Muzzy Elk

Joined
Aug 9, 2012
Messages
8
Location
Washington State
My 12 year old boy drew 1 of 70 antlerless elk permits here in Washington. With vacation built up we decided to set up camp for the week long season. We were shut down with just a small portion open due to the extreme fire danger but we still thought with a week that we would beable to close the deal. With many close calls and 1 missed shot we were heading back home elkless. A few weeks later we received a letter from WDFG that they decided to extend the season for the last two weeks of December due to limited access.

That rekindled a fire with my 12 year old that was in search of his first elk and his first animal taken with a muzzleloader. We set up camp two days early so we can scout and locate some elk. The first day was rough only seeing a handful of elk but the next day was a different story. We saw 75-100 elk in 3 hours. Knowing where we were going to hunt we headed to camp to watch hunting dvds and get our gear ready for the next day.

The morning started off good with seeing two cows right off the back. I get him set up and pop, he looked at me in disbelief while the cows trotted out of the clear cut. Looks like we had a bad primer. We played cat and mouse with some elk for the next couple of hours and then headed back for lunch. After lunch we saw two cows in the road that looked like they were shot out of a gun, they actually still might be running.

We decided to head just alittle higher and get into some fresh snow. We come around the corner and it was tore up with elk tracks. We got out and got our gear ready to set out after the herd. We went about 30 yards in the timber and i spot the herd 110 yards away. Lucky for us there was a clear lane directly in the middle of the herd of about 30 elk. I set him up on a stomp and him wait until a cow stepped out into the lane. I let a few cows cross to try to get my boys nerves under control, i noticed that there was 1 bull and two cows left to cross the open path and knew that the next cow that crossed he was going to have to pull the hammer on. I told my boy to get ready, I hear a Ka-Boom and then a Thawack.

The herd exploded up hill with his cow in the tail end, i couldnt tell exactly where he hit in my binos but i knew it was pretty solid. We tracked her for a couple hundred yards and found her piled up. The high fives started and the little work began. They crossed a old grade that we were able to drive and went up hill. So i was able to pull her down hill right into the grade. After looking her over we found that she was suffering from hoof rot in her back leg. Not bad yet but the hoof defintately stunk and was beginning to rot. She was also on the skinny side. But all in all i had a pretty happy 12 year old that was giving a second chance and closed the deal.

Sorry for the cell phone picture.

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