With the hot dry year we have been having I figured I had better hunt the water for my best chance on an elk.  Friday morning I watched a herd of about 50 drop into a canyon where I killed a cow near a wallow last year.  I got ahead of them and cruised up a tree with my lone wolf climber.  After a few minutes I could hear lots of cow talk and some bull squealing right below me.  They stayed below for a while but never came up.  I did some scouting and found a much better wallow several hundred yards below.  I moved my stand up a tree down there and sat the last 4 hours of light.  After only an hour I had 3 spikes come right in and spent a half hour close by.  I even had two of them sniffing my tree.  It was awesome to hear them so close burpin  and gruntin  and carrying on. unfortunately spikes arent allowed in this area. .  A bit before dark I had a lone cow come in.  With a B tag in my pocket I decided to take her if the shot presented itself.   She came in fast and I had to stop her with a lip squek in my shooting window.  She looked in my direction and I rushed the shot fearing she might bolt.  My arrow zipped through her in front of the shoulder bone and she jumped a few feet than looked around wondering than slowly walked off.  I could see blood trickling down but not enough to think I hit the jugular.   At dark I eased down and found my arrow which was covered in blood.  I eased along on a decent blood trail for about 150 yards and heard her take off.   I slipped up and found her bed and decided to resume in the morning.  
 At first light I was glassing the area from a high ridge before I slipped down to last blood.  I could here a. Bull bugling and two different groups of hunters calling to it.  I got back on the blood an hour after light and found the trail much easier to follow in the day. After several hundred yards I found her quite dead beneath a tree.  As I approached I could see I wasn't the first to find her as she was covered with grass on her hindquarters, and half of one was eaten. While I was trailing I could hear a couple people cow calling down in the valley I was trailing her in.  After I finished quartering  her I opened her mouth to get the ivories.   Imagine my surprise to find someone had already cut them out.  Apparently the other hunters found her first and decided they wanted the ivories?  Oh well, I was happy to have found her.  
 I than headed back to my tree and got my stand and made a sweet frame pack out of the lone wolf climber and hauled a load out while another hunter I met carried out a front quarter and the back straps.  Great weekend even with the ivory poachers.

Nice job    that will be some fine eatin for sure!

Steve

Great job of finding her! It's a pity that a critter got to part of the meat and a lower critter took the ivories! Still I'd have been very happy with the part you salvaged.

Congrats on the cow...glad you found her! It's a shame that someone took the ivories though.

Bisch

Sorry about the poachers, but congrats on the harvest!!!

Wow...that would have been a trip to find them missing...
Great job following up on her...congrats!

Did your autopsy find the reason for death?...did ya get the jugular?

Way to go on the cow . That would tick me off about the ivories. But you can't eat them.

Nice, mature, old gal. Congrats.

Congratulations, but thats bizarre.

Congrats, sucks about the poachers, though...

Nice job on the elk.  Curious though, I've never heard of the "ivories".  Not to highjack the thread but do they get sold?  Are they indeed ivory?  Thanks for the education...

-Jeremy  

Sounds like the other hunters came across a cat kill and harvested the ivories.  Would have had to look close to see that it was a bow kill being that it was covered and partly eaten.

Good recovery.

Mike

QuoteOriginally posted by fdlz58:
Nice job on the elk.  Curious though, I've never heard of the "ivories".  Not to highjack the thread but do they get sold?  Are they indeed ivory?  Thanks for the education...

-Jeremy    

They are the canine teeth of the elk and are ivory.I wish I had a better closeup picture.They have amber colored rings on the surface and polished up,are often used in jewelry.

This is most unfortunate when these type of things happen - especially so in the great State of Montana....

 

Congrats on the kill and recovery.  Nice pics.  Seems like some hunters found a cat kill and didnt want the ivories to go to waste.  I guess I dont blame them.

Congratulations on the Cow Elk!

Congratulations on your exciting hunt and recovery!  Nice pictures also.  I also think some hunters probably found a cat kill and didn't want the ivories to go to waste.

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

I have never been elk hunting.  Do you sell the teeth (that is what I assume you are talking about).
If not please educate me.

hit button to quick sorry

Congrats!  Boy, that was a busy hillside.