- Banned
- #1
I'm starting to put this elk hunting thing together I think! Been hunting elk seriously for 5 years, got my first cow last year with the rifle and have helped my buddy kill 2 bulls in the last two years...this year was my turn!
We put a group of elk to bed in the morning and went and sat water during the day. That afternoon we came back to try to make a play on the elk we put to bed. We knew there was a bull in there, not sure how many cows at the time. We are walking along the edge of a meadow and I spot a cow out in the wide open. I sneak down to the very edge of the meadow and as I'm doing this I start to hear the bull go off, but he sounds a long way away so I'm not worried about him and I'm just fixin to shoot this cow and be done.
Once I get to the edge of the meadow, however, I see about 10 cows and the bull right in the middle of them. I wait for them to come into range and sure enough, the bull decides that he now wants to be at the front of the group! He trots up, turns perfectly broadside to me at 75 yards and just STANDS THERE!!! I'm good with my broadheads out to 80 yards on an elk so I draw back, anchor, and let fly. Arrow looks perfect, sounds like it hits HARD, and the elk all blow out into the timber on the far side of the meadow and I hear some crashing that I'm hoping is him dying. We wait 15 minutes, I go peak my head into the timber where I saw him go in and there he is, dead 30 yards into the timber!!!
Biggest lesson learned: My rangefinder was NOT set correctly for archery. I didn't have angle compensation on so I shot him at 75 yards, but this was pretty steeply angled downhill so he was probably more like 70 yards with compensation. My arrow took him out quickly, but the shot was almost too high. A win is a win, but I won't make that mistake again!
We put a group of elk to bed in the morning and went and sat water during the day. That afternoon we came back to try to make a play on the elk we put to bed. We knew there was a bull in there, not sure how many cows at the time. We are walking along the edge of a meadow and I spot a cow out in the wide open. I sneak down to the very edge of the meadow and as I'm doing this I start to hear the bull go off, but he sounds a long way away so I'm not worried about him and I'm just fixin to shoot this cow and be done.
Once I get to the edge of the meadow, however, I see about 10 cows and the bull right in the middle of them. I wait for them to come into range and sure enough, the bull decides that he now wants to be at the front of the group! He trots up, turns perfectly broadside to me at 75 yards and just STANDS THERE!!! I'm good with my broadheads out to 80 yards on an elk so I draw back, anchor, and let fly. Arrow looks perfect, sounds like it hits HARD, and the elk all blow out into the timber on the far side of the meadow and I hear some crashing that I'm hoping is him dying. We wait 15 minutes, I go peak my head into the timber where I saw him go in and there he is, dead 30 yards into the timber!!!
Biggest lesson learned: My rangefinder was NOT set correctly for archery. I didn't have angle compensation on so I shot him at 75 yards, but this was pretty steeply angled downhill so he was probably more like 70 yards with compensation. My arrow took him out quickly, but the shot was almost too high. A win is a win, but I won't make that mistake again!
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