Just got back home today after an exciting and exhausting weekend.
We left Texas 7am Friday and set camp about midnight Friday night after about 18 hours on the road. After 4-5 hours of sleep we were hunting on opening day with bugles in the air!
We headed downhill towards two or three bugling bulls but with bad wind we couldn’t maneuver around in time to cut them off before they quieted down and disappeared.
The plan had been to sit water up high in the afternoon and wait for a cow to show up. However upon inspecting a few tanks we didn’t see any fresh sign of elk frequenting the water sources. It seems they were mostly staying down lower where the cover was better. We proceeded to spend the afternoon of opening day hiking around to some different vantage points, issuing an occasional bugle, and seeing if we could locate anything.
We felt like we had a solid plan to cut off the herd the following morning but for the afternoon we felt like our best approach was to make it back to camp and catch up on sleep to be ready for the next morning. The only strategic alternative would have been a long blind hike downhill attempting to locate quiet elk- it just didn’t seem like a good prospect especially given the time of day and our general state of fatigue.
As we worked our way back towards camp about 2 miles away, my son said he wanted to stop and rest a minute and retie a boot. We hadn’t been sitting on a downed aspen log for more than a minute when all of the sudden we hear a thundering herd of elk running straight at us from on top of the plateau. It was all cows and a young 2x2. Might have been 15-30 cows total (first hand accounts vary on this point…)
We immediately rolled off the log and got behind it and I handed him the muzzleloader and told him to pick one out. I tried making some cow sounds without a reed and fortunately they slowed to a trot and then to a walk only 20-30yds away!
A pause. then..
BLAMM!
The herd looked around more confused than ever and gradually picked up speed away from us. Son said she went down! I said, reload! As I reloaded the cow apparently got back on its feet and took off downhill.
We followed on foot and pretty quickly lost sight of her. Son went looking that way while I examined the hit site. Absolutely nothing visible but I was a little uncertain about whether I was looking at the right place or what conclusion to draw. But if you told me it was a clean miss I’d have had to reluctantly agree.
Now, a few tears. It had been a long day and the apparent miss on an easy shot was too much to take.
My son was upset too
We were a couple hundred yards from the shot with only a general idea of which way the target cow went. No blood trail.
Here’s the magical part. While at the low point of our trip, my son says from behind his binos, “no it can’t be..” and proceeds to point out that perched up on a little ledge fortunately still in view, is our cow, bedded up and very much alive! But clearly hurt since she’s not running away. I’m not sure I’d have spotted her if he didn’t. It was amazing how small she made herself look
An insurance shot later, the cow coughed, kicked and expired. Success! Well fed cow in prime condition.
We ended up splitting the packout into two trips and was impressed that my son took a hind quarter himself. (Nice job dad- no pics of that)
Broke camp around noon Sunday, so we were there less than 36 hours total- less time than we spent driving there and back. I really missed my older sons who can drive. But we got what we came for. And minimal class time was missed.
Probably missing tons of interesting details but wanted to share a great experience and offer thanks to those who reached out with some pointers about the area.
