It's been awhile since I've talked to you gentlemen & women - Family obligations, work & doctors have kinda kept me busy! Good to see familiar and new names on the site.
This years muzzleloader cow season was more than I thought to ask for! After spotting a nice herd of elk - while hunting for a doe antelope for my wife - I went back to see if I could relocate them & relieve the herd bull of a little stress by taking one of his cow. No small choice as I was forsaking a known high density elk area for and are where I doubt an elk has been killed in September in years.
My buddy & I located a small herd (one bull, 5 cows, 3 calves) a little before dawn perhaps a mile and a half away from the parked ATV, played hide & seek with them for about 4.5 hours in country more likely to be hunted for sage grouse and when they stood up mid day to stretch & get back under the shade of a ridiculously small patch of willows, put 320 grains of lead through a 2.5 yr old's ribs at a lazered 114 yards. Would have prefered to have got closer for the shot but the service berry bush I was behind was the last cover taller than the low sage & Idaho fescue between me & the elk.
An absolutely perfect hunt. I just wish my wife & oldest daughters doe antelope hunts would have been more than a series of educational moments. But that's a subject for a different time & place.
Oh, & if I draw a buck antelope tag next year I know where I'll be going - saw a smoker of a buck on a small plateau above the elk of all places!
