KHunter ID Elk bowhunt 2023

[Khunter]

As I was sitting on that knob, I started hearing hound dogs (bear season overlaps) coming closer from the direction I had atv’d in from. Get louder and louder and I hear they are about to come right into ‘my’ elk filled valley but they stop before too terribly close, except for a lone hound that obviously got separated from the pack and was apparently fixed in one spot sounding off a lot closer than I liked to be hearing. He is a constant noise.

I also saw a 2 foot snake when sitting on that knob, one of three snakes walked up on during the week.

Fun start to round two and things had quieted so went back to sort out a better camp situation and to do the round trip to truck for meds (and inevitably drag in even more crap I did not ‘need’ like more clothes, an RMBS Life Member yeti flask full of bourbon, and more snack foods before starting an afternoon hunt. Normally I almost never return to elk camp midday and instead stay out scouting and hunting and napping and return after dark.

Just before hopping on atv for a trip to the truck for forgotten items, here comes a 30 something guy named Evan backpacking in, bow in hand. Great guy with 8 days supplies on his back and an aggressive plan for going deep with camp on his back while hunting. Not having an ATV, he parked his truck at the ATV trail gates 1.8 miles back. All I can say is he was pushing his luck driving the road past where my truck was parked and later I saw where is got VERY western on him as he drove in during rain at 10 pm the night before. He was headed to hunt kinda where I had backpacked previously in Round One but it was new country for him so I shared what I knew.

We traded inreach addresses to share info on rut activity etc. And he mentioned that one hound was following him and would not stop so he tied it to a trailside tree to keep it from messing up his hunting, knowing it had GPS and the bear hunters would round him up.

I saw the dog a 1/4 mile from my camp tied to tree with paracord. The right choice is to always leave a gps tracked dog be but tied to a tree seemed sucky so I untied him and when he looked to head toward my camp instead of back where his owners would surely be hiking in to retrieve him I decided to use the paracord as a leash as I rode down the trail with intent to turn him loose shortly. Instead I ride up on the on-foot bear hunters, frowns of disapproval on their faces. Whatever, here's your dog, see ya. I explained it was the young guy they had chatted with early that morning who tied their hound to a tree to keep it from following him all the way in deep. They mentioned ‘when we see a dog stop moving that’s when we get really worried”

 

[Khunter]

A few introductory notes on hunt approach, goals and perspective that should have noted up front. The area I am hunting is not a "trophy" area so filming rather than killing 300" bulls as I do and document here on many hunts that are known to have better trophy quality is not game plan--any decent bull is the primary goal and raghorns are not completely off the list. Also, different than most hunts, I decided packing the spotting scope and tripod would be excess baggage that would simply add pack weight with limited utility since I was not trying to discern horn size differences plus the terrain was not super conducive to great digiscoping. Thus this thread is not my usual photo dump of cool animals doing cool things, such as the 2021 Weminuche Wilderness hunt with my brother where this sort of thing was documented daily as Brandon and I sifted through tons of bulls over 20 days at treeline looking for ‘the one’ that really turned our crank:

KHunter ‘21 archery elk semi-live

semi live as we are “out there” at treeline with few spots with cell service. probably mostly impossible to post pics daily but will try. 21 should be a fun year. Archery Elk, deer and pronghorn in Colo and bison in Az. Also archery aoudad in NM Today we, ABQBW, my brother, and me are headed...

www.hunttalk.com

Preparatory to the hunt and during the hunt I communicated with and received a ton of great insights from HuntTalkers and a few others who shared thoughts on where and how they had hunted in prior years. A couple of the guys were also hunting it again this year and were still helpful. I will likely mention some of those folks along the way…Suffice it to say my ‘solo’ elk hunt had a lot of great support and help from a lot of folks which was pretty cool, uplifting during tough stretches, and added to the overall enjoyment.


Back to day 2....
That day 2 afternoon and evening hunt was pretty slow and followed what would be a vexingly consistent trend--Thin bugling activity until after full dark making afternoon hunts pretty tough. Heard the same from a few other current tagholders I was keeping tabs with via inreach. Personally I saw lots of elk every day of the hunt, but seeing quiet elk at greater distances than can be closed in on before dark is not a high odds proposition.

 

[Khunter]

Day 3, Sunday

On this day I decided to ‘go long’ and make the trek over to the area I hunted during Round One early season. That meant hiking a mile plus downstream to end of the drainage I was camped in and then traveling upstream a couple miles. I hunted along the way and got into a little cat an mouse with a bull I never could get eyes on in the thick stuff. I also took time to sit and glass this new-to-me terrain early to mid-morning. I turned up a few bulls and cows in a few spots but did not give chase.

