2007 - Tom Anderson of Cromwell bags first elk

November 27, 2007 • Voyageur Press

Cromwell resident Tom Anderson got a once-in-a-lifetime hunting experience this fall by bagging a bull elk. Tom’s father, Gene, and his uncle John have traveled to Salmon, Idaho, where his cousin Tony lives, since 1990 on elk hunts. Without many opportunities and much luck for the guys, Tom and his cousin Brian Unkelhaeuser joined the hunt, and on his first trip, Tom brought long-awaited success to the group.

“It’s really about being in the right place at the right time or just luck,” Tom said. “I really hate to admit it, but that is what it was. That’s what is kind of weird. I go out there for the first time and shoot an elk.”

Tom bagged the large bull elk on his first outing, but according to him (despite his immediate success), it really isn’t about the animal. “It’s really to go out there with mostly family,” Tom said. “My dad and uncle John would stay up there for a month if they could.”

Tom first experienced Idaho’s outdoors back in 1994. “I had gone out there and mountain logged for about a year,” Tom said. “I always wanted to go back, but one thing led to another, and I didn’t make it out there for 12 years.”

Once Tom returned to Idaho for the elk hunt, he and the group began preparing for the hunt. “We got out there on a Saturday and spent a couple days scouting around,” he said. “In the area we were going to hunt, there had been hundreds of elk,” he said. “I have pictures of a tree where nine feet up there were still scrape marks.”

Tom explained that by Monday when the season began, each hunter had found their spot. “The area we were hunting was pretty good sized. It was nothing to walk a mile one way to your stand,” he said.

The landscape was made up of many ridges according to Tom. “Everyone took their own ridge, and there were elk all over the place, but nobody got a shot that day,” he said. “Everybody saw a couple.”

After the first day, Tom explained that it had gone dry for a while. “We didn’t see another one until Thursday morning.”

The work involved with hunting in the Idaho landscape was a surprise to Tom. “You walk like crazy; I didn’t anticipate walking that much,” he said. 

That Thursday, he had planned on taking the afternoon hunt off. Later that day, after an unsuccessful drive by Tony and Brian, Tom said they all got into the truck and began driving down the steep road. “You have to go a long ways downhill just to find a place to turn around,” Tom said.

It was on their way down the hill when Brian spotted a few elk in a clearing in the valley. According to Tom, they all piled out of the truck and began scoping the animals. “I saw the front one was a bull, so I told Brian to shoot,” he said. “He was the one to see it first, so I figured I would give him the first opportunity.”

Brian was unable to spot the bull elk, so Tom took a shot. “Tony kept telling me to shoot, so I took a shot and totally missed it.” Tom explained the scenario that followed: “I got so excited that I couldn’t jack the shell out, so I yelled at my cousin to shoot. My uncle Tony said he couldn’t see any horns either, but I knew I saw them. I finally got the shell out and put the scope on where meanwhile the bull had fallen back from the cows. I went to the pickup and used it as a gun rest and shot it.”

The 350-yard shot dropped the bull, and now it was time to get out of the valley. “I did some handshaking first,” Tom said. 

After quartering the bull, the group began carrying it out of the valley. “It was like a cow,” he said.
“Brian should have seen the horns,” Tom said. “It was like it was my time to get one.”

Tom plans on mounting the rack, but the best part is the meat he said. “Elk meat is awesome,” he said. “Of all the wild game, it is the best.” 

He also plans on returning to Idaho whenever possible.