BY KEVIN SLAUGHTER OF ANTLERS AND ANGLERS WORLDWIDE, LLC
(205)969-2065
www.antlersandanglers.com

Taking a monster elk with a rifle was my big game dream until I moved from Texas to Alabama!  Quickly after living in Alabama for a few short months I realized that in Alabama you are not a “real” hunter until you are a bow hunter!  While bow hunting in Texas isn’t uncommon, in Alabama , bow hunters seem to be the norm!

After a year of hearing story after story of bow bucks, and realizing that no one was very interested in my many rifle kills, my wife Corinna really wanted me to take up bow hunting.  Since we prefer to hunt together, she knew that I would want her to learn with me.  As we walked into Mark’s Outdoors one late afternoon, she told me she would take it up with me so Robbie at Mark’s set me up with a Matthews LX bow and all the trimmings.  It was time to close so Corinna said we would come back the next day and pick out her bow.  To my surprise, as soon as we got in the truck she said “I’m not ready to take up bow hunting but I knew you wouldn’t do it if I said I didn’t want to, so I tricked you and now you have to start without me!”  And so, my many hours of practice began and many trips to Marks Outdoors for advice and instruction followed.

That fall I never had the opportunity to take a shot at a whitetail.  However, my old scout master, Rebel, was a booking agent in Dallas, and he called me with a great opportunity to go on an elk hunt in Saskatchewan for HUGE elk!  With my bow and rifle in hand, Corinna and I showed up in Love, Saskatchewan where our guide Dave met us. In my conversations with one of the owners, Rick, I had asked about my chances to take an elk with my bow. He said they were excellent if I could shoot well- which gave me all the incentive I needed to practice. I took my rifle just in case!

The hunt was a four day hunt. The first morning we sighted in our rifles and bows and went stalk hunting. As we walked through the woods into the first opening standing at about 75 yards was a big 10 point whitetail that would probably score in the mid 150’s, a couple of hundred yards on the other side of the small patch of woods stood several light brown fallow. As we walked some more, we saw a lot of game and then finally after pushing our way through some thick brush into a large open field there before us at 300 yards were 7 huge elk! A large whitetail stood in their midst and it looked like a dog next to a horse. The elk were the largest big game I had ever seen while hunting but they were too far out and I wanted to shoot one with my new bow.

That afternoon I settled into a tree stand with my guide, Dave. No elk came in that evening but one large whitetail nicknamed “saw tooth” for his many points so close together they looked like a saw blade. <br><br> The next morning we returned to the same tree stand early and just after daylight a massive non-typical elk came just in front of our stand. He was within range but he was the first elk I had ever seen up close and I really wanted to compare him to other elk. I passed!

As soon as he walked off, I began to pray that he would return that afternoon with his friends. Over the years, I have been more and more drawn to the non typical look in game, and it had now carried over into my taste in elk. I sure began to wonder if I had made a mistake not going ahead and harvesting this magnificent elk!

That afternoon we decided to take the “hummer”, as we called the beat up old suburban to relocate a tree stand for the afternoon hunt. Half way between the place we hunted in the morning to the new location, Dave spotted a group of elk bedded down in the woods. He decided we should back out in the hummer and return to the mornings’stand to see if the group of elk would show up.

As we sat hoping for the big elk to come that afternoon, a deer and some fallow showed up just before we heard what sounded like a baseball bat whacking against the trees. We knew something big was headed our way and he wasn’t alone! Just as the massive non typical from the morning came into the area, more cracks and loud noises notified us that more were on their way. One by one they filed in slowly until we had six great bulls within 30 yards of our stand. My heart began to race.

There was no question in my mind that the bull from the morning was the one I wanted hanging over my fireplace. But he was turned the wrong direction, facing away as if he was about to leave. I had no shot. I was convinced he was going to walk away, so I started praying, asking the Lord to turn him so I would have a bow shot opportunity. At this point I’m now totally hooked on bow hunting and my rifle days seem the distant past. How could you compare having these enormous animals at 20 yards to shooting them from a blind at 300 yards! I’m hooked forever and I haven’t even shot anything yet. Just as I prayed, two bucks to the elk’s right ran across behind him 10 yards to his left and stopped, turned around and ran by the elk. When the elk realized they were approaching, he turned to his left to challenge them and stopped in a perfect quartering away position.

With the perfect angle, I quickly drew and let fly a perfect shot that landed squarely behind the left shoulder. The elk stumbled 20 yards and dropped! I was elated!! I Raised my bow in the air in celebration and looked to the heated blind where my wife, Corinna, was taking pictures. I had done it! I was officially a bow hunter with a success story! He was a magnificent non typical 9X8 that scored 386 2/8 !

As we loaded up in the “hummer” to return to the lodge, I was rehashing the afternoon’s events and my excitement over my 1st bow kill when the guide Dave says ”your first bow kill?” I said “yes” and he just about wrecked the truck as he said “If I had known I would have known to be nervous!” What an amazing shot and what an amazing first trophy. Mark’s Outdoors had once again come through with the best equipment and the instruction to back it up!