To Shoot [At] an Elk

In the early minutes of opening day we were glassing the upper end of a branch of main "A" canyon. Terry spotted an animal "too big to be a deer."  I confirmed it was an elk. As we watched, she made her way down sorts of a road, and then dropped off the road. We got out of the rig and split up, positioning ourselves along the road, perhaps to get a shot if she came around to our side of the draw.

I dropped down below the road, out of the open, when she stuck her head up out of the brush looking around. I had to stay motionless. The weight of my binoculars becoming more and more noticeable as I couldn't move. She made occasional cow calls - looking for other elk. She crossed the road from where she had come, and started heading up and away to where she had come from. Meanwhile, I started walking backward, when I could risk it, very slowly, hoping to eventually find some concealment at the road.

When she hit the fence at the top of the hillside she stopped. She walked along the fence, mounting it a couple times, but didn't, or couldn't cross. She got agitated, and trotted up and down a length of the fence, trying to find a place to cross.

As she trotted back and forth down the fence, and when she would be momentarily out of sight, I walked and then ran down the road hoping to perhaps get around the upper end of the draw to the fence, and perhaps get a shot, if she came back on down.

At about 60 yards from the fence, I slowed down to catch my breath. A little farther and I saw ears… she had come down the fence to the road, and started to come down the road. I was dead center in the road, and when she saw me - not considering me a human, but not liking the situation either, she went up and around the road to the east. She gave me a broadside shot at about 25 yards - but it wasn't good, so I let the shot go. She passed around me to the east. I took my shot, into the sunrise, and the arrow went over her. I judged her to be 25, but in reality she had been about 15. I missed. And to make matters worse, three people had been watching.

I'd get another opportunity.