I was basically sitting below a ridge line hunting the wooded draw below me. I had seen 3 spikes travel up this draw in the morning. It was kinda a Hail Mary. There were deer on their feet earlier than normal, like 5pm. I could hear animals walking in the woods below me but couldn't see them, didn't know if deer or elk. Then all of a sudden a lone cow shows up in front of me, can't really remember the range, 200+ yards. I went to rack a round and the damn rifle double fed. I removed the mag and all my rounds fell out in the grass. She knew something was up and I barked to stop her. She stopped on the opposite ridge line and was skykined, not a safe shot so I let her walk. I was feeling like a real idiot. That was my chance and I blew it.
But then a few minutes later further up the draw a cow and calf appeared. I ranged them, 350 ish, and steadied my 270 Winchester on my tripod. I knew the drop for 300 yards is 7 inches, so I held about a foot high and squeezed off a round. She barely reacted, had I missed? I quickly fired another, still no effect. WtF! I had dropped my rifle earlier in the day so I was concerned my scope was off. I decided to watch her body language for a moment and calm myself down. She seemed off, just standing there staring at nothing. I guessed she was hit but didn't see any blood. I fired again, this time she took a few steps forward dragging her rear leg so I knew she was hit. At this point I was committed to keep shooting until she dropped or I was out of ammo. I racked one more round, tried to really calm myself and held just high of the front shoulder. Breathe in breathe out relax squeeeeze BAM. This time I could tell I hit her good. She went down and thankfully was stopped from rolling down the hill by a small tree.
There was another guy hunting the same ridge as me, he had a bull tag and watched the whole thing. He told me I hit her good the first time, missed wide the second, hit her leg the third, and hit the vitals again shot 4. She was damn tough, much respect.
We walked to her and snapped a could pics and tried to move her, no dice. So I was committed to taking her apart right there. He split and I got to work.
I took off two two quarters and still couldn't roll her, so went to get the truck. I was able to string together a tow strap a check cord and two leashes to reach her. Used the truck to pull her just a bit so I could roll over.
Cut more and more. It was slow going. About midnight I wacked my knuckled with my knife and cut down to the bone. I could like see in there and see my ligament. Gross. Finally got her all loaded and was on my way at 139AM.
Due to some unusual circumstances and I wasn't feeling great so I hadn't eaten anything all day and I was beat. Tried to sleep in the truck for a couple hours and got to my house at 6AM. Still had work to do taking care of the meat. By the time she was in coolers and I was done it was about 10 AM this morning.