Cow Elk Hunt #2

We got one! And she's a pretty big one too! I seriously think she was the size of a small horse! And yes, that is me all decked out in camo, can you believe it? I never thought I'd give in to wearing that stuff, but there I am all stealth-like in my camo. Anyways, so here's the story. We woke up before 1st light, as usual. We had our plan all ready to go. They, Travis and his Dad, decided that we would do the same thing we did the last weekend we were up and see if we couldn't find the cows in the western fields this time. So I dropped Travis and off and David drove around on the east side of the fields glassing across to see if he could spot anything. After awhile I hiked east on the southern edge of the fields and then decided to drive north. I figured it wouldn't be a problem since there were some other guys around making tons of noise on their ATV's driving in the same direction. So I ended picking Travis up and we decided to head back to camp to pick up David and then head back out.

Well on our way to camp, Travis looks to his north, off the main road and sees a few brown spots in the distance. So he stops, glasses, and sees a whole bunch of elk! I couldn't believe it-off the main road again! We got the antelope and deer off the main road as well, without much hiking involved. This time he would just have to hike out toward them to get close enough to pull off a shot. We couldn't believe where we had found them though-in the middle of the sage, on their way back to tree line, which was a long ways away, from eating the alfalfa fields earlier that morning. Anyway, I got to watch the kill from my binoculars far away while Travis sneaked up on them. It took 4 shots to get her down. After the 1st shot, most of the elk too off, including a huge Bull. But another bull and calf hung around. It was kind of sad to see this little family lurking behind, but eventually they took off as well.

Next was the chore of getting it back and dressing it etc. Normally you have to cut an elk up into quarters to get it out from where you shoot it down. But since we were in the flats and in the sage, David dragged the thing to the road behind his ATV! Talk about saving time and strength! Then they gutted her, the worst part of the whole process, while I sat in the truck and continued reading my last Harry Potter book. I really got into those books and literally could not put them down. I finished that day and was so glad to be free of my addiction, but they were really really good! Anyway, the next chore was getting the elk into the truck to take back to camp. (see picture below) Those come-alongs are pretty handy. So we got the elk back to camp and then Travis had the disgusting chore of cutting up the elk in order to get it into the coolers. It's still pretty hot around Pioche in September, so we couldn't just take it back whole. So overall it was a pretty easy hunt, and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend to go!

David on the ATV on his way out to meet up with Travis and his kill.

What did I tell you? It's the size of a small horse!!

And then this last picture of this bull elk was taken the day after we got the cow. The herd was back in the exact same spot they were the day before! This guy was really close to the road.