Easy Elk or so we thought

[diamond hitch]

In the 1980s on the Idaho border, elk were hard to come by. Often we would hunt days without cutting a track. We had suffered heavy snowfall and lost access to our high country. We opted to access our hunting area from the bottom by taking the horses up a couple miles then climbing up a side drainage to get to the elk zone. The plan was to have two of us gain the 750 ft of elevation to the cliffs while my father would take the horses up 4 miles to where we were going to finish to provide the taxi service to bring us comfortably home.

We packed our gear and started up the drainage. Within a short distance my partner says " What are we hunting? " My response was "Elk! Why?" He responds with "what's wrong with those? He points up an extremely steep hill at 10-15 head feeding across the hillside. They were at about 350 yards and nearly straight above us. I responded with " They Look like cows and we don't have a tag". He responds in his normal dry sense of humor " I do".

We bailed off the ponies and started up the hill. Dad was supposed to go back to the truck and wait for instructions. The hillside was steep enough that the huckleberry bushes acted as necessary green grapples to aid our assent. As we reached the top Terry said "My freezer is empty. If you get a shot - take it. I need the meat. " We split up with each on either side of the ridge and headed back where we saw them. Coming around the left side I saw a cow reaching for some leaves on a tree and threw up my gun and took aim as I pulled the trigger there was a shot and the cow tipped over.

We got her gutted out and plotted a path to the road. We were at the top of a series of cliffs and it was only obvious that we could give her a push and she would slide to the road. At the first push she went airborn for 50 ft and hung up in a bunch of bushes. We repeated this event a number of times with the cow flying through the air up to fifty feet at a time. We finally arrived at the last cliff. I called Dad on the radio and had him bring the truck up. We had him back the truck up to the bank and lower the tailgate. He positioned the truck across the road facing a dropoff of about 8ft into the creek. Since everything had gone so well up to that point, we kicked her loose and over the bank she went about 30 ft to the truck and then into the box like a ball in a glove. Inertia being what it is when that cow hit the head of the box the truck started sliding to the dropoff into the creek with nothing that Dad could do to stop the forward momentum on the ice. With the brakes locked the truck progressed right up to the edge and then stopped with one wheel just starting to go over the edge. I don't think I took a breath or had a heartbeat until the truck stopped.

All in all it was as close to an easy elk as I ever got.

 

[jeremys4]

Pretty sure that’s a Boone and Crockett cow elk.

 

[kansasdad]

Pre-tenderized.

Given the opportunity to do it again, would you change anything about that day?

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Pre-tenderized.

Given the opportunity to do it again, would you change anything about that day?

Besides poaching an Elk? 〽

 

[diamond hitch]

Since they are dead you don't get any additional bloodshot. What we experienced was a separation of the skin and some rump fat making her easier to skin. On the choice of doing it differantly - I would now be more inclined to have a rope on her on the last push. Something to provide a little more control. The option would have been to not have the truck to catch her in. We were looking for any easy way to get her in the truck. Looking back - the truckless option might have been down the hill- across the road and into the creek. As you get older you have more knowledge and experience to make judgement calls. When you are young those calls are usually are based on: 'It seemed like a good idea at the time!'.