COhunter14?s 2019 Rifle Elk Hunt

[cohunter14]

Getting caught back up after spending some time in the high country for the 2nd rifle season in Colorado and figured I?d share the story here.

This was an odd year for us. As I alluded to in my archery recap, we were debating on calling an audible and changing our rifle hunting plans after the archery season. The archery season went well, but for multiple reasons we didn?t think it was going to be a good long-term spot to hunt for rifle season. After debating for a few weeks, we made the decision to switch it up and head back to a place we used to rifle hunt back in the day.

This place holds a special place in my heart. It?s where I first elk hunted at 12 years old, it?s where I shot my first elk, and it?s what ?elk country? was in my head for years before we switched it up and left this spot nine years ago. I won?t get into why we left as it?s a long story, but to say I was excited about going back would be an understatement. I was familiar with the area, but the plan was to hunt it a little different than we used to. We were going to be much more mobile via ATV and cover a bunch of ground with our eyes from glassing spots in hopes of spotting elk and making a plan from there. In prior years, we sat ground blinds in this area and, while we were successful, I thought we would give ourselves a much better opportunity for success by going this route.

I spent as much time as possible in the weeks leading up to the hunt e-scouting and coming up with plans. We needed lots of locations as we would have 5-6 guys in camp the whole time we were there.

We got all packed up on Thursday night with the plan to roll out early Friday morning. I had to pick up a buddy at the airport who was flying in from Texas and after grabbing him bright and early, we were headed to the high country where we were met with snow flurries before the skies cleared and the sun popped out. Having some fresh snow on the ground wasn?t a terrible thing!

Here is a picture of our camp.

 

[cohunter14]

We put together our plans for opening morning and hit the sack early. We were up early and rolling, but unfortunately things dragged along and we left camp 15 minutes later than we had planned. Not a huge deal, but not ideal.


After dropping off two of the other guys at different spots along the road, I parked the Ranger and started taking off my extra layers from the ride out. I had thrown snow pants over my hunting gear just for warmth and I was having a heck of a time getting them off. Literally 10+ minutes later, I finally have everything ready to go. Again, not ideal when you are running a few minutes later than you want to. I throw my pack back on, sling my rifle over my shoulder, put my mittens on, and grab my foam seat for glassing. I take three steps in the little bit of snow on the ground and my boot catches a stick under the snow and I go face first to the ground, luckily catching myself before doing a complete face plant. To say I?m running a little hot at this point would be an understatement!  :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[cohunter14]

I dust myself off and start back up the hill towards my glassing spot. The sun is well on its way up by now and I can see just fine as I head towards my spot. As I?m walking, all of a sudden I stumble on a bunch of elk tracks in the snow. The snow has only been there for less than 20 hours or so, so it does get a little bit of my attention. The tracks are going every direction as it looked like a small herd had been there just milling around. I decide to just keep on heading toward my spot since I can?t really determine where the elk were going. I figure I?ll come upon the tracks a little ways down and get a better feel for it instead of where I was currently standing.


I go maybe 20 yards when something catches my eye ahead of me in the aspens...ELK!!!

 

[cohunter14]

I quickly fling my seat pad, rip my mittens off, and shoulder my rifle. I watch through my scope as a herd trots through the trees 150 yards ahead of me. Cow, cow, cow, cow...did I mention I had a bull tag? Yeah...the thought definitely slips in my head at that moment, especially after my archery experience and seeing a huge bull while holding a cow tag in my pocket.


All of a sudden I catch the sight of antlers! He isn?t big, but I can make out a fourth point on top as he trots along with the cows. I start following him in the scope, ignoring every other elk at that point. He slows down and comes to a stop. I can no longer see his head or rump, but I have a shot through a 15? gap at his body. I flip the safety off, center my crosshairs as best as I can in my standing, freehand setup, and squeeze the trigger.

 

[cohunter14]

At the bang of the rifle, all hell breaks loose. Elk are going every direction and I scramble to see where the bull went. All of a sudden out of the corner of my scope I see an elk stumbling. I scan over and watch as the bull drops. I keep the crosshairs on him for a number of minutes, making sure he isn?t going anywhere and I finally realize he?s definitely down for the count. Unreal!


I look at my watch to make sure I give him 30 minutes...it?s 7:20am. I flip to my tracker on my On X app...I?m 0.29 miles in from the road. What the ??????


I?ve always dreamt of the opening day elk, punching the tag early and getting to relax a bit, enjoy the hunt, and help my buddies. But in all my years of hunting, that?s never happened. And now it finally has, on a morning where I thought everyone was going wrong. I was late, then I was later, then I ate it on a stick. This isn?t how I pictured it!

 

[cohunter14]

I apologize for the pictures...it was a bit of a mess so everything is a little zoomed in.

 

[cohunter14]

So, not the biggest bull ever. Just a little 4x3 who evidently wanted to be a bigger guy. He was chipped off in multiple spots. But either way, the freezer is full after a little bit of a cold streak! I had zero hesitation in pulling the trigger on him.

