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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