Teen harvests bull and cow elk in same day

Nicholas Cooper started hunting through the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' Apprentice Hunter Program at 10 years old. He’s taken a turkey, a doe and a couple of young bucks, but he’s never fired a shot at an elk, until a few weeks ago.

At 14 years old, the Mineral County resident has done something that many have wished for, but few have succeeded at doing during a lifetime of hunting. Having drawn a cow elk tag and having his general elk tag for a bull only, he punched both out within 7 or 8 minutes of each other. 

“It took me 48 years to get my first bull which was just last year,” said his dad, Michael Cooper who is the Business Professionals of America advisor for the Superior School Chapter. “He’s smart enough to know this was a true stroke of luck, but he is overjoyed at this accomplishment.”

It was watching his dad hunt in the fall that built an interest in the family tradition. 

“He was getting big bucks so I thought I could do it,” he smiled after a few years of realizing it isn’t an easy task most of the time. 

He started with a .243 and moved to a 7mm-08 last hunting season which has proven to be the hot ticket.

Michael and his friends had scouted the area the day before and spotted elk, so they started making strategic plans on how to hunt them the next morning. 

“The next day I went out with my dad, my uncle and his friend,” shares Nicholas. “We drove in and then hiked using our headlamps for about an hour up over the top of the mountain to a clearing where they had seen the elk the day before.” 

This country was totally new to Nicholas. 

“We were sitting and scoping a herd of elk on another mountain about 800 yards from us and I was going to go down and hike up around the back side to see if I could get close enough for a shot. But then my dad spotted another herd coming in behind us and we stood up and I shot my cow at about 100 yards. They started running and I ran over to my cow. She was definitely down and so I took after the ones that ran over the hill to see if there was a bull with them.”  

Michael and Nicholas used hand signals to explain what each was doing as Michael went to the cow to begin the next process. 

“When I got over the ridge, I saw a huge herd of about 30 cows about 800 yards away and then another smaller herd of cows closer, but still too far away. I then looked up and saw some more cows walking away and then the bull, all by himself! He was uphill about 150 yards.” 

Nicholas was by himself making decisions on his own on how to steady himself and where to place the shot for a clean kill. It was a steep shot, so he stabilized himself on his knees with the muzzle pointed uphill. 

“I shoot once. I’m pretty sure I missed, as I was too shaky. I shoot another time and missed again, I’m sure.” 

The bull isn’t doing anything up to this point but now it starts a slow trot. 

“The third time, I really steadied myself and I hit him in the lower quad. The next shot I hit him and he starts running and then tumbling down into a small ridge,” he said. 

Michael said he then heard, “Dad! I’m outta bullets!” as he was making his way over to where he had heard the shooting. 

“But it was a textbook shot, the fourth one, behind the shoulder and through both lungs.” 

Two elk down in a span of less than 10 minutes. The other hunters in their party were texted but they went to an entirely different mountain looking for them, meaning the father-son combination started the tough stuff until assistance arrived getting the bull out whole and the cow in two sections. 

Four people were huffing and puffing getting them to the vehicle, making the retrieval 9.5 hours long. 

“She was a really old cow,” said Michael. “Her ivories were worn down almost to the gum line. And she was bigger than the bull,” which was a perfectly symmetrical rag horn 4-point. 

One big concern Nicholas had was getting his tags validated as quickly as possible, said Michael. 

“We had lousy cell reception with one bar sometimes, so we moved around to find an area long enough to punch the two tags through the online FWP app,” he said.

A lifetime memorable hunt for everyone, especially Nicholas who said looking back, there is only one thing that might have made the day better. 

“Have it happen closer to a main road,” he quipped. 

The Coopers are cleaning the skull and making a European mount. 

    Nicholas Cooper, age 14, filled his cow tag and then his general elk tag with a bull in a matter of minutes in Mineral County.