nakneker
Gold $$ Contributor
My daughter and her husband drew tags this year. Kelli only had two days to hunt so she was priority. Opening day we saw everything but bull elk. We saw cow elk, glassed up a medium sized lion, glassed up two bears (its season but they weren’t big enough), saw 4 couses bucks one of which was a dandy. Glassed up two nice mule deer bucks but no bull elk. We dove into some canyon country and I may have pushed her a little too hard but we slowed it down when I realized she was struggling, we try and keep it fun and adjust to the situation.
Yesterday started off slow, started off walking the rim of some canyons and just letting the 15x Swaros do the walking but we only glassed up two cows by mid morning. We changed areas and went into some high country I hunted back in high school. They’ve been logging in there and some times elk like to eat the mistletoe off the slash, we weren’t into elk so I thought we would burn the afternoon there. Within two hours we had glassed up two groups of bulls, 3 rag horns and two bigger bulls hanging by theirselves. We had a good hour before dark so we made a move on the bigger bulls. Long story short she killed the smaller of the two, just didn’t work out on the bigger bull (330-340 bull). She made a perfect shot at 321 with the 6.5x47 and 140 grain Berger Elite hunters. Bull dropped where he stood. The bullet pulverized the lungs and one fragment got the heart too.
We went and got him this morning after cleaning him last night and propping open the rib cage, it got cold and the meat chilled nicely. No predators found it over night, that’s a plus. I Had to build some fence this afternoon but Monday and Tuesday we’re gonna try and get her hubby a bull. He’s never hunted elk for himself but has helped pack many out over the last 3 years. I’m hoping he gets an opportunity. He gets pretty exited and it’s cost him in the past but he’s calmed down a lot since then. He also has a lion and bear tag so there’s that too, it might happen.
Now to let this bull age as long as it stays cold enough. The bull was fat, I’m just hoping he’s tender. I’ll let it age and then fry up some floured blackstrap, depending how tender it is will determine how we process him. Im 57, I walk everyday thanks to a little rescue dog who lives for his walks. I’m still getting in and out of the rough country pretty good, drives my kids crazy because they struggle keeping up but they live at sea level and work their butts off so they have little time to work out but I’m hoping they get inspired by it all. My brother also has a tag, he had a really nice bull opening morning but about 30 minutes into his stalk another hunter took it. Beautiful 6x7 that was a solid 350 bull, if I can get my son in law taken care of I’ll go help my brother. Me and him always have a good time. We typically hunt hard till 11am or so and then take a break and cut a couple cords of juniper wood and then hunt the last 3 hours of light, we enjoy that.
Yesterday started off slow, started off walking the rim of some canyons and just letting the 15x Swaros do the walking but we only glassed up two cows by mid morning. We changed areas and went into some high country I hunted back in high school. They’ve been logging in there and some times elk like to eat the mistletoe off the slash, we weren’t into elk so I thought we would burn the afternoon there. Within two hours we had glassed up two groups of bulls, 3 rag horns and two bigger bulls hanging by theirselves. We had a good hour before dark so we made a move on the bigger bulls. Long story short she killed the smaller of the two, just didn’t work out on the bigger bull (330-340 bull). She made a perfect shot at 321 with the 6.5x47 and 140 grain Berger Elite hunters. Bull dropped where he stood. The bullet pulverized the lungs and one fragment got the heart too.
We went and got him this morning after cleaning him last night and propping open the rib cage, it got cold and the meat chilled nicely. No predators found it over night, that’s a plus. I Had to build some fence this afternoon but Monday and Tuesday we’re gonna try and get her hubby a bull. He’s never hunted elk for himself but has helped pack many out over the last 3 years. I’m hoping he gets an opportunity. He gets pretty exited and it’s cost him in the past but he’s calmed down a lot since then. He also has a lion and bear tag so there’s that too, it might happen.
Now to let this bull age as long as it stays cold enough. The bull was fat, I’m just hoping he’s tender. I’ll let it age and then fry up some floured blackstrap, depending how tender it is will determine how we process him. Im 57, I walk everyday thanks to a little rescue dog who lives for his walks. I’m still getting in and out of the rough country pretty good, drives my kids crazy because they struggle keeping up but they live at sea level and work their butts off so they have little time to work out but I’m hoping they get inspired by it all. My brother also has a tag, he had a really nice bull opening morning but about 30 minutes into his stalk another hunter took it. Beautiful 6x7 that was a solid 350 bull, if I can get my son in law taken care of I’ll go help my brother. Me and him always have a good time. We typically hunt hard till 11am or so and then take a break and cut a couple cords of juniper wood and then hunt the last 3 hours of light, we enjoy that.
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