First Elk Hunt, First...?

[ixsolracxi]

I was fortunate to be able to take my nephew on his first elk hunt the weekend before new year. He was able to get a youth encouragement cow tag in 16D here in our home state of New Mexico. I took my 11 year old daughter for the same type of hunt the a month earlier and had two opportunities for shots but it just didn't pan out.. I thought this hunt would be easier than it actually was. We saw about 13 cows on my daughters hunt but was sure we could get my nephew on a cow being there was snow on the ground and it was late December. The second day of the hunt my nephew Matt, gf's dad Charly, and I are hunting some ridges before a friend comes to help us with some truck problems. We are about 4-5 ridges from camp and Charly decides to go low and back to camp to wait for the help while Matt and I are going to head over a ridge to our west to glass some slopes. We top the ridge and begin hiking down along the west slope while glassing a small ridge to the west of us. Unfortunately, we see nothing. We are finally near the end of the ridge and I say to Matt "you have those new binocs around your neck and you have yet to use them...how about we glass that snowy ridge (to the west of the one we were originally glassing) and look at the base of the trees and bushes for bedded elk." He says ok, and we begin glassing. Within a minute of glassing i tell Matt "there's two elk bedded, there's three more to the right feeding, two more feeding near the top to the left, and two more bedded high." He is able to see them through his binocs and I say, "let's get to that small hill between us and the elk and you can get a shot" so we head that way. We get to that small hill and I spot the bedded cows but the angle is not good for a shot but the two feeding to the left presented perfect broadside shots. I tell Matt and he gets ready. After what seemed to be an eternity i ask him " are you going to shoot?" My daughter did the same thing on her hunt which cost her a shot so i didn't want that to happen to Matt. Finally, he says "I'm ready" and the 7mm-08 goes off with a bang. Miss. I tell Matt and he puts another round in. The gun fires again and another miss. At the second shot the herd (about 20-30 cows) moves along the snowy ridge to the NW so we head west. I saw two cows stop and had Matt sit to my right and tell him where the cows are. He sees them, shoots, and i excitedly tell him he hit her. She went down, tried to get up, and rolled down the slope. I can tell she is still alive so we move to where she went down. Matt finishes her with another shot.
I was truly excited, happy, and grateful for the opportunity that Matt had. We were not able to hunt much because of vehicle problems. Long story short we had to leave the cow there that night, drive back to Albuquerque, and I had to get some help to go back with me the next day to get the elk out. I was up at 4am, drove 4 hours mostly on snowpacked roads, quartered the cow, packed it out with the help of two 14 year olds and was back home by 3pm to celebrate New Year with my family. A truly exciting hunt that will never be forgotten.
This year I was able to introduce two young people to hunting, my 11 year old daughter Alexia and my nephew Matt. They were both able to make kills in their first year and are excited to do it again. Next year I am planning to help two more get into hunter safety and then into the field.

Matthew and Myself

Matt Hunting 1.jpg (111.98 KiB) Viewed 3652 times

[Lefty]

great story!!!
gotta love getting kids out on their first hunts

Today I took a 19 year old out on his first goose hunt,, -11 .. made his first kill ever,.. one happy young man

[ElkNut1]

Way to go Matt, nice cow there! You did a great job guiding him!

ElkNut1

[otcWill]

Awesome!!! Another young hunter hooked for life! These are the best stories to hear. Thanks for doing your part and also for sharing!

[flystrait]

Very cool.. Tell him congrats, that's the kind of stories I look forward to every year.

Another generation of hunters! Thats what its all about IMO.

CK

[LckyTylr]

That's awesome. Good on you.

[elkoholic]

Good job on getting the youngsters hooked on something good!!

[Swede]

You and Matt make a great looking pair. Congratulations to the both of you.