Since we've taken a swing into the hunting ethics area, here's a situation where I recently had the opportunity to coach three young hunters about making responsible decisions. On my trip to Wyoming with two elk tags in my pocket, a friend had packed me 2 1/2 hours in on horseback to drop me off on top of the mountain. My plan was to hunt the last week of archery (using a crossbow). The GEN was an "any elk" tag, and the limited type 6 was a cow/calf. Along for the ride were 3 pre-teen boys.
Just short of the campsite, we saw a couple elk bedded in the quakies, so we just dropped my gear and made a move on them. We set up a decoy, my bud started some cow calls, and within 15 minutes I had a spike bull on the ground. Bing-badda-boom. With an empty freezer at home and knowing the low odds on an archery tag, I wasn't about to pass on a gift. As we were walking up to the dead bull, we saw a 5x5 that was giving us the stink eye from 600 yards away before he went over the top. I asked the boys what they would do if they had been hunting alone and had a chance to shoot that bull, even with a dead spike on the ground. We discussed what "High Grading" was, and that making ethical decisions really comes into play when you don't have an audience.
I later spent some time trying to fill the cow tag during the rifle season, with no luck, so it looks like I will be headed back o WY in Dec. or Jan. for anther go at it. Of course, I can always shoot one of Slug's rocks.
