LAST EDITED ON Nov-18-10 AT 09:44PM (MST)[p]Thanks everyone! Here's some more detail. Unfortunately, my old man didn't get the big one. He was stuck watching from the truck the whole time. I didn't even have a radio or cell, so I couldn't talk to him if I wanted to. It was crazy the way it worked out. I got out of the truck to poke my head over the hill and see if I could see the heard; sure enough, they were closer than we all expected and they had us pinned down for a while. When I finally could move, it was mostly army crawling through sage until I could get into a draw where they couldn't see me. By that time, if my dad had tried getting out of the truck, we would have been busted.
Fortunately I was able to work my way around the back side of a couple of knobs, and eventually the elk fed in my direction. I made the decision to shoot when I did because elk were starting to surround me and I was getting nervous theat I would get busted. I found this guy and was able to connect. After the shot I held tight becasue the heard didn't bust out like I thought they would. Bcoufal (Brett) was stalking the herd from another location and did all he could to get a shot, but never had an opportunity. Finally, after about 20 minutes I was able to back out, go back down around the knobs, into the draw and back to the truck to deliver the news to my dad and one other buddy. We waited for an hour or so and Brett tried to make a stalk, but the heard ended up moving back onto private property.
The big one was BIG! I never did get a real close look at him, but he had to have been at least a 6x6 that was long wide and seemed to have good mass. He also had awesome whale tails. When you saw him, you knew he was the man! Maybe Brett can give you more detail to get you drooling. In the picture below, you can see the big one coming up the hill. He is the last elk. Its hard to see his antlers, but it's the best picture I have. Maybe it will give you an idea of his size.
It's crazy; this whole hunt was possible because a couple of coyotes chased the entire herd off of the refuge. We watched them and they fed on private land and eventually looked like they could make there way to BLM land. Never in a million years would I have guessed they would actually jump the fence and give us the opportunity. I thought they knew there safety zones! But as luck would have it we got into position, and they did indeed cross the fence. Unbelievable!
I hardly ever hunt open country like this as well. It's usually the nastiest thickest timber you find us in. But we decided to try something different for the morning, and it worked out for us. My bull was taken south of Walden, not far from the refuge. I've seen trucks out there many times glassing from ridge tops. I guess maybe they have the right idea.
Thanks again!
