Antlerless Elk Hunting 2009

My last lucky tag drawn for the hunting year 2009 was for an antlerless elk on Deseret Land and Livestock Ranch, CWMU. Dax has worked on various elk projects there for several years in the past so I enticed {begged} him to come help his old dad and guide me on a fine hunt. We met in Bountiful, Utah on the evening of December 18, 2009 and had a good visit with my other son Rusty and his family. We had some fine food then when to sleep for a few short hours. Dax had arranged for us to be at the ranch at 7:00 a.m. I was driving up to the ranch via Evanston, Wyoming so we ended up leaving Bountiful at 5:30 a.m. and unfortunately with me driving -- arrived at the ranch at around 7:30 a.m. All the guides and hunters had already gone out hunting so we signed in at the guide shack and went for a look around the 250,000 acre ranch for just one antlerless elk. Dax drove us just about 3 minutes to the southwest along a main road and we saw a small antlerless elk running away from us down a road to the east. I think it was just a calf. We watched it for a few minutes and were pleased that there were still elk on the ranch. Dax said we could fill the tag and get some veal-elk. I said not now it is so early in the hunt. I thought I could see milk around its mouth from sucking on its mother. Maybe it was frost around the mouth as it was about 0º outside the truck. I didn't want to get out of the warm truck, stalk, shoot, track, clean, and get all that cold yet. It was only 8 a.m. and we had all day.

Dax drove us around many roads and locations where there were usually elk. I saw lots of snow and really cold things. We never got stuck in the snow but I am sure it was because of Dax's driving skills in the 18 inch deep snow here and there. We saw and photographed 5 bull moose. We saw many pronghorn antelope, and mule deer. We could not seem to find out where the elk were. We crossed the main elk traveled "highway" path at least 3 times yet we could not find the elk. Finally, around noon I said do you want a sandwich? Dax looked at me like I was never going to ask. He was starving. We drove to the top of a moderately tall mountain and I made some sandwiches with extra good bread, cheese, and best meat Dax had brought. He even brought me some Diet Coke. What a kid! He got out his spotting scope and proceeded to look around the ranch all the way to Wyoming for elk. I looked also between bites of sandwich and swigs of Diet Coke. I spotted 10 -12 head of elk at a distance of maybe 1 mile to the east of where we were. Dax moved the spotting scope over and said "good spot Dad, but they are all bulls." Sure enough at the distance I could tell they were elk with my binoculars but could not see the antlers. I looked through his spotting scope at around 50X and they were all trophy elk. I would be proud to harvest any of the big brutes but not today. Today I was a "Ladies Man" and going for an antlerless animal. We started to drive to the north off the peak of the mountain and down into some sagebrush rolling country. There were lots of small little coolies where elk could hide. Around 1 p.m. we finally found some of them.

Down in the rolling sage flats Dax said, "There they are!" Off to the west of us were a couple of rag-horn bulls, a spike, two calves, and 3 - 4 antlerless large animals. We stopped the truck and tried to get a better look with binoculars and I tried to get a range on them with my laser range finder. I could not get the range finder to read. Dax tried the range finder also without luck. I think we had earlier been looking over 1 mile away at animals so some elk "just" 400 - 500 yards way looked close. My range finder only reads animals to about 500 yards. I slipped out of the truck and turned my scope up to 20X to check out the elk. I could see a fine cow in the northern most lead position. I put the crosshairs on the upper part of its front leg and moved the safety off. I held my breath both to steady the shot and because of the cold. I pulled the trigger, boom, and it felt like a good shot. It hit low under the cow so I worked the bolt to reload and shot again with the same hold. I hit low again. My .300 Win. Mag. is sighted in to hit only 20" low at 500 yards so I easily could have been shooting under the cow elk. The elk could not see us very well and the wind was in our face so they didn't smell us. They started to run right toward us. I thought why not let them come right to the truck if they want to. At about 200 yards they saw us and stopped moving. Dax had put up his spotting scope and was watching and I tried another shot at the lead cow. I heard the "ploop" of the bullet striking the elk. Dax said "You shot it in the butt". I couldn't believe I did. I was a reasonable shot and had practiced just three days before with the rifle and the loads. I thought I was sighted in perfect. I was sick. I wanted the elk to drop from a heart shot. Not so. The cow laid down and had its head up. One of the rag horn bulls went over and stomped around it to make it move. Finally out of desperation he actually stomped on the laying cow. She didn't move so he ran off. Dax started to move over toward the downed cow from the south to make her run toward me if she got up. She didn't move so I started to sneak up on her straight on in the sage brush. I got to within 60 yards or so and shot her again, in the head. It was over. My original shot was a perfect double lung shot not the butt. Dax was just pulling my chain to get me worked up. He also told me to not shoot it in the backstrap when I was shooting for the head. {When I was prepping the hide to dry it I found the perfectly mushroomed bullet stuck in the hide on the far side of the elk.}

Dax and I took some photos and we went back to the truck to see if we could drive to nearer the downed elk. Dax found a gate and we drove to within 10 feet of the elk. He more or less cleaned the animal for me. He is such a help. We dragged her up the removed tailgate of the truck for a ramp. Dax drove us out to the ranch shack and we weighed her in at the scales. Then off to Bountiful. It was only around 3 p.m. Of course we had to stop at our favorite Mexican cafe in Evanston on the way home. We went in to the cafe with rifle cartridges on my belt loops and blood on our clothes but no problem in Evanston. We had great food and good service then home to Bountiful.

Dax had to head home to Roosevelt that evening. I imagine he was way tired. I went down to Rusty's house to show him the elk and see how they were all doing. I slept in the next morning and then took the elk to be processed. It was all-in-all a great hunt. I got to visit with both my boys and harvest an elk. We all look forward to the elk steaks and elk burgers to come this winter. I hope we can have some meals all together from this adventure.