My Colorado Elk Hunt

[Gaur]

I posted pictures before of the bow James Parker made for me this summer.  He named it High Country.  I think he named it that as he knew I was going to be taking it elk hunting in Sept.  He used some Japanese madake bamboo I had sent him last year, a piece of yew I sent him as well and added a lam of Ipe and Osage and made it with a nice osage riser.  He also did the tips in some albino water buffalo horn stock I had sent him.



The bow shot very well for me.  James said he broke a few nocks on some brand new arrows the first time he shot it.  It has the narrowed tips that he has ever done on one of his bamboo bows.  It is around 57# @ 28"    I would have liked to use some of his stone points he made for me before but Colorado specifies that broadheads have to be metal.

I visited Estes Park and a youth camp that has sent teams over the Thailand to help us with a youth camp we are developing over there.  I was in Estes a week before the bad floods.  We drove up into Rockey Mt National Park and I enjoyed the views and got to see some elk.  I saw one nice bull pushing cows around and chasing a rag horn and this was just Sept 5th.  So I was getting excited to get on my hunt which was starting on Sept 7th.  That night at the camp I could hear two bulls bugling and I got out my calls and practiced with them.  I got the one bull that was up on the ridge below Long's Peak to answer me every few minutes and he had a nice growl to the end of his bugle.  I borrowed a nice big 16 x 20 wall tent from camp and even a whole bunk bed set with full mattress. 
This was me at Rocky Mountain National Park.


I picked up my friend and fellow bowmaker Dave (he makes double carbon modern longbows) at the Denver airport and we drove all night to get down the unit we were hunting in Southern Colorado.  We came across a bad accident at 3 am in the middle of no where.  lights flashing, wheels off a flipped older Mercedes.  We found a man in his 60s dead in the car and so that was a tough situation.  No cell coverage.  We drove to the nearest town and called 911 and the operator said a crew was on the seine.   We got into camp at about 4 am and Greg, the third in the party, who has hunted this unit for about 5 years got up and told us he had been listening to bulls bugling for the last hour.  I wanted to go hunt but after talking for a while I could feel I was fading.

I set up my small go lite tipi and put the mattresses in it for a few hours of sleep.  Greg went out hunting.  I woke up and started setting up our camp.  We had a great spot with a stream below us and even a outhouse.  Greg had always wanted this site but normally a local group was using it but this time he found it open.    Dave and I get the wall tent set up.  I also brought with a nice 6 ft plastic table and a 4 foot table, a 2 burner coleman stove and a cooler full of food so we were going to live well.  The wall tent felt huge inside.  Only thing it didn't have that would have been nice with all the rain we got was a stove to dry things out.

[Gaur]

After getting camp set up Dave and I talked with Greg about the area and looked at maps.  He gave us some key info of how the elk move from the higher bedding areas down into the willows in the evenings and then back up in the mornings.  That morning he got busted by a cow as he came up onto a bench up the mountain east of camp.

Dave and I decided to drive back out to get a view of the area as we had come in the dark that morning and we wanted to see the mountains.  Our camp was in a spot that you couldn't see the peaks too well. 

It was a beautiful area.  We passed a few other camps and saw some huntings down in a small stream.  As we went along the ditch I had to open and close a cattle gate and something caught my eye in the woods.  It was two freshly boned out front legs of an elk.  I went to check it out and found that the guys had left the calfs still on the legs which seemed real wasteful to me.  I cut the meat off and also took the sinew for making bows. 

.

This was down in the area that Greg said they elk moved for evenings to feed in the young aspens and willows.  So we guessed that cow was shot that morning as they were returning from their night feedings.

That evening we decided to head up the mountain to our east to check it out.  We saw some elk tracks and decided to split up as we were making too much noise as a pair.  I went farther north and worked my way up the slope following a game trail with the wind in my face.  Dave ended up not going a far but glassed some elk way up on the high alpine.  It was rather warm and he figured they were up there to keep cool.  They were a long ways off but he has a great little camera with a 80x digital zoom. 


