Chap is back

[FG]

Any elk in the freezer chap? Tell us the story!

[gleason.chapman]

ORIGINAL: FG

Any elk in the freezer chap? Tell us the story!

Well I had elk tendrloin tonight, but my buddy got it. We were walking up a draw to a watering hole and it was about 7:10, just after first light, opening day of first rifle season for elk, I had a cow or bull tag. The guide (Boyd who lives in Meeker) and my buddy Sam were glassing this draw to our right. I said "there is an elk right in front of us". The guide go down on his knees and glassed the elk for a second and said it was a shooter. Since my friend had shot several elk, including one with a bow, he wanted me to shoot first. I asked, how far it was, andBoyd (the guide)pulled out his range finder and said 285. I said I can't shoot my Savage 285, 200 is my limit. I said "you shoot Sam". He got down on the ground sitting and rested the rifle (a 270) on his knee and sarted to shoot, however the elk started moving toward the waterhole and he couldn't get a steady shot. The elk went out of sight. We thought the elk went up the draw (we didn't know the Waterhole was there, since this was our first day out), but he went to a watering hole and we walked toward him about 75 or 80 yards and he came up out of the waterhing hole and looked at us, quarting to us, left side facing us, now we were two hundrend yards away. Body said shoot, so I pulled up and shoot off hand hitting him in the neck (I was aiming for were the neck join the body--since that is all I could see of his body,above the brisket, obviously I was "weaving", becaue I hit him left of the brisket). The elk took off running, right to left, from the watering home. Well Sam jumped to his feet and lead the elk a couple of feet and shot, hitting him in the hind shoulder ( :-> his term), it broke his rear joint, he started to go up a mountain, but didn't have any power with the broken rear leg to get up themountain, and the elk got about 100 yards up it and stopped and stood broadside looking at Sam,who had run twoward the elk as I was reloading my Savage. He shot again at about 200 yards hitting the elk right behind the front right shoulder and he want down.

The was the only elk I saw, the wholetime withinrange. I saw 2 other bulls on Tuesday afternoon walking across a mountain about 1 mile away and you could see one was a shooter bull, the other was a spike. That was it. Saw 25 mule deer in a group at about 50 yards, 18 of them were bucks, 3 huge ones--they are pretty dumb.

That was it. I hunted about 38 miles N of Meeker Colorado, at Louisiana Purchase Ranch. It was not a physical hunt, we were carted around inChevy Suburbans, watching watering holes and draws. Most of the hunting is on Louisiana Purchase Ranch and BLM land at the top of the mountains.

My opinion of elk hunting 1st rifle season inColorado--it is more luck than management since there are few resident elk at that elevation at that time period. If I go again it will be in Muzzleloader season, and I would either get a tresspass permit and hunt bulls in the rut OR I would hunt 4th rifle season, when the elk migration is underway (really did not know about the migration, since I am not from that area, but read a lot of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Bugle magazines there and learned a lot.)

Beautiful country FG, and Cayugad there were several guys there over 70 years old and a one of them got a huge 5x5 elk (Royce was one from Tx and got a nice 5x5). I would recommend the hunt if you have the money. Cost for me was:

3000 for hunt, includes food lodging and guide, 3 hunters per guide
$526 for Colorado elk license
$250 for air travel round trip from Baltimore MD to Denver
$181 car rental (spit 2 ways)
$80 in gas (split 2 ways)
tip for guide and tip for cook
couple of meals on the road at fast food
you can do whole thing for about $4000. Go in MLer season or 4th rifle or 3rd rifle.

I had a good time on my first elk hunt, but I would have liked to hunt the rut. Here is a picture of Sam's bull:

http://www.louisianapurchaseranch.com/2008%20braggin%20page.htm

That is the story.
Chap

[cayugad]

Great story.. glad you made it back nice and safe. And you do have some elk so that is a good thing as well...

[FG]

Sounds like it was fun. I would have smacked that .270 shooter and told him you put the first round into it, its yours

I'll see how this season goes as i'll be hunting private/public land. One of the guys my father works with told him where i can ambush the elk as this one ranch runs them back and forth.

[gleason.chapman]

ORIGINAL: FG

Sounds like it was fun. I would have smacked that .270 shooter and told him you put the first round into it, its yours

I'll see how this season goes as i'll be hunting private/public land. One of the guys my father works with told him where i can ambush the elk as this one ranch runs them back and forth.

