A year ago last September, 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 she isn’t to long-term
suffering for the sport. How many wives are? So I picked a camp with
adequate creature comforts and lots of big el in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Little could we have known that Sharleen would be diagnosed with breast cancer a week before the departure date for our hunting trip. The news was numbing, shocking, frightening – all of the above. What should we do about the hunting trip in view of this terrible news? It would be 10 days before any medical procedures began so we decided to go elk hunting! Let it never be said Sharleen wasn’t a trooper. The hunt couldn’t have come at a better time. It gave us something to think about other than cancer.
Sharleen has taken several deer and javelina, but always from 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 had eaten every green leaf off the aspen saplings, and in the process, totally 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 out backs, the stalk began. Fortunately, the bulls were bugling vigorously, giving us some indication of direction.
As we moved in on the bugling we approached another meadow and through the dense aspens we could see elk grazing in the open. The plan was to edge close to the timber’s edge and see if we could get a shot at a good bull. Unexpectedly, as we were sneaking along, we climbed a small hill for a better view only to find a huge bull bedded on the hilltop also watching the elk in the meadow. He was like a sentinel bull all by himself. By the time we spotted the bull we were no more than 30 yards behind him so we backed off a few yards and laid in the grass waiting for him to stand up. But for the next 30 minutes he remained bedded. From our rear view we couldn’t tell enough about his rack to make a decision, so another plan “B” was hatched. We would sneak down a sallow ravine that flanked the hill upon which he was bedded in hopes of getting a better view of his rack. When we were almost to the vantage point we wanted, the bull stood and started moving away from us, even though he had no idea we were there. He worked his way along the timber’s edge fighting the brush with his antlers and bugling. We followed him from a distance hoping he would turn broadside and offer Sharleen a shot. The cat and mouse game continued into the fading light of evening before the bull finally turned to his left. Shar leaned against an aspen tree and got as steady as she could and finally touched off a shot from her little Marlin Model 336 chambered for.35 Remington. After taking a 200-grain bullet in the boiler room, the bull never took a step. Shar was thrilled her first elk, and it was a spectacular bull. 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? She still carries a picture of her and her trophy around in her purse and shows it off at every opportunity.
Postscript:
Sharleen underwent cancer surgery and has recovered and given a clean bill of health. For that we thank God daily. You don’t realize just how fragile life is until you face the reality of your own mortality.
For more information about hunting elk and/or trophy whitetails with Spirit of the North Trophy Hunts, contact russell@russellthornberry.com or call (334) 409-0574. Also, read up on Sharleen’s recent adventures at www.sharleenthornberry.com.
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