Unfortunately, I had to interrupt my morning hunt to straighten out miscreants riding a giant Can Am 4 door beast of an OHV well past the end of legal atv trail and on the hiking-only trail in my basin I was camped in. They were guilty of several things: Riding a large OHV on a 50-inch-or-less trail, riding past that onto a hiking only trail and worst of all IMO driving an OHV/ATV on any trail not open to full size vehicles during hunting season to hunt without being camped in there (a serious game violation).

I was nice and blocked their path for a chat and they claimed ignorance and then said “so where do we need to back up to, to be back on the ATV trail and park to hunt. I explained they needed to go back 2 miles and park on the other side of the gate they passed where OHVs larger than 50” are required to stop. Part of the problem, which is no excuse for breaking the rules, is the forest service has a 50” or less gate that is 5 feet wide and no signage about the width restriction—however all the electronic and paper maps are quite clear on the point. And IDGF publishes clear information about their overarching regulation that these units are not open to ATV powered day hunting on trails.

Of course these cheaters thanked me for the heads up but then merely backed out a hundred yards past my tent to get into the thick trees and hopped out to hunt. Losers. Here is one of them, who, faced with facts of their crime chose to brazenly break the rules further by hopping out to hunt and according to my camp neighbor came out after noon chasing a bull out in front of them as they did. At least they did not return in the future.




If this person is a HuntTalker and/or wants to come on here to dispute the facts we can always go to the video tape and game cam photos showing him doing all these things. Bottom line it is a game regulation violation and forest service travel management violation.

 

[Khunter]

Back to our regular Day 3, programming:

One thing I was scouting out is if the main pack trails were still greasy and treacherous (as there were during Round One) before trying to use them to backpack in deeper with a full pack. Turns out, given the rain over the recent several days, quite a bit of the path was pretty dicey so I knew I would wait a couple days and hunt from current camp before attempting to backpack in there. Aside from slipping and sliding with a 50+ pound pack the main issue I was thinking of was using the greasy trails to pack out even heavier elk loads should I be successful. Once I was in the previous hunt area by about 11:30 am, I posted up above the trail and creek to rest, glass and snack. Let out a few cow calls and several cows and a calf came barreling down the steep open hillside across from me and stopped 40 yards away from me. That was cool and I tried to video it but my phone was off so was not fast enough to film them running down to me, but did video them milling around and then deciding they should probably move downstream (likely because the wind was coming downslope over my back and carrying my scent to them).



After that fun encounter I hiked pretty much straight up the hillside I was on from 7,000 ft to 7,600 feet as it looked like great habitat on satellite imagery. The ground was torn up by elk the whole way and quite a bit of fresh sign despite heavy rains that ended a couple days ago. Once up high I hung out till about 5 pm looking/listening (maybe a little napping) and doing a little calling to no avail. Finally heard a couple distant bugles much further up the mountain but not enough to cause me to haul butt way up the mountain thinking I could reasonably pinpoint sparsely calling elk and sneak in on them by dark to be followed by several mile hike back to camp.

Nice views for sure.

 

[Buschy]

Great write up so far. Awesome adventure!

 

[Slm864]

Really enjoying it so far. I always appreciate when someone takes the time to explain the rules and regulations to the folks on wheelers who seemingly always do whatever they want without consequence. Maybe someday the rule breakers you encountered will get busted and then realize they could have listened to you and your advice.

 

[FillTheFreezer]

Thanks for sharing with so much detail! Learning a lot through your posts as a new Western big game hunter.

 

[Khunter]

Thanks for sharing with so much detail! Learning a lot through your posts as a new Western big game hunter.

Careful, I fill my days in the woods doing stupid stuff.

 

[YZF-88]

Day 3, Sunday

On this day I decided to ‘go long’ and make the trek over to the area I hunted during Round One early season. That meant hiking a mile plus downstream to end of the drainage I was camped in and then traveling upstream a couple miles. I hunted along the way and got into a little cat an mouse with a bull I never could get eyes on in the thick stuff. I also took time to sit and glass this new-to-me terrain early to mid-morning. I turned up a few bulls and cows in a few spots but did not give chase.

Unfortunately, I had to interrupt my morning hunt to straighten out miscreants riding a giant Can Am 4 door beast of an OHV well past the end of legal atv trail and on the hiking-only trail in my basin I was camped in. They were guilty of several things: Riding a large OHV on a 50-inch-or-less trail, riding past that onto a hiking only trail and worst of all IMO driving an OHV/ATV on any trail not open to full size vehicles during hunting season to hunt without being camped in there (a serious game violation).

I was nice and blocked their path for a chat and they claimed ignorance and then said “so where do we need to back up to, to be back on the ATV trail and park to hunt. I explained they needed to go back 2 miles and park on the other side of the gate they passed where OHVs larger than 50” are required to stop. Part of the problem, which is no excuse for breaking the rules, is the forest service has a 50” or less gate that is 5 feet wide and no signage about the width restriction—however all the electronic and paper maps are quite clear on the point. And IDGF publishes clear information about their overarching regulation that these units are not open to ATV powered day hunting on trails.

