How would you like this pack out.
Rileyhunter
11/13/06 11:33pm
Someone sent me this so I thought I should share it with you guys
11,294
Know what state?
That is 100% NUTS! I agree, nice bull and boy is that a crazy story.
Do you know wher the bull is located in the zoomed out or panoramic pic?
Story?
I read a post on another website by the climber that rapelled down to it. He said the meat was pretty rancid smelling. He didn't say how long it was hanging there before he got to it. It seems like with the cold weather that it would have lasted a day or two. Who nows?
Besides that, I can't see any real way to be able to salvage the meat. There doesn't seem to be any room to get in and quarter it.
It amazes me that the antlers were intact! Nice bull too...
Tough Spot
Friday afternoon (10-06-06)an engineer that I work with called and said: "Ya Todd, I, uh, have a strange request. My good friend has shot a very nice elk, but when it died it tumbled off a cliff and they are not able to get to it." Later that day, Randy Cragoe (the hunter) emailed me pictures of the situation.. I called him back and we made arrangements to ride into the mountains on Sunday and recover the head and antlers. The Cragoe family is known to be full of very avid (if not fanatical) hunters. Sunday morning Dave and I met Randy, his brother, twin sisters, brother-in-law and nephew at the trailhead. We rode to the sight at about 9500'. I fixed my rope to a large mass of rocks at the top of the cliff and Randy and I rapelled down the cliff to see if we could recover the trophy. The elk chose the very best spot on the cliff to tumble... Had it been 40' on either side it probably would have fell the entire distance and shattered its massive antlers. The elk had tumbled and slid about 100' down the 200' cliff and was dangling by its antlers above a large crack in the cliff. The whole body was literally hanging. We secured the head with a separate rope, assessed the potential danger of loose blocks and such, then I began to cut the body away from the head. The rancid smell was almost too much to bear! I cut the hide and flesh all the way around the neck and then took a saw to the neck bone. Very soon the whole body (800-1000 pounds) dropped into the deep crack and was freed. Unfortunetly all of the meat was wasted. I am amazed that the antlers had very little damage... This is the largest elk that Randy has ever shot. I'm glad that we were able to recover the head and antlers.
This bull scored 369. That's all I know about it.
To bad they couldn't retrieve the meat, but sounds like they had no option. At least they got the heat out.
"Estimate at 350. Taken above old Amoco 4 Bear Field (above Meeteetse, WY) by Randy Cragoe, Wamsutter, and his brother Rob Cragoe. Shot high lung, ran out on tree line by cliff, then dropped and dropped and dropped"