If you’ve ever driven the blue highways of northeastern Arizona then you know what the elk think of roads. They don’t. This incident reminded me of a late night drive from Colorado Springs to Phoenix with a rodeo buddy (same guy who sent me these photos come to think of it). We were told to watch our speed through these areas and doggone if we didn’t come around the corner to a whole mess of elk in the road. It sure woke us up that night.
Unfortunately the driver of the Nissan Murano wasn’t so lucky. Well, his car wasn’t lucky, he walked away with scratches, bruises and likely some soiled shorts. He took out seven elk according to the Forest Service worker who called a friend of the driver. ”He said that he has never, ever, seen anyone kill seven elk with one vehicle and walk away from it,” said the worker.
Beyond the Tred Barta appeal of bowhunting, getting up close & personal to game ranks at the top for folks who choose to leave their rifle in the gun cabinet. Some bowhunters refuse to take shots at distances greater than 40 yards, for fear of something unexpected happening resulting in an injured animal instead of a dead one. Granted there are practiced hunters who are effective at distances twice this amount, but when it comes to the dark timber of elk country, that much space is scarce, as the hunter in this video clearly demonstrates. And when the shot does not present itself, stay put, even when you feel that hot breath down the back of your shirt.
Being a Doubletough outdoorsman doesn’t necessarily mean you arrowed the biggest buck, boated the biggest tuna or bagged the most birds; if you’ve come up with an entirely new way to approach the outdoors, it may qualify. Jumping out of a helicopter to hug a striped marlin definitely makes the cut.
This submission came with a note saying the two men were “looking for animal horns near Vernon, Utah”. What we’ve got here are two Doubletough guys coming across a mountain lion during lunch, but rather than defend its kill, it welcomes them like a long-lost pet! Remarkably, the cat appears to let one of them touch it on the muzzle and even sniffs their rifle. Read more…
This story was forwarded to me back in October 2006, about three weeks after the hunting incident it describes occurred. As with most forwarded email, it was interesting to look over the previous recipients and see exactly how it wound up in my inbox; it had definitely made the rounds, having been repeatedly forwarded to at least 40 folks until my friend, we’ll call him Bubba, sent it my way.
It’s a three page Word document and I read it twice, trying to imagine being there for all the drama. Then I opened the included photos. I immediately recognized the guy in the third shot because every picture I’ve ever seen of him, he has that same expression. The hero of the story, Reed Thompson, dates my cousin and both were in Alaska at the time of the incident where they worked as dentists. Reed is a big-time hunter and I asked him about this particular hunt and the story Doug White, the author, tells is exactly how it went down……… Read more…
