I struck out on bulls during bow season and early rifle in a new area I tried out this year. This past weekend I went to fill my cow tag in the normal area I like to hunt. I hiked a little over 10 miles Saturday, glassing and trying to cut herd tracks in the fresh snow.
On Sunday I talked to the area hunt coordinator from the state on the road, and she pointed me towards a herd of a couple hundred she had seen moving over a ridge. I wound up tracking them several miles over the course of the day, during which, two other groups of hunters saw them and tried to make shots. Hopefully they missed cleanly because I didn't see any elk down as I followed their path.
A little after 2 pm I finally spotted them bedded down on a hill top about a mile away. By 3 pm I had snuck and then crawled to a position on an adjacent hill top a little over 300 yds away. I watched them for a few minutes and when they started to spook and stand up, I picked a decent cow in the clear and sent a 180gr Accubond her way. She went down hard a few seconds later as the herd was starting to move out, but she was still sitting up so I shot again.
The bullets hit about 5 inchs apart with the first one hitting the onside shoulder and, I believe the heart before exiting the chest cavity and entering the far shoulder. The second shot hit at a different angle as she was quartering towards me when she went down, it went through the lungs and exited further rearward in the far side ribcage.
I wound up finding the bullet from the first shot under the skin. It went through a lot of bone and weighed 109gr as pictured.
I actually shot last year's cow on the far ridge visible a little over a mile back in this picture... not a great move, that pack out was a tough one.
It wasn't so bad this year though, I quartered and skinned the cow, put the bagged quarters in a scraggly tree and hiked out for the night.
Yesterday I came back with a friend and his Ice fishing sled and we dragged the quarters the 2.6 miles to the parking area. Way better than packing or game carts as far as I'm concerned if you have some snow. The day would have been a lot nicer if it weren't 10 deg with 30 mph winds... A bit chilly.
Yours truly in about 5 layers dragging the sled in (Laramie Peak in the background).
My friend next to the quartered elk-cicles loaded up in the sled.