Wish me luck!

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megalomaniac

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Leaving this afternoon for 9 days DIY bowhunting for elk in Colorado. Can't wait for sunrise at 12,000 feet and 35 degree morning temps!
 
megalomaniac said:
Leaving this afternoon for 9 days DIY bowhunting for elk in Colorado. Can't wait for sunrise at 12,000 feet and 35 degree morning temps!
Click to expand...
Tough duty mega.
Full report required upon your return!
 
sounds exciting.
Had a client of mine to go last year he scored one a good one.
If I think about it I will bring his picture and post it. Been meaning to do that anyways and forgot all about it. lol

Good Luck man hope you have a big time.
 
I'm back!!!!

Got my first elk ever this trip- a 450# cow. The bulls all had little angels on their shoulders.

Opening morning- had 9 bulls walk by at 75 yards, later got up to within 55 yards of a nice 6x6 and 5x5 fighting, but the wind swirled and away they went.

Next day- got to within 300 yards of around 30 elk, never closer to the big bulls, but I did manage to call in a raghorn 4x5 to 55 yards before being screwed yet again by the wind.

Third day- dense fog at 12,000 feet, had the elk feed off around 150 yards from me (I heard them come by and smelled them), but never even saw them

Fourth day- Watched a smaller 6x6 steal 5 cows away from the herd bull, around 300 yards away, never could get on them, though.

Fifth day- just got screwed... set up to cover where the elk had been travelling off the mountain the previous two days, and had 4 nice bulls come off the mountain in the exact spot I was the day before. I'm getting really frustrated by this point.

6th day- get set up in the dark to within 100 yards of 4 nice bulls. They're feeding right to me just before legal shooting light, then again the wind swirls, and away they go.

Last day- yesterday. Decided to just gamble and cover the escape route well below the elk so I'd have a stronger thermal since I kept getting screwed by the wind. Walked to a setup, heard the cows chirping to me in the dark, then set up below them where I could smell them above me. Had 6 cows drop in on me, the lead cow walked straight to me and stopped at 4 feet away before figuring out something was wrong. Had 2 bulls fighting 60 yards above me, but I couldn't see them.

The cows spun away from me, ran to 45-50 yards, and stopped. Most were facing dead away from me, but the lead cow gave me a quartering away shot and I wasn't about to pass that one up...

Doublelung quartering away, center of mass, travelled 75 yards with the biggest blood trail I've ever seen.

I really should have tagged a bull this trip, but I'm still thrilled with my cow for a first elk... although the more satisfaction doing it as a DIY hunt on public land with OTC tags AND with a BOW!

In total I saw a 330 class 6x6, 2 smaller 6x6's (around 270-280), a 3 beamed bull which was 6x3x2, a huge 5x5, 3 smaller 5x5's, and multiple small raghorns.
Elk.jpg
 
Sounds and looks like a dang fine hunt. Put up some pics of some elk country if you got em. Conrats on the cow!
 
Here's a few pics of the hunt:

The herd on opening morning (hard to see, I know, but it'll give you an idea of where the elk spend the night feeding above the timberline (around 11,600 ft).
fieldelk.jpg


This top above us had the 3 beamed bull on it the day before season opened.
DSCN02112.jpg


View 2 big bulls had while fighting on top of the mountain:
DSCN02132.jpg


2 nice muleys I saw in the Aspens down around 10,000 feet. I put in for deer tags, but no luck... it takes several years of applying for deer tags to actually get one. These 2 deer actually just stood there looking at me at 25 yards for 5 minutes... I coulda shot either with no problem. (Photo quality very bad due to low light)
deer.jpg
 
Man, what an excellent trip!
I'm crying over those muleys though. I'm convinced they knew you didn't draw a tag.
 
Thanks!

Spent the morning saturday processing all the meat... that's quite a chore! I ended up with about as much as 3-4 whitetail does.

Ate a tenderloin on the grill a couple days after getting back, then make elk backstrap parmasean and grilled backstrap later in the week. First time I've ever eaten wild elk (I've had game farm elk at fancy restaurants before), and it was incredible. No 'wild' taste at all, and the cuts were all extremely tender. Flavor was very similar to range fed beef.

My 5 yr old and 3yr old ate it up like you wouldn't believe. Heck, even my wife ate it all 3 times and she won't touch deer venison!
 

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