The glorious part about being that close to the road? Short pack outs and help nearby! I gave him a long time to expire and we got to work. He was packed out and back in camp by 10:30am. Now that?s how hunts are supposed to go!!!

 

[cohunter14]

That?s a picture of the four quarters. We also had another meat bag with the back straps, tenderloins, neck meat, rib meat, and brisket that we had to hang on another tree. That bag was HEAVY, way heavier than the hind quarters. We got a ton of meat off of that bull!


More of the story to come tomorrow...

 

[Bowhunter1]

Congrats Derek on tagging a bull. Great shot for off hand. Closer than most of your shots. I can't wait to hear the rest of the story. I hope more elk were tagged.

 

[cnelk]

Totally awesome Derek!
Gotta love those close ones - I know I do.


I hope the meat pole gets heavier as the story goes along!

 

[WW]

Way to go Derek! Looks like you'll be eating well this winter.

 

[cohunter14]

Sorry for the delay in finishing this, I'll try to wrap it up today.


So, after getting the meat back to camp and grabbing lunch, the rest of the crew headed back out for an afternoon hunt. I stayed back in camp to enjoy the glories of punching my tag and to also prep for the snow we knew was on it's way. I got camp as prepared as I could, cut a bunch of firewood, and relaxed with a drink.


As darkness rolled in I had the wood stove burning and dinner prepared when the guys rolled in. And another shot had been fired! My brother in law had been out glassing and headed back shortly before dark to meet the rest of the guys. He drove his ATV to the meeting point, parked next to the side-by-side the other guys were driving, turned the ATV off, and sat and waited for them. He was checking out his On X maps on his phone when he looked up and saw three cows down the hill from him. Quickly, he opened his gun case, pulled his gun out, pulled a round out of his pocket, and loaded his gun. All the while, the cows were just staring at him. Apparently those cows wanted to identify as mule deer  :lol:


I've never heard of elk just standing there 150 yards away and staring at a person, especially when they are next to an ATV and a side by side! Anyway, he crawls off the road and tries to get into a solid position, but the grass was too high. So he goes up to a knee and tried to steady his rifle. Keep in mind he has never shot an elk before, so apparently he had the shakes pretty bad! He settled the crosshairs as best as he could and squeezes one off. They stand there for a couple of seconds and stare back at him. He realizes he needs to load one more and starts scrambling to do so, but the elk realize they've seen enough and finally take off running. A few minutes later the others arrive and they walk down to see if there's any blood. Unfortunately it was a clean miss. Crazy to believe that with a good shot he would have had an even easier pack out than I did!


He got a fair dose of crap that night, but we also did our best to keep his chin up. Those opportunities don't happen a lot, especially that close to a road. A good reminder to everyone to sight in your rifle before hunting and practice those different shot setups! Rarely does everything work perfectly where you have a stable rest and shooting position in the elk woods.

 

[cohunter14]

Saturday evening the snow started falling and by Sunday morning we had a few inches of fluffy white stuff on the ground. I was up early getting the stove going and making the coffee and breakfast. Everyone was out the door at a good time and I decided to head out as well, walking from camp to a great glassing spot about 800 yards behind our camp. As I neared the opening, all of a sudden I started cutting some fresh tracks in the snow. It looked to me like 8-10 elk had gone through. Immediately my plan changed and I decided to follow the tracks, hoping to do some recon for the rest of the guys by either glass some elk ahead of me or following the elk to their bedding area. Well, the elk took me on a wild goose chase, traversing down the side of a mountain, then back the opposite direction, then back the other direction until they had dropped me 800 yards down into a hole. I sat at the bottom looking at the tracks going up the hill in the opposite direction and trying to comprehend what in the world these elk were doing. I decided to pull out and traverse back up from where I initially came from, knowing I could glass the opposite hillside as I did. I hiked and glassed, hiked and glassed, until I finally arrived back at the top of the hill, covered in sweat. And no sign of the elk unfortunately. They must have gone up and over the other side into a wide open hillside that dropped into another canyon. All told, I went about two miles but it took me three hours to do it.

Back at camp, I waited for the crew to arrive for lunch. No one else had seen any tracks or sign and no elk were glassed. I again stayed back for the afternoon to prep some backstraps for dinner and cut more firewood as we had another storm coming. We also had a sixth member of camp arriving that afternoon and I wanted to make sure he found us okay.

 

[cohunter14]

A picture of the backstrap:

Unfortunately the backstrap didn?t eat near as well as it looked. That was the chewiest piece of game meat I?ve ever had. I?m hoping it was just that chunk and that with a little more aging it?ll get better, but I?m a little nervous.

Luckily I cooked up some carnitas burritos for everyone as well, so we definitely didn?t starve! No elk seen again that evening.

 

[cohunter14]

Monday morning we were up early again. I had the tent warmed up and coffee and burritos on the stove for everyone once again. My brother-in-law had to head back to Denver that morning, so we were once again down to five of us in camp.


