Last Day Cow

My plans to kill a cow during the first part of the late cow season did not work out. Myself and Eric made it out about 5 times from Dec. 15 to January 15.

Eric killed his cow last Sunday afternoon after we slipped in on what we thought was four cows. It turned out to be about 30 elk and several of them busted us after we jumped some deer that ran past the herd. We charged up the hill to try and suprise some that might not have been too spooked and Eric got a standing 100 yard shot. I missed my shot at a 220 yards after she started to trot away. I could not get steady after running through the snow for 75 yards. When I finally did, she started to move and I missed. I followed a while to make sure of the miss then we got to work on Eric's cow. He shot her at 3:30 and we had meat packed and loaded in the truck by about 9pm.

I had said I wasn't going back out after we got Eric's, but the elk returned and I decided to give it a try. I glassed from the road and found some of them bedded on Tuesday and planned for a Wednesday assault, but could not find them Wednesday morning. I decided to not hike in if I did not know where they were. I glassed again Weneday evening and had almost decided they were gone until I drove back by on my way home and spotted the herd. So, plans were made for a last day Thursday hunt.

I arrived at the glassing location and watched the entire herd of 25 or 30 make their way up the mountain. They bedded quite a bit higher than I had hoped, but 4 or 5 stayed behind and we spotted them bedded on another ridge in a more approachable location. Eric dropped me off at 10am and I was on the phone with him at 11:30 declaring "dead cow".

I managed to crest the ridge across from them without detection. As I was trying to get into position to see them I noticed one of them had spotted me. I found a rest and took her while she stared from approximately 150 yrds quartering to me. The Remington 7mm mag dropped her in her tracks. She was a small cow, I believe a calf in 2007, but I'm not sure. The two other elk I could see before I took the shot were smaller calves from 2008 and the other two that stood after the shot were larger adults. I would have preferred the larger cows for the extra meat, but I was expecting everything to fall apart pretty quick and wasn't willing to take the chance on the last day.

We had a more difficult pack with this cow and had to make a second trip after a Burger King break. I shot the cow at 11:30 am and we had her packed and in the truck by 9 pm. So much for filling the tag early.