OK, here's the story of the hunt.
We got drawn for Unit 9, which is N-NW of Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon National Park takes up the northern boundary of the unit. We chose to hunt in the Kaibab National Forest area east of the town of Tusayan (that is just south of the Grand Canyon Village). We camped and hunted right along the Coconino Rim. Our tags were for antlerless elk, which means either females or yearlings of either sex.
The group consisted of myself, a co-worker (Rustin), his dad (Don), and his younger brother (CJ). Only myself and Rustin had tags. Don was camp cook, and CJ was along for the ride.
We headed out of Mesa after work on Wednesday. Had a spot of trouble on the way up the hill towards Flagstaff. Don's truck started smoking something awful. Not sure why but we suspected a blown head gasket. No real chance to get it fixed, so we limped along going as slow as we needed to to minimize the damage. Got to Verde Valley OK, but had to add about a quart of oil. Added another quart in Flagstaff. It was slow going but we made it the campsite OK though about an hour later than we otherwise would have. While driving on the FS road we got the spotlight out and ready in case we saw any wildlife. Saw a few deer and couple elk. Then, a couple miles from the camp site a huge herd of elk, at least 20 cows with a monster bull ran across the road. It was very impressive and we were able to watch them with the aid of the spotlight until they disappeared deep into the trees.
Next morning we woke up and headed out to scout the area a second time. Took out .22's in case we saw squirrels or rabbits. CJ shot a nice young squirrel that morning. Other than that we mostly confirmed what we'd discovered the previous scouting trip that morning. That afternoon we drove around and found a really promising area near a cattle watering tank (for those of you not familiar, a tank is more like a man-made pond than anything else). CJ and Don shot another couple squirrels while were out scouting that tank. We wound up eating those squirrels in a yummy stew the next night.
We got to bed pretty early Thursday night, and had the alarm set for 0420. Got up in the morning, ate a quick breakfast, and hiked out to the rim. We found a good spot to sit and glass. Once the sun came up we worked the binos for a good hour. Saw 3 bulls, two of which were pretty big with large racks (at least 5x5) but it was hard to tell as they were at least 1000 yards out. We heard a bull bugeling so Rustin decided to head in that direction (at least to the next ridge), but it was such a long way off I figured I'd stay and keep glassing since I had a good view of a game trail. After another hour or so I decided to head over where Rustin had gone and eventually met up with him. He had tried to get to some elk he'd heard but not had any luck. We decided to hike/still hunt back to camp in different directions.
Once back at camp, Rustin told of some very fresh elk tracks that crossed the road heading south (away from the rim) just a half mile from camp. Once we'd eaten a bit and refilled our water we headed out again to follow those tracks. It was tough going since in a number of areas the trail disappeared and we had to look around to find it again. Eventually it lead us to a tank that looked really promising (not the same tank we'd seen the afternoon before). After walking around the tank we picked a spot that overlooked the game trail that had led us there and a fence line. This was about 2:30PM. We decided to wait until about 4:30-5PM so that we could hike back to camp before it got too dark and cold.
Around 4:40, when Rustin was almost ready say we should start walking back to camp, I heard them. Got my binos on the fence line and there they were. A small-medium sized herd of cows. I shifted my position so that was looking straight up the fence line, took the covers off the scope on my rifle and jacked a round in the chamber. I saw a cow coming down the hill walking right next to the fence. She paused and gave me a nice quartering posture. I started to squeeze the trigger when she shifted to directly head on. I let off the trigger and waited. I was in a sitting position with the rifle pretty steady, so while she was directly facing me I went ahead and activated the set trigger on my CZ 550. A few moments later she turned again giving me a quartering towards angle on her left side. I made sure the cross-hairs were on her near side shoulder and squeezed. BOOM.
She leapt to my left into some trees. Rustin confirmed that it was a solid hit, though neither of us could see where she went because of the vegetation. He took off after the rest of the herd that bolted as soon as I shot. After a few minutes I headed towards the fence line. Walking a soft and quietly as I could I scanned the area with my rifle at the ready in case she got up and bolted. Once I got to where I though she'd been when I fired I started looking for blood. I walked all the way to the crest of the hill and couldn't find a single drop. But I knew I'd hit her and not in the gut. As I walked back down the hill I started looking really closely for blood and for tracks left when the herd bolted. I followed each trail for 40-50 yards and when I didn't see anything I went back to the fence line and went to the next trail all the while scouring for blood. About the third or fourth trail I followed I saw what I had initially thought was a rock the first time I'd passed it. It was her, plied up. I watched her through the scope for a moment and then slowly approached her. I kept the rifle on her and as I got within 15 or so yards I stopped and watched for a moment. No sign of breathing. So I carefully approached her and circled to her back and then touched the muzzle of my rifle to her eye ball. No reaction, so I did it again. Still no reaction. Big sigh of relief from me, and I unloaded the rifle.
Even where she laid I could not find a single drop of blood. I couldn't even find the entrance wound. Turns out I'd hit her in the shoulder and the bullet had gone through the upper lungs and shattered a rib on the off side. However the bullet remained in the chest cavity. When we gutted her there must have been a good couple gallons of blood pooled in her chest.
A few minutes after I found the old gal I heard Rustin fire a shot. About ten minutes later he came back to where I was and told me he'd shot a yearling that we think was the calf of the cow I had just shot. He had been bleating for his momma, and that was what led Rustin to him. As it turned out, Rustin had gotten him with a raking shot that went in through the gut, but also hit the liver and the lungs.
After Rustin got back to where I was we radioed to Don so he could help us with gutting and dragging. Given the time he also had to bring a lantern so we could see what we were doing.
To make a long story a little shorter, by the time we'd gutted mine, dragged her (with the quad) back to the truck (Don had driven all the way to the tank), found an gutted Rustin's elk and dragged it to the truck it was already almost 9:30PM. Once back at camp we ate the squirrel stew and then got Rustin's elk hung in a tree and skinned him. Mine was so big (at least 500# live weight - don't know for sure though since we didn't have a scale) that we couldn't get her into the tree and had to skin her on the ground. Then we quartered her and hung the quarters in the tree. By the time we were done with all that it was 0130. Slept good.
Woke up around 0730 and after breakfast got my quarters into game bags and trimmed as much meat as we could off the rest of the carcass. Then we got Rustin's quartered, bagged and trimmed the ribs. Broke down camp and headed home.
To help out Don's truck, we dropped the trailer with the quad at his nephew's in Flag. When we stopped for gas in Flag we also packed a bunch of ice around the quarters to help keep them cool as it was going to be warm in Phoenix.
Once back in Mesa we went to Don's house and his brother came over to help us butcher the meat. Thank the Lord for that since it was quite a job. Got all the meat cut and wrapped and headed home.
My daughter was a Velcro baby for about half and hour after I got home in spite of the mix of elk stink and me not showering and working my butt off for 3 days stink. Ate tenderloin for dinner. Life is good.
Got the new deep freezer almost completely full of elk.
I will post pictures when they have been developed. I forgot the digital camara and Don only had one of those cheap disposable camaras. I'll scan the pics once I have them.