Of course these cheaters thanked me for the heads up but then merely backed out a hundred yards past my tent to get into the thick trees and hopped out to hunt. Losers. Here is one of them, who, faced with facts of their crime chose to brazenly break the rules further by hopping out to hunt and according to my camp neighbor came out after noon chasing a bull out in front of them as they did. At least they did not return in the future.


View attachment 295210

If this person is a HuntTalker and/or wants to come on here to dispute the facts we can always go to the video tape and game cam photos showing him doing all these things. Bottom line it is a game regulation violation and forest service travel management violation.

View attachment 295211

This is the crap that pisses me off big time.

 

[tystash]

Great read so far, except the jackwagons in the utv.

 

[Scott85]

Always look forward to your hunts!

 

[Khunter]

Day 3 Sunday continued:

I then hoofed it the several miles back to ‘my’ little basin and made the bad choice to scale the east end of steep hill perched like an island in the middle of the basin as it should afford great views of slopes in all directions where I had been hearing various bugling all around the area to scout out how to hunt the elk. I said ‘bad choice’ because the manzanita? was thick, chest high, and a pain to push through every step of the way.

Had I not been rushing to beat last light and trying to speed up the nearest portion of the hill, I probably would have realized starting a mere 300 yards to the west for the climb would have been relatively undergrowth free. Anyway I worked up a good lather to see one nice bull a mile plus away back toward where I had been earlier in the day. Won't see it in pic but bull is there in lower part of sage in first pic. Also heard a distant bugle or two. but true to form late afternoon/evening bugling really kinda sucked the entire hunt even when seeing bulls that should be bugling.

But the view was nice:




I then went back to camp and compared notes (and shared a some of the little bit of bourbon I had) with my camp neighbor Justin as we visited and compared notes on the day.

Then I made use of the Mr. Buddy heater once I was settled with a mountain house dinner.

 

[CPAjeff]

Man, what an adventure. Great reading so far!

 

[westbranch]

Enjoying the recap! Sounds like there is almost as many elk around there as the Panhandle

 

[noharleyyet]

Day 3 Sunday continued:

I then hoofed it the several miles back to ‘my’ little basin and made the bad choice to scale the east end of steep hill perched like an island in the middle of the basin as it should afford great views of slopes in all directions where I had been hearing various bugling all around the area to scout out how to hunt the elk. I said ‘bad choice because the manzanita? Was thuck and a beotch to push throught evefy step of the way Had I not been rushing to beat last light I probably would have realized starting a mere 300 yards to the west for the climb would have been relatively undergrowth free. Anyway I worked up a good lather to see one nice bull a mile plus away and back toward where I had been earlier in the day (wont see it in pic but is in lower part of sage in first pic) elk and also a distant bugle or two.

But the view was nice:

View attachment 295358View attachment 295357View attachment 295356


I then went back to camp and compared notes (and shared a some of the little bit of bourban I had with my camp neighbor Justin as we visitied and compared notes on the day.

Then I made use of the Mr. Buddy heater once I was settled with a mountain house dinner.

View attachment 295359

I can feel the relaxation from that heater pic...

 

[Khunter]

Day 4, Monday

At this point, including today, I have 6 days to hunt till the season ends Saturday. What I have had in my mind the last couple days was packing up camp and relocating, albeit undecided if it would be on foot/backpacking or via ATV and maybe truck as I was not sure where I wanted to try among a hundred good options in this giant hunt unit.

Plan for the day is, having heard just a few bugles from camp overnight and early morning is to climb high up the mountain near camp and hunt it hard till dark while also ‘scouting’ as this hunt is also all about learning if I want to get the tag in the future or not.

Eureka! LOL, finally found a balloon a short ways into my hike up the mountain. Not a booner ballooner by any means but it ain’t an elk hunt without finding errant helium balloons?


Initially shaping up to be a great day chasing elk with some cool sounding bugles and tons of elk sign. As soon as I make the 1st half mile and enter the timber from lower sage slope there is a lot of torn up ground and other elk sign. It just gets better as I work my way up and around the mountain chasing a couple bugles that were probably 1000? yards away when first heard them. I was pretty excited, thinking I was onto something great. I never do get closer than a few hundred yards from those bulls and spent the entire day and evening moving, listening, napping, etc as I wait till late afternoon to get back into the most promising area awaiting the late afternoon/evening uptick in activity that never arrives.

Slightly depressing hike off the mountain in the dusk then dark to camp as the only elk seen were spotted on other nearby mountains out of my current reach.


As always gorgeous views:



I had also heard via inreach from the young backpack hunter, Evan, who had come by my camp 2 days prior and per his message location he was about a mile away on the other side of the mountain I was on. He had nothing good to say about hunt quality and the rut activity.

All in all, a slow day for elk