I guess you didn't get a MLer draw? One of the guides said he feels MLer season is the best because he was hunting in an area that required 14 points but only 2 MLer points. He got a 6x6. I didn't realize that you were only allowed to hunt one season only--archery, MLer or rifle and it you hunt MLer you can't hunt rifle. Boy that is a lot different than Va, NY, Pa where I hunt, you can hunt any and all of theseasons (archery (bow or crossbow, MLer, rifle)and the season bag limit is with any and all weapons. I didn't know that about colorado rules.
Chap

[FG]

Lets say if you hunt muzzleloader season in colorado for elk, thats IT, you are done elk hunting UNLESS! You draw in an area that has a + symbol such as my tag. I could be hunting OTC bull 2nd or 3rd season and Still be able to use my cow tag for 4th season. I got my cow tag over the internet left over tags draw. There were 8 tags left over for unit 85.

My dad wants to go either muzzleloading or rifle hunting for Antelope up in Craig next year. He wasnt able to go hunting this year due to using up all of his vacation time. He was pretty P-d off about that due to the way it was spent but, No point in fussing over it as its done already.

Will be hunting Northern New Mexico on Oct. 25th for mule deer with my brother in law. He'll be borrowing my Optima while i work the Camera Which reminds me that i need to practice with it a lot.

Edit: My bad, i get to hunt that way due to unit 85 being OTC for bulls. What the DOW meant was that since 85 is a OTC area for bull during 2nd and 3rd season, i can get a cow tag in the draw and still be safe even if the cow is a month or 2 later on in the season.

[bronko22000]

Chap - hope you had a good time. Me and my buddy went last year to Wyoming. We flipped a coin and he won first shot. He got a 4x4. I saw a bunch of spikes but didn't shoot. (if I knew how good elk meat was though, I would have). We spilt the cost of everything, gas, butchering, etc. When we got home we divied up the meat. Fantastic. 300% better than deer.

[gleason.chapman]

ORIGINAL: bronko22000

Chap - hope you had a good time. Me and my buddy went last year to Wyoming. We flipped a coin and he won first shot. He got a 4x4. I saw a bunch of spikes but didn't shoot. (if I knew how good elk meat was though, I would have). We spilt the cost of everything, gas, butchering, etc. When we got home we divied up the meat. Fantastic. 300% better than deer.

I had a good time, seeing 17 bucks in one group of 25 mule deer made the trip worthwhile. I would have liked to seen more elk, but I know that is a hit or miss thing with resident elk now, unless your hunting the 10,000 feet stuff and above. Oh, another thing I learned, which is different than back east here, folks don't eat elk bull steaks from the hind quarter, they shoot cow elk and use thehind quarter for roasts or ground elk. I didn't know that. I agree elk is very very tasty meat, and the size of the loins is another great benefit. I think I would like to figure out a hunt on BLM land using 4 wheelers during the rut in Sept, I think that would be fun, and with the new bullets coming out from Hornady and ThorI believe I could get one with open sights. The first year I shot my Knight Disc, I used open sights anddid very well, in factI gota buck and a doe the first time I ever shot the rifle at game, using Knight 240g all lead bullets in a Knight sabot.
Chap

[TNHagies]

ORIGINAL: gleason.chapman

I guess you didn't get a MLer draw? One of the guides said he feels MLer season is the best because he was hunting in an area that required 14 points but only 2 MLer points. He got a 6x6. I didn't realize that you were only allowed to hunt one season only--archery, MLer or rifle and it you hunt MLer you can't hunt rifle. Boy that is a lot different than Va, NY, Pa where I hunt, you can hunt any and all of theseasons (archery (bow or crossbow, MLer, rifle)and the season bag limit is with any and all weapons. I didn't know that about colorado rules.
Chap

Yeah the NW corner of CO is hard to draw. BUT if you do get drawn there are some monsters up there.I know what you mean about the differences between how VA and CO is. It is frustrating to have a tag that is only good for about a week.

Glad to hear you had fun. ML season I think would be prefered as well. I hunted this year during ML in unit 19 and they were screaming all week. That almost makes it worth it right there.

[gleason.chapman]

ORIGINAL: TNHagies

I hunted this year during ML in unit 19 and they were screaming all week. That almost makes it worth it right there.

That is what I think also, I heard a couple but they were not screaming all the time, like what you see on TV. Chap