Elk and Emily

This is one of the hunts I looked forward to the most this year. Close to home, with my favorite person, in some awesome elk country. For anyone that knows Emily, she is a fair-weather hunter. She likes the warm sun over blistering cold. I can't say I blame her, so when I told her that the elk hunting gets better after some cold snowy weather, she was torn between warmer earlier October weather with less elk or more elk after winter begins to pound the high-country.

She decided we better try and kill in the warmer weather. We headed up and had a great time on a 5 mile loop. She got to pass a couple bulls including a nice 6-point 320" bull we bugled into 60 yards. She just watched him and never pulled up with the rifle. That's when I knew she was serious and we'd probably be getting into a some bigger bulls in the latter, colder, part of the hunt. 

Finally, it happened. Snow started falling in the higher country...and then in the lower country. We got a good 5-8" of snow in the foothills and the bulls starting hitting the lower ground in bachelor groups. 

The temperature started dropping well-below normal for early November. In fact, there was one day where the high was 10 F. OF course that was a weekend day that we both had available to hunt. We sat up on a frigid post, not too far from the truck and started picking out bull after bull. It was beautiful, with their big, blonde, battle-scarred bodies against the pure, snow background. It was late enough that day, she decided the bulls were a little far and we would go after one of these bulls the next morning. I'm sure it had something to do with the single digit temps outside too. Honestly, I dreaded being stuck out in those temperatures if the wind picked up,

The next morning wasn't much warmer. I guess the elk were feeling the effect of the frigid temps as well as we only saw a small handful of 310-320" mature bulls. We stuck around a few hours and decided we'd call it quits for the day and come back mid-week when the temperatures were to get into the 20-30's. I couldn't help myself the next morning, I grabbed my scope and zipped up to the post for a morning glass while Emily headed to work. Of course, that morning was magical again. I had found over two dozen bulls with a couple in the 340-350 range. One in particular decided to bed out in the open on a open ridge, along with two buddies: a 5 point, and a 320" 6 point. The biggest bull had solid mass and some great curvature to his antlers. His beams went out wide and sweeping and even from a distance I could see a little trash up high on on the beam. 

I sent a shaky video of the bull to Emily and then asked her what she thought. She questioned whether we would have enough time to hike in there and kill the bull as it was already late morning. After okaying it with the boss, we made quick plans to meet at the house and make our way for the hunt. When you make plans, sometime obstacles just fall in your way. A dead van battery at Emily's work slowed us down another 45 minutes or so but eventually we were off!

I rolled up to the glassing spot and put the scope on him. "Wow, he's wide. He looks awesome, lets go get him" Emily replied. The air was perfectly calm and the cold, but the sun was warm enough were we were shedding jackets shortly after beginning our trek up the mountain. It was a perfect day to kill an elk. We inched closer before spotting the bull up and feeding at 900 yards. He was getting close to the ridge edge where he would disappear out of our sight. 

The powdered snow on Emily's legs were slowing her down big-time but she kept one foot in front of the other till we finally crept to the top where the elk had disappeared. They could be twenty yards below us or a mile away during the time they were out of sight, so we approached cautiously. We came upon two fresh wolf tracks as well on the ridge, things were getting exciting! I was following the elk tracks with the binos and was a bit surprised when suddenly the 5-point came into view only 150 yards below us bedded. We were fairly skylined so we dropped into the powder and began getting Emily ready for the shot.

The 5-point looked up our way knowing something wasn't right. When he stood, Emily and I scanned the area around knowing the other two bulls wouldn't be too far away. "There they are!" I whispered loudly. The big 6-point had stood from it's bed and showed the upper half of it's body as it quartered away at 200 yards. A chip shot for Molly, the .300 Win Mag, the 8-32 NXS scope, and Berger 210 VLD bullets. Emily got comfortable and I plugged her left ear and my left ear (we forgot hearing protection) and Molly is loud. The bull got smacked hard and quickly teetered to his death. 

I love writing these stories, but there are moments I am not good enough to describe with words. You can see Emily's smile but you can't hear her trembling voice. You can see the gigantic worn-out, body of an old warrior bull, but you can't feel his frozen hair tips nor smell the musk. You can see the fire but you can't smell the sage burning or feel the comforting heat it offered, or smell the fir pitch that covers the bulls massive antlers, or get the panoramic view of all the sparkling diamonds in the sky that helped motivate our every step back down to the truck. It would be impossible to describe to someone that hasn't experienced it. 

That night some dear friends of our brought a couple horses and helped pack out all of the elk meat and head. I'm sure we couldn't have done it that night without their help, Thanks Jason and Garret! Thank you Emily for your hunting attitude and commitment to making the hunt a success. I cherish these moments with you.