Wiszard
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 10,952
This past year my wife had some medical issues and I wasn't really sure how life would be come the 2014 hunting season so I chose not to put in for any hunts. When summer rolled around, my wife was doing considerably better and I thought I'd put my 13 YO son, Canyon, in for a cow elk tag in Utah. I figured that it was a good way to keep him successful and interested in being out in the field and at the same time, get me and my Dad out of the house doing what we love. Nobody in my family has ever killed an elk so we were hoping Canyon would be the first.
I did a lot of research and talked to a few guys here on MM. We'd never had to deal with an animal as large as an elk so that was a little intimidating. We watched videos on field dressing and getting them out of the field in quarters. That definitely helped in making it easier. As I mentioned, we had some help from the guys here on MM and it was all good info.
Friday afternoon we arrived at camp and got our things put away and thought we'd go for a little drive to see if we could locate the elk in some of the areas we were told they might be. Sure enough, we were driving along and about half a mile off of highway was a herd of elk. We decided to take a drive and see if we would be able to get up above them. It worked like a charm. We walked over 2 small ridges to find ourselves directly above them. The perfect thing was that God had placed a pinion just on the downhill slope so we were able to use that as cover to get into position for a shot. What was even more perfect was that my son was able to lay in the shade of that tree as not to be seen. Canyon got in the prone position and we had all the time in the world to make sure he was comfortable and to make sure we were all on the same cow elk. We had been told that elk quite often will need more than 1 shot to be put down so we needed to be sure that we kept an eye on only that targeted elk. It seemed like we waited 5 minutes waiting for the elk to turn perfectly broadside with her left leg forward. I told him to take the shot whenever he was ready. He let it fly and she reared back a bit letting us know she was hit. I told Canyon to stay on her and as he moved the rifle to get back on her as she was trotting off. She went a short ways and I could see that she was hit hard. I told him to hold off on shooting again and she tipped over. He made a great shot. I was so proud of him. Canyon stood up and we all gave him hugs and talked about what a good shot it was and how our positioning was perfect. We enjoyed the moment.
Walking down to the elk was an awesome experience. We determined she was maybe 2-3 years old as she wasn't all that big. Canyon and I followed the blood trail back to where she was first hit so that was a good way to get Canyon some more experience with finding the next drop of blood and showing him how far blood can be pumped from an animals tracks. We field dressed her and she was close enough to a road that it didn't take much to get her into the truck in one piece. We hung her for a day and quartered her out on Sunday morning. That also went better than we had planned on.
On Saturday, while the elk was hanging, we went out and looked for some bull elk to look at. We ended up spotting 8 bulls up on a ridge so we stopped and got the spotting scope out to get a better look at them. There were no monsters but they were big enough to really get your blood pumping. They are beautiful animals. That was the first time me or my son had ever seen bulls of that caliber in the wild. Canyon was stoked and that made his experience even better. We also found some pretty good deer to watch as well.
I can't say enough about the people here on MM. Without the guys that helped and gave advice, the hunt wouldn't have been half the experience it was. A HUGE thanks goes out to you.
Steve
Cancer doesn't discriminate...don't take your good health for granted because it can be gone in a heartbeat. Please go back and read the last line. This time really understand what it says.
I did a lot of research and talked to a few guys here on MM. We'd never had to deal with an animal as large as an elk so that was a little intimidating. We watched videos on field dressing and getting them out of the field in quarters. That definitely helped in making it easier. As I mentioned, we had some help from the guys here on MM and it was all good info.
Friday afternoon we arrived at camp and got our things put away and thought we'd go for a little drive to see if we could locate the elk in some of the areas we were told they might be. Sure enough, we were driving along and about half a mile off of highway was a herd of elk. We decided to take a drive and see if we would be able to get up above them. It worked like a charm. We walked over 2 small ridges to find ourselves directly above them. The perfect thing was that God had placed a pinion just on the downhill slope so we were able to use that as cover to get into position for a shot. What was even more perfect was that my son was able to lay in the shade of that tree as not to be seen. Canyon got in the prone position and we had all the time in the world to make sure he was comfortable and to make sure we were all on the same cow elk. We had been told that elk quite often will need more than 1 shot to be put down so we needed to be sure that we kept an eye on only that targeted elk. It seemed like we waited 5 minutes waiting for the elk to turn perfectly broadside with her left leg forward. I told him to take the shot whenever he was ready. He let it fly and she reared back a bit letting us know she was hit. I told Canyon to stay on her and as he moved the rifle to get back on her as she was trotting off. She went a short ways and I could see that she was hit hard. I told him to hold off on shooting again and she tipped over. He made a great shot. I was so proud of him. Canyon stood up and we all gave him hugs and talked about what a good shot it was and how our positioning was perfect. We enjoyed the moment.
Walking down to the elk was an awesome experience. We determined she was maybe 2-3 years old as she wasn't all that big. Canyon and I followed the blood trail back to where she was first hit so that was a good way to get Canyon some more experience with finding the next drop of blood and showing him how far blood can be pumped from an animals tracks. We field dressed her and she was close enough to a road that it didn't take much to get her into the truck in one piece. We hung her for a day and quartered her out on Sunday morning. That also went better than we had planned on.
On Saturday, while the elk was hanging, we went out and looked for some bull elk to look at. We ended up spotting 8 bulls up on a ridge so we stopped and got the spotting scope out to get a better look at them. There were no monsters but they were big enough to really get your blood pumping. They are beautiful animals. That was the first time me or my son had ever seen bulls of that caliber in the wild. Canyon was stoked and that made his experience even better. We also found some pretty good deer to watch as well.
I can't say enough about the people here on MM. Without the guys that helped and gave advice, the hunt wouldn't have been half the experience it was. A HUGE thanks goes out to you.
Steve
Cancer doesn't discriminate...don't take your good health for granted because it can be gone in a heartbeat. Please go back and read the last line. This time really understand what it says.
