54 replies to this topic

[grndhntr]

I was asked to share the story of the hunt that landed me with the elk in my avatar (by Guide Girl) so here goes: I'm going to do this in several installments over several days so follow along if you want. Here's the setup: I live in elk country in Northern Colorado so this is not an exotic hunt for me, but I love to hunt elk. Their size and majestic nature always makes for a great hunt whether you do it all the time or once-in-a-lifetime. It is not unusual for me to see elk in my yard, but the size of the bulls here is usually not real big. In fact, the largest elk I have seen in this area was probably about 350", not quite the 400" bulls that you see in Southern Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. In 2007 I drew a coveted bull elk tag for my area for a late season. My season started on Saturday the 24th. of Nov. and went to Dec. 5-12 days in all. On opening day, I was in Montana celebrating Thanksgiving with family so my first day hunting was Monday the 26th. I had already been hunting deer with the crossbow when I could but I took my whole elk season off to concentrate on getting a bull. I have taken quite a few elk, but my largest bull to that point was a spike. I decided that I wanted to hold out for a branch-antlered bull and would've been happy with anything bigger than a spike. This is what I was looking for.

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Edited by grndhntr, 19 May 2009 - 09:01 PM.
misspelled a word

[Lscha]

I'm following.

[grndhntr]

OK, so early Monday morning I decided to try a small private area (23 acres) to see if I could find a bull. There was snow on the ground and it was easy to see from the tracks that quite a few elk had been in the area. This spot gets a lot of pressure in the archery season but they only allow bows there so the rifle seasons are quiet. There are very few hunters here that hunt the rifle seasons with anything but a rifle. I found several small bulls that were just moving off the property as I arrived. I knew that they were going up the mountain to bed and wouldn't be back until evening so I decided to check out another area that was close by. This was one of the bulls way up on the mountain.

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Edited by grndhntr, 19 May 2009 - 11:40 PM.
added info.

[grndhntr]

As I was driving to the next spot, I saw a mule deer buck cross the road in front of me and he was headed right for the land I had permission to hunt on. I quickly changed gears from elk hunting to deer hunting. I was able to follow his tracks in the snow pretty easily. He was following another set of tracks that I assumed were from a hot doe. His tracks were nearing the property boundary and I thought I wasn't going to get a shot. Just as I was thinking this, I saw him coming right back at me with his nose to the ground. It was apparent that he was going to pass by me to my right. This was not good! My right foot was foreward and he was closing distance fast. I decided to just twist my body to the right without moving my feet. By this time he was about 30 yds. away and still coming. He stopped for a second on the other side of a tree which allowed me to bring up the crossbow, but not enough time to shift my feet. He stepped out at about 20 yds and stopped. He had a small branch in front of him so I ducked slightly to clear the branch. Now I was twisting and ducking and off-balance. He was facing slightly quartering to me so I had to just miss his shoulder bones to get his lungs. Trying to concentrate and contort at the same time is kinda difficult, but the arrow flew to the spot I wanted and the blood trail was easy to follow in the snow.

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[grndhntr]

...and I had my deer!

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[grndhntr]

I know, I know, this is supposed to be an elk hunt, so I'll get back to that. After getting my deer home and taken care of, there was still some time to go chase elk that evening. I went out to the first property to see if those small bulls would come back down. I saw them up the mountain and they were moving back down to me, but I ran out of daylight before they made it back down. I snuck off so they wouldn't get spooked and I hoped they would be there the next morning. I went to sleep with deer and elk in my dreams.

[grndhntr]

I'll throw this in just to make you guys jealous. I get to hunt some pretty awesome country. I am frequently awed and humbled by God's creation here, and I've lived here for 24 years.

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[grndhntr]

...and another from earlier that year, in Sept.

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[Guide Girl]

Looking at that photo of the mountain side with snow sure brought back memories for me of my Colorado Elk hunt. sigh.
Okay, ready again when you are. I can't believe you've been holding out on us with this adventure. Okay, I'm ready again when you are. Did I say I was ready again? giggle!

