By Russell Thornberry
About a year ago, my wife asked, "When am I going to get to hunt something big?" So I set a plan in motion to take her on an elk hunt last September. Sharleen is, by her on admission, a fair-weather hunter. She loves getting out of doors, but doesn't want to suffer a lot. How many wives do? So I picked a camp with adequate creature comforts and lots of big elk.
Sharleen has taken several big game animals, but always with a pre-established rest from which she could get a steady aim. That was my plan for her elk hunt, too. But the elk threw us a curve.
I built a ground blind with camo netting between two neighboring aspens at the edge of a meadow where the elk often fed in the late evening. For the finishing touches, I cut some aspen saplings, which were still green, and brushed in the blind. It was a work of art. No elk on earth would be suspicious of it. We came back the following afternoon to occupy the blind. The elk weren't at all wary. But they did eat every green leaf off the aspen saplings, and in the process, destroyed the blind.
Suddenly, we were thrust into plan B: stalking. I asked the missus if she thought she could lean against a tree and get steady enough to shoot. She was game to try, so with the wind in our faces and the sun at our backs, the stalk began. Fortunately, the bulls were bugling vigorously, giving us some indication of direction.
Since I'll be covering this hunt in detail in the Dec. 2007 issue, suffice to say that my missus did lean against a tree and shot her bull at 42 yards. The bull was in his own world, thrashing willow bushes when Sharleen snapped the cap on her little Marlin 336 carbine chambered for the ancient .35 Remington cartridge. However, she was shooting Hornady's new LeveRevolution ammo featuring the elastomer Flex Tip pointed bullet. After taking a 200-grain bullet in the boiler room, the bull never took a step. Oh -- did I mention that it scored 390? Ugh! To her delight, her trophy elk betters my best elk by roughly 30 inches, but then who counts?
--Russell Thornberry
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