Recent hunting trip ends with first elk

Mikey (Johnson) and I wanted to hunt a particular spot for opening morning and one of our fellow hunters also wanted to go there. We had seen elk on the ridge line above camp in the past.

We decided we would do a hunt through the timber in that area instead of our initial plan. We left camp last after everyone had left. We used our lights to get to the ridge to the point we had decided to enter the forest. I got Mikey into his position and told him to wait for 15 minutes until I could get to the top where I would enter the forest. It was now just turning daylight.

As I was climbing the ridge I started to hear cow calls and almost immediately after I saw the herd grazing just out of the timber. I found a stump and climbed behind it and rested my rifle on top of it to look over the herd for the bull, who was alongside the tree line. I took careful aim and shot. It was about 175-200 yards.

I called to Mikey and had him take the low side of the ridge to see which way they were headed. I told him I would go to where the bull was and look for him. He was lying right where I shot. My first animal! A 4x5. I thanked him for giving his life so that we may eat. We then called the rest of our group over the radio and reported we had an eagle (code name for elk) down. Many of them had not even made it to their hunting destinations and thought I had mistaken the code name for elk for the code name of deer.