Successful Colorado elk hunt
10-27-2011, 05:01 AM
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Successful Colorado elk hunt
I have recently returned from a successful Colorado elk hunt and thought I would share a brief description of the hunt here. My partners and I hunted the first rifle season in GMU 75. There had been a heavy snowfall in this area (SW Colorado, San Juan mountains) about October 5-6, and it happened that this snowfall prevented us from setting up our elk camp at our plan A location and instead we set up camp at our plan B location. We could not walk in to our preferred hunting location, due to the lingering snow cover, so for the first few days of the hunt we instead hunted other places -- logging roads, parks accessible reasonably easily from the road -- that we were not familiar with. We didn't find much. A spike at this location. A fleeting view of an elk -- cow? bull? spike? -- through a screen of trees. After opening morning we heard few rifle shots. Hunters were pulling up stakes and pulling out Sunday afternoon and Monday.
Tuesday evening we set out to go maybe 1/2 way towards our preferred hunting spot -- the location of which shall remain undisclosed, naturally -- and do a hunt by lurking at a spot where elk might travel up or down the mountain. Turns out the trail was easy going, most of the difficult snow had melted, and we went further than we had planned. We overlooked a series of ravines that extended down to some fingers of aspen trees. If I were an elk, I thought, this would be a good path to go from above to below or vice versa. Well, no elk showed. About 40 minutes before sundown, however, I observed one of my hunting partners standing up pointing. I looked where he pointed but saw nothing. I crept over a couple of the ridges to try to see further, still nothing. I returned to my original location. Then I heard a crunch, crunch, crunch sound. My partner was approaching across the now crusted snow.
Elk could be seen coming out of some aspens about 1 mile away. They were close to our plan A location where we hoped to hunt the last day of the season. I suggested we walk along a trail -- out of view of these elk -- and drop down on the backside of the last ridge between them and us. We didn't have much time -- about 35 minutes remaining until sundown. We walked quickly over the trail and then began dropping down the ridge. We dropped maybe 200-300 feet off the ridge (at least it seemed this much or more as we climbed back up this ridge in the dark later). We crawled on hands and knees and then belly crawled up to the crest of the ridge.
The elk were there. There was a bull that was bugling and maybe another bull that may also have been bugling. There were several cows. All in all, there were about 8 elk in view. We got into a sitting position -- there were only two of us, our third partner was resting back in camp this evening. I was wearing all my clothes -- it had been cold sitting in the shadows after the sun had gone over the mountain and I had been sitting still for two hours at our original ambush location -- and had not taken them off before our quick walk over the trail. My glasses were just starting to fog up from perspiration. I consulted with my partner, asking if I could shoot. Can I shoot? I got the go ahead. I saw a bull facing me at some distance from me but the closest among the elk. It was between 200 yards and 300 yards away. By this time it was just about sundown, and the light was not great. I shot. The bull did not move or flinch noticeably. The bull began to climb up a rise, took several steps, then its legs spread apart, and it collapsed dead. My partner, meanwhile, had shot a cow. Other elk began emerging from ravines where they had been out of view previously. We field dressed our elk and began the long hike back to camp. We figured it was 5-6 miles from the trailhead where we parked our truck. We got back into camp very tired but happy at 9:15 PM.
The next morning our third partner went out to the plan A location, but stopped short because there was an bull elk bugling and cow elk replying on the near slope. I had never heard such bugling before -- I haven't been elk hunting too many times and always during the first rifle season when such rutting behavior is generally over. Quite an experience. This third man hoped that light would find one or more of these elk remaining on our side of this slope, giving him a shot. This did not happen. At light he walked around the cusp of this slope hoping to find the elk in the next canyon. They were there, but they were ahead of him and moving quickly to bedding areas in dark timber. He never caught up. That night, however, he did return to this canyon and spotted a bull. He approached up a treed ravine and played peek-a-boo with the elk through a screen of branches for about 5 minutes. Finally the bull decided our third man -- the leader of our elk camp -- was not a threat and stepped a bit further. This gave our leader a shot, and he shot the bull. The bull, however, did not go down and raced directly at our leader at a full run. The leader shot a couple of times missing and then hit again. The bull fell, perhaps only 20 yards from the leader.
