Opening morning my dad and I dropped off from camp and each followed our favorite ridge fingers down hill like we do every year. I was nearing the bottom when I stopped under pine tree. I stood there for a few minutes listening and catching my breath. As I readied to continue on I looked down at the deadfall I had to cross and I see an antler sticking up and over it. I pulled it up and attached was the skull and the other antler. It was from a very respectable 6x6 bull elk. I thought, man I really don't want to pack this thing around all day but the longer I looked at it the more I thought of what a waste that would be to just leave there. So I figured what the heck, I'll carry it until it becomes too much of a nuisance. Dad and I reached the bottom and decided to go opposite directions. I followed the bottom for a bit then started angling up and over several fingers. As I stopped to catch my breath there was a stand of pines in front of me so I thought I'll just go stand on the ridge at the bottom and to the side. As I topped it a fair sized rag horn bull busted out and across the oak brush. As he got out of sight I heard more rustling and took a few steps ahead and had to drop the 6x6 I was carrying as a cow ran out and stopped broadside about 40 yards from me but there was a rise between us. I threw up and found my mark and down she went. Four more cows and 3 calves busted out and ran off.
Here is a picture of the cow with my trusty elk whacker. 338 Win Mag that I built in school.
I took my rack and went down and started cutting. I decided to go ahead and pack the rack back to camp where the horse was. Dad and I met up and we all took in the beauty of the rack before heading back. Dad leading the horse, I led the way down to the meat. Just above where the cow lay there was a really steep spot so dad opted to work around it with the horse. I cut straight down and hit the flat below and happened to look in the direction dad and horse had went and low and behold I could swear there was another antler sticking out of the swaying grass. Sure enough the bino's proved it so I headed over there and started pulling it up. As with the first one this one also had a skull and the other side both sporting 5 points.
I went on down to the cow and when dad showed up I said guess what I found on the way as I pointed to the 5x5. darn kid, he said, we need to run to town and buy a lottery ticket, we should only need one.
We packed up the cow and I toted out the rack. Back at camp we had some friends gathered around giving me a bad time about my luck. Little did they know I had even more so I let them all carry on before saying yeah, then it started going backwards on me, they are getting smaller by the hour as I come around the tree with the second set. Their mouths hit the dirt and their eyes told their every thought. It truly was a great day; I have never even one full antler before. Several that the mice or porcupines have chewed on here and there were all.
Here's a picture of the beautiful country the magic happens in.
Ahh, the memories!
but it doesn't matter how easy they come - a pair like that still look impressive.