Hi5 and his cow elk

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Boo
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Hi5 and his cow elk

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Last edited by Boo on Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Hi5
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Re: Norm/Hi5

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It Won't Get Any Better Than This....
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Post by Hi5 » Sun Sep 22, 2019 1:35 pm

It won't get ANY better than this, is what I said to myself.

I was sitting in a ladder stand overlooking an oat field. It was a small field that narrowed down into a neck and I was at the end of the neck where it narrowed down to 40 yards across. I know the distance because I had laser measured it from my stand. I have my Geezer permit which allows me to use a crossbow in archery season. I was using my Micro 355 and Big John's arrows . The broadhead was G5 Striker Magnum, 125 grain, one and a half inch cut diameter. That's a cut on contact with replaceable blades.

A friend and I were hunting elk. There was lots of sign. Trail cameras he set up showed that there were lots of cows and a few nicely antlered bulls. My friend was set on getting a bull, and I was inclined to do the same. I've got cows and spike bulls before, and it would make bragging easier if I had a nice rack to show off. Meat wrapped up in the freezer just doesn't produce the same envious response as pointing to a nice rack while describing a hunt. I pretty much had decided that I would also hold out for a nice bull at least until late in the season. If I hadn't got a bigger bull by then, cows and spikers would be at risk.

I'd had to return home for a couple of days in the middle of the first week, so on the day I am describing, I had actually only spent 4 days of actual hunting during that first week. I still had over two full weeks left. The weather had been pretty nice, flies weren't too bad, and there was other action. Deer passed by in front of me. I watched a bear across the oat field. He was in an adjacent field that I could see into through a wide game trail that lead to the field I was hunting. He was bulldozing over cranberry bushes that lined the outside of the adjacent field. Geese were landing on another neighbouring field, and judging by the racket they were making, in huge numbers. Whatever crop was seeded there, it was certainly a hit with the geese. As the sun began to set, coyotes were howling. Some were very nearby, other distant. This area had one heck of a coyote crop too, it seemed.

While I'm taking all this in, enjoying the show, I notice two cow elk coming my way down the game trail from the adjacent field. The first one walks right out into my field, thirty yards away. The one following stopped at the end of the game trail, looking intently all around. Then she turned around and started walking back, away from me.

I mentioned that the first one was thirty yards away from me. I didn't mention that she was standing broadside to me. The only thing moving on her were her jaws, as she chewed oats. That's when I said--"it won't get any better than this". I forgot to mention, I had that same afternoon verified the sighting on my bow for 30 yards. I sight in for 30 yards, and I don't use hashmarks.

For a very brief time I had pondered the possible consequences of the second cow seemingly spooked, or at least uneasy, returning back on the game trail. I thought about another hunter who a few years previously, in the same area, telling of how he saw several cows and passed up on them. He held out for a nice bull. The remainder of the hunting season he didn't see another elk.

Yup. it won't get any better than this. If I don't shoot this one, I'll kick myself later. If I get tired of kicking, I'll pay somebody else to do it for me.

She immediately turned and ran back on the game trail when I shot. I waited a half hour, then got down from my stand and looked on the game trail. I spotted blood. It wasn't a heavy blood trail so I decided to go home and get some better light and a roll of toilet paper. I admit that I was excited and my stomach was doing flip flops, but that wasn't the reason for the toilet paper.

My friend joined me to go tracking, and I was grateful for that. I have poor vision, and help looking for faint blood sign would be wonderful. We found the back end of my arrow. We tracked for about150 yards out into a field overgrown with weeds and tall grass. For every spot of blood we found we tore off a two foot length of toilet paper and either tied it to the stalk of a weed or laid it on top, beside the drop. Then the blood ended. Looking back with the flashlight, that trail of toilet paper stood out like the while lines on pavement. We made a couple of circles around the last blood. Nothing.

We walked around the perimeter of the small grass/weed field, looking for any tracks that would show she exited the field. None.

We didn't want to stomp around and destroy any trail that might resume, so we called off the tracking till daybreak. Before I fell asleep I did a whole lot of thinking about bears and coyotes. I wondered which one of us would find her first. I wondered why the blood trail was as faint as it was. That's a darned good broadhead. If it was a poor shot on my part, what the heck went wrong?

Next morning we went back to tracking. The blood was still obvious, all the more so because it had been marked. While I was down again on hands and knees, my friend started making slightly increasing diameter circles. Then he calls out "come over here".

She's laying in a patch of weeds and grass no more than 30 yards from where we quit.

Thanks to Boo posting for me, here's a photo of elk and me.

Even though that night we panned across the field with a powerful flashlight, there was no sign of her showing, even as close as she was. The other photo is at the meat processors. It's obvious that I shot way too far forward and too high. The other photo is of the broadhead and front end of the arrow. It was lodged against the far shoulder blade. She had been lung shot but, but high. Because the arrow didn't pass through, she was leaking only from the one side.

I can explain the tough job of tracking. The arrow and broadhead are top quality, as is the bow. The only explanation of the poor shot is the shooter, and he doesn't have any explanation.

Thankfully, because of a friend's help, the hunt was still a success.

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Post by Bcxbow » Sun Sep 22, 2019 1:51 pm

Great story, way to stick it out :thumbup:

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vixenmaster Posts: 13509Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2005 2:51 pmLocation: Land of Rocks, Ozarks Mo.Contact:
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Post by vixenmaster » Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:37 pm

Fantastic, i was right there wid you on the hunt. Congrats on yer Elk

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Post by janesy » Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:43 pm

I wish so badly we had Elk here, or a season and enough population I should say.
Thanks for the read

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Post by mr meat » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:05 pm

Congrats on the elk! Would love to elk hunt!

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Post by gerald strine » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:36 pm

Congratulations on your harvest !
Nice write up thanks posting it you often regret the shot not taken at the end of the season when you still have a tag in your pocket.

Hunt eat sleep repeat.

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Post by retrieverman » Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:40 pm

Nice write up!!!

I’ve had pigs coming in regularly to a spot I’ve got beside my house and decided to take the Offspring out on a pre-deer season venture this evening, but I’m really regretting it now. The temp is about 90, the humidity is about 90%, and I’m about to cook in my ground blind.
To be honest, I’m really not mad enough at the pigs to put myself through this kind of torture.
"Gun Control Laws"--trying to nag criminals into submission.
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XB I GO
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Re: Norm/Hi5

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Very cool! Elk are awesome even without antlers!
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Re: Norm/Hi5

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Where and when did this happen Norm?
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Re: Hi5 and his cow elk

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Awesome! Congratulations :thumbup:

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Re: Hi5 and his cow elk

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Congrats! :thumbup:
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