Well, I sure hope you don't mind me rambling on. First, I'd like to thank Dom, his uncle Cam, and my buddy dale. You guys ROCK
I drew the Mololla cow hunt after three years of trying. Only one of thirty tags. We hit it on New Years Day about 9:00am. We saw a few fresh tracks in the snow, but not much else. Dom's dad got a dandy cow at about that time of the morning. After getting it out and taken care of, Dale and I went to search out a cow. We went up towards a clearing in about 10" of snow and cut fresh tracks that led into the woods. It was getting late, so we gave it up for the night. Dom, Cam and I hit those tracks and followed them the next morning, hoping to find them milling about. All we saw was several cedar trees clawed to pieces. On the way out, we came across some real fresh tracks that had crossed ours. There was a couple of tiny drops of blood in one of them. Dom and I followed them for about 45 minutes, and were getting hot on the tail of whatever was in front of us. As we hit the road, Dom said "there she is!!!" About 100 yards up, and over a little draw, this cow was limping along.*******Side note**** a family member had told Dom that there was a cow in the local herd that had a bum leg...
I couldn't hardly hold still... Hair fever I guess. This was my first elk. I drew up and shot and missed. Took another and she spun and bolted. When we got to where she was, there was blood sprayed all over. :shocked: Dom went to bring the truck closer. She crossed the road and up into the timber. We gave her about 1/2 an hour to bed down and bleed out. She was really bleeding bad. We left the truck in the road, with all the snow, not too many people could have got up there, so we thought.
We tracked her for 2 miles thru the timber to the family's place, and I went back to get the truck with Cam. We drove around and met Dom. He had followed her thru to the family's field. We took a breather and then headed thru the field to track her again. We put on about 100 yards to where she jumped the creek. when she hit the other side, the blood ran again. All this time, we followed blood. not just a few drops, but a bunch of it. We put on another 2 miles, and still couldn't catch her.
I was getting tired, and a bit peeved. Here it is, 3:00 in the afternoon, and she hadn't bled out. I was sure the hit was a good one, as We had found chunks of bone where she was hit.
We headed back to the house to discuss our options, and have a break. We decided to give it up for the night, let her bed down, and hopefully die. I hated to have a wounded animal out there, but we couldn't go much more.
We grabed a beer, and were discussing the track, when a Game Warden came across the field where Dom had followed the cow thru. He asked to see my tag and license, and the bottoms of everyones boots. He told us who turned and went back to the truck, and who followed the tracks back to the farm. Someone saw all of the blood off the road, and the truck in the road with the keys and our radios in the front seat, and called it in. This Trooper, Guy Oliver, had followed us for three miles or better thru the hills and timber. He had seen a bull in the spot where the cow was shot, and thought we were poaching it. He was really nice, and glad to hear that we were putting such effort into tracking the cow. He got a ride back to his rig which was three miles away.
The next morning we got on the tracks from the night before, and found fairly fresh bolld about 2 hours into the track. She had been bedded for a while and still bleeding bad. Neither of us could believe she had lost so much blood and gone so far. We jumped her up in front of us about an hour later, and we stayed hot after her. She fell a few times, and as we cleared the timber at the edge of the family's field, she was dropped with a shot behind the shoulders.
We put in 11 hours tracking this cow. We figured at least 8 to 9 miles. Her bottom jaw was shattered. If we hadn't stayed on her, she would have starved to death.
She had a torn dew claw, which is where the blood in the initial track had come from. This goes to show you that it isn't over till its over!!!!!
A special thanks to Dom! I was gimping pretty bad about 2 the first day, but he kept my spirits up, and kept me pressing on. Then thru the second morning, he kept it up. You couldn't ask for a better hunting partner. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]
And to Guy Oliver, if you are out there. We have a cold beer with your name on it! You earned it, and my respect. You went above and beyond the call of duty on the second.
FINALLY!!!! Longest track ever...
skein
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