Grandson missed a bull elk with his bow

Okanagan · September 10, 2019, 08:53:49 PM

Grandson Code, whom some of you kind of watched grow up on this site, only had a bit more than two days to hunt elk this Fall, because he has to head out for several months of job training. He made it to his elk country just before dark on opening day, got a bull to answer his call and went after it at dawn the next day. It replied once or twice and he heard it chuckle but then it went quiet and he never saw it.

Later that day his uncle dropped him off to call into the head of a canyon, and he made a cow call within 50 yards of the logging road, where the ground breaks down steeply into the canyon and the old growth timber opens some. Within a minute he saw an elk moving his way, bull coming to the call. He ranged a tree at 42 yards where he expected the bull to come open. The bull stopped at the right spot. Code put the pin on its heart and felt good about the shot till the arrow dropped just under the bull's chest. He tried again as the bull left, at 52 yards but that arrow hit a limb.

He had dropped his bow hard earlier in the day so immediately did some target shooting and found that it was consistently shooting 4 inches low at 50 yards. That wasn't enough to account for a clean miss but it was raining HARD and bow ballistic info says that a lot of water on string and limbs can drop an arrow another 6 inches at 50 yards. Bummer.

I asked what kind of antlers the bull had and he said that it was in the low end of Pope and Young archery record size. He's killed bigger and is very good at judging antlers on the hoof so he's probably right about what it would score.

I am LOVING living close to grandkids!

pitw · September 10, 2019, 09:17:20 PM

It happens.

JohnP · September 11, 2019, 09:58:40 AM

Great write up, enjoyed reading it. For me the thrill is in the chase not the kill.

remrogers · September 11, 2019, 10:25:07 AM

When you get one on the ground, that is when the work starts.

Okanagan · September 11, 2019, 10:40:02 AM

Quote from: JohnP on September 11, 2019, 09:58:40 AM
Great write up, enjoyed reading it. For me the thrill is in the chase not the kill.

^^Ditto^^

He is a very good bow shot and his confidence hurt him a little this time. His uncle was surprised that he aimed at the heart rather than mid way up the ribs. The heart is pretty low in the chest, not much margin below it for a fatal hit.

remrogers, you got that right.

Those boys really work for the elk they have killed in those deep, sopping wet canyons. This one might have been their easiest ever, had he dropped near the shot. Cody killed his biggest bull two or three years ago about 350 yards from where he shot at this one, on a level contour around the head of the canyon, very little uphill to the road and through fairly open old growth forest. Easiest pack out we've done.

FinsnFur · September 11, 2019, 08:50:57 PM

Another fine write up by the Okanagan

I'm glad hes able to live the life he is living. He sure seems to be enjoying it. And so does Grandpa

riverboss · September 12, 2019, 05:43:28 PM

Sounds like they keep you on your toes! Great rite up I really enjoyed it, I wish I would of had more of a family that hunted together
I lost my only hunting brother to cancer and he didn't hunt alot.

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Okanagan · September 12, 2019, 09:09:53 PM

Quote from: riverboss on September 12, 2019, 05:43:28 PM
Sounds like they keep you on your toes! Great rite up I really enjoyed it, I wish I would of had more of a family that hunted together
I lost my only hunting brother to cancer and he didn't hunt alot.

Sent from my Vivo XI using Tapatalk

That's a hard loss. I'm sorry.

We are blessed and we know it. Code's youngest brother, Zay, was bow hunting last weekend also and I will be going out with him on Sat. and Sunday to try again for a 3 point or better bull. Zay has a football game Friday night and a team/film meeting early Sat. so we will head out after that. Their uncle Dave, the elk guru in our family, can't join us till late Sat.

nastygunz · September 12, 2019, 10:30:05 PM

I sure wish we had elk and mule deer here in little Alaska. Pronghorn's would be nice to

I love calling in a big old strutting Tom, or some Canadian geese or some ducks or coyotes or foxes but I can't imagine how it would be to call in a monster Elk bugling at you that would have to be some damn exciting

JohnP · September 16, 2019, 12:22:32 PM

Ya need to plan a trip to the desert, we have all you mentioned.

nastygunz · September 17, 2019, 01:58:18 AM

I have been watching hunting videos where the guys are using life-size pronghorn cut outs to sneak up close to the antelope and it really works ha ha. Same thing with turkeys.

Okanagan · September 17, 2019, 10:08:02 AM

Quote from: nastygunz on September 17, 2019, 01:58:18 AM
I have been watching hunting videos where the guys are using life-size pronghorn cut outs to sneak up close to the antelope and it really works ha ha. Same thing with turkeys.

Yep, I think that if Zay had had a life size elk decoy he could have walked up within bow range of the bull on the road Sunday evening. The best elk caller I know bow hunts in coastal Oregon and in recent years has used an elk decoy with excellent results. He was walking across a cow pasture toward some woods he planned to hunt when a bull elk came into the pasture and saw him. He hunkered down behind the elk decoy in a place as open as a lawn and called. The bull came closer to him plus he edged closer to the bull by waddle walking behind the decoy. He killed it with an arrow.

Cody has considered using a decoy, but all that we have considered are too bulky to carry in the terrain and over the distances our family tends to hunt. That bull on the road the other day was a rare opportunity. The elk were super active Sunday. I'd never seen an elk on the road during hunting season out in that country till Sunday. I'd seen a few cows on the road down in the low country and come to think of it, we were not anywhere near the tops of the mountains where we usually hunt, but just starting up.