Back in the spring I put in for the Lottery Elk Draw and was lucky enough to get an Archery Cow Elk tag for the North at Large Zone in Eastern KY. This was my first year putting in for the draw and was suprised that I was drawn. Now fast forward to season...I was so focused on hunting a couple of bucks on my hit list that I never had the opportunity to hunt till this past weekend and this would be my only chance to try and put a stalk on an elk. Saturday morning was our first go at it and the weather was horrible. It began raining at about 6am and did not quit till around noon. We got on a couple of different herds and tried getting in close but I was never able to get within 70yards that morning and did not feel comfortable at that distance. Early afternoon was slow and we were unable to locate any elk in the area. Finally around 3pm we spotted a bull bedded down on a point just over 1000 yards away. We made a good stalk on him but the only way to make it in was from the top and that left him down wind of us. By the time we had made it to the point he had winded us and had already began making his way down hill along with 3 cows. Sunday morning weather was perfect, high 30's and little wind. We drove out to a point where we had spotted a herd the day before to see if they were back feeding, we spotted a lone cow about 400 yards away and formed a plan and began our stalk. We had to drop off the hill and come up the other side, when I topped the hill on the other side she was right there, allowing me to take a shot of just over 30yds. Shot placement was good, just a tad low but I felt I probably clipped the bottom of her heart. She ran about 150yards and you could see blood pumping out of her side and about half the arrow was sticking out as well. We kept an eye on her as she slowly entered the timber and I was able to take another shot at 45 yards and connected. She ran about 125yards to a flat just short of the top of the hill and stopped, we watched her for about 20 minutes till what looked like she stumbled away. After another 30 minutes I decided to get on her blood trail and work my way up to see if she had went down, great blood all the way to the top and to my suprise she was still on her feet. I bumped her and you could see she was hurt and not going anywhere very fast. We decided my buddy would stay on top to keep an eye on her as I made my way back down and around and in front of her. I made my way down the hill and about 300 yards infront of her, made the climb back up to the flat and worked my way back to within 30 yards of her. My final arrow sent her over the hill and back down to the bottom! These are some huge animals and thank goodness where she ended up was only about 30yds from an access road, no quartering up and packing out..just pulled the truck up and loaded her! Even though she was just a cow, she was special. Not only because she was my first ever Elk but she was also tagged. I was able to contact Fish and Game and got her information. She was originally from New Mexico and was released in that area on March 6th 2002. At the time of release she was classified as an adult Cow, this would make her a minnimum age of 14.5 years old!!
