Tex Creek Showdown

I have been privileged to hunt in Idaho most of my life. I have been able to watch the wildlife population dynamic change over the last 20 yr. I am so happy I still can hunt elk in herds like this.

One of Tex Creek's Many Elk Herd's Unit # 69

I was hunting in the TEX creek unit #69 this year and was blessed with the opportunity to see a beautiful herd of elk. I was also lucky enough to take a very nice mature dry cow to help with population density on this fragile winter range. This was an amazing hunt because my Father and I were able to spend a lot of time hunting this big unit for elk. On November 20, 2012 my father and I were hunting in Idaho’s unit # 72 for cow elk. The day started like many other days we got up early loaded the 4-Wheeler in the truck and headed for the unit. We would drive to the look out and glass for elk in the early morning. If we didn’t see Elk off the Lookout we would find some nice timber and still hunt till afternoon. We were lucky that it had been snowing so we were excited all the way to the lookout.  At first light I spotted a lot of deer but no elk so we decided to walk down to the bottom of a deep canyon where we had seen elk 2 days earlier.

Elk Tracks going into the Canyon 11/20/2012

 My father was going to be one canyon over and were would meet up at the bottom where the two canyons met. About an hour into my hike I spotted a herd of elk across the canyon. The elk did not notice me so I found a place to lie down and put my pack on a rest. I ranged the elk at just over 600 yds. I waited till the lead cow stopped to eat grass on the side hill. I made my range adjustment 9.5 MOA and put the crosshair on her pump station and pulled the trigger. The gun went off and the elk started running. The lead cow did not move, she stood there for a few moments then fell down and started to slide to the bottom of the hill. I went to the bottom of the canyon and meet my father. We went to the truck to get the 4-wheeler, drove it to the ridge, and walked to the cow. We used the wench to drag the elk out to the truck. This is one of my best shots to date and I hope one day to achieve a 900-1000 yd. shot on an animal.

Hunter: Stephen Woolf

Animal: Cow Elk

Range: 600yd

Weapon: 264 Winchester Magnum

Projectile: 120 Serria Bullet

FPS: 3200
Date: 11/20/2012