When the elk slowed down and kept walking toward us (see Day 1), I could tell that the bull I’d shot was hit because he was limping. When the bulls were at 250 yards, I shot my bull four more times, however, he never flinched. He didn’t move at all, and neither did the other two bulls with him. I thought I’d missed the bull completely. So, I put another shell in the chamber, aimed and squeezed the trigger. This time the bull went down! When we got to the bull, I found that all five bullets had hit where I’d been aiming.
The bull was a 5x5, and I had shot him with a Remington 300 Short Action Ultra Magnum. After we were sure the bull was down, my dad took out his range finder, and the first shot that I’d taken was at 450 yards. Then he ranged where the bull was, and the last four shots were at 250 yards. I have to be honest. I was getting upset after I’d shot the bull four times, and he was still standing up. I couldn’t believe I’d possibly missed him that many times. But when I shot the fifth time, and the bull went down, I breathed a big sigh of relief. Although this 300 had a recoil, I didn’t feel the recoil when I was shooting the bull.
When the rancher, Matt Burke, who had given us permission to hunt his ranch, showed-up with his Polaris Ranger, we made a lot of pictures. We field dressed the elk and rode the Ranger back to our pickup truck. We were able to drive right down to the elk and load him, which required help from me, my dad, Matt and the two hunters who had been hunting mule deer. When my dad and I got home with my elk, we skinned the elk in the back of our pickup truck, because we didn’t have a meat gambrel or any way to hoist the elk up, to skin it. We skinned both hindquarters and removed them first. We brought the backstraps and tenderloins into the house and prepared them for the freezer. Then we took the rest of the elk to the meat processor to have him processed. I'm having a full shoulder mount done of my lifetime elk.
Day 1: Samantha Wolfe’s Elk of a Lifetime
Tomorrow: Samantha Wolfe Becomes a Mossy Oak Pro and Loves Taxidermy
