Well, I stated in an earlier post that I was not going to shoot a deer this year with less than a 30" spread.....I lied I guess, because I didn't quite make it. I ended up with a 25 inch wide and 22 3/8 high buck, respectable, but I just was running out of time due to my Elk hunt starting. (no, not that Elk)
My elk hunting trip has quite the story to it so here goes. The first day of the hunt, I had a shot at a 6 point rag horn, only problem was that the elk were all bunched up and he was standing directly in front of a cow elk. I, shooting a Rem. .300 ultra mag., chose not to shoot just then. By the time they decided to scatter, I did not have a shot at all, , and that ended day one.
The next couple of days were just pure up and down the tallest mountains in Idaho ( it seemed like ). Up at 5:00 am, and tromping the hills before light, and tromping back down at dark.
On day three I recieved a call from my dad via cell phone, saying that my Granny in Arkansas had passed away and I spent the next week there with the family. My granny was a great woman and I highly respected her for her simple lifestyle she led after my Grandpa died. She never remarried and died of Pancreatic cancer at the age of 90, and as I've said before, I'm sure God is honored to have her back.
After arriving back home I was torn between going back after an Elk or just staying home with my imediate family for the weekend. After a quick decision I was on my way back to the mountains with a friend of mine.
I had decided that I would give it one more day and that was it. At the end of the first day :silly: we ran into Elk and I decided to give it one more go Sun. morning. :)
The plan was to drive in as far as we could and then ride bikes up the mountain on a horse trail to the top and then ridge over to the top of a canyon that was going to be pushed by my friends brother and his father in law. The trail was about 6 inches wide and the drop off on one side was about a 1000 ft in places and even more in others and there was a skiff of snow on the ground. In some places on the way up, the snow was a foot deep and my friend Shane slid off the trail once and dang near lost it, had he slid completely off the trail it would have been ugly. To make a long story short I ended up shooting a spike Elk that morning and ending a fine Deer and Elk season. The funny thing about that day was that after I shot the Elk, Shane did not want to ride his bike back down that steep, narrow trail so he and a friend volenteered to drag my Elk to the bottom of the canyon were I would meet up them later and pull the Elk the rest of the way out with the 4-wheeler. I had to hike back over to where we had left the bikes and then ride down the mountain, ride back up the trail (double) with Shane's brother and bring the other bike down again. He was that spooked, just about going over the edge and all. :)