If Ole So and So Wins This Election, I’m Leaving....

[Gerald Martin]

I made a couple passes where the elk had been last night. Nothing.
I figured any elk that was dying would swing downhill along the route instead of uphill with the herd.
There was a dry wash that paralleled the elk trail.
I walked up the dry creek bed about twenty yards from where I was standing when I saw the limping elk go into the timber 400 yards away from me.
This is what I saw.

 

[Dave N]

Rut-roh, Raggie!

 

[Gerald Martin]

I was halfway between sick and consoled that I hadn’t lost my mind the night before.
I started taking her apart as fast as I could.
When I cut her hide, the unmistakable smell of souring gut hit me like a fist in the nose.
Still hoping there was salvageable meat, I cut away her quarters and split down her leg bones to cool her as fast as possible. Even with temperatures in the teens and snow sitting on her, the meat was still steaming and warm to touch.
Thankfully as I was careful to cut away everything that looked or smelled bad,? I ultimately salvaged her four quarters and back straps.
I wasn’t able to get the trim meat or tenderloins.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Now, I really have problems. I am by myself, 3/4 a mile from the truck, one elk tag and a cow and calf down.
I left the cow meat laying out to cool and went back up to get the rest of the calf from where I butchered her.
I packed both hinds of the calf out to the truck and drove to service to call a warden.

 

[Tradewind]

The calf is butchered, the pack is melted and I am growing in certainly that my first shot from the night before was not at the elk that I had just killed.
Was it possible I was correct thinking I had made a good shot on a big cow that might be dead down on the ridge below m

Now, I really have problems. I am by myself, 3/4 a mile from the truck, one elk tag and a cow and calf down.
I left the cow meat laying out to cool and went back up to get the rest of the calf from where I butchered her.
I packed both hinds of the calf out to the truck and drove to service to call a warden.

Next you're going to tell us you have a go fund me page to help with your bail

 

[Gerald Martin]

When I made contact with him and explained my situation, he told me to get the meat packed out and he would meet me in town the following day to sort it out.
Back up the mountain I go. Thankfully my wife had brought a sled down and with great effort I was able to get the rest of the meat out in one trip.
I felt like a train had run over me, but I got it out.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I met up with the warden the next day and we talked it over.
He was going to give me a ticket (understandably and acceptable to me) but when I showed him the video and he saw the calf was wounded from the get go, he changed his mind and gave me a written warning instead.
He did confiscate the calf as I fully expected him to.
The story has a mostly happy ending as we were able to process the cow and get her frozen without any more meat loss.
My pack did not and will not recover.

 

[Irrelevant]

What was the overall status of the meat from the cow? Good, edible, bad, not edibile?

 

[Gerald Martin]

In hindsight, I really don’t know what I would do differently if faced with the same situation.
The calf had been shot by another hunter and was going to die.
The odds of it being in the same herd, wounded on the same shoulder as the cow I shot and being in the same line of travel as the cow are mind boggling to me.
The biggest disappointment I have is I was within 20 yards of my dead cow the night I shot her. She was laying over about a 3’ embankment in that dry creek and screened by a couple juniper trees. In the failing light I didn’t see her and I didn’t smell her laying there.
I feel very confident, if I hadn’t seen the calf and focused my search elsewhere, I would have found her in just a few minutes.
Then, I would have gotten all the meat and wouldn’t have had all the drama.
However, such is life and it is what it is.
Melted packs and the judgements of what if’s or coulda, shoulda, woulda, come with the territory I guess.

 

[roravetz]

I met up with the warden the next day and we talked it over.
He was going to give me a ticket (understandably and acceptable to me) but when I showed him the video and he saw the calf was wounded from the get go, he changed his mind and gave me a written warning instead.
He did confiscate the calf as I fully expected him to.
The story has a mostly happy ending as we were able to process the cow and get her frozen without any more meat loss.
My pack did not and will not recover.

Congratulations on a successful hunt. Do you mind sharing what the written warning was for? I feel like you did everything right here and I would have come to the same conclusion that the calf was probably what you shot the day before given how it was acting.

 

[Gerald Martin]

What was the overall status of the meat from the cow? Good, edible, bad, not edibile?

Haven’t eaten any yet, but what I put in the freezer smells just fine.
Most of the sour was from her gut juice and gas and I trimmed it heavily and carefully. Anything suspicious was trimmed.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Congratulations on a successful hunt. Do you mind sharing what the written warning was for? I feel like you did everything right here and I would have come to the same conclusion that the calf was probably what you shot the day before given how it was acting.

Written warning was procedural for violation of two elk, one tag.
In my mind an official documentation of what happened in this incident should anyone want to follow up on the incident.

 

[roravetz]

Written warning was procedural for violation of two elk, one tag.
In my mind an official documentation of what happened in this incident should anyone want to follow up on the incident.

That makes sense thank you!

 

[Gerald Martin]

My closing comments for a while so I can get some work done is that we still have unfinished business with Allison and a deer.
This ain’t over yet, even though there’s nothing else to report at this time.

 

[Hem]

That was a great write up. Willingness to detail how things can go awry really earns an A+.
It happens.
Years ago I hunted with a .243 for antelope/deer. A shot on an antelope at a similar distance with a stiff cross wind resulted in significant bullet drift off mark. That was the last time I hunted with that otherwise very accurate rifle.
Congrats on many levels.

 

[Irrelevant]

The way her legs were all stiff when you found the cow had me thinking it was all a loss. Hope it tastes good when you start eating it. I found with a partially spoiled bull a couple of years ago that it does get worse in the freezer so I would try to eat it as fast as you can @Gerald Martin

 

[HSi-ESi]

Honesty is huge when things like this occur, so I really applaud Gerald. Thank you for sharing - it's a great lesson for up and coming hunters.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Most hunters don’t have the courage to post mess-ups like this. Interesting story and sounds like you made the best of the situation. I’d guess 90% or better would just leave one dead animal in the field, so good on you for taking care of it all.

 

[Ben Lamb]

This is an epic poem of humanity, mistakes & redemption. Every star awarded and a lifetime ban of political mailers to your house.

Go get that kid a deer.

 

[rtraverdavis]

I feel like this is a thread that new hunters would really benefit from reading. Stuff happens, honest mistakes get made, and you own them and do the next right thing. Thanks for sharing all of that Gerald, I really appreciate it and enjoyed reading it.