MuleyMadness Hunting Forums

Sorry it has taken me a few days to post on my hunt. It was one of the more challenging hunts, both physically and emotionally, that I have ever experienced. I went out with the family and friends to the usual spot. Some people might think we are crazy because we never go spotting, but you need to understand that there are ALWAYS elk in this canyon. I am not talking a few either. Opening morning sounded like the chior was singing to me in surround sound. The sound of an elk bugling is the best! As DeadI and myself were sitting on a water hole we started to hear some movement. As we looked behind us we saw 2 raghorn bulls and 8 cows 100 yards above us on the hill. As we studied them and realized that there were no spikes the result was a higher blood pressure and warmer hands. We didn't see anything else coming into the water hole and so we decided to move down into the canyon and hike closer up to where my dad was sitting. As we made our way down the canyon and then back up the other side we started to see a few deer. Several does and a little spike were in the area. As long as I was able to see animals I was just fine. We walked up the canyon a little bit farther and I noticed a tan butt in the pines. Now I need to explain this area a little bit. It is deadfall and then you walk further and find more deadfall. You never get out of it until you are at the top of the canyon and have beat yourself up for hours. I lost the butts as they walked into the trees but remained focused on the trail and openings ahead of me. We walked a few more feet and Jared saw the elk. there were 6 cows and a spike. The shooting window was about 20 feet long before they would disappear. I pulled up and pulled the trigger. Immediately that elk was on it's back with all 4 legs in the air doing the dead chicken dance. I was elated that it was on the ground. Much to my dismay it got back up . As it was walking away from us it stopped just long enough to expose it's shoulder. I put another round into the elk and watched as he flinched upon impact. He then walked off. This is where the frustrating part of the day comes in. He did not bleed at all! No blood trail and plenty of fresh elk tracks, he was impossible to follow. He did not follow his cows, so now we were looking for a single elk in a sea of deadfall. This all happened at 10am. We then began to walk back and forth down the canyon looking for a sign of the elk, or the animal. Two hours later we made it back to the truck for lunch without any luck. I was getting sick because I knew that I had hit the animal twice and he couldn't be alive! After lunch we got the rest of our party and spread out down the canyon again and again with no luck. As we were sitting on the ridge discussing what to do next we decided to go back down the canyon and cross over to the other side. We did that but as we approached the bottom of the canyon we ran into a heard of elk bugling like crazy. You could hear the heard bull and cows just like we were no where around. We remained still for the next 45 minutes as a satelite 5-point walked to within 20 yards of us. He had to be the dumbest elk alive. Wind in his face and to my back and he never ran. Eventually the cows caught our wind and they were off. I only got 1 quick glimpse of the herd bull, couldn't count points or anything else other than to say he was a dandy! We then proceeded down the canyon and across to the other side. After seeing a porcupine, coyote, and a few more deer it was getting to be dark so we decided to head back up to the truck. As we made our way back to the water hold I hear the most beautiful thing ever on the radio. It was Jared telling me to get my butt down there to clean out my elk. I was completely exhausted and ready to go to bed, but that woke me up in a hurry. He found the elk with the first shot hitting just below the spine (thus the dead chicken dance) and the second hitting right behind the front shoulder. It went through both lungs. The chest cavity was completely full of blood. It looked like a 5 gallon bucket of blood came out when we cut into him. We quickly quartered him out and backpacked him up the canyon to the truck. I have to thank DeadI for his help. If you ever need help packing anything out he is good for 130lbs. The GPS showed that we hiked 12 miles after shooting him before we found him. Needless to say he will taste great and the memories will stay for a lifetime. The same night another guy in the party shot a cow. Sunday we packed his out and Monday another cow was shot in our group. I should have more pictures to post later but here are the ones that I have now.
IMG]http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp26 ... GP3510.jpg[/IMG]

Yup that is pretty much how it happened. It was a long but great day. Now the next day was a different story. My quads and thighs are still a little tender from packing that thing out.

One then that needs to be mentioned is that he shot it at 10 am. We did not find it until 6:30 pm.

And while looking for it, on the way back to the trucks for lunch we walked with in about 60 yards of it. And again walked with in 50-60 yards of it when we went back out after lunch. The thing only ran about 200 yards from where we shot it if that. The pines are just so thick that I litterely found a needle in a hay stack. After I found it and while I was waiting for Cory and his dad to get down to me. I made a few circles around it looking for blood. Nothing. The thinkg just did not bleed out side it was all internal.

My 2 brothers both got a spike this year. 30 yard shot with a rifle and the hard part began. I wasn't there but it sounded like a fun hunt. I used all of my kitchen passes for my LE Elk archery hunt.

Congrats, great story and pictures.

Kevin

very cool! congrats to you and thanks for sharing

nice spike. thanks for the story

great post and photos . good job

congrats, and thanks for sharing

Nicely done, bet it was fun.