This was a delightful and exciting end to our elk hunt. There were three of us in camp; all three of us took an elk. We persisted through early difficulties, and this made our ultimate success all the more rewarding, I think.
Tuesday evening we set out to go maybe 1/2 way towards our preferred hunting spot -- the location of which shall remain undisclosed, naturally -- and do a hunt by lurking at a spot where elk might travel up or down the mountain. Turns out the trail was easy going, most of the difficult snow had melted, and we went further than we had planned. We overlooked a series of ravines that extended down to some fingers of aspen trees. If I were an elk, I thought, this would be a good path to go from above to below or vice versa. Well, no elk showed. About 40 minutes before sundown, however, I observed one of my hunting partners standing up pointing. I looked where he pointed but saw nothing. I crept over a couple of the ridges to try to see further, still nothing. I returned to my original location. Then I heard a crunch, crunch, crunch sound. My partner was approaching across the now crusted snow.
Elk could be seen coming out of some aspens about 1 mile away. They were close to our plan A location where we hoped to hunt the last day of the season. I suggested we walk along a trail -- out of view of these elk -- and drop down on the backside of the last ridge between them and us. We didn't have much time -- about 35 minutes remaining until sundown. We walked quickly over the trail and then began dropping down the ridge. We dropped maybe 200-300 feet off the ridge (at least it seemed this much or more as we climbed back up this ridge in the dark later). We crawled on hands and knees and then belly crawled up to the crest of the ridge.
The elk were there. There was a bull that was bugling and maybe another bull that may also have been bugling. There were several cows. All in all, there were about 8 elk in view. We got into a sitting position -- there were only two of us, our third partner was resting back in camp this evening. I was wearing all my clothes -- it had been cold sitting in the shadows after the sun had gone over the mountain and I had been sitting still for two hours at our original ambush location -- and had not taken them off before our quick walk over the trail. My glasses were just starting to fog up from perspiration. I consulted with my partner, asking if I could shoot. Can I shoot? I got the go ahead. I saw a bull facing me at some distance from me but the closest among the elk. It was between 200 yards and 300 yards away. By this time it was just about sundown, and the light was not great. I shot. The bull did not move or flinch noticeably. The bull began to climb up a rise, took several steps, then its legs spread apart, and it collapsed dead. My partner, meanwhile, had shot a cow. Other elk began emerging from ravines where they had been out of view previously. We field dressed our elk and began the long hike back to camp. We figured it was 5-6 miles from the trailhead where we parked our truck. We got back into camp very tired but happy at 9:15 PM.
The next morning our third partner went out to the plan A location, but stopped short because there was an bull elk bugling and cow elk replying on the near slope. I had never heard such bugling before -- I haven't been elk hunting too many times and always during the first rifle season when such rutting behavior is generally over. Quite an experience. This third man hoped that light would find one or more of these elk remaining on our side of this slope, giving him a shot. This did not happen. At light he walked around the cusp of this slope hoping to find the elk in the next canyon. They were there, but they were ahead of him and moving quickly to bedding areas in dark timber. He never caught up. That night, however, he did return to this canyon and spotted a bull. He approached up a treed ravine and played peek-a-boo with the elk through a screen of branches for about 5 minutes. Finally the bull decided our third man -- the leader of our elk camp -- was not a threat and stepped a bit further. This gave our leader a shot, and he shot the bull. The bull, however, did not go down and raced directly at our leader at a full run. The leader shot a couple of times missing and then hit again. The bull fell, perhaps only 20 yards from the leader.
This was a delightful and exciting end to our elk hunt. There were three of us in camp; all three of us took an elk. We persisted through early difficulties, and this made our ultimate success all the more rewarding, I think.
Last edited by Alsatian; 10-28-2011 at 05:13 AM.
