63 Straight days in the elk woods

[underH2oHunter]

I thought I would share my story from this season with you all.  I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the entire Colorado archery, 1st rifle, and 2nd rifle season in the woods. For a total of 63 straight days my girlfriend and I camped out in my wall tents.  We had several friends and family members join us through our time.  As a group we managed to put down 6 elk, 4 deer, and 1 bear.  I was fortunate to have some really cool close encounters with some bugling bulls. One of which was at a yard and half from a 5x4 that I passed on because I was trying to kill his 6x6 buddy.  I managed to call in a nice 6x5 for my sons buddy who has only seen 1 other elk in the wild ever to 7 yards making for an adrenaline rush and successful kill.  My girlfriend was able to take her second elk in her second year. I was able to get one last opportunity to hunt with my father.  My girlfriend and I helped a new elk hunter to get his first elk which turned out to be a once in a lifetime bull. 


Between the near misses and firsts it's hard to decide what part of my season was the best but I can tell you that being in the woods from before the rut through the peak and into post rut was a neat experience and I am already planning to do the same thing again next season.


I learned a bunch about my gear and what is functional and what is hype and needs to be replaced with better performing gear that works for my style of hunting. Over my time in the woods I based camped,bivy camped, and even spike camped. We also had to move our entire base camp to lower elevation do to the possibility of sever snow and not getting stuck.


Here are some pictures from my season and as I find the time I would like to write a few articles about my adventure...


Thanks,
James

 

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Very cool that is an awesome experience and one many of us envy!

 

[AlexG]

Looks like you had a good season! [emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lang]

That's great, congrats on a great year.  You've got what we all dream about, two months in the field with family and friends...and football.

 

[G Posik]

Man congratulations!  That looks like an awesome trip. 


With work the way it is right now I wish it was still archery elk season.  I could be gone for a while an no one would say a thing.


Glenn

 

[Rich Z]

Damn!


Congrats on the great season!!

 

[Kilnbux]

Very cool!

 

[Maxhunter]

I need to retire!

 

[underH2oHunter]

Thanks for all the kind words... I am an elkaholic and have always enjoyed spending time chasing these fascinating animals around.  It was neat meeting lots of people on the mountain and seeing the animals pattern themselves. 


The peak of the rut for us was of course the weeks between archery and rifle season when there was no hunting.  The day after archery season closed there was several large elk bugling just a few hundred yards from camp.  They started about 530 in the morning and continued to challenge one another till I finally got out of bed at 730 and decided to put a stop to it by calling them in and taking pictures of them. 


A few have mentioned that its a dream to be able to do this but what I can share with you is that its very hard logistically.  I prefer not to stoke a wood burning stove so we used propane to heat our tent. The cost and filling bottles was a challenge at times. We also had to coordinate with our family and friends who where coming up to help bring us food supplies and such. Then of course processing our own animals in the mountains was interesting but proved to be very valuable and cost effective. 


I can't wait for next season as we are looking at doing all of archery and 1st rifle season again.  But we want to hit a variety of areas so we are planning on how to make that happen.

 

[Mountain Bowhunter]

Man that is one hell of a setup. I did 30 days last season but in a one man tent backpacking every day and I would have to go down to town every saturday to get more food.  I mean satellite tv with football on.... I could live in that thing!

 

[Micarden3]

Sounds like an awesome hunt! Perhaps you could do a review on a few items of your gear saying what you like and what you thought needed improvement?

 

[underH2oHunter]

If there is any particular area of gear that you want me to elaborate on I can do that but here is a list of gear that I would recommend to anyone as well as a list of gear that I wouldn't recommend and will be replacing with better gear for next season.
Gear that I liked:
Caribou Gears Carnivore II bags
Easton FMJ's with QAD exodus 100g broad heads.
Tikka T3 light 7mm with Zeist Terra BDC 4-12 scope
Garmin 64S GPS (But don't use regular batteries as it eats them up use NiMH)
Vortex Optics
Heads up decoy
Davis Wall Tents
Phelps Ez Estrus cow call
Havalon Knife
Coleman powermate Generators


Gear that I disliked and will be switching out include
Tenzing 5000 packs because the zippers suck and they limit your load IMHO Not sure on if I will go with a Kifaru or a Exo pack
MSR Whisper lite camp stove This could be awesome if I was eating more then dehydrated meals but sense I only need to boil water I think I'll go with a Jet Boil to save some room in my pack and not have to worry about fuel spillage and having an extra pan
Judo points for small game.  I ended up switching and loving Bludgeon type tips for the grouse
Alpen Spotting scope.  I like this scope for some things. But for digi scope picture and videoing it wasn't as sharp as I liked So I think I will give a Vortex scope a try next season.
Sitka shooter gloves.  They tear out in the fingers.
Mathews 5 web quiver even though i replace the rubber and foam arrows would pop off and come out if I caught them on brush a little  Think i'll replace it with a tight spot.
Original Bugling Bull Bat style grunt tube.  Its opening is two small for my liking I like a larger opening so I am thinking either a Bugling bull bat tube that has the 1 1/4inch opening or even trying one of Phelps calls Bat style grunt tubes.


These are just a few of things I can think of off the top of my head.  Like I said earlier if there is a more specific area you want me to dive deeper such as sleep systems, heating options, base camp comforts, ext ext ext I am happy to do that.