And I know I have already posted a little bit about it on FB, but get prepared for the whole story! ;)
My elk hunt opened October 1st and would close on the 31st. We took the first 4 days of October off and hunted those days and then the following weeks we just went on our days off.
So the first day we did see a group or two but unit 45 is A LOT of private land so it makes it hard to hunt, and I'm pretty sure the elk know that because they stay on the private land! So actually all the elk we saw almost the whole month were on private land. On the 3rd day we did have a shot just below us and pretty soon a little rag horn came up right past us. I could have shot him and made it easy because he was not to far from the truck and we could have just drove down to him! But I didnt, I passed him up. The following weeks I was really regretting that I did though because we were not seeing any elk!! It was kinda depressing!
But, finally on Monday {10/23/17} we saw about 40 head! It was so weird going from 0 to 40 in a matter of days! So at this point, between work we only had a few days left to hunt so I was going to take anything I got!
The elk were quite a ways away but pretty soon we saw 2 spikes that were closer and I opted to take a spike that was closer than a bigger bull I'd have to hike for (thanks to my feet injuries). So we started hiking to the spikes who led us right to 3 bigger bulls! (yay!) We got down as close as we could with out being noticed and I picked out the bull I wanted. Like I said in my facebook post, I was pretty dang nervous because Tommy told me they were 400 yards away!!, and all my other elk have been like 20!! :/ But I got sight of my bull in the scope and felt like I could make a good shot. So after a few minutes slowing my heart rate and breathing, and just calming down and relaxing, I steadied my cross hairs and shot.
The first shot hit and he humped up a little bit but didn't move, but Tommy told me to shoot again! (Yikes! I hadn't had to shoot twice before!) So I shakily loaded the second bullet and shot again-which dropped him. I was so nervous about that second shot because it was quick and I couldn't take my time like the first one in case he tried to get away! Tommy said he's pretty sure he was dead on his feet but we definitely didn't want to take the chance of having to chase him.
When we got down to him the first bullet was right behind his front shoulder and the second one was just a few inches farther back.
Tommy started quartering him out and there was no way we could hike back up to the truck, so we had to wait for Tommy's dad and friend to come to the bottom of the hill and help us pack him out that way! And when I say "we" couldn't hike back up the truck, I mean ME! It killed my feet getting down to the elk, there was NO WAY I was hiking back up! I would walk down the rest of the hill and through a field to a road if I had to! haha (The truck was where the sun is in this picture, about a mile away. Tommy did have to hike back up there at one point to get service! :/ )
So we waited for Ted and Chris and when they got there Ted finished quartering the elk and getting the scrap meat and tenderloins while Tommy started packing out. And that was that!
For what we saw this year on public land, I'd say 2017 did us good! An 8x8 elk at 440 yards, and more meat in the freezer!!
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