A Lion of a Tale
By Teryl Nielson
On the second day of the Idaho Elk hunt , I
went to plan B . After a long days hike and not seeing anything but a spike and old elk sign , I headed back to the truck . Just before I could see my truck , something took off running to the south . After looking around for a short time , I soon gave up because I was tired , sore , and wet from the rains that day . When I got to my truck , I started to change out of my wet clothes . But a loud bark that came from a cow elk stopped me . I heard it again and it echoed around the small canyon that I was in . Then it sounded like a growl of a bugle .
After a few times , I decided to go see what was going on . It was up on the hill and to the south of where my truck was parked . I followed the growl / bugle to a thick group of fairly young pine trees . There were clearings on both sides , so I waited for a while to see if something would walk out . Nothing ever did , but the growl / bugle just kept going . Having not a lot of patience , I started through the trees . Eventually I could see the cow elk moving back and forth making the growl / bugle sound .
She was about 20 yards through the trees when I first saw her . I thought I might be able to see some more elk . So I took a few more steps as quietly as I could . At 15 yard or less , there she was chowing down on a calf elk . The adrenalin took off and I raised my rifle , but with my scope at 8.5 power all I could see was it ' s head and the crosshairs circling it .
I paused for a second to calm down , then settled in on her neck . It only took one shot . I took a few pictures and took her back to my truck . I think it was around 1pm . I called the fish and game while I was on my way home , so they were there at 3pm checking it . He said it wasn ' t the biggest cat he has checked , but it was the definitely the freshest . It was still warm .
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