Thanks.
I'm quite pleased with his ethics. He practiced out to 40 yards with the recurve and came to his own conclusion that he was deadly out to 25 yds, so that would be his limit.
This was our 4th trip this year and we had split up to cover different areas this time. He had gotten with 40-60 yds on several bulls and the 40 yrd one was a nice 7x7. Not able to close any further he backed off that bull and decided he had enough for now and would just antler hunt for awhile.
He picked up a 6pt elk shed, a 5pt shed, a 4pt buck dead head and a goat skull. He thought he would head to my camp and check on me when he saw the next bull at about 75 yds. He and the bull closed on each other until he was 25 yds away, when, the bull facing him, looked directly at him, and then went back to feeding.
My son figured that all the skulls and antlers on his backpack broke up his outline enough that the bull didn't see anything dangerous. When the bull turned and quartered slightly away, the kid (46 yr old kid) let the arrow fly.
He boned, bagged it and hung it, then came and got me. He packed 1/2 a boned elk 3 miles to my camp while I carried a 1/4. We hung the two 1/4s he carried to camp I rested for an hour and then started the the 6 miles to the truck while he went back to the kill and got the last quarter and headed for the truck. He caught up with me about two miles from the truck and we went the last part together.
The following day a friend and my son went back and they each packed out a 1/4 so the 71 yr old wouldn't maybe kill himself. I did leave later and meet them about 3 miles from the truck with my empty pack if someone need some relief. But they were wearing their big boy panties and finished the journey without my assistance.
