Author Topic: Rifle elk  (Read 10225 times)

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Offline WhistlingBadger

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Rifle elk
« on: October 03, 2024, 12:50:46 am »
Well, I once again failed to score with the longbow, though I had some extremely close calls and really thought his was going to be my year.  Disappointing, really.

But I guess this will do.  Sometimes I just gotta get out the .270 and put some meat in the freezer. ;D


After two hours of crawling through the sagebrush, then another three hours of quartering this beast, my body is reminding me that I'm not 25 anymore.  ha ha  All worth it, though.
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour

Offline bjrogg

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2024, 07:07:35 am »
Congratulations. Some mighty fine eating there.

Bjrogg
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Offline WhistlingBadger

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2024, 10:42:10 am »
Congratulations. Some mighty fine eating there.

Bjrogg
Thanks, BJ.  He should be tasty for sure, even at the end of the rut.  My hunting partner is a beer brewer, and the meat is in his walk-in cooler until the CWD test results come back.  So we'll let him age for a week or so before I put him in the freezer, and he should be very good eating.

I'm pretty sure this the same bull that foiled our efforts to get close with the longbow a couple weeks ago:  We snuck to within about 300 yards but couldn't get close enough to threaten him.  When my partner bugled, he simply rounded up his cows and took off.  There's a reason nobody bow hunts in the desert!   ;D


Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour

Offline WhistlingBadger

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2024, 10:51:36 am »
And a bit of story:

Monday was the last day of bow hunting. I had a terrible time locating any elk. It was hot, for one thing, and the heat waves off the desert made it impossible to tell whether animals seen through binoculars were elk, wild horses, or cattle. Monday evening I spotted a herd in the distance, two or three miles away. I usually use my truck to get within a mile or so, then stalk from there. Long story short, some antelope hunters came along and blew my chances at calling in an elk, but I didn't think they spooked the herd too much.

So Tuesday morning, I was on them at first light. I spent about two hours crawling through the sagebrush trying to get within rifle range, using every tiny fold of land to stay out of sight, only to have another hunter shoot the bull when I was still about 500 yards away. I walked over to say hi and see this bull. The hunter was a young guy on his first elk hunt, with his wife, baby, and dad along. I couldn't get too ticked off: They were friendly, and he was super happy, and I must admit he did make a heck of a shot. They were locals, which is always a nice surprise. And it was a really cool bull, with several tines broken off while fighting for his cows. Cool to see. But...DANG. Desert elk bed down and disappear by about 8 a.m., and I had wasted the best part of the day.

I grumbled my way back to the truck. Decided to move away from Cyclone Rim, the big landmark in the area where both elk and hunters tend to hang out. Headed out north on an extremely sketchy two-track through the hills, glassing distant sagebrush flats for little black heads sticking up. Before long, I saw antlers. I couldn't see the animal that was presumably connected to them, and my first thought was that it was a really big mule deer. But on further inspection, the tips were pretty far apart...if this was a muley, it was trophy book material. Or it might be a small elk.

I pulled the truck a little further down the road, out of sight of the mystery critter. I grabbed my rifle and my shooting sticks, just in case, scooted over the rim as sneakily as possible, and lifted my binos. First thing I saw was a whole bunch of little black ears sticking out of the sage, with a big set of antlers right in the middle of them. Yippee! I set my sticks and got the bull in my sights, then waited. I could only see the top of his head, no chance for a shot. The elk weren't looking my direction; they really seemed pretty satisfied to continue lounging around. I ranged them at 209 yards, a very comfortable range for my .270. After a few minutes of waiting, I remembered that I had an elk call in my pocket, so I blew a few cow calls. The cows--about five of them--jumped up and stared at me, but the bulls stayed bedded. Eventually the cows got nervous and started milling around, and the herd bull stood up. I waited until he turned broadside, and squeezed off a round. I knew I had hit him in the lungs, but bull elk are outrageously tough critters, and the elk hunters' maxim is "keep shooting until he's down." I took a couple more shots at him as he trotted up the hill; one hit him in the neck and the second apparently missed. Within probably 30 seconds of my first shot, he was down for the count.

So, yeah, I didn't score with the longbow, once again. But I'm pretty happy.

A few more pictures.  Took about 3 hours to get this guy skinned and quartered out.  I had pondered saving the 100 or so feet of small intestine to make bow strings and sewing thread.  But elk with make you rethink such choices, and I decided three hours of crouching and bending was enough; besides, I needed to get the meat home and in the cooler.


A herd of wild horses moseyed by, and I took a break to watch them for a while.  They are beautiful animals.  I just wish there weren't so many of them.  They have no predators, and the big city, arm-chair environmentalists have decided that they shouldn't be culled, so they are really tough on the country.  It's cool to see them, though.


