Yesterday morning at 3:30am my gf and I were wakened by the sound of two of our four dogs barking. The Great Pyrenees has amazing hearing and it turns out that a small herd of elk (15 or so) were in the yard. There was a calf, a bunch of cows and three bulls. One of the bulls was a nice specimen, not a B&C but still a good looking bull (see bottom photo at lower left). When I woke up at 6:45am they were still bedded down anywhere from 50 yards to 100 yards from the house with some in the open and some among the trees. I live on 20 acres at 3,200 feet elevation that borders private forestry land that climbs to around 6,500 feet. We've seen elk up there while hiking on trails and had some cows and bulls in the yard in the past but never a herd with three bulls so it was exciting to say the least.
Just before 7:00am I got dressed, grabbed my new Muck boots (we have 12" to 18" of snow on the ground), put on an old work jacket that I wear when working in the yard (damn noisy brass snaps that clack against rifle stocks), picked up my .375 H&H rifle, put three rounds in my pocket and figured I'd take a look outside. I opened the door to put my boots on and as I was pulling on the first boot I looked up to see a nice bull looking in my direction. He would have been about half way up the hill just to the left of the garage in the bottom photo. He didn't seem to be bothered and just stood there looking towards me for 30 seconds or so and then towards the rest of the herd that was moving off up the hill. I slowly knelt down, turned the power ring down to 3X, quietly opened the bolt, put a round in the chamber, depressed the center of the extractor to help ease the claw over the case rim, slowly closed the bolt and raised the rifle .... I had him dead to rights. He was 70 yards away at most and standing still with a near perfect broadside shot and my main thought was that he deserved better than having me put him down after he'd spent the night in my yard watching over his herd. I was wearing one boot and one house slipper and it didn't feel right to me. As the herd walked up the hill (to the right in the photos) and over the ridge at the top of my property I followed them up, shuffled on my knees for 10 yards or so below the crest and then crawled a few more yards so that I could watch them. By this time the nice bull (I think) was 175 yards away at the treeline and offering another easy broadside shot but I let him go. I have mixed feelings about yesterday morning. I would have liked the meat, but in hindsight, if I was going to shoot anything I should have shot one of the lesser bulls since I'm not really a horn hunter. However, given that the herd stayed around the house for at least 3-1/2 hours and seemed to show a lot of trust it didn't feel right to kill one of them.
I learned a few things yesterday about myself and my equipment. First off, don't belly crawl in 12" to 18" of snow with binoculars around your neck without the lens caps in place. When I raised the binos all I saw was snow! After removing the snow from the objective lenses and eye pieces I soon realized that they were next to useless with water smeared all over the lenses. I learned that once you're "inside" a herd of elk they can act like cattle. My gf took her Doberman out to use the bathroom at 5:00am and the elk didn't seem to care. I also learned that I'm totally unprepared for these spur of the moment hunting situations. My rifle wasn't ready to go, my hunting gear wasn't ready to go, I didn't have any gloves, I didn't have tape on the muzzle of the rifle and the rifle wasn't loaded as I stepped outside. Another thing I learned is that while my 3-9x40mm Zeiss Conquest scope with the RZ600 reticle is great for shooting animals, it really sucks at identifying horns in low light, and when a low contrast animal is at a treeline with darkness behind it I really needed the binos. I only have a bull elk tag for the region I'm in so shooting a cow would have potentially been a bad idea.
This was my morning yesterday. You can see one of the bulls in the bottom photo. My gf took that photo with her cell phone at 3:40am so I can't be sure that he's the nice one of the three bulls but I think he is. Maybe they'll be back, maybe this weekend I'll put on my snowshoes and try to find the herd ... we'll see.
Just before 7:00am I got dressed, grabbed my new Muck boots (we have 12" to 18" of snow on the ground), put on an old work jacket that I wear when working in the yard (damn noisy brass snaps that clack against rifle stocks), picked up my .375 H&H rifle, put three rounds in my pocket and figured I'd take a look outside. I opened the door to put my boots on and as I was pulling on the first boot I looked up to see a nice bull looking in my direction. He would have been about half way up the hill just to the left of the garage in the bottom photo. He didn't seem to be bothered and just stood there looking towards me for 30 seconds or so and then towards the rest of the herd that was moving off up the hill. I slowly knelt down, turned the power ring down to 3X, quietly opened the bolt, put a round in the chamber, depressed the center of the extractor to help ease the claw over the case rim, slowly closed the bolt and raised the rifle .... I had him dead to rights. He was 70 yards away at most and standing still with a near perfect broadside shot and my main thought was that he deserved better than having me put him down after he'd spent the night in my yard watching over his herd. I was wearing one boot and one house slipper and it didn't feel right to me. As the herd walked up the hill (to the right in the photos) and over the ridge at the top of my property I followed them up, shuffled on my knees for 10 yards or so below the crest and then crawled a few more yards so that I could watch them. By this time the nice bull (I think) was 175 yards away at the treeline and offering another easy broadside shot but I let him go. I have mixed feelings about yesterday morning. I would have liked the meat, but in hindsight, if I was going to shoot anything I should have shot one of the lesser bulls since I'm not really a horn hunter. However, given that the herd stayed around the house for at least 3-1/2 hours and seemed to show a lot of trust it didn't feel right to kill one of them.
I learned a few things yesterday about myself and my equipment. First off, don't belly crawl in 12" to 18" of snow with binoculars around your neck without the lens caps in place. When I raised the binos all I saw was snow! After removing the snow from the objective lenses and eye pieces I soon realized that they were next to useless with water smeared all over the lenses. I learned that once you're "inside" a herd of elk they can act like cattle. My gf took her Doberman out to use the bathroom at 5:00am and the elk didn't seem to care. I also learned that I'm totally unprepared for these spur of the moment hunting situations. My rifle wasn't ready to go, my hunting gear wasn't ready to go, I didn't have any gloves, I didn't have tape on the muzzle of the rifle and the rifle wasn't loaded as I stepped outside. Another thing I learned is that while my 3-9x40mm Zeiss Conquest scope with the RZ600 reticle is great for shooting animals, it really sucks at identifying horns in low light, and when a low contrast animal is at a treeline with darkness behind it I really needed the binos. I only have a bull elk tag for the region I'm in so shooting a cow would have potentially been a bad idea.
This was my morning yesterday. You can see one of the bulls in the bottom photo. My gf took that photo with her cell phone at 3:40am so I can't be sure that he's the nice one of the three bulls but I think he is. Maybe they'll be back, maybe this weekend I'll put on my snowshoes and try to find the herd ... we'll see.
