This was the second bow season I've hunted and it's been all self-taught, so I still don't really know what I'm doing. Worse yet, I've hunted solo for the majority of it. The first 9 days or so of the season was rough. No bugling, not alot of fresh sign, and I wasn't seeing the animals I saw all summer while camping/scouting.
Long story short: On Sept 9th I was stumped. I had hunted high, hunted low and was not seeing animals. I whipped out the topo and looked for the most obscure drainage I could find figuring the labor day weekend pressure would push them there.
I was still hunting a thin patch of timber adjoining a large meadow filled with oak-brush and a creek at 11,300 ft. I sat down to take a break, looked across the meadow, and a smaller 5X5 was feeding in the timber on the other side 100 yards across from me. Cow called and he ignored me and kept feeding.
Good wind and quiet ground from the rain. Got within 20 yards, arrow went through and through and he piled up 40 yards later. Small bull but I'm still stoked!
edit: It's not letting me post the pictures...I'll have to figure it out later. Packing the quarters, tenderloins, backstraps, head/rack out was everything they said it could be lol! It took me a full day and I was done...
