hntndux
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- Mar 29, 2001
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Well, we had a great time and hunt. Sorry I don't have much horn porn, but the smiling face should make up for it.
Wednesday night we found the same small group of bulls that had a nice tall spike with them during our scouting trip earlier. We decided to go after him first thing in the morning only to find 2 of the 4 guys in the same parking lot. As we headed down the road we spotted a love spike and my son said he's big enough so we parked and began our stalk. As we were getting close to the area h was in, my son noticed orange heading out across the pond/field. It was one of the hunters heading directly cross wind above the spike and sure enough the spike spooked and took off running. We attempted another stalk where we saw him last and never did find him.
The next stalk was at 9:45am when we spotted 17 bulls and 4 spikes in a group out in the middle of an open field slightly quartering away towards a tule ditch. We decided to attempt to cut them off using the ditch as our cover. As we were getting close to being in their path I noticed a rack ahead of me in the grass. It was 3 other bulls and a spike about 300yds ahead that we never saw until now. As we were sizing up the spike, I could see another hunter directly in line with us taking aim at the spike. I told my son to get down in the ditch just in case they don't see us and take the shot. We backed out about 100yds and made ourselves clearly seen so they could see we were out of the line of fire and they shot the spike. Since the herd was on the other side of the ditch the shot only slightly spooked them and their attention was on where the shot came from so we used the distraction to our advantage, crossed the ditch (now we're wet to the knees) and began a cat crawl across the field.
It's now 11:45. We got to 300yds, but the 15-20mph cross wind was too much given the fact the elk were pretty bunched up. Back to crawling....now 230yds and the elk decide to lay down for a nap comfortable that the danger has passed. We wait and wait, finally a nice spike stands up and I say "take em"...my son says "I can't see the body only horns. We didn't notice a small berm 50yds in front of us that was blocking the view for him laying down with the bipod. Now what.....we decided to use the berm and slide along the grass like a snake to the berm and then we'd have them in the clear. We got to the berm and everything was perfect. 180yds with about a 15mph crosswind.
At 2:00pm and tired of baking in the sun waiting for the elk to finish their nap I told my son I think we need to force the play. He agreed so I finally yelled loud enough for them to hear me over the wind and they all stood up confused at where the sound came from. After a few minutes they decided to move on and started stringing out in a single file line. I told my son to tell me what elk he was planning to shoot and wait for my signal to ensure they were in the clear. After a few tense moments of spikes changing spots, my son said "the first one in the group of 3 spikes" and I replied "wait, wait, wait, nail him". Boom, and the elk dropped in his tracks courtesy of a 7mm 160gr Barnes TSX. It was a great time, we got to put on an awesome stalk (my knees are still sore) and my son never waivered a bit. Very proud moment on his first elk! Live weight was 422lbs.
Wednesday night we found the same small group of bulls that had a nice tall spike with them during our scouting trip earlier. We decided to go after him first thing in the morning only to find 2 of the 4 guys in the same parking lot. As we headed down the road we spotted a love spike and my son said he's big enough so we parked and began our stalk. As we were getting close to the area h was in, my son noticed orange heading out across the pond/field. It was one of the hunters heading directly cross wind above the spike and sure enough the spike spooked and took off running. We attempted another stalk where we saw him last and never did find him.
The next stalk was at 9:45am when we spotted 17 bulls and 4 spikes in a group out in the middle of an open field slightly quartering away towards a tule ditch. We decided to attempt to cut them off using the ditch as our cover. As we were getting close to being in their path I noticed a rack ahead of me in the grass. It was 3 other bulls and a spike about 300yds ahead that we never saw until now. As we were sizing up the spike, I could see another hunter directly in line with us taking aim at the spike. I told my son to get down in the ditch just in case they don't see us and take the shot. We backed out about 100yds and made ourselves clearly seen so they could see we were out of the line of fire and they shot the spike. Since the herd was on the other side of the ditch the shot only slightly spooked them and their attention was on where the shot came from so we used the distraction to our advantage, crossed the ditch (now we're wet to the knees) and began a cat crawl across the field.
It's now 11:45. We got to 300yds, but the 15-20mph cross wind was too much given the fact the elk were pretty bunched up. Back to crawling....now 230yds and the elk decide to lay down for a nap comfortable that the danger has passed. We wait and wait, finally a nice spike stands up and I say "take em"...my son says "I can't see the body only horns. We didn't notice a small berm 50yds in front of us that was blocking the view for him laying down with the bipod. Now what.....we decided to use the berm and slide along the grass like a snake to the berm and then we'd have them in the clear. We got to the berm and everything was perfect. 180yds with about a 15mph crosswind.
At 2:00pm and tired of baking in the sun waiting for the elk to finish their nap I told my son I think we need to force the play. He agreed so I finally yelled loud enough for them to hear me over the wind and they all stood up confused at where the sound came from. After a few minutes they decided to move on and started stringing out in a single file line. I told my son to tell me what elk he was planning to shoot and wait for my signal to ensure they were in the clear. After a few tense moments of spikes changing spots, my son said "the first one in the group of 3 spikes" and I replied "wait, wait, wait, nail him". Boom, and the elk dropped in his tracks courtesy of a 7mm 160gr Barnes TSX. It was a great time, we got to put on an awesome stalk (my knees are still sore) and my son never waivered a bit. Very proud moment on his first elk! Live weight was 422lbs.
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