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Best hunting stories, elk #8311009
01/13/25 01:58 AM
01/13/25 01:58 AM
Joined: Feb 2007
Washington State
H
humptulips Offline OP
trapper
humptulips  Offline OP
trapper
H

Joined: Feb 2007
Washington State
I wrote this for another site. Thought someone on here might enjoy it and maybe some others might have some good stories to share in the same vein.

Mind a long story, this is. This starts a couple years before this hunting season.

Middle of the summer around 1980, I was out scouting around and took a long hike down to the Quinault River on the Res so out of bounds for hunting but not for snooping around. At the time there was a large roadless area below Boulder Creek and the elk made a habit of going between the river and FS land south and east of the Res. I had parked at the end of the road on the FS but saw nothing in a half day of hiking until I got back near the car. Within sight of the car was a herd and two bulls facing off to fight. One a respectable 5 point, the other was just monster. It reminded me of a professional wrestler alongside an average person. Huge muscles rippling, someone must have been feeding this elk steroids. Beyond that he was a giant, easily a third larger than his opponent.

Three summers later I was checking out a canyon off Quinault Ridge. From the top there was a beautiful bowl down there, but an impossibly steep rim seemed to prevent entry. It came to be known to us as "The Big Hole". I went down in like a mountain climber but later that day I located an elk trail that switch backed up and out. While down there I ran into a herd of about 40 and separately the elk that came to be know at least to us as "The Crooked Horned Elk". At that time horn rot was very common on Quinault Ridge. That elk had it with just eye guards on one side and a weirdly bumpy, twisted two point +? on the other side. He followed me around all the time I was down there and only left me when I headed up the trail out. I told my Dad about it and suggested we should go down there. Later on, that summer he said one day "Let's go have a look at your elk spot". When we got down in there we met up with the crooked horned elk and he followed us around until we hiked out. He stunk from the horn rot and we joked he was probably lonely as the other elk wouldn't have anything to do with him.
First day of season My Dad, his hunting partner Don and I went over to a spot I had scouted between the forks of the Humptulips. I didn't see a thing, but Dad and Don got into some elk right away and Don killed a spike. Not far but a swampy pack out.
Next day we decided to go look for the crooked horned elk. Dad and Don went on one side of the canyon, I went on the other. I jumped a small herd with no bulls and soon after I heard a shot. They found the crooked horned elk, taken a shot and missed. I guess we will never see him again. Last, they saw of him he was scooting for parts unknown.
Next day we went someplace else which must have not been great because I don't remember where.
Next Day my Dad wanted to go back to the Big Hole. As I remember I thought it was a waste of time, but we repeated the plan, and they ran into the crooked horned elk again and killed him. Oh my God, what a pack. I was in great shape at the time and took the front half. We packed 'till dark and made it halfway out. We went back in the morning and had the elk out by noon.
My Dad and I would have normally went home but for some reason we decided to drive over on the reservation boundary. One place you could cut through about a mile of timber right along the boundary and come back out to the road. I volunteered to walk through, and Dad would pick me up on the other side. I was about halfway through skirting a swamp when this elk jumps up in the edge of brush around the swamp. I threw the gun up and bang, he goes down. When I walked up, I couldn't believe how big he was. It looked like a draft horse laying there. I'm sure to this day it was that monster I mentioned at the start of this story. He was old. His muzzle was completely grey, and his horns had reverted, 6 on each side. Had that three-way fork at the top. Size wise though they weren't huge, but his body still was. I climbed a tree and hung a come-a-long in it with a measured 12 feet of line on it. Stretched all the way out it was three feet short of reaching the ground. We hooked his hamstring on the hook and started skinning. When all that line was cranked in, his head and neck were still laying on the ground. I had shot him in the neck so there was some meat loss there but there was still a 5-gallon bucket of boned out meat out of his neck. I think we cut him up into seven pieces and I still broke and army pack board packing him out. Never weighed any of it but I will always remember his size.
Yea, we weren't so big on pictures back then. Thought the hunting would always be great and I'd stay young forever. I can still look at his horns in the backroom and remember though.

Re: Best hunting stories, elk [Re: humptulips] #8313691
01/15/25 11:24 PM
01/15/25 11:24 PM
Joined: Jan 2007
Snow Hill, MD
J
JoMiBru Offline
trapper
JoMiBru  Offline
trapper
J

Joined: Jan 2007
Snow Hill, MD
Thanks for sharing, great story. Lots of elk meat went home after that trip!

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