Elk Hunt 2007

So, I am obviously having a hard time keeping up on this! I promise to get better! I need to get caught up on my previous hunts before this next years adventure sneaks up on me.

In November of 2006 I found out that I was having another baby. We were so excited to welcome another member to our little family. I was completely wrapped up in taking care of my son and being pregnant that I wasn't even thinking about hunting. My hubby however didn't forget the dates for entering the draws and put me in for limited entry deer, elk and bison (of all things) the year I was having a baby in July! So needless to say when I drew an elk tag for the Mt. Dutton unit I was shocked but not near as shocked as he was. Only 3 points and elk hunting here we come!!

My baby girl was 2 months old when the hunt started. She got to go scouting at 6 weeks in the jeep. We also went back to camp/scout the weekend before the hunt. The day before the hunt started I took my son and went to look around on the 4-wheeler with my brother. We saw a small 5 point but that was about it. My husband stayed back at camp with the baby and took her out in the truck to look for deer because it was the last day of the bow hunt for him. He ran across a herd of elk at a pond right at dark and spotted a very nice bull.

We talked about it that night with my Dad and my brother and decided to go after that one on the pond. So I got up at 3:30 to feed my baby and took her to my awesome mom. Without her I couldn't have done it! We rode the 4-wheelers around to a spot where we could walk out to the pond and sat and waited in the dark. It felt like forever! Around 6:00 we started moving to get into position, then sat and waited some more for daylight to come. As it started to get somewhat lighter my brother was glassing across this sagebrush flat that we were on the edge of. My Dad asked him what he was looking at and he said it was a big rock. My Dad got his binos out and looked across the flat. He told us "THAT ROCK JUST GREW HORNS!!" They moved back behind me and told me to get ready. My husband had bought me a new sling for my gun (which was a 7mm08 with a Leupold 3x9x40 VX-1 scope)that had shooting sticks in it called Sling Sticks. He told me to pull them out so that I was ready. My brother was shedding his backpack trying to get the spotting scope out to take a better look. As I waited for the 3 of them to look at the bull my brother said "SHOOT THAT BULL, SHOOT THAT ELK, SHELLIE, SHOOT THAT S.O.B.!"

I could just see the silhouette of his body because the sun hadn't come over the ridge yet and he was about 300 yards away. My brother chirped at him with a cow call and he turned and looked at us. To watch his rack move was amazing!

The sagebrush was too tall and the stupid "Sling Sticks" turned in to "Swing Sticks" because they were too short! So I moved over, plopped myself right in the middle of a sagebrush to steady myself, aimed and fired. I hit him for sure but he didn't go down. It took us about 2 hours to find him with the help of some other hunters on the other ridge that watched where he went. We had to search in really thick timber to find him and were all spread out looking when my Dad came over the radio.....Shellie, I got your bull! I was ecstatic!! We all made our way to where he was and celebrated! I for sure couldn't have done it without my Dad (scouter/tracker), my brother (caller), husband (scouter/bullet loader/gear help/anything I needed) and my mom!

We walked back to camp to eat breakfast, get the horses and the rest of the family to go back and get him. It was about a mile and half from camp. My sister and her family was there with my mom so we all went back down to get him.



Mom stayed at camp with the 2 little girls. Thanks to everyone in my entire family for supporting me on this hunt! I couldn't have done it without any of you!

My little girl is definitely my good luck charm because I was able to bag a very nice 6 X 7 on the opening morning of the hunt. She still to this day 2 1/2 years later LOVES camping, hunting and "going to da mountain!" Someday she will be posting her hunts on this site with me!