Well I got back sunday from my first archery elk hunt in Southern CO. Hot rainydays mixed with a full moon most of the week did not help me and I have an unpunched $500 tag. Iwas able to bring home two stories of my hunt however.

The first day after finally finding a cold natural spring I was fillingone of those plastic water containers to take back to camp, which was 3/4's of a mile and not fun to carry (almost 5 gallons). As I was filling thecontainer I had to take a leak and walked over to a nearby bush as my hunting buddy continued to fill the water. Midstream I looked up and out walks a cow elk at 30 yards! Of course no bow, no release, no nothing, except a little cover and the wind was perfect. Well I crawled back to my bow and release got that situated and crawled back to the bush to peer over, you guessed it no elk.Thinking she may have heard me I began walking slowly to the spotI last observed her. After about 10 steps I hear "hey" and look behind me. My buddy is pointing down in the creek behind a small blowdown and a huge bush. Yep the cow is standing in the creek drinking and I actually walked past her. My buddy is now about 15 yards from her and the wind is still good. Well being this close to the elk just freaked my buddy out and he could see patches of the elk, but didn't know what part of the anatomy he was looking at so he tries to get closer instead of just letting her walk in either directing in which case one of us would havehad a shot. So she eventually sees him and blows out of there. I would see about a dozen more elk that week, but none within bow range.

Second story and I only believe that this really happened b/c it came from two of my good friends who were also on this trip. They were going along bugling on morning when they get a response (bugle)from about 50 yards away. Now keep in mind that this is the first elk hunt they have ever been on and they learned to bugle about 2 days before the trip. Thier bugle was so awful it didn't even sound like an elk..but read on.

So after getting the response they bugle again. This time they hear the bull running towards them breaking branches and grunting/growling loudly. Theone doing the bugling has now ran back about 50 yards and the one doing the shooting is not beside a huge pine tree on one knee (lets call him Ryan). Ryan sees the bull coming at 40 yards and draws back his bow. The only shot Ryan has is a head on shot that he knew he couldn't take. Well the bull continues to run straight at him and stops dead in his tracks right besideRyan. Ryans broadhead is two inches from the bull at full draw. The bull turns his head stretches out his neck and sniffs Ryans shoulder!!! Ryan was not sure if the bull actually touched him or if it was just the bulls breath that made his clothes move. Ryan described the bulls nostrils to be flaringand his eyes as "spooky". Ryanfurther advised that he wasn't sure if the bull was going to gore him with his antlers and actually thought about scaring the bull away. Well the bull decided he didn't like what he was seeing/smelling so he turned and began to trot away. At 10 ft Ryan sent a Montec into the bull. The arrow entered near the last rib and buried to the nock.

This is where the story gets not so humerous.After tracking the bull for 6 hours and three miles they lost it. Ryanwas and continues to be sick, which I understand. I just wanted you to hear how my hunt went since I couldn'tshow any great pictures of an elk that I had harvested. I will however post somepictures of the area I hunted on the "YOUR 2006 HUNTING TRIP" thread later this week.

After being shaken up like that I am not sure I would have been able to make the shot either. Elk are hard to bring down. Just for future reference, if you leave them for a while to let them die, you will usually find them in the lowest spot they can find in water. At least that has been my experience, and one hit too far back will usually not cross a fence after a quarter to half mile. A lot of times they are piled up at a fence in a creek. Again, just my experiences not law by any means.

I fill for your unlucky buddy.

What a trip. My first hunt was exciting and depressing enough without having him come in running. I fill his pain. Not that I think I will ever need a refresher but it is nice to go back and read the old story again.

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/fb.aspx?m=748891&key=elk

BTW, he scored 318 by the best I could tell after having part of the antler broken off. I also found a very large portion of that antler and my arrow on last year's trip.

This year was very tough for me. I only saw one cow after the season opened and it was around 80 yards. Luckily I got an extra week of vation thi year so I'll get another chance next week.