Opening weekend Deer and Elk

[twitchstick]

This year I have had a good hunting camp with several family members and a few new friends. It's been nice this year to have two other stick bow shooters in camp and not be the only traditionalist. One being one of my nephews Cody which has been a ball getting him set up and teaching him this past year. The food has been good and the camp fire stories have been tall. With several young hunters in camp and stories of holding out for the big one I could tell it was  weighing on some of them. That night I made a statement that I would take the first legal buck I had a good shot on.

[huntnmuleys]

im listening...

[twitchstick]

Opening morning I set up a tree stands in one of my favorite funnels. It's a spot that they don't come through early but year after year I always see good deer and elk come through it to a bedding ground. By 9:00 am I had only seen one doe and fawn and a few other hunters. Then I seen a small bachelor herd of 5 bucks coming into bow range. There was a couple of 3x3's a 3x2 a 2x2 and a spike. No monsters in the bunch but they were headed right for me. When one of the 3x3's presented a shot I let the arrow loose to it's mark. He made it made it 60 yards down the steep ridge.

[steadman]

Awesome job Jimmy!! Congrats!!

[twitchstick]

On day two it started off with me helping one of my nephews on a blood trail. When we were finishing up the blood trail I thought I could hear some elk hooves clicking on a small ridge above us. Instantly the still hunter in me kicked in and slowly made my way up the ridge. There was lots of fresh green elk droppings and the wind was good. I wasn't seeing anything but I kept with a slow sneak up the ridge to a edge of a meadow. Then I caught some movement to my left and could see a lone cow. This unit is a "Spike" unit which means you my only harvest spike bulls and cows on it. She was making her way in my direction so I held still. I didn't have time to get to cover so I held still and was hoping for the best. She feed up to about 20 yards but was still behind cover. then her head came through an opening about 15 yards away. I was hoping she would take a couple more steps. Finally after what seemed like an hour she took those steps. When her head was behind a small aspen tree I drew.

[twitchstick]

Now this is where everything got ugly. As I hit my anchor and was letting the arrow loose she spun on me and I hit her in the hind quarter. My heart sunk to my feet and that sick feeling hit me as she took off through the timber. I can not express how bad I felt and how mad I was at myself. I thought that she wasn't alerted of myself but I had made a big mistake. My nephew and I headed back to the vehicles to get some help and give her the time need to bed up. On the way back we came across a blood trail nearly a 1000 yards from where I had shot her. We flagged it and headed to gather the troops.

[twitchstick]

After 6 hours of waiting the afternoon monsoons were starting to build I made the decided  to get on the trail. I would have gave her longer but with the daily rains coming I was nervous. We went back and I started the trail were I had hit her and followed it to where we had flagged the blood trail earlier. I had not found the arrow yet and was hoping it was still in her doing some work. The blood trail had been good to this point but from that point on it faded. After another 400 yards of looking for tracks or anything that had been disturb we found we started to pick up a little blood here and there. This went on for a couple more miles through some nasty thick timber. Each member of the blood trailing party made some key discoveries that helped us find her bedded up. She tried to make one more go of it but I was able to get a second arrow in her to finish her off. I am not proud of what happened but I was happy to see her suffering over. I am glade that I had a heavy arrow and a good broad head that was able to penetrate clear through the femur bone braking the leg and hit some good blood vessels. I hope that I can learn from this and never have this happen again.
   

[Hopewell Tom]

Yeah, but you really hung tough on that blood trail and put her down. Nice work. All's well that ends well...
Pretty good start to this years hunting.

[Car54]

Thanks for posting..and congrats.

[Pheonixarcher]

A deer and an elk in two days. That's awesome!

[Tree Killer]

Good job and congratulations!  Way to stick with that cow, she deserved your best effort!    

[TJK68]

Great pics and story, Congrats to a great ending.
Tom

[Wannabe1]

Great hunting story and effort! Congrats and remember, sometimes things just happen and your perseverance brought a happy ending for all! My hats off to you.      

[Over&Under]

Originally posted by Pheonixarcher:
A deer and an elk in two days. That's awesome!

No kidding!

Well done and way to stick with the tracking!

[pamike]

man i wish we could start hunting in August.  

Great stories and like the determination to find your elk - congrats!

[ESP]

Well done!!!

[Big Lefty]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

[Joeabowhunter]

Good hunting.  Way to stay on the trail!

[durp]

       

[Cmane07]

Congrats! Way to stick with the blood trail.  All hunters should have that much perseverance.