Jason Phillips, aka txjp here at MM, wrote, "My first elk hunt was awesome! My brother and I spent one week in unit 34 - New Mexico. I had a few opportunities on some elk, but nothing worked out. Luckily on the 5th day it all come together and I shot this 5x6.

Around noon on Friday, I heard an elk bugle and it took me 2-1/2 hours to get everything lined up perfectly for the stalk. When I got to 60 yards, he stood up and started ripping up a pine tree. This gave me the chance I needed. As he was rubbing the pine tree, another pine tree was blocking his view of me. I moved in to 40 yards and waited for him to stop. When he stopped I let an arrow fly and I lost sight of it in flight. The elk jumped up about 5 or 6 steps and was just standing there wondering what happened. I had another arrow ready to go so I shot again. This time I did not loose the arrow in flight, I saw it hit him right in the liver. Not sure about the first arrow and knowing the second was not the best, my brother and I came back the next morning and blood trailed him for several hours. My brother found him and started yelling for me. When I got to 20 yards or so from him he jumped up and ran. I could not believe it, my brother was no more than 10 feet from him. Well, he did not go far and stopped and I was able to stalk up to 30 yards and make a final shot on him and he went down.

The first shot was low, second was liver and the third was in the boiler room. Man those elk are tough. I MAY HAVE HAD A SMALL CASE OF ELK FEVER!!"