Garrett's first elk & archery kill!

[bow.hunter8971]

nice congrats

[Pine Donkey]

That's cool. Nice way to begin your archery career.

[culpritz]

great video and congrats to the hunter way to start hunting youg especially archery great job

[Joe Kauffman]

Thanks for the comments all. He's one heck of a young hunter especially for being only 12 years old. I remember archery deer hunting when I was 10 but there's no way I would have been confident enough to try and tackle elk with a bow at his age.

 

He has double football today (flag football game at school followed by tackle practice ) so he'll try and get his story posted tomorrow.

 

Joe

[azryan]

Way to go Garrett! Joe, he is definitely one heck of a young hunter He is going to be an animal slayer Congrats! Sweet little video clip you put together as well

[bonecollector]

Awesome job, great shooting! Congrats.

[tjhunt2]

First of all congratulations to Garrett on his first elk and excellent shot placement. Second great job on getting that on video. I know how hard that must have been not to put the camera down to see what was going on at the last minute. I continue to carry my camcorder but have of yet to get the shot on video. Making this a family hunt says alot for all of you and this is what we need more of so thank you for sharing Garrett's hunt with us and I look forward to reading Garrett's story thryu his eyes. Good luck with your wife's hunt as well.

 

TJ

[BeardownAZ]

Great Video and fist harvest.

 

Now I hope to get a video that nice of Couse&Bass harvesting a 400 Bull in Nov. Chow!!

 

Fist Harvest huh?? Never had one those ! Great shot by the way Garrett. Hope to get my FIRST elk this coming November.

[Basser15]

That's awesome! Great shot and nice see your family hunting together.

[mcelkhunter]

Great job!! Doesn't get any better than that. Good Luck on the Bull!!

[FlyingW]

Congrats on your first !!!

[garrett kauffman]

Ok here's the story! Garrett wrote this up last night but asked me to proof read it before posting .

 

 

As I sat there in the treestand I watched a one antlered 6 point bull come close enough for a shot and thought Wow! Thats a cool bull! He'll look cool on the wall and make for a neat story! I slowly raised my bow and drew it back. With a squeeze of the trigger on my release the arrow buried deep into his vitals area before he turned and ran behind a clump of trees and fell. Suddenly I heard what sounded like thundering, but a wierd kind of thunder....the kind that sounds more like footsteps on stairs then thunder from the clouds! After shaking me for a good minute or so, my Dad finally woke me up saying "It's 3am bud, time to get ready for some elk hunting!" Oh ya, I have been dreaming...and I have a cow tag .

 

After a quick breakfast and a good spray off with the no scent spray my Dad, Mom and I were off for a bit of a drive before we would get to the spot we were going to hunt for the morning. We had scouted this area the weekend before and knew there was a couple good sounding bulls in the area who hopefully would have some cows that would come in to the call with them. Since I had a cow tag and my Mom has a bull tag, the plan was to go after the bulls hoping to get one to come in. My Dad told me stories about his past bull hunts where the cows would actually come in before the bull to check things out so we were hoping this would happen again and I would be able to get a shot at one.

 

We arrived at our spot about an hour before daylight and talked about the game plan as we suited up and sprayed down one last time before hiking in to the spot we were going to hunt. As we hiked we heard 3 bulls bugle in the distance and recognized one of the bugles as one of the ones we heard while scouting. He was directly in front of us a few hundred yards or so and we decided to hang tight for a bit until the sun came up enough to see a bit. After 30 minutes or so we had enough shooting light so we continued to head towards him hoping to get close enough to call him in.

 

When we finally got within 100 or so yards of him (it was thick and we couldn't actually see him) my Dad blew lightly on his cow call and the bull immediately answered with his signature growl. This bull would never actually bugle, he would just do this really low and deep growl followed by a chuckle. My Mom decided to name him Chuckles and was set on getting this bull. Even though he would answer my Dads calls, he just kept moving slowly away from us. My Dad told me this was very normal once the larger bulls have cows and that the cows will actually pull the bull away from the cow call. He told me about a tactic he'd used before where he would use 3-4 cow calls and through a bugle in the middle so it sounded like another herd of elk. This would calm down the lead cow enough to stop moving and he could then focus on the bull. He said that the lead cow generally makes all the rules so it's good to focus on her first and make her comfortable.

 

Doing this seemed to work and they stopped moving but the bull was too busy running around to actually come in so we decided to close the distance a bit more to see if that would help. We finally saw some cows moving through the trees about 60 yards in front of us and this time when my Dad blew softly on the cow call 2 cows and 1 calf came running right for us! I drew my bow right when 1 of the cows and the calf saw me so they spooked but the second cow came right in and stood facing right at me at 15 yards.

 

For several days before the hunt my Dad went over pictures of elk with me and talked about shot placement. He showed me broadside pictures, quartering away pictures and luckily we talked about what to do if she was facing right at me. He said he hoped I wouldn't have to take a shot like that but if it was less than 30 yards and if I felt good and confident that I could take the shot. He showed me where to put the arrow so after the cow stopped I put my sights right where we had talked about and squeezed the trigger.

 

She was barely turned a bit so when the arrow landed it was angled just enough that it exited the left side which made for a really good blood trail. After replaying the video we knew the shot was good but decided to have a quick water break for about 20 minutes before we tracked her.

 

We quickly knew it was a good shot because the blood trail was really good. She only went about 60 yards into the thick trees and fell!

 

The best part of the hunt was learning so much about elk, hearing them and actually being able to see how they act in the woods. Having both of my parents there was amazing and a memory I will always remember. Good luck Mom! I hope you and Dad can find Chuckles again and that you can get him!

 

[bohunr]

Great job and Great story and Great Video! Keep up the good work!

[Heat]

Garrett! Great work young man! I'm sure you've made your dad and many others very proud of you, including me!

 

Congratulations,

 

Nick

[elkhutnaz]

good job and nice write up, nice meeting you guys today at Ben Avery good luck with your deer hunts