Now the meat is safely in my buddy's walk-in cooler, where it will age for a week or so while I wait for the results of the CWD test. CWD doesn't tend to affect desert elk too bad, and this guy was robust and healthy (he ran almost 200 yards with a .270 bullet through his lungs), so it should be fine. Should get around 250 pounds of meat to feed my family--and probably several friends--this coming year.  The aging will tender it up a bit and make it taste even better. Tonight I'll get to work on the head, which I plan on making into a European-style skull mount. I also kept the hide, but I haven't decided whether I'll make buckskin or veg tan leather. Either one should be really nice. Elk leather is extremely beautiful and useful stuff. But wow, what a mess. This guy was right at the end of the rut, when they wallow in water holes, and his fur is all caked with mud. Gonna be a lot of fun de-hairing this one!

I'll head back out in a week or two and try to find an antelope. Pronghorns are diurnal, which means you don't have to be out at dawn and dusk to find one, and they are extremely plentiful and easy to find. So I can just take the Badgerling out some afternoon and have a better than even chance of coming home with one. The antelope will get made into jerky and sausage (and maybe a nice buck skin), and we'll be going into winter with a bursting freezer. Ain't life great?
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour

Offline Stoker

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2024, 11:20:21 am »
Good on you for getting it done. I have a rifle antelope draw tag coming up in 3 weeks. 9 years of waiting. Congrats
Bacon is food DUCT tape - Cipriano

Offline WhistlingBadger

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2024, 11:28:05 am »
Good on you for getting it done. I have a rifle antelope draw tag coming up in 3 weeks. 9 years of waiting. Congrats
Nothing quite like that top-of-the-food-chain feeling.
Where are you headed?  Antelope are a fun hunt. Congrats on drawing!
« Last Edit: October 03, 2024, 11:52:46 am by WhistlingBadger »
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour

Offline Pappy

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2024, 10:28:32 pm »
Congrats WB , nice elk. Pappy
Clarksville,Tennessee
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Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2024, 10:48:47 pm »
Yeah, a bull elk can soak up a lot of foot/lbs of bullet energy and keep moving! You worked for this one and the work paid off.
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline WhistlingBadger

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2024, 10:38:29 am »
Thanks, Pappy!

Yeah, a bull elk can soak up a lot of foot/lbs of bullet energy and keep moving! You worked for this one and the work paid off.
They take a lickin' and keep on tickin'!  One of many things I love about them. 
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour

Offline Stoker

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2024, 11:18:53 am »
Good on you for getting it done. I have a rifle antelope draw tag coming up in 3 weeks. 9 years of waiting. Congrats
Nothing quite like that top-of-the-food-chain feeling.
Where are you headed?  Antelope are a fun hunt. Congrats on drawing!

I'm in southeastern Alberta. Start hunting as soon as I leave city limits. I'm in the middle of antelope territory. My area of choice is about a hour south, about 70 miles north of the US Canada border. Antelope are a fun hunt.
Bacon is food DUCT tape - Cipriano

Offline Muskyman

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2024, 05:21:49 pm »
Excellent WB. Don’t know much about the CWD but know it’s around. Here in Ohio they test deer occasionally for it, at least that’s how I remember it. I haven’t hunted deer for a while. Lost my hunting partner and it just didn’t seem the same. Didn’t realize it was in the elk population as well. Enjoy, I’ve heard elk is quite yummy.

Offline WhistlingBadger

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2024, 06:07:06 pm »
Finished processing last night.  Freezer is absolutely stuffed; I'm going to have to wait until later in the month to hunt antelope, just becasue there's nowhere to put it!  Nice problem to have.  And unlike Aaron Burr, I do know how the sausage gets made.
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour

Offline Piddler

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2024, 07:14:34 pm »
Lots of work doing your own meat work. I'm sure your tired. Worth it in my opinion though.
Piddler
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Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #13 on: October 11, 2024, 07:16:26 pm »
Congratulations!  Nice bull!  Remember Elk math - one guy 66 and one guy 33 does not equal 3 guys 33!  Our hunting partner got a 6 point down on mountain side so steep we had to tie it to a tree some could dress it out!  Took us 2 days get it all oou! Doing it by yourself is commendable!
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
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Offline WhistlingBadger

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Re: Rifle elk
« Reply #14 on: October 11, 2024, 07:27:15 pm »
Congratulations!  Nice bull!  Remember Elk math - one guy 66 and one guy 33 does not equal 3 guys 33!  Our hunting partner got a 6 point down on mountain side so steep we had to tie it to a tree some could dress it out!  Took us 2 days get it all oou! Doing it by yourself is commendable!
Hawkdancer

Yeah, they're a ton of work.  Mine had the courtesy to die about 20 feet from a two tracker, so I was able to drive right to him.  Awfully decent of him, under the circumstances.  So the quartering and processing were a long process, but at least I didn't have to pack him out.  Not so my buddy's.  He killed one with his wheeley bow, and it died right in the bottom of a steep draw about a mile downhill from anywhere we could drive.  Elk will have their revenge!  It's amazing how often they leave us wondering who's killing who.  But in the end, the elk is in my freezer, not the other way around, so we'll call it a win.

Got the skull (christened "Romeo") done, just need to bleach the bone a bit so it looks pretty.  An unexpected problem:  Romeo doesn't really fit in our house.  the nose touches the back of the couch, and the tines touch the ceiling.  Even Mrs. Badger agrees that we need a taller house!
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour