My Sister & Brother-in-law
Peggy & Jim Laverdure
2003
Elk hunting trip
Cody, Wyoming
By Peggy Laverdure
I bought my husband, Jim, a range finder for Christmas 2002 for his bow hunting. It might not have been a good investment as we tried it out on the hunt this year. This year we saw two bull elk we could get to. We had walked all day up hill and right at dark, we spotted these two big bulls. So away we went on a dead run to the 4 wheeler and down the road and parked. And then it was up through the trees and out to the edge of the timber. By that time it was really getting dark. I found the elk herd and Jim gauged the distance. Using his new range finder, he said it wouldn't read, so it had to be over 600 yards. He told me to hold the gun scope’s cross hairs right on his back. I was still trying to catch my breath and had no reason to doubt him. So I shot and away he ran. We searched through the trees in the dark, but we couldn't find him. I worried all night about letting the meat rot or him just being wounded. The next morning we went back. Jim redid the range and guess what? IT WAS ONLY 285 YARDS>>>>>>>>>>> WE saw the bull and he was enjoying his girl friend. I will NEVER listen to Jim again much less buy him any more toys for Christmas. We had 80-degree weather the whole time we were off.
It was so pretty the morning of October 18th. The sky was pink and purple so I wanted Jim to take the pictures with the sky colors. My bull was so dark that you can hardly see him. We left home at 4:00 a.m. with me complaining that it was much too early. But we got ahead of everyone else. We left the 4 wheeler, looked back and the road coming up the mountain looked like the highway going into Las Vegas. We took off walking in the dark. About half way across the mountain, Jim asked me if there were more bushes than normal under the snowdrifts. I couldn't see anything so we kept going and then we were caught out in the open by a dumb spike elk. We froze, then, snuck to a nearby tree. Then we could see 7 big bulls. We tried to find somewhere to rest our guns because it was a long ways to shoot. I was so afraid some hunter would see them and try a 1000’ shot. We found a place to rest the gun and Jim tried to tell me the yardage again, but I did not listen. I just shot. The bull I shot at humped up and I figured I had gut shot him so I put another round in him. Then he went down. I had hit him with the 1st shot in the lungs. He just didn't know he was dead and neither did I. Jim shot, his bull went down, and then it got up. So he shot again and this time he went down. As we were walking to the elk, he got up again. Jim shot him two more times with the 41. He wouldn't die. Then Jim told me their yardage. It was 345 yards. We gutted and cleaned them. He ran to get the horses while I stayed with the bulls we had shot. I felt real dumb sitting between 2 bull elk on the hillside. I had my can of bear spray, the 41, and my 7 mag.
I still went into the trees for cover from any bears that might wander by.
We had dropped the bulls by 7:15 a.m. that morning and were back home by 7:00 p.m. that night. The weather that day was a balmy 86 degrees. We saw 3 guys behind us and they went after the remaining 5 bulls. We had shot the biggest bulls out of the herd. My bull is a 6x6 and Jim's is a 6x5. Jim's is a bit smaller than mine. Mine is an old bull that was girlin. Jim's is a young one, and so we kept him and gave mine to Perez.
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Here is an excerpt from her last e-mail:
"Who all will see this? I have never missed a shot before. People will think I'm a lousy shot. And I am not!!!!!!!
Vegetarian in Indian means bad hunter. "
In all reality she is a damn good shot.