Just got back a little over a couple hours ago from CO unit 14. I just finished eating some of my cow elk I took yesterday morning at 645am. She walked out into the opening about 300 yards below where I was sitting. I told my girlfriend I found one. We both had cow tags and I was going to let her shoot this cow except I couldn't hold off any longer. When I asked her if she saw it, she said no. So I squeezed off a round from my 7mm Browning BAR and watched her flinch as she whirled around. She walked with her three good legs about 25 yards before she fell over. My bullet had hit its mark perfectly behind the front left shoulder hitting the lungs and lodging in her right front quarter. We headed down for her and as we got to her several other cows started calling. I gave a couple calls from my cow call to try and draw them back to us for my girl. They stayed back in the trees but gave my girl a chance but she missed. Right before she fired the bull that was with them gave out a huge bugle and I think the cow must have moved back towards the bull when she fired that is the excuse I am using for her miss. We cut the back straps,front left quarter, and back left quarter off and walked them down the hill and out to road about 2 miles. We waited to get picked up and head back to camp to drop them off. The only problem was that the snow and rain made the trail a muddy mess and it took my girlfriend and my son 2 hours to put the chains on the truck and head down. My dad and I got worried when we got to the road and they were not there to pick us up. So we started calling on the radio for anyone who could give us a ride back to camp. Officer Middleton from the D.O.W. was nice enough to give us a ride. We meet up with my girlfriend and son halfway down the mountain. After hearing how my girl has never put chains on a truck and had to figure it out with my son and giving her a bunch of high fives, we loaded our packs into the car and headed back to camp to drop them off and make the hike back down to retrieve the other two quarters and my pack. So my son and girlfriend decided that they would give me a hand this time and let my 68 year old father rest. ( I hope that when I am 68 I am hauling elk for my son on my back. MY DAD is AWESOME). On our way to the elk we saw three grouse and noticed a ton of coyote tracks in the fresh 6 inches of snow which had me thinking they may have eaten the rest of my bounty. As luck would have it nothing got to the elk. So I sent my son up the hill with my pack as my girlfriend and I packed up the two remaining quarters and walked them up the hill about 900 yards. Not the easiest haul. We made it back to camp after dark but enjoyed watching the sun set from 10,000 feet. We packed up camp this morning and headed for home. All in all it was the best elk hunting trip I have ever done. Not because I killed an elk but because I got to have one more trip with my Dad, enjoyed some time with my son as well as seeing him kill his first grouse, and girlfriend who has never elk hunted before but put 50 pounds of meet on her back and smiled the whole time doing it.
Enjoy the photos.
James
PS. Yes I seen an pronghorn at 10,000 feet. Crazy I tell you
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