by Bill Adams, Owner Atlanta Cutlery
Long before founding Atlanta Cutlery in 1971, I always loved hunting and fishing. Once I entered the catalog business selling knives, I simply started bringing the new knives on my trips to test them out. If they performed well doing the real work of the field and shore, then they passed. If they didn't perform, we kept them out of the catalog.Through the years I've tested our knives on many, many deer, some ducks, turkeys, quail and doves, a few boar and even a caribou a few years ago. I've been fortunate enough to go on safari twice to Africa where further knife tests were conducted on springbok, wart hogs, bushbuck, impala and even a water buffalo I was lucky enough to get. But until last year, I had never shot an elk. Now understand, I've chased elk unsuccessfully since 1977. In fact, I'd become an expert at not shooting elk. I'd chased elk in Idaho, Montana and Colorado and never got one!
I've backpacked through the snow over Montana's Hellroarin' Divide, camped in a tent for a month straight in Idaho north of the Selway River, packed out of a colorful piece of Idaho elk pasture called "Hell's Half Acre" in,the teeth of a blizzard, and climbed a fair amount of Colorado Mountains.....all with no luck.
I'd shot at Idaho Elk (missed), shot at Colorado elk (missed), and not gotten close enough to shoot at Montana elk.
This gear I was determined that my luck would change. I summoned up all the hunter's instincts I'd developed over 16 years of hunting elk, all the wily craftiness, all the outdoorsmen's shrewdness I could muster - and signed on with a better outfitter.
This year I went hunting with Licensed Montana Outfitter, Edwin Johnson, who operates the Royal Teton Ranch in Gardiner, Montana (80 Mol Heron Creek Road, Gardiner, Montana 59030; 406-848-7265). The first day of hunting, we started down a snowy trail on top of a ridge at 7:11 AM. Seven minutes later I was in the middle of an elk herd. Crouching in the bushes, we could see elk all around us! Then, a 6 x 6 bull stepped through the bushes, stood on a mound 20 yards away, and turned to give me a long look - probably trying to figure out what I was up to. (It probably took only 40 seconds or so, but it seemed like a lifetime).
For years I'd waited for this moment. Over and over I'd dreamed of getting close enough to a big elk to shoot it. Now, here one was - 20 short yards away, smiling at me. I didn't shoot.
This was just too easy. True, I'd waited 17 years for this moment, but I also wanted to hunt elk for longer than seven minutes on this trip. Fortunately, as I continued to hunt, I saw more and more trophy elk. In three days, I saw twenty-five 6 x 6 elk - all in shooting range. Finally, I sneaked up on #25 and put him down with a shoulder shot (see photo).It was a great hunt! At a higher elevation on the same day, we tracked a nice mule deer in the snow; his horns now hang in my home in Atlanta.
Back at Atlanta Cutlery, a few of our barbecue experts prepared some tasty smoked elk for our celebration of the 4th of July, and it tasted mighty good. All the better for waiting 17 years!
