I got one!
We were up in the woods by six, sitting near the top of a ridge, watching over the terrain. We waiting until about 9:30 there, without seeing anything, before deciding to move to another vantage point. We scooted back to the logging road that skirts a natural bowl we hoped to shoot an elk in. Just as we were starting to move around the bowl, we heard a pair of shots on the adjacent public land. Immediately, we watched a herd of elk start pouring along the hillside about a 1/4 mile away,fleeing from the direction of the shots.
I knew the trail they were on and knew where they were likely to enter the meadow we were standing over. We quickly ran down the road and got set up by a tall old-growth stump. My friend climbed to rest his rifle on the top, and I crouched in the brush at the base, right at the edge of the logging road. Sure enough, within just a few minutes, a herd of about 25 appeared and came right towards us. As they entered the meadow, they calmed down and stopped running. As they spread out a bit, I was able to take a shot on a bull out to the edge of the group. I shot him at about 100 yards with a .30-06, and he fell right there. The rest of the herd fled across the field.
When we got to him, he was still barely alive. I shot him in the top of the head with a .22 pistol and that was it. It was a spike buck, with a pair of points about 16" long. He probably weighed 600ish pounds. We gutted, skinned, and quartered him there in the field, and then spent the next major chunk of time (10 hours?) cutting him up into serving size portions for the freezer.
I feel great. My first big game, taken nicely, and in my freezer. I have a friend who's going to tan the hide and split it with me. Wonderful company, wonderful woods, wonderful communion with nature.
Josh
