Chad's First Elk (Nov 15, 2003)

On Sunday, November 15, I got up at 5 a.m., and saddled three horses to go hunting with my neighbor boy, Chad, 12, and his dad, Mike. They came over about 5:45a.m., and we loaded the horses into the trailer and headed for Morrison Lane. Morrison Lane heads up into the hills behind my house two ridges back. We drove about 10 miles on snow covered roads which were a little tricky to drive with the 8-foot wide trailer, mainly because the new fallen snow on the side of the road. When the trailer trailed into the soft snow on the corners, it wanted to pull the pickup a little sideways. I have studs on the pickup and never slowed down so we pulled through it in good shape.

After unloading the horses and getting our cold weather gear on, we headed up the road with the horses. There was a steep hill right past where we parked which would have been hard with the trailer. The road was gated one-half mile up the road so it was not worth the hassle of trying to get up the hill with the trailer anyway.

Mike had been telling me that there should be some elk in this area. Chad could shoot a cow because he is under 14 years old. Mike was just looking to get an elk for Chad as Mike's wife and Chad's mom, Margie, had already shot a nice 5X5 bull earlier. There were four other hunters at the end of the road in pickups. They would be walking in from there.

Not knowing the area, we just went where the lay of the land looked good for elk. The weather was nice with the sun coming up with very few clouds. There was almost a foot of snow, and the hills were very beautiful in the morning sunshine. During the first couple of hours, we saw a few deer and some single elk tracks--a sure sign of bull elk in the area; however, we saw no elk. At 10 o'clock, we took a stand on a high ridge, just above Kramer Creek, where we could see several ridges and valleys around us. We could also see down into the Clark Fork River into which Kramer Creek drains. I-90 runs in this valley also.

After sitting and glassing the hillsides for almost an hour, Mike spotted a lone elk high on a ridge with his spotting scope. The elk was about two miles away. I told them we could go after it if they wanted. Mike couldn't figure how we could get there. He had never hunted on horses very much, as he was used to foot hunting. There were some deep canyons and heavy timber between us and the elk. I convinced Mike and Chad that we could be there in an hour or less.

We mounted the horses and the chase was on. I tried to stay at the same elevation so that the horses didn't have to work so hard going up hills in the foot of snow. Along the way, we ran into two local boys who were gutting a cow they had shot an hour earlier. We had heard 2 shots. They said there were several more animals but had not seen any bulls. We continued on our way to find the elk.

Finally reaching the hill where Mike had spotted the elk, we ran into the tracks of several elk. They had been running from the shots of the earlier elk kill. The trail was easy to follow with so many elk running all in the same direction. After a few hundred yards of following the tracks, the elk slowed and were eating; and some had laid down. This is the spot where Mike had seen the lone elk. The others were just over the hill out of our sight from the distant hill. After browsing on the back side of the hill for a while, the elk had headed into the heavy timber. We couldn't go after them with the horses as we would make too much noise and not be able to get a shot off before we spooked them. The tracks were headed down the hill through the heavy timber. Not knowing the area at all, I was hoping there would be a logged off area below where we could wait till they came through or maybe find them out in the open on the lower side of the timber.

We circled around the timber and presto, there was a clear cut. We were going slow when Mike saw the elk. He and Chad jumped off their horses and ran up in front of me about 20 yards. The elk were on a ridge about 200 yards away. It would be a long shot for a 12 year old! We could see only a couple of elk at a time as they walked from one small timber patch to another. Their heavy dark brown coats were very visible in the new snow. I stayed mounted on my horse so I could get the horses to them if we needed to go after any spooked elk.

Mike and Chad sat down in the snow on the edge of the ridge to take a shot. Their rifle scopes were wet from snow melting on them from going through some trees earlier. They had to dry the scopes before they could shoot. I was having a heart attack ( not really, just damn excited as to why they were not shooting) as I saw cow after cow pass through the opening and not a shot taken!!!!! I was not sure how many elk there were, and maybe no more would come out into the open so Chan would have a good shot. Finally, Chad took a shot and missed. The whole side of the hill erupted in elk. Elk were running every where! I had never seen anything like it before. Chad took another shot, missed again. It was just too far for him or he was a little nervous shooting his first elk at 12 years old.

Now the elk, almost 50 of them with 5 or 6 bulls, are really milling around and not being sure where the shots were coming from, they started running right toward us. Down into the draw they ran and up the hill toward us. As they started up the hill something made them turn,so now they were running side hill to us. They were only 80 yards below us, but running at a good clip. This time Chad took careful aim and downed one of the cows. A good fast killing shot right in the lungs.

Mike and Chad mounted their horses and rode down to start the big job processing the elk. I wanted to make sure that Chad hadn't hit another animal, so I followed the tracks for several hundred yards and found no blood or downed animals. I also backed tracked to where he made the first two shots and found nothing but a lot of trampled snow from many elk trying to get away from the noise of Chad's rifle.

Finding no other animals down, I went back to the kill site to congratulate Chan on his first elk kill. He was happy while telling me it was a good lung shot. I then helped gut, skin, and quarter the animal. That way, when we came back the next day to haul it out on the mules, we would only have to put the game bags on each quarter and load it on the mules. The snow would keep the meat clean and cool it down fast.

After the processing of the cow was done, we mounted the horses and headed back the 6 or 7 miles to the truck and trailer. The next day Mike and I would return with 2 mules to pack the cow out. Chad would have to go to school. At least he would have the ivories to show and a good hunting story to tell his friends. --Ray Woodside

Return to top