Cow Elk Success/Trip Report

[Hoss50]

Sorry for the novel, don't read it if you don't want to. I know it isn't a bull, but I am still excited about it. I was able to close out my elk hunt with success and this was my first solo big game animal that I have harvested.

 

4 of us drew our cow elk tag this year and we have been excited and putting in as much scouting time as possible to get ready for the hunt as well as getting to the range to get ourselves and rifles dialed in. We ended up harvesting 2 cows and we should have had a 3rd but 1 of our buddies went full on buck fever and couldn't get the shot lined up. He is pretty new to hunting and this was the first big game animal he has ever had in his scope.

 

We split into 2 teams of 2 for the hunt mostly and it seemed to work well. My best buddy and I sat water opening morning from before light to about 9am. We then punched hills and brush til about noon. We went back to the trailer for lunch and then headed out to check out a spot I had found on the map to see if it was viable or not, it wasn't. By the time we started working back it had started to get really windy with winds probably 15+ gusting higher. With the direction of the wind our evening plans were wind broke so we called an audible and went to another hole we had liked before season but had cooled off in the weeks prior to season. We hiked into a long distance partially obstructed viewing range of this waterhole and sat for a few minutes trying to assess it.

 

As we are glassing I get a text from my other 2 man team. "we might have 1 down". I texted back and said "let us know". After a few minutes 3 elk moved out from behind an obstructed area into view. Our hearts raced, but we were in a bad spot. We had little cover to work with to get closer and we were probably 600-800 yards out.

 

I dawned my camo burlap hunting poncho that I had made before season to use as breakup and hopefully manufacture some cover. My buddy and I split up and he worked right and I worked left. He got to about 475 yards and ran out of cover so he went prone and started low crawling and got into about 425 yards but couldn't get closer without blowing his cover. He setup and waited on me.

I didn't have much cover initially and moved low and slow with my poncho that I affectionately referred to as "Clint Eastwood". After about 125 yards of going slow I got to a small draw that helped me make up another 100 or so yards at a quick pace. I only had a small stand of juniper that was between me and the elk that I could use to stay in there blind spot and I continued moving. I would peek out every so often to make sure they were still there and they were so I kept moving. I had done some rough range finding before season and I knew a specific set of bushes was about 300 yards out from the hole and I used that for reference. I moved in and finally got to the stand of juniper and moved in as close as I could. From where I finally got to I estimated at 180 yards, but the only way to get a shot was to crawl out into open view. I set my rifle up on its bipod and slowly crawled out behind it. I had to calm myself because my heart was RACING. I slowed my breathing and got on target. They were facing me when I crawled out so I had to wait what seemed like forever until 1 turned broadside. I put the crosshairs on target and squeezed. The 257 Weatherby barked and the 2 lead elk ran about 25 yards and turned back to look. I MISSED!!! or so I thought. The stopped quartering away and I put the crosshairs back on her and squeezed again. She stumbled and fell down!!! I waited for my hunting buddy to make his way down to me and I told him she was down! I got a text during this process that our hunting buddies did in fact have 1 down and they were requesting help to get her loaded. I declined and told them they were on there own as we had our own elk to deal with!

 

I got up to her and my first shot was right on the money, and the 2nd shot was pretty darn good too. Now the work began. Thankfully we could get the truck right up to her but it was windy and cold and light was fading fast. I chose not to gut her right on the waterhole as to hopefully not keep game from coming back on the rest of our hunt. We had a set of ATV ramps in the truck and ATV so we tried to drag her up the ramps. No joy. We got her butt about 1/2 way up and that was that. We had to muscle her the rest of the way in and hauled the mail back to camp to get her gutted an skinned. Right as we get her on the trailer to start skinning our other team showed up with elk #2 and we were up for quite awhile getting our elk dressed out. I took her into Casey's in Flagstaff the next morning and she hung at 225lbs.

 

Our other hunting team put their cow elk down at 350 yard with 168gr Bergers out of a 300 Win Mag, 1 shot that did not exit.

 

My shots actually were 260-280 yard shots as I didn't take into account they were about 60 yards behind the waterhole. I put 2 shot from my 257 Weatherby with 115gr Berger HVLD's. Neither exited but both penetrated well. The neck and front shoulder from my second shot had some decent bloodshot in it, and the near side lung from my first shot had a hole the size of a quarter in it. I didn't find either bullet but I wasn't really looking either. Thankfully my rifle was sighted in for 225 yards and the 257 shoots lasers to 300 yards.

 

The other member of the 2nd hunting team had an opportunity the next afternoon at a waterhole but this was his first time with an animal in his sights and he buck fevered and couldn't get steady enough to take the shot. We hunted all 7 days and this was the last opportunity we had. The elk went totally ghost after day 2 of the hunt.

 

This is the only real picture I have of our elk. I am the ugly dude in the middle.

[AZbowhntr]

Sounds like a good time. It is always fun hunting with good friends. Congrats

[6ANut]

Congrats ugly guy in the middle

[tjhunt2]

Congratulations on putting meat in the freezer and sharing your hunt with us.

 

TJ

[Matt Meyer]

Congrats on the elk. Mighty fine eating

[AZHog]

Congrats on a successful hunt and putting meat in the freezer. Thanks for sharing.

[azbugler]

Sounds fun! Congratulations.

[Javelinasports]

Great Story, thanks for sharing!