Owen's Elk Hunting Adventure

Where to begin? Owen's elk hunting story honestly belongs to him but I feel like I had better help him get it set up...

Owen was unsuccessful this year in the buck hunting department and he was feeling pretty bummed about it. Mark took him out several times, we went out as a family a couple of times, and I even took him out by myself once. We spent a lot of time buck hunting. Owen had told everyone on his football team that he was going and they kept asking him and asking him if he had gotten anything. He kept having to tell them no. 

One of his football coaches told Owen that if he didn't get anything by the end of the season, one of his parents (Mark or I) could turn in their unused tags and get a damage control tag for his property. It would be a late season elk tag - for a cow - but it would be another opportunity for him to hunt. Well, Owen was thrilled with idea!

December rolled around and Owen's football coach, Michael, got a hold of Mark and the two of them worked everything out so that Owen could go hunting. Since it was my tag that was turned in, I had to go along. I wasn't too thrilled at first because it was FREEZING outside but I knew that I had to do it or Owen would be so disapointed I wouldn't be able to stand it. 

The morning finally arrived and Owen, Mark and I were up before 5 am so that we could get all bundled up and have everything loaded up and in the truck by 5:30. We were meeting Micheal and his son Easton (who was also on Owen's football team) and heading up to some property in the hills. Now before I go any further, I do have to mention here that Michael's family have a lot of property. Think bazillions of acres all over Eastern Oregon and I'm not even sure that begins to cover it. We were headed up to a specific area where his cousin just starting a hunting/guiding business called Hunt Oregon. It has a house, out buildings set up to where you can easily hang and gut your animals, etc. Plus, the land has tons and tons of elk on it. Tons. As in I have never seen that many elk except at Yellowstone. 

So, Owen got pretty lucky to be able to hunt this property to say the least. This was a hunt that other people have to pay a lot of money for. Each family member gets to have two guests a year and Owen was one of Michael's this year. Now, I'll turn the story over to Owen...

So there I was . . .

     Dad and I plus mom went in the truck with my football coach Mr. Corey, we all went in trucks and started to go up a big hill then down. Then we got to a gate and parked the trucks. Me, dad, and mom went and saw elk behind us, in front of us, and to the left of us. Me and my parents decided to go after the elk in front of us. so we started to go up the road and we spooked those so we kept going to see if they went into some draws up ahead. Eventually it turned into just a few more and then a few more later. Dad spotted this cow elk all by herself and she was coming down the hill across the field. We saw a big herd of about two hundred, so we stopped worrying about that one lonely cow. We passed a big finger and there was a cow inside so we backed up and she took off. We saw this herd had some elk still crossing the field and road. Then we saw a broken, old barn. We made quick feet to it because it would give us some sort of cover. I set up the gun and asked dad how far they where and he said over 400 yards. So we [me and dad] went to the right to see if we could catch them on there way up the hill when all of a sudden dad turns and he says that there are elk still crossing the road. So then we turned and went to them and got the gun set up and we are 170 yards from the elk and dad asked me if I could kill one and I said I will try. 

Then dad says " No you have to kill it, not try to kill it."

Then I get a little mad and said "Fine, I'll kill it!" but dad stopped me because he said I will miss if I shoot when I am angry. Then out of no where elk come at like 75 yards so then I try to shoot but the safety is on. By now the elk are gone. Me and dad wait then we get up and start to walk to where the elk were crossing and then a calf runs right in front of us. I get really excited and ask dad is I can shoot it.  He says no but it was big enough that I could shoot its mom, so we went to where it ran and dad saw about 20 cows so we start up the hill and I thought they were in the draw but no they were at the top of the hill. 

So we hiked and hiked and hiked some more when dad suddenly stopped  and said that there was a cow coming so I got the gun ready. Then I saw her through the scope but only her head. She never took a step closer, then she turned and left.

Dad's phone went off so he said I could go ahead and try to stalk them. When I saw them there where more than 40. I got the gun ready and dad caught up with me and said to get a little closer so we did. Then one saw us and started to jog. I had my scope on her and dad said the 2nd one was bigger and he was right she had at least a 100 pounds on all of the others. Then he said the 3rd stopped and so I swung the gun on her and BAM I shot. All of the others ran and if you looked through the scope you could see the hole in her body. After all of the other elk ran by, dad said I could shoot her again so I did and did again then she fell. By the time we got there she was dead. My first shot hit her heart then my next shot hit her lungs and my last shot hit her leg. 

That is my hunting story. 

Not bad Owen, not bad. I asked him if he wanted to add some more details or talk about what it was like afterwards with the gutting of it and dragging it down the humongous hill but he said "People just want the juicy stuff, mom". 

Hmm...The juicy stuff. 

Ok. 

I'll tell you the boring un-juicy stuff I guess. Owen was so excited it was hard to get him to stop grinning. He was pretty excited to help Mark gut it out until he realized that having blood on your hands is a good thing only while your hands are still in the blood. Once you remove them from the animal, the blood quickly freezes when it's about 5 degrees outside! Also, since he is so short, he couldn't reach pass the rib cage of the elk (to the heart and lungs) so Mark had to take over from there. 

A lot of this elk meat will be going in our freezer but Owen is also giving some to his grandma and great-grandma. He's pretty proud of that fact! 

Owen has developed a great friendship with one of the employees at our D n B store who works back in the hunting/fishing/gun section of the store - Jim. He gave Owen a brand new, special knife when Owen brought in a picture of his first buck (and he hung the picture up in the store). Owen used his knife to help gut the elk out so Mark made sure to take a picture of it to show Jim. We think he'll be pretty pleased. 

Owen is now the youngest person in our family to have gotten an elk. He is in the process of telling every single person that very thing. 

He's not proud or anything!

In this picture you can see the road winding it's way along the bottom of these hills. To the left of Owen, you can just barely see Mark's red truck (it looks more like a tiny bush). I wanted to make sure and include this picture so you could have a better idea of just how steep and big this hill was that we all had to hike up (and how far Mark and Michael had to drag the elk down!). 

Such a special hunt for this special kid!