Hey Jude, There are Elk!

Sitting here on the 'Group W' bench at the office, I just heard 'Hey Jude'. It reminded me of the time Jeff McKim, Ron Rice, and I were hunting up the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene.

We were driving along a snowy mountain road listening to the Beatles sing 'Hey Jude'. It must have been the during the fall of 1969, I guess.   One of us cried out the immortal words; "There are elk!"
Ron pulled his truck over, we piled out, and raced to spots where we could legally shoot...yes, off the roadway...

We commenced firing! After emptying our rifles of bullets we noticed that the herd of elk had not moved. Heck they had not even stopped grazing. I ran back to the road and ran down it towards the elk. The herd, apparently alerted by a crazed person running towards them, albeit a long way away, moved out of sight, but I noticed a lone cow elk that had been standing a ways away from the herd, still not moving. After positioning myself in a legal hunting location, I prepared to shoot. I realized as I went to put bullets in my rifle that I only had two left. I also realized that since the elk herd had not paid any attention to the first volley of shots, that they were a lot further away than we (I) had originally thought. Carefully calculating for distance, and windage (is that a word), I put my rife scope's cross-hairs about a half a foot over the elk's back and squeezed off a shot.

After what seemed like several seconds the elk dropped in its tracks!

On the way back to town, since Jeff informed us on the way that he had not sighted in his gun, we stopped so he could fire it and see where it was shooting. After placing a target at 25 yards he shot a couple of shots. At 25 yards his gun was 'off' about three feet to the left. At the distance the elk were when he shot, he missed them by what must have been over 50 feet! Ha!