The others hopped on the ATV's and headed out to some different spots while I, once again, headed back behind our camp to the glassing knob I was planning on heading to the day before. It was snowing as all headed out and by the time I got to my spot, we were socked in with the low clouds and snow. I stayed for awhile, hoping things would change, but it became evident that this wasn't going to be a good morning to be glassing. Instead I decided to make a big loop and see if I could once again cut some tracks, but this time I didn't have any luck. Everyone else had a similar morning and we met back at camp for lunch.

 

[cohunter14]

Monday afternoon I decided to tag along with my dad and another guy from camp and we took the Ranger to a spot quite a ways from camp. I had e-scouted this area a bunch prior to the hunt and was anxious to see what it had in store. However, the snow packed two track roads were now getting extremely slick. The first spot we went, we got to a spot with a significant hill climb and we decided it wasn't worth the effort. If we didn't make it to the top and started sliding back down the hill, things could get dicey really quick as the road traversed the side of a hill and it was straight down off of the side of it. So we jumped back in and headed around, trying to access the area from another road. We hit another smaller hill climb on this road, but not nearly as dangerous. And unfortunately, we couldn't make it up the hill. So, time to turn around and come up with a new game plan. We headed to another area and the three of us split up to do some glassing. I caught some movement on a far hillside right as it was getting dark, but it was far enough away and happened so quick that I couldn't make out what it was. We headed back to camp to find that the rest of the guys weren't successful in seeing anything either, although they did hear a shot pretty close to them. We regrouped back at camp and prepared for our last full day of hunting.

 

[cohunter14]

Tuesday morning everyone headed out early once again and I tried, for the third straight day, to head to my glassing location behind camp. We had some snow again overnight, but this time it was clear enough to see. Third time is a charm!


I didn't glass anything up, but expectations did get higher as the guys cut multiple different tracks. No luck though. I was headed back to camp when I got a call on the radio from my dad. He had a tire that was low on air and asked me to bring the tire pump down to them. I hopped in my truck and headed that way. The roads again were slick, even in my truck, so it took me a bit to get there. I pulled off the road once I got to them and let some guys by who were behind me. They filled the truck with air and I decided to take a quick hike through the woods as they were parked right where I had opening morning. I strolled up the same hill and once again, there was a bunch of tracks in the same area I had shot my bull three days earlier. Looks like we definitely have a new 'A' spot heading into next year!


I returned to the truck and tried to turn around, but just kept sliding. I decided to try to back up to the road and drive down farther to turn around, but even in reverse I was sliding pretty good and slid right into a downed log. Nice big dent in the door from that one...ouch.


We ended up back at camp for lunch and the other two guys come rolling in, but only with one ATV instead of two. Apparently my ATV had broken down on them. So after some lunch and a quick nap to let the sun melt the snow on the roads a bit, we took the Ranger down and towed my ATV back to camp. This day had suddenly turned into an expensive one for me!


I stayed back at camp for the afternoon hunt since we were down to only one ATV and the Ranger. The guys went out and hit some other good looking areas, but once again no luck.


We returned to camp and made the decision that the hunt was over. Another big storm was rolling in Wednesday early afternoon and we didn't want to get stuck in that. We celebrated the hunt that evening, toasted to my bull, and enjoyed our last evening of being cut off from the real world.


Wednesday morning we broke down camp, loaded up the trailers, and headed out. We were about halfway back down the four wheel drive trail when we noticed the tire on my dad's trailer wobbling pretty good. We stopped and were shocked to see that four of the five wheel studs on one of the tires had completely sheered off! The tire was now being held by one wheel stud with one lug nut  :-o


We decided to immediately get the weight off of the trailer, backing the Ranger and the other ATV off of it. We jacked the trailer up, removed the tire, and headed to town hoping we could find an auto shop that could help. Long story short, we figured out what wheel studs we needed and my dad and two of the other guys grabbed five of those and a punch to knock out the old studs and headed back up the mountain. I had the other trailer and our buddy from Texas in my truck, so we decided to start heading back home as he had a flight to catch. They ended up getting the trailer fixed and made it back to town two hours later, then headed homeward.


All is all, it was a bit of a messy trip with the dented truck, broke down ATV, and almost disastrous trailer incident, but we still all made it home safe and with a couple of coolers full of meat. As always, talks of next year have already begun and I think it's safe to say that we saw enough to make a trip back to this spot again next year. I can't wait!!!

 

[cnelk]

Good recap Derek.


Its always a struggle when things go south. I call it 'Character Building'



I happened to pick up a reissue 3rd season buck tag so I'll be hunting in the snow for the first time in a long time.

 

[cohunter14]

Good recap Derek.


Its always a struggle when things go south. I call it 'Character Building'



I happened to pick up a reissue 3rd season buck tag so I'll be hunting in the snow for the first time in a long time.

Awesome, good luck! I'll be out in the snow this weekend trying to tag a doe with my bow  :upthumb: