This was opening week of rifle season 2017. Jim, Andrew and Tony all had a pretty exciting day on the third day of the hunt. The first two days were cold and windy – the elk were not moving much so they were itching for some action. They were sitting on a hillside glassing for any hint of elk and deer with no luck that morning. As they sat there (some of them napping from the strenuous up-mountain morning hike) Tony spotted a cow bedded down. All you could see was barely her head. In a few minutes, Tony spotted two more. Now it was getting interesting! As they watched for the next hour they started to pick out more and more elk. Eventually it went from one elk at 800 yards to over 30 elk and 5 legal bulls. Over time the elk began to get up and feed for the afternoon, and the guide made a plan and began the stalk to close the 800-yard distance. The plan was to drop into a draw and get out of sight, so no one would get caught by the wary eyes of so many elk. They had over 400 yards to close the distance to be able to make accurate shots. Once they were all in the planned for position, they noticed the herd was nowhere to be found where they had last been seen. Came to find out as the hunt party had moved towards the elk while the elk grazed downhill that the elk ended up downhill of the hunters instead of being directly across from them. Once they figured that out the elk were now under 250 yards away they all got set up for shots. Andrew was designated to be the first shooter because it was his first elk hunt. As we waited for a bull to stop broadside, Andrew was patient and picked out a bull to his liking. Once Andrew shot, the other two, Jim and Tony, found a bull each and made their shots respectively. It all lasted about two minutes once the shooting started. When the dust settled, and after they took pictures is when the hard and long work really started. It took over 3 hours to quarter all three elk and get them ready for horses to pack out the next day, now that the sun had set. They had to start hiking back late in the night and didn’t get back to camp until after 10:00 pm. The next day was a lot of work to pack put all the quarters and heads. The problem we had was we only had 4 horses to pack out the elk which is not enough pack stock for the enormity of this job! The ride to where the elk heads and quarters were was very difficult due to lots of downfall. So, we packed 8 elk quarters and one head on the horses. The hunters and guide carried the rest of the quarters and two remaining heads on their pack frames. A long hard day of work, but makes for a great story and tons of memories.