I myself came across a young 2x2 bull feeding by himself high up on the mountain.  He was about 80 yards away and I enjoyed watching him in the fading light.  I tried to loop around the trees and see how close I could get to him but when I came around the trees I couldn't find him but he must have seen me and he ran off.

[Gaur]

Had a good night's sleep in our full bed set up.  Dave and I decided to check out the area West of camp and see if we could find a wallow that Greg told us about.  Greg headed up the slopes to the East again.   

Dave and I found a nice big wallow/pond that was all cloudy like it had been used pretty recently.  We saw some elk tracks and after a while decided to split up again and meet back in camp later.  I went father west and Dave went more south.  We were both working into the wind. 

I crossed a few low ridges on my way.  There were old skid roads that you would cross every bottom of the ridges.  I was coming up a skid road with elk tracks on it and I saw just the head of a cow pass about 150 yards upwind from me and she was moving west.  So I turned west too to see if I could catch up to her and hopefully some more in her party.

I soon heard a nice chuckle/glunk about 200 yards into the dark timbers.  I interpreted this as the bull calling the cows to himself.  I moved in closer and got about 20 yards into the timbers and decided to try a cow call.  He answered me with the same call I had just heard and I was ready to cut him off with a challenge bugle.   This is a series I had been practicing as suggested by the Elk101 guys.   Pretty much right after I stopped my short high pitched bugle I saw a bull coming through the timbers about 60 yrds to the west of me.  He turned and was coming straight to me.  I was on a trail, behind a aspen (they were big aspens here).  I was worried he might pass by me at 1 yard if he stayed on the trail.  Fortunately he turned a bit and was going to pass me real close still at about 7 yards.  He looked to be a younger 5 x 5 bull.   I was scanning for a good shooting window and saw one and some good trees that he would pass behind that I would draw my bow.   Everything was looking good and I went to pull my bow and my arrow had come unknocked somehow and didn't come back with the string.

I was pretty flustered now as I missed the opportunity.  I got the arrow knocked and he still hadn't seen me and was now behind a little spruce tree.  I was searching for opening in the tree to get an arrow through and found one and decided to try a shot before he got downwind of me.  I must not have anchored right and took a really rushed shot and ended up with a bad miss.  The bull ran off and then u turned and came back towards me and I tired cow calling to stop him to give me another shot.  He went by me and stopped too far for a shot.  A second bull came charging down to him to see what all the commotion and calling was about.  I waiting a while as they went out of sight and moved up another 15 yards into the timbers and found a clump of three trees that I stood in now.  I decided to do the call sequence again and the same thing happened.  The herd bull answered me from about 100 yards back around the side hill and I cut him off again with a challenge bugle.  This brought the second satellite bull to me.  This one came to my right and was quartering strongly towards me.  30 yards, 25, 20, 15, 10 yards and at about 7 yards stops and turns to face me head on.  He has a weird look on his face and is drooling.  I can see he has broken top points but he is a legal bull (needs to have 4 points on at least one side).  I am waiting for him to turn and give me a broadside shot.  I can see my broadhead shaking as we stare at each other and I have tension on the string.   This lastest about 20 seconds or so and I knew he was going to bolt soon so I decided to draw my bow and see what happens.

I draw half way and he hasn't moved so I come to full draw and focus on his throat.  I had studied the frontal shot a lot and I knew I might try it in this situation and he was so close I decided to give it a go.    The target is about the size of a 6"-8" plate and if you get it in there the heart and all the major blood vessels are there.  I hit just left an inch or two of his throat.  I was using a 200 grain Grizzly and an insert with Beman 400 classics  (I know not so primitive).  I was a bit worried that the arrow didn't go to the fletching, more like 12" to 14" penetration and the bull ran off.  I cow called and he stopped and I had an instant where I could have given him one more arrow as he was standing broadside but he moved off before I could get an arrow knocked and on its way.


