# Yea - but it's a nice tired!!!!



## Watcher (Dec 31, 2008)

After going bust for the last two years and having an empty freezer, I made the not too difficult decision: "if you'd shoot it the last day, shoot it the first day." We'll actually I passed on a cow the first day cause I was two miles from the truck (gps), it was 80 fricking degrees, and she was going to run down hill into a black hole even farther from the road. I told people I had a milestone moment in my life: I passed on an elk for the first time: because I was to old, to tired, to hot and to far from the road. I told my wife I couldn't miss an opening day (just couldn't) but it was so hot that cow would have rotted under the best of luck - so maybe that's the excuse I'm stickin with.
With a little cooler weather, I thought I'd go at it again. Thursday night I got into elk and I mean into them. An old cow got a little nervous and got the entire group to move off a bit. But they didn't go far and I chirped with them for ten minutes while they were off a ways (even had a bull a tad bit worked up). I moved a little closer, got situated, and then I just shut up, sat down, and waited. Sure enough after a brief rain moved through they started working back my way. One cow came in and after drawing on her once and letting down she hopped out a couple jumps and started walking real slow quartering away at 35 yards. I am a fan of lighted knocks and Muzzys&#8230; TWACK &#8230; 
Because of the light, I knew I hit her a little back and high but the angle made me feel pretty good. She bolted off and I listened as hard as my old deaf ears could &#8230; did I hear a death crash or just busted brush? I waited five minutes and then walked up to where she was hit. Caught the light of the knock in the dirt and found the arrow: complete pass through, good red blood, very nice. One problem, not a drop of blood! You got to be kidding. I could follow her tracks in the dirt a bit and after about five more minutes I found a drop. Five more minutes and ten more feet another. And I mean a drop - I was starting to get pretty nervous. 20 minutes later I was 25 feet from the first drop and down on my hands on knees trying to figure what the heck happened. That's when another cow came working down a trail really quick and almost ran me over. At 10 feet when she turned 180 and galloped away the way she came I don't know who's heart was pumping faster. I had 45 minutes of day-light left, I had found a total of 7-10 small drops, it was starting to rain a little - promising to wash out what blood there was, I felt at the end, and I was thinking about the offers from others to bring their dogs out. I decided to give up on the blood, turn on the gps and start doing some radial walks. I was also thinking about where I heard that last crash. Wow, after just a couple circles I saw a rock that didn't quite look right and as I move in I realized I was looking at my cow piled up right on the trail 60 yards from where she was hit. As I walked up to her (overjoyed) I saw the fat had created a cork that stuck out of her an inch-and-a-half plugging her right up. The arrow had hit her lungs and they filled up without spitting a thing out the other side. 
You never stop seeing new things and learning in this game. Listen for the death crash man!!!
I got her skinned out with some rain/snow falling which promised she'd cool down over night and I headed down to take on the hard work this morning. No camera until then.
GPS - ¾ mile and 2500 feet up hill to reach her. Carried her out in two loads ( 190 pounds total at the butcher). Packing up the last load was raining and miserable. Then the lighting started making the hair (what little's left) on the back of my neck stand up and I was thinking about ditching my aluminum walking poles (although I highly recommended these to negotiate a heavy pack on steep hills). I had a light rain-coat but my boots and pants were soaked. I am glad it was down-hill cause I'm beat. *But ... yea it's a nice tired.* 
To paraphrase John Wayne's True Grit - not bad for a one-eyed fat man but I'll say "not bad for a bald old fat man." 
Give me a day to recover and I'll do it again. There's nothing like it.


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## Watcher (Dec 31, 2008)

*Yea - it's a nice tired!!!!*

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## Flyfishn247 (Oct 2, 2007)

*Re: Yea - it's a nice tired!!!!*

Very nice!


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## JERRY (Sep 30, 2007)

*Re: Yea - it's a nice tired!!!!*

Nice! Thanks for the story.


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## Bowdacious (Sep 16, 2007)

*Re: Yea - it's a nice tired!!!!*

Thanks for the read! Congrats on a job well done!!!


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## stablebuck (Nov 22, 2007)

*Re: Yea - it's a nice tired!!!!*

good job!


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## stillhunterman (Feb 15, 2009)

*Re: Yea - it's a nice tired!!!!*

Well done young man! ;-) Thanks for posting up the story, really enjoyed it!


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

way to go man


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## 90redryder (Oct 10, 2011)

Thanks for the story. By the way, 3/4 of a mile and 2500 feet up is one hell of a steep hike.


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## Watcher (Dec 31, 2008)

I know you wheren't calling BS but I agreed it seemed like too much. I went back to my GPS and downloaded the route. Sure enough the decent distance was 2900 feet not the elevation gain which was closer to 775 feet (I did do it twice - 1500 feet).  It was still steep and I was still tired. I love my GPS - partly cause it won't let me exaggerate - not that sportmen do that sort of thing. Before I had it I would routinely pack animals out over two miles! :O•-:


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## Yahtahay (Jul 3, 2008)

Congrats Watcher, should have some good meat for the next year.


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## kailey29us (May 26, 2011)

Cool great job


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