Karly's 2013 AZ Cow Elk Hunt
My wife Karly was drawn for a cow elk hunt this year. Thanks to a friend and my dad's scouting, we had a good idea of where to start. We scouted Thursday morning before the hunt, and saw some elk and figured out a plan for the morning. We went and glassed that evening, but didn't see anything.
Opening morning we were on our knob and soon after it got light my wife spotted some elk coming our way. We got setup and waited for the elk to get closer, hoping they kept drifting closer to our position. At one point we thought they were going to go up a cut out in front of us, and we'd need to move to get a line of sight on them, but as soon as the sun hit them, they picked up their pace and headed right where we needed them to go. I ranged some junipers and told her when the lead cow came out of the trees I'd give a cow call and stop her. The shot would be about 260 yards, a little further than I would have liked, but much better than it could have been in that big country.
I stopped the elk with a cow call and the lead cow turned slightly so that she was quartering towards us. Karly squeezed off a shot and hit the cow in the front shoulder with the bullet exiting about halfway out the other side. The cow stumbled forward, and she shot her again hitting high shoulder putting her down for good. Her trusty .308 shooting 150 grain barnes bullets had put down her third elk.
Last year Karly had gotten her bull on the last day of the hunt, and this year she was done by 6:45 on opening morning. :) We called my dad and he brought out the kids to share in the excitement and we broke down her elk and got it back to my dad's house.
Since Karly's hunt ended so quickly, we still helped out a couple of friends that had the same hunt. One of them ended up tagging out Sunday evening, and they left after the Monday am hunt to head home.
Thanks go out to my dad for watching the kids and loaning Karly his 15x binos for her to use. She did well spotting elk all weekend! Also thanks to Terry for his scouting efforts and his help on the hunt.
Opening morning we were on our knob and soon after it got light my wife spotted some elk coming our way. We got setup and waited for the elk to get closer, hoping they kept drifting closer to our position. At one point we thought they were going to go up a cut out in front of us, and we'd need to move to get a line of sight on them, but as soon as the sun hit them, they picked up their pace and headed right where we needed them to go. I ranged some junipers and told her when the lead cow came out of the trees I'd give a cow call and stop her. The shot would be about 260 yards, a little further than I would have liked, but much better than it could have been in that big country.
I stopped the elk with a cow call and the lead cow turned slightly so that she was quartering towards us. Karly squeezed off a shot and hit the cow in the front shoulder with the bullet exiting about halfway out the other side. The cow stumbled forward, and she shot her again hitting high shoulder putting her down for good. Her trusty .308 shooting 150 grain barnes bullets had put down her third elk.
Last year Karly had gotten her bull on the last day of the hunt, and this year she was done by 6:45 on opening morning. :) We called my dad and he brought out the kids to share in the excitement and we broke down her elk and got it back to my dad's house.
Since Karly's hunt ended so quickly, we still helped out a couple of friends that had the same hunt. One of them ended up tagging out Sunday evening, and they left after the Monday am hunt to head home.
Thanks go out to my dad for watching the kids and loaning Karly his 15x binos for her to use. She did well spotting elk all weekend! Also thanks to Terry for his scouting efforts and his help on the hunt.
Great job Karly and Ron!
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