dallsheep
Member
After accumulating 7 preference points in the Colorado draw my son agreed to use them on a late season (end of November) either sex elk ranching for wildlife hunt on the Big Gulch ranch. We couldn't hunt opening day but arrived two days later and had 2.5 days to hunt. We met the ranch contact and he assigned us a tract and provided a more detailed map. The area he assigned us was 22,000 acres and told us there were hundreds of elk currently on the property. He indicated several hunters had already tagged out and thought there were only two other hunters in that tract. We drove to the property boundary for the area the next morning and talked to some other guys who were stopped, waiting for first light. They had hunted the previous day and filled one of their cow tags. Since they had already hunted the area we let them pass and enter the property first. As we waited for more daylight other trucks drove past and we started to wonder if we were going to have more company. We counted six other trucks in that same area that morning...so much for having the place to ourselves. The area was mostly open sagebrush hills with some trees and brush on the north facing slopes. There were elk tracks everywhere you looked in the 6 inches of snow, so we knew they were in the general area. The first morning we spotted some cows and some small bulls and then spotted a good five point bull at last light in a large herd. Our plan was to make a move on him the following day. Unfortunately, the large herd was nowhere to be found the next day. At around 10:30 we spotted three elk feeding on an open sidehill a couple of miles from the road. I looked in the spotting scope and they were all bulls. Perfect, a bachelor group. After a long hike and some luck spotting them bedded on a saddle, my son put a bullet in one of the bigger five points. After a few follow up shots he was on the ground for good. It was about 1pm when we took pictures and went to work quartering him. By 3:30 we had the pack frames loaded with the hind quarters and started back. During the hike back, I thought my son was going to just lay on the ground and never get up….it was a big load for the 160 lb, 6’2” kid. I was spent as well when we finally got to the truck, but a little hard work made the hunt a little sweeter….that’s what I kept telling myself anyway. We had a good night sleep then came back the next morning to pack the head and the remaining meat out. It was 8 degrees when we left the truck but we soon warmed up with the hike in. All in all a very enjoyable and somewhat challenging hunt.
I learned a few things during the hunt. The property was checkerboarded with other private property, state land and blm, so without a gps it was difficult to determine some of the boundaries. There were fences that sometimes marked the boundaries but not all the time. So next time I’ll have a gps. We really got transfixed with finding the large herds and taking a bull from them instead of searching for those bachelor groups that are formed this time of year. A little more glassing could have picked out some others small groups. We were quite fortunate to find the group of 5 bulls.
I’ve seen quite a few negative posts on RFW property hunting but I have nothing but positive things to say about this experience. I don’t know if I would have used my own 7 points for the hunt but it was great for my son and I had a blast too. It would have been fairly easy to kill a cow on this hunt so if you want an almost guaranteed cow, these aren’t bad hunts. If you want a monster bull, I think that would be difficult but a respectable bull like my son’s is definitely doable but will take some work and a little luck.
I learned a few things during the hunt. The property was checkerboarded with other private property, state land and blm, so without a gps it was difficult to determine some of the boundaries. There were fences that sometimes marked the boundaries but not all the time. So next time I’ll have a gps. We really got transfixed with finding the large herds and taking a bull from them instead of searching for those bachelor groups that are formed this time of year. A little more glassing could have picked out some others small groups. We were quite fortunate to find the group of 5 bulls.
I’ve seen quite a few negative posts on RFW property hunting but I have nothing but positive things to say about this experience. I don’t know if I would have used my own 7 points for the hunt but it was great for my son and I had a blast too. It would have been fairly easy to kill a cow on this hunt so if you want an almost guaranteed cow, these aren’t bad hunts. If you want a monster bull, I think that would be difficult but a respectable bull like my son’s is definitely doable but will take some work and a little luck.
