We headed west to the northwest end of the island. We spotted several reindeer, but no musk ox. We headed southeast and kept riding up to the top of ridges to spot. Finally we spotted a group of musk ox on a distant mountainappropriately namedMusk Ox Mountain. It was a few miles away, and snowmachining over the drifts and frozen layers of snow was a little slow going. We finally got in range of the herd, and Abe stayed behind since he was only a transporter and not a guide. At this point I was on my own.
I rode up to the peak of the mountain (more like a hill), parked the snowmachine and worked my way down towards the herd. There was a small knoll that was close to the herd, so I got that in between us and snuck in to about 15 yards. The musk ox were huddled up pretty close, and I noticed one good sized bull in the middle, but there was no open shot. I held out for a while, and a cow ended up moving my direction, spotting me and taking off. The herd followed and I watched them run for well over a mile without any sign of stopping. Abe said the musk ox have been hunted before, so they would probably be spooky.
I got back on the machine and made a wide circle around the herd getting well in front of them. I parked the machine, and headed off in their direction. I was now on the flats, so there was little to no cover. The herd ended up spotting me, and took off running again, however this time I noticed there were two bulls in there, and one was a pig. They broke away from the other half dozen ox, and ended up turning to face me. I was able to work into around 15 yards, and the bulls would scoop up snow at me with their noses and grunt. All I had with me was my bow and backpack. I noticed Abe watching from over half a mile away. The bulls were in a T-shape, and the large one was facing right at me. I started working a circle around them, and after a few minutes, I was standing 15 yards from the big bull who was now perfectly broadside. I drew back, put the pin right behind his shoulder and touched off the shot. The arrow hit perfect, but hit the offside scalpula so it didn't pass through. The bull stammered for about 5 seconds, took one step and fell over face first into the snow. The other bull hopped back, and stuck around waiting for the big guy to get up and leave with him. About 30 seconds of huffing, and he was done.
After a few minutes, Abe showed up and congradulated me. We had to chase off the other bull, and then the work began.