My father-in-law, Harvey, hunted deer in California when he was young with his family but I don't think that he had hunted since my wife was born. Then last year his brother, Tom, came out and I took him up elk hunting. Harvey tagged along and we had a great time. Tom kiled a nice cow and everyone was happy. As soon as we got home Harvey called around and got some left over tags, borrowed one of my rifles and went hunting. He also talked Tom into flying back out for another hunt. They didn't even see anything but had a good time.
 
Then over the summer he called his uncle and bought his Pre '64 model 70 Winchester Featherweight 30-06 from him and replaced the stock and topped it off with a Leupold 4-12 scope.
 
For this fall he drew a late season cow tag for the whole month of December. He works as a truck driver delivering mail from the airport to the post office so getting time off after Thanksgiving is hard but he got the first 4 days of December off. Tom didn't draw a tag this year but came out just to tag along. So on December 1st they left Denver and drove to Craig where they had a cabin to stay in. By the time they were done it was almost 3:00pm but they decided to run down and look the area over before sunset. So they drove south on the main road and then turned off on the dirt road that leads to the state trust land I had showed him. As the drove down the dirt road they spotted 5 cows on the left side which is private property but they were headed towards the road. So they stopped the truck and sure enough 3 of the cows jumped the fence and crossed the road to the state trust land. So Harvey grabbed his rifle, ran off the road a little ways and shot one. It didn't drop right away but they knew that she was hit. So he ran back to the truck and they drove it up to the little parking area. As they were grabbing their stuff here came another truck with some guys and Harvey started chatting with them!  Tom's getting mad as he wants to go after the elk. So him and Harvey start after the elk. Tom is practicly running and he looks back and Harvey is just walking along. They go a couple hundred yards when they spot the 3 cows with the one obviously wounded. So Harvey sits down with his bi-pod and shoots and hits the wounded one. She lays down and the other 2 take off. So they are moving up when Tom sees her laying there but with her head up looking at them so Tom tells him to shoot her again. Well Harvey wears glasses and his glasses automaticly tint as they see fit and they were pretty dark and it's now pretty late in the day. So Harvey is having trouble seeing this cow and Tom is having a fit.:D Finally Harvey sees the cow and shoots her again and she's done for good. So there are smiles all around and pictures to take. Then Tom asks Harvey where his knife is? In the truck. All he had with his was his rifle and ammunition. So Tom pulled out his knife and dressed the elk and cut her in half and they drug each half back to the truck. In my own defence I told them to buy a kids plastic sled to drag the meat out but noone ever listens to me. So here is a picture of the happy hunter and his first ever elk.
 

Now thats a great story.  I hope they didn't have to drag too far, maybe they'll listen to you now!  All these folks bagging elk are really getting me thinking.  Sure is cool to hear about someone getting back into hunting after so long.

:D"BUG" thanks for sharing the story,nice photo, Ron