We were up June 30th - July 3rd. I had my friend Kevin Norman on a ginormous Axis buck and Boar down South, but we could never get on them. We tried for 3 days in a row. The thunderstorm thwarted the Axis hunt and Kevin's inability to shoot (two different times) foiled the hog hunt. We named the hog "Big Kevin". Both animals were hunted "spot and stalk" and are still alive and well.
I put Alek out Sunday night at #1. We had a big thunderstorm that evening while we were hunting. I heard two shots, about 10 minutes apart. I thought, hmmm, Alek must have shot two pigs. Well, he comes to pick me up and I asked him what he shot. "Elk" is his reply. What type of Elk? "Bull Elk". So we headed to #1.
The Elk was a 5x6 mature bull, with a small scoreable point that technically made him a 6x6. Alek was sitting in the rifle blind at #1 and the Elk was grazing from left to right about 60 yards in front of him. He shot the Elk in the shoulder with my 8x57 Mauser and it went down, but got back up and ran. He couldn't see it anymore, but it heard it fall down. He waited about 10 minutes and then went looking for it. It wasn't moving, but was laying upright. He wisely tossed a small rock at it's hindquarters and shouted at it. It tried to stand up so he shot it again in the lungs.
Needless to say, it took us a few hours to field dress it, load it, and get it into the cooler. We estimated the hoof weight at 800+ pounds. It took 4 us, after he was field dressed, to get in the back of a pick-up and that was barely.
We gave the hindquarters to JR and two the remaining parts of the Elk we took to Rhodes. We plan to do a European mount. We are having the backstraps and loins steaked, and the remaining made into hamburger and chili meat.
Gary @ Rhodes estimated him at 4+ years old and said he had grown-out all the way with maybe a 1/4"-1/2" to go max.
Alek was very proud of the trophy since it was the firsts animal he had taken while hunting alone. He said it wasn't even more exciting than the 4+ hour Kudu stalk we did last Summer in RSA.
Congrats Alek!!!
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