[grndhntr]

I'm going to make you wait:). You'll get the next installment tomorrow.

[Lscha]

Oh good. I need to get some sleep tonight.

[grndhntr]

Tuesday morning...I tried to time it so that I would arrive at the 23 acre property just as it was getting light, hoping to catch the young bulls before they got off the property. For those of you who hunt whitetail deer, 23 acres might be a huntable size property, but for elk and mule deer who typically move miles every day, I usually try to find bigger properties to hunt. One of the national forest spots that I like is 6000 acres and it isn't unusual to hike 10-15 miles a day looking for elk or deer. This country is so vast that most of the time the animals are not patternable, they will bed and feed in different spots every day and could be miles away from where they were yesterday. Although I knew that was true, it appeared that the elk were spending a lot of time in that 23 acres, I assumed it was because of the nice grass there and in the winter, it was harder to find those nice meadows. Once again, I was just a bit late as several smaller bulls (in the 2-4 year age range) were moving off the property when I saw them.
This was one I caught on film just off the property:

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[grndhntr]

I then went back to the property (about 180 acres)where I got my deer yesterday. I noticed that the ravens were cleaning up the carcass already. Speaking of carcasses, I then found another one on another part of the property. The ranch manager on this piece of land had shot a cow elk recently. I laid my crossbow bolt down on it for reference. You can see that the ribs are big on an elk and I figure you have a 1/3 chance of hitting one. That's why I shoot heavy arrows for elk.

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[grndhntr]

This isn't a very good picture, but I saw 2 golden eagles come off this carcass when I walked up on it.

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[grndhntr]

I took the middle of the day to rest up and then headed back to the 23 acres for the evening hunt. I hoped that the elk would move back down a little earlier this evening. I made myself a little blind to sit and wait. I remember it being a cold wait that evening. I didn't see any animals that night.

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[grndhntr]

Wednesday morning. I woke to a fresh dusting of snow-perfect tracking conditions! Got to the 23 acres even earlier to try to catch the bulls. I did not see anything and after a search of the property I only found a few deer tracks on it. The elk didn't move on to it at all last night. As I was leaving I spotted this bighorn ram up the mountainside from the property. I had to hold up my camera to my binoculars to get this shot.

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[grndhntr]

I then decided on a real quick check of the 180 acres to see if there were any fresh tracks there. No elk tracks were found, but I found a cooperative bunny. He let me sneak up to about 10 yds. A quick shot had lunch in the bag, literally. I ate him for lunch before the afternoon hunt.

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•  P1010251.JPG   73.11K   101 downloads

[grndhntr]

After lunch it was on to another area. I didn't want to waste this good tracking snow if I could help it. I decided to give the 23 acres a rest for the afternoon/evening. The area I went is really rugged and rocky but sometimes has elk there and I've seen good bulls there in the winter. The route I took probably covered 8-10 miles through national forest land. When I was following a small creek I found some tracks that followed the trail for over 1/2 mile-mountain lion tracks. I measured them next to my 5" fletching and they appeared to be about 4 1/2" wide! This area is known for cougars and I have since seen one in the same area (This last year I called one in with a cow call to 40 yds. while elk hunting). I was a bit more watchful on this afternoon hunt.

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Edited by grndhntr, 20 May 2009 - 08:18 PM.
added info.

[grndhntr]

Here's a picture of the one I called in this last year (not from this elk hunt) in the same area.

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•  Mtn. Lion.JPG   39.21K   99 downloads

[grndhntr]

Well, after a lot of hiking and no elk sighted, I was really tired that night. I set my alarm even earlier to try to get to the 23 acres even before it got light. I was unsure if I could sneak in there quietly in the dark with snow on the ground, but thought I would try. Good night!

Edited by grndhntr, 20 May 2009 - 08:19 PM.