hunter_614
Active Member
- Messages
- 115
This is my Late Rifle Cache bull, He got me excited with the long sword tines 23". I did see several other bulls, several of them were broken up and there were alot of smaller bulls. I know there were bigger ones around but the snow is melting and Like I said I got a little excitted.
I saw a nice bull early in the morning several thousand yards away, he dissapeared after about a half an hour and I was hesitant to go after him in that area and that far away. However I worked myself into it and after several hours of harsh country I was on the ridge that I had spotted this elk. I was not all that supprised to just find several elk beds and no elk, but it was getting late and I thought maybe they will come out for the evening feed and I would have a shot. Well I did not have to wait that long, in fact after examining the tracks and beds I just looked across the canyon and saw three elk laying on the top of the hillside just below some ledges. They were 645 yards across and I felt pretty comfortable with that shot because I have been practicing at long distances for this hunt.
The first shot was just as you see him in the first picture I was a little nervous of hitting the antler but I let it fly. He stood up and did not run so I took a second shot and he Hunched up for a second or two and then fell right over. It was a fun experience as I have never shot at big game over 200 yards before.
The following day my brother inlaw and Father took horses up to retrieve him. That was the scariest hunting moment in my life because I could not tell from where I was when I shot him but there was a 200 foot cliff underneath them as well. We lost one horse down the mountain trying to get them closer to the elk, He just lost his footing on a boulder and started down the steep hillside, luckily after we took the saddle and gear off the horse was able to get up and literally crawl back up to the decaying trail. We hiked the rest of the way, boned him out and was able to make it out just before dark.