Rest of the Story!
About half way up the mountain to the area I planned on hunting, this elk was standing in the road I was driving on. I slow down and he casually walks off the road downhill. Man this area is steep with all kinds of deadfall. I slowly drive past him and he has only moved down about 20 yards when I go by and seemed too care less I was driving by. Knowing he is not the Big Bull I had at 80 yards opening weekend, I really didn’t care, because he looked great to me. I drove around a couple of corners, about a quarter mile and pulled over in a wide spot of the road. Grabbed my gear and humped it down the road to where he stepped off.
I snuck to the edge to see he had moved down in the woods about 110 yards. I moved back up the road 80 yards or so just past a short rise that would conceal me moving downhill parallel to him. I setup and gave a few cow calls since he was alone. He came in on a string looking for love, well at least sex, and presented a great quartering to me shot at around 42 yards.
He turned and ran back the same way he came pilling up within a few hundred yards. He of course managed to wedge in and under three deadfalls that made for one exhausting quartering job. I would say that him expiring within 200 yards of the road was great, except it was on at least a 70% slope with all kinds of deadfalls. It took me three and a half hours to quarter him up, with the first rear quarter taking me 45 minutes because of how he wedged himself under the dead trees. I got the meat, head and gear up to the road in five trips. Those 200 yards turned into at least double, since I had to side hill and avoid deadfalls to get up the slope. I see him as a 5x5, technically by the regulations he is a 6x6, he had a small body in my estimate of weighing about 450-500#’s. Overall he is an awesome Bull and a giant in my book!!
Pictures will be tomorrow when I am at my other computer. Sorry