Cliff Jumping Elk

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74cj5

Guest
Just got this email, apologize if this has already done the rounds....

"Now that's a nice bull, believe they should have just sent one guy down with a knife and fork. Estimate conserv. at 350, taken above old Amoco 4 Bear Field, above Meeteetsie, WY by Randy Cragoe, bp Wamsutter and his brother Rob Cragoe. Shot high lung, ran out on tree line by cliff, then dropped and dropped and dropped."

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Holy Moly ! Those pics are wild , what a heart breaker on a great animal....
 
How in the world did he not bust off any points? especially the ends of the main beams!
 
Guess they got the rack out eh. But so much for that cape.
Nice bull to bad he went over the edge.
MH
 
ok! Now my knees don't hurt as bad from our meat hauling experience on Saturday. Those are great pics. What a recovery effort. Can't believe the fall didn't fold his rack right up. Rock climbing and hunting....now thats my kind a combo-sport.
 
Nice Bull! I have and uncle by the name of Rod Ullom that lives up in the Meteetsie area. He hunts the shosone wilderness area and kills some nice bulls. One I believe about that size in the 360 range.
 
Friday afternoon (10-06-06)an engineer that I work with called and said: "Ya Todd, I, uh, have a strange request. My good friend has shot a very nice elk, but when it died it tumbled off a cliff and they are not able to get to it." Later that day, Randy Cragoe (the hunter) emailed me pictures of the situation.. I called him back and we made arrangements to ride into the mountains on Sunday and recover the head and antlers. The Cragoe family is known to be full of very avid (if not
fanatical) hunters. Sunday morning Dave and I met Randy, his brother, twin sisters, brother-in-law and nephew at the trailhead. We rode to the sight at about 9500'. I fixed my rope to a large mass of rocks at the top of the cliff and Randy and I
rapelled down the cliff to see if we could recover the trophy. The elk chose the very best spot on the cliff to tumble... Had it been 40' on either side it probably would have fell the entire distance and shattered its massive antlers. The elk had
tumbled and slid about 100' down the 200' cliff and was dangling by its antlers above a large crack in the cliff. The whole body was literally hanging. We secured the head with a separate rope, assessed the potential danger of loose blocks and such, then I began to cut the body away from the head. The rancid smell
was almost too much to bear! I cut the hide and flesh all the way around the neck and then took a saw to the neck bone. Very soon the whole body (800-1000 pounds) dropped into the deep crack and was freed. Unfortunetly all of the meat was wasted.
I am amazed that the antlers had very little damage... This is the largest elk that Randy has ever shot. I'm glad that we were able to recover the head and antlers.
 
Climbinghunter - awesome story! - Thanks for logging in and letting us know the skinny! Welcome to MonsterMuleys - though now your services will probably be at a premium as you will be called on to rescue stranded trophies all over the world! LOL - Dall Sheep, Muleys, Moose and chipmunks.


UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)
 
WOW! That's incredible. I can't believe that he didn't snap some antler off.

I shot a bull last week with his left G-4 snapped off clean at the main beam. He must have jumped off the Empire State building to snap it off...then walked all the way back to New Mexico. :)

Grizzly
 
>Was he in area 61 or
>area 62?

Spoke with a friend in Cody who knew the story. The bull came out of 62. I've hunted 61. Didn't remember any cliffs quite like that...
 

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