Success in Oregon! What’s you’re plan for next year?

[Hoytxl2009]

Planned 9 days in Oregon this year. Normally I do 3 weeks and two states, but recently we bought a new house and needed to help momma more then myself.

Day 6 i shot this bull. Was into elk everyday and had multiple opportunities at full draw. I should have had it done much sooner, but couldn’t connect the dots. 30 minutes before arrowing this guy I missed a much larger bull. Not sure I would change this guy out for the bigger one after walking up and noticing his right side was goofy and coming out at a weird place. When I shot him I did not notice this. There was tons of scar tissue everywhere where the horn should have been. Pretty unique in my opinion and a first for me to shoot a elk with character.

So, after missing the first bull I walked maybe 200 yards and heard a little spike squeal. After just a couple cow calls I could hear this guy coming through the aspens. He knew something was up and didn’t step in my window, so I drew my bow and took one step left to get the shot. He was at 18 yards. At the moment i released he decided to spin and drop. It resulted in my first arrow coming in high behind the front shoulder and exiting in front of the opposite shoulder through the back strap. He ran about 100 yards and stopped and was trying to bite and pull 1/3 of my broken arrow out of the exit side. I noticed he only had to take 10 steps and I had a great trail to sneak down and get a second shot. Not sure why he didn’t bolt and never stop, but for some reason he didn’t. When he moved behind the brush I dropped my pack and hustled up to a point where I assumed I was in bow range. He stepped out at 52 and I smoked him with the second shot. Only ran another 50 yards and tipped over. I’m positive my first shot was not lethal after seeing him standing at a distance. That’s the only reason I pressed forward. Plus it was open country and I could see him easily. Luckily I did.

Spent the last 3 days of my trip calling for a family member and had a blast. We should have easily filled another tag multiple times but he forgot to put his reed in his mouth as the shooter on one bull and he couldn’t stop it. Oh well!! Live and learn. Enjoy the pics!

My next question is what does everyone have planned next year. I might draw a Oregon rifle tag next year so my September will be open if I do. If I don’t do Wyoming I’ll do otc Idaho unless I draw a idaho special permit. Looking for a few confident elk hunters that could use a extra guy. Thought about doing a otc in Colorado but I have to drive through Idaho and Oregon to get there. Difficult for me since I have lots of confidence in those two states. I also have points in Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and Montana. Will skip NM application next year. Maybe pm me if some guys want to set something up next year.

Hope everyone has a great rest of there seasons and good luck!

 

[OREGONCODY]

Nice job! I drew a very early season cow tag in Oregon this year along with my father and his buddy, so we had our tags filled by August 18th this year. My father and his buddy had a great time and definitely want to put in again for those tags next year. I was gonna do the same, but now that I'm seeing all this Oregon rut action I might have to pick up some archery tackle and give that a shot. Luckily, that hunt runs concurrently with the archery season so I'd still be able to hunt the same area and same time as them with their rifle tags (with the added bonus of being able to harvest either a bull or cow as opposed to a cow only tag). Good thing the community college I'm attending has an archery range!

 

[Hoytxl2009]

Nice job! I drew a very early season cow tag in Oregon this year along with my father and his buddy, so we had our tags filled by August 18th this year. My father and his buddy had a great time and definitely want to put in again for those tags next year. I was gonna do the same, but now that I'm seeing all this Oregon rut action I might have to pick up some archery tackle and give that a shot. Luckily, that hunt runs concurrently with the archery season so I'd still be able to hunt the same area and same time as them with their rifle tags (with the added bonus of being able to harvest either a bull or cow as opposed to a cow only tag). Good thing the community college I'm attending has an archery range!

Awesome! Those early cow tags are a blast. My wife used to draw one we had a lot of fun on. Easy meat hunt. And definitely go pick that stick and string setup for next year. You won’t regret it and it’s always a good time!