He was in the opening left of the small spruce tree when I shot him.

I headed back to camp to get my camera, frame pack,  give him some time and see if I could meet up with Dave.

[Gaur]

I paced around camp for an hour or so waiting for Dave and getting the frame packs ready.  I wrote a note with the gps coordinates for where i took the shot and headed back to look for my elk about 10:15 am.  The shot had been at 8:40 am.

I should have put some flagging where I was standing because getting back there with my older gps I had trouble finding the exact spot.  The gps would say I was arriving at the spot and then say I had gone too far.  I finally decided to just start looking for blood in the area where I had seen him run to and where I had thought I had seen blood start coming out of the wound.

I looked up and saw a log in the sun and it was as if someone had painted the log with a pint of red paint.  It was a great sight to see.


past the log was a good steady blood trail up the hill

[Gaur]

I followed the blood trail about 50 yards straight up the hill and then it turned left and side hilled.  There was a large log about another 40 yards up the hill  and I thought I was him on the other side of it. 


is where he ended up.   So the second morning of my first ever elk hunt I punched my tag.  I still had another 6 days here so it felt a little bitter sweet to be done so soon.  It was also such a personal encounter with this elk as we stared at each other so closely that I understood the idea that Native Americans had for a animal giving up it spirit to the hunter.  It almost felt like that to me how he didn't bolt on me when I drew my bow.

But boy was that a big animal on the ground that I was going to have to break down pretty quickly as the temps were in the 70s.  At least I was in the shade. 



Check back I'll try to load some more of our experiences from the hunt as Dave still had a tag and so did Greg.

[Pappy]

Congrats,great story.Very well done.
    Pappy

[Badly Bent]

What a great hunt Gaur! Read the whole story and had to force myself not to scroll to the bottom to see how it ended.
Perfect ending to a real good hunting story, man that bull looks good on the ground. Fantastic story and pictures, that was some kinda first elk hunt for sure. Congrats man, well done.

[blackhawk]

Wow...awesome and congrats randy...I'd say you've been blessed and not lucky...that's sweet ...I spent a summer working at a youth camp in Estes...maybe the same one?  I'm assuming you were in the San Juan's? I also lived their for 4 years...sometimes I miss it,but I'm right where the good lord wants me...thanks for sharing the story and pics...let's me relive my days there

[PEARL DRUMS]

WOW! Excellent job Randy! I love how you where thoughtful enough to salvage more from those front legs. That's the difference between a woodsman and a killer. Your a good man!

[Ed Brooks]

Thanks for sharing such a great hunt. Nice Bull. Ed

[ErictheViking]

Great story and perfect ending. awesome

[Stringman]

Congrats!  Well deserved reward....

[Gaur]

Thanks guys.  It was a special hunt that I had been dreaming about and planning for a few years.  Had to put it off a year or two as we took on adopting our Thai son and we had to wait 2 1/2 years to get that all completed in Thailand.

I was butchering my elk, struggling a bit to get the big legs up.  I kept thinking Dave should be here any minute.  Every once in a while I'd hear a cow call and I thought it was Dave calling looking for me and I would whistle back.  I got pretty covered with blood and moved the game bags down to where I had shot the elk.   I took my first load back to camp about 2:30 pm.  I got there and found a note saying Greg had also shot a bull 1 mile from camp and higher up than mine and Dave had gone to help him with his.  He also said my gps coordinates were wrong and it put my kill 27 miles away.  Later we figured out there was a missing decimal point when he put it in.

I headed back for my second load.  Mine was 0.6 miles West of camp and not real difficult hills to climb over.



When I got back to camp Dave and Greg were there with their first load. 


Greg and I with our elk shot 10 min apart 1.6 miles away from each other.

[PEARL DRUMS]

So cool Randy. Im incredibly happy for you my friend!

[TRACY]

Congratulations! Really enjoyed reading the whole event.


Tracy