I did not get drawn for any of the fall hunts in Arizona. I
was bummed. I was especially looking forward to doing some
archery elk hunting, one of my favorite hunts. I called my
brother, Dale, in Idaho the day I found out I wasn’t drawn.
He said there were some leftover cow elk tags in an area near
his place so I had him purchase my hunting partner, Rick, and
I each one. It would be a general season, which meant I could
use a firearm, which I was hoping, would increase my chances
of getting one. My parents were also coming out from South
Dakota, to tag along, and it would be the first time my folks,
my brother, and I had hunted together since I moved to Arizona
17 years ago. I was looking forward to it.
The weather was unseasonably warm the week we hunted in Idaho.
That meant the elk were up high and in the dark timber any time
the sun was up. Usually within an hour of sunrise and just at
sunset were the only times the elk were out in the open. It
was a spot and stalk type of hunt.
I consider myself to be in pretty good shape. I ride my bike to
work three times a week and it is about a 22-mile round trip.
Given that, I was still unprepared for the steepness of the
mountains around my brother’s place. The first day of the hunt
we spotted six elk up on the side of a hill. I thought, “All
right! Lets go hunting!” My brother said they were pretty high
up and he was hoping we could find some at a lower elevation.
Being the eager beaver, I thought, “It doesn’t look too high to
me.” The openness of the country and size of mountains can be
very deceiving, believe me. I found out over the next several
days just how high the elk were. Unfortunately due to the
unseasonably warm weather the elk remained at the higher
elevations the entire hunt.
On the third day of our hunt we got into a good spotting position
and waited for the sun to rise. As the sky was beginning to turn
orange from the rising sun I spotted a herd of about 18 elk
grazing in an open area about 100 yards from a timber patch.
They were about a mile from me so I quickly started my move
towards them. I wanted to try and catch them in the open before
they got to the timber. As I said things can look deceiving. It
took me about 20 minutes to get to where I had spotted them and
all but two had already gone into the timber. The two remaining
were a spike and a cow and they were in a small depression that
led to the timber. I was only about 100 yards from them and it
was wide open. I got on my hands and knees and started crawling
towards them, as I could not get a clean line of sight on the cow.
All I could see of her was her head every once in a while when she
raised it from grazing. By the time I got to within about 80 yards
they were in the timber. I was afraid to move too much because I
didn’t know where in the timber the rest of the herd was and I
didn’t want to get spotted. So I just sat there for about 5 minutes
glassing the timber and contemplating what to do next.
Then the elk made the decision for me. Something spooked them. I
am not sure, perhaps they winded me. It didn’t really matter, as
that was the break I needed. Four cows came out of the timber on
the dead run about 150 yards from me. I quickly got set for the
shot and started tracking them through the scope. I gave a quick
cow call and stopped them dead in their tracks. I put the crosshairs
on the lead cow and squeezed the trigger. Down she went, then back
up, down again and up again. I went to jack in another shell and the
bolt had seized on me. I looked down at the bolt and hit it hard
with my fist to bust it loose and reload. By the time I looked back
up, the elk were gone.
I climbed up the hill to where I thought the cow should be and there
was nothing to be found. I went from elation to depression as I
expected her to be lying there. I started looking for blood and
after about 15 minutes I found some. The blood trail went straight
down hill and I found her behind a couple of large pine trees about
50 yards from where I shot her.
Then the work began. It took Rick and I about an hour and a half to
gut, skin and quarter her. It was not fun working on the side of a
steep hill. When I pulled the guts out of her they rolled about 15
yards down the hill, that is how steep it was. Thankfully my brother
has a horse and we made a couple of trips to pack it out. Thank you
Sonny! (my brother’s horse). I would not have wanted to pack that
elk out on my back. It was about 8:30 in the morning when I shot her
and we didn’t get her completely packed out till about 3:00 in the
afternoon. That is some hard-earned meat.
The next evening we had a meal of fresh heart and liver, mmm, mmm.
The evening after that was some fresh steak…delicious. I can’t wait
to make some sausage out of the burger meat.
We hunted the next several days trying to get Rick in on the elk as
well but were unsuccessful. On one morning my dad watched elk come
out of a finger on the side of a mountain for about an hour and a
half. He figured he had seen about 100 elk. Of course my brother
and Rick were about 2 miles from that location so they didn’t stand
a chance of getting in on that action.
All in all a very fun hunt and nice visit with my family.
