Elk Hunting... Day 2

Day Two (Sunday, 11/12/08)

This was Bill’s last day of hunting, so we decided to split up, and take two different courses up the same ridge that we had hunted the day before. Bill took his quad, and rode up the back-side of the ridge, while Broc and I went up the ridge in the same place we had seen them the day before. When we drove to our starting point, he other hunters were there, and were slightly pissed off that we would invade their territory again, but we weren’t too fond of them, so we didn’t care all that much…
Broc and I stalked up the hill where we had seen the elk the day before, and found them in essentially the same place. I saw a really nice sized bull about 200-250 yards up the hill, standing broadside to me, but we was walking. I decided to take the shot without trying to find a rest, so I wasn’t very stable, and missed him. He ran in one direction about 5 steps, then turned around and bolted into the thickest brush… I really need to practice shooting, especially with no rest, so I can actually hit the stupid thing next time.
Broc and I continued up the hill to where I thought there was a road… We never found the road, but instead found some of the steepest terrain around, which we decided to cross. We were in the middle of this adventure when we “jumped” several more elk out of the thick brush around us. As we were stalking them, Broc shot at a cow elk about 200 yards away. I watched the cow flinch as he shot, so we thought he hit her, but weren’t sure. We crossed some pretty rugged terrain to get to where she was, and Broc found a small amount of blood. We worked so hard to find the blood “trail”, but she wasn’t bleeding much at all. We found her blood trail, and followed her over three hours total, but never found her. The blood trail seemed to grow smaller, and since she had been moving for 3 hours without slowing down, we figured she must not be mortally wounded, and we gave up. It’s a really crappy feeling knowing that you’ve wounded an animal, but can’t find it… It really makes you feel upset, and you vow to take “better” shots next time. Really, there’s only so much you can do in a situation like that…
In the meantime, Bill had shot, and killed, a cow on his side of the ridge, so we hiked over to him. He had already gutted the elk, so we helped him load it onto his quad, and then I hiked back to the cabin alongside him to help him in some of the steeper areas, while Broc went back to his truck where we had started hunting that morning.
We had hiked easily over 7 miles that day over some really steep terrain, so when Bill left, Broc and I decided that we would not go back out hunting that night, but we would rest and go out the next morning.
We were sitting in the cabin eating our cups of soup, when, at about 6:55, I looked out the window and saw a lone cow elk standing only about 60 yards away eating some grass. I said, “Dude, elk!”, to which Broc replied, “Shut up!”, to which I replied, “Seriously, there’s an elk right there!”, to which he replied by jumping up and grabbing his gun, since he was closer to the gun rack. He quietly slipped out the door, and started to creep closer, where he could get a shot… I stood inside watching the whole thing with anxiety, because Broc was taking longer to shoot than I would have… The cow got spooked and bounded up the brushy hill, but was still in sight. I grabbed my gun, and headed out the door, but by the time I got out there, she was clear out of sight, and it was starting to get a little dark to shoot. We missed out gift-wrapped chance at an easy elk. She was seriously right on the side of the road when I first saw her. She would have been so easy to clean and load into the truck!!! Day two was full of excitement… and disappointment (other than Bill’s elk).