Success!!

Levi was supposed to camp all weekend and next BUT he got his elk... and not just any elk, he shot a 5-point bull this morning! YEAH!! I never thought in a million years I would be so excited to have another rack on my wall, heck, I never thought I would have A rack on my wall let alone three and a bear head :0)

The story goes something like this; It was a rainy, cool morning. Levi set out to attempt to locate the herd he found himself in the middle of last night. You see, he had seen a bull earlier this year on his trail cam and so he knew a herd was in the area and when he went to find them last night he found himself in the position to take a cow at 80 yards right off the bat. Of course an 80 yard shot with a bow and arrow is not a great shot so he sufficed to resume the hunt in the morning and let the cow off the hook. As he continued watching the herd he listened to a bugle and then from behind him he heard an animal, turned and there he saw a VERY large bull but it was too far and it caught wind of him. It didn't take the bull long to decide he needed to get the herd and leave and so Levi accepted dissapointment that first night.

Early this morning he got back out on the herd's trail. He followed sign for a while then heard a some noise and then a bugle. Levi found himself in the middle of the herd! He cow called a few times to calm them all down and it worked then he followed in the herd a while looking for the bugling bull. A bull came around looking for "Levi the lost cow". As he turned the corner in a trot Levi spotted him, afterall this 5-point was running straight at him! Levi's heart began to pound with excitement and then he realized the bull didn't see him and that this mammoth was running straight at him with no intent on stopping, pushing and forcing limbs out of his way with his powerful rack. Levi hurredly knocked an arrow, pulled back and released right as the animal turned facing toward him. It hit! The bull darted off to the side, ran about 80 yards and gave up the fight. Levi sat waiting, as any good hunter does to hear the bull fall. He waited about 15 minutes and after hearing what he thought was the bull's final "thud" he set off to find his trophy.

The boys had a great time working on the elk out in the woods! It's kind of a party out there, whenever someone gets an animal they call friends and family and everone treks out to the site to help with the pack out;

Levi called early this afternoon to proclaim victory! I must say I was relieved. After waking up this morning with mastitis I was not looking forward to a day, let alone a weekend without my helper and the thought of camping next weekend was a duanting task. I told Lincoln the good news and my little man was SO excited to go see his papa's "big bull elk" as he called it. I toted the boys out to the woods along with some friends to help pack. Bill and Bruce met us out there to help and within 4 hours we were heading home with over four coolers of meat and a beautiful rack! Lincoln had been waiting to see papa's "big bull elk" since back in August when he was introduced to hunting videos :0) After we got the call that Levi had got one Linc kept saying, in a VERY excited stutter "Papa got elk!" followed by a panicked dash through the house in search of the elk. He did this over and over until we left the house!!

I have never seen a kid more excited about an elk than Lincoln was. When we got to him Linc shouted "Cut meat!!" even before we started cutting :0) Iguess he knew what the elk was for!