear.  Honestly, I didn't even read the story.  Whether I'm OK with it or not, I suppose isn't really relevant.  Sounds like they backed out and came back at some point (He didn't say "for days"....  In reading his write-up it sounds like it was likely the next day.), and the rain made it impossible to track/recover.  Sucks to shoot an animal and end-up losing it.   Never happened to me personally but have been on hunts where it's happened to partners.   It's a drag.

I just saw the father daughter pics and thought it was cool.  

[eddielasvegas]

Another good story and pix.  I was too lazy to orient all your pix so I picked my fav.  😁

 

Eddie

[Roosevelt Mark]

Congrats! Great pictures also!

[bigorange]

Congrats to both…awesome! I thought about you and your CWT handle on my cow hunt…back in camp on a rainy night and tried the TV and Happy Gilmore was on. 

[CatfishKev]

Congrats man!

[AzRaised08]

That’s a bummer you weren’t able to recover the bear but congratulations on filling both tags! Sounds like a good hunt with your daughter