The hunter becomes the hunted (part 4)
I woke up, the suns light only just peaking over the horizon. I go to the out house, do what I have to do than wake Cory up, he goes to the out house while I tell Deon we are going hunting.
We get our guns and bullets and such, me and my .338 and .45-70 handgun, Cory and his .50 caliber muzzle loader. We leave camp when the bottom of the sun looked like it was slightly stretching to reach the horizon. After some time of scouting, we got to the top of a large hill. using our binoculars we looked around, Cory said "hey dad... take a look at that hill over there"
He knows my binoculars are stronger and can see farther. So I look at the hill and see something moving around... NO! many things moving around. I said "looks like a herd of... something"
Cory suggested "why not go over there?"
I said "not a bad idea" And we started our way over there. The sun is high in the sky when we get to where the animals where... I found some tracks and said "Cory!... take a look at these!"
He came over and said "Some kind of large deer... jugging by the number, not moose... by the shape and size, not caribou... they where elk"
I said "very good!" and saw some more tracks that did not quite fit-in... I said "and these, Cory"
He walked over and his jaw drooped... He said "a bear was chancing the elk!"
I said "not A bear... MY bear" and laughed a bit. I than said "lets take a look" We took our binoculars and started looking around.
Cory whispered "there coming back... lets get in that bush there to hide" we got in the bush to hide and Cory loaded his muzzle loader, if a bull elk gives him a half descent shot he will take it. Cory takes his elk call and giving the instructions a quick read, he blows into the call with his hands in the right places to make a long drawn-out bull elk call.
The roar of the call sounding like a elephant trumpeting. A elk in the group calls back, a bull accepting the challenge of another bull... Or so he thought. Cory waits a few seconds and blows a bull elk call, this time somewhat shorter and some little grunts at the end. The bull elk calls back and we now see the tips of his antlers topping the hill.
Cory does another call and the bull takes a few running steps closer to us, he calls back and thrusts his antlers into a bush and scrapes his antlers left and right a few times. Cory, using his arms thrashes in the bush, he leans close to me and whisperers "thats a challenge to any deer" and the elk trots towards us.
We now see the cow elk top the hill, about five of them. Cory makes little grunts and the big bull comes into range... But the bull wants to get closer, he must really want a fight as he comes into 100 yards and turns to scrape a bush, his right side a perfect 90 degree angle to us.
Cory aims his gun, turns off the safety and fires *BANG* the big bull elk drops to the ground and rolls on his side. The cows run-off as we approach the downed elk, Cory pokes it a few times and said "stone dead" we than cut the guts out and cut the elk into quarters. We want to get the head mounted so we are very carefully skinning the neck, and removing everything that we can.
We lug the quarters back to camp and hang them in a shed to cool, we lay the head in back, so no blood would drip on it. I count the points on the antlers and say "13 point bull... good job!" and give him a hug, I than say "and I could hunt off the gut pile for my bear" Cory nodded.
We went into the cabin and found a note, it said: "Hector and Cory... I have gone into town in plane to organize a second plane to help us get your stuff back. Love Deon... P.S. In case of emergency there is a first aid kit under each bed... DON'T EAT THE CRACKERS IN THERE!!! they are expired"
That night I was sitting down in my room, looking at that picture of us when Cory walked in. He said "I miss mom... dad"
I said "me too... I guess now is a good time to tell you what really happened to her"
Cory asked "you mean to tell me she didn't have a heart attack in a air port on the way here?"
I said "yes... I lied"