I had started the afternoon hunt with anticipation of running into a trophy buck that i had rattled in earlier that morning along a long slough that had a game trail along the entire length. I returned to the area around 4:30 which i thought was too late but after sitting for about 40 minutes the activity started. First a fork horn buck came out into the slough and began feeding then after about 30 minutes a cow elk and her calf popped out of the bush and made their way towards the feeding fork horn buck. The buck jerked its head up and stared intently at the approaching elk, then he lost interest and went back to feeding. Now i was getting excited to see all of this action unfold not 90 yards from my position. Then i spotted a black figure high in the wooded rigde and i scanned with my 10x42 binoculars, a bull elk was approaching slowly towards the feeding spike horn buck.
I waited until he cleared all the trees and paused broadside, i settled the crosshairs behind his right shoudler and *BLAM*.......SLAP. The bull lurched forward and then wheeled around back the way he had come from only to crash down and flip backwards 15 yards away. I had to ask my brother to drive almost 300 miles to help me pack this elk out but he said it was worth the effort, the bull is an uneven 4x5 but a trophy in every respect.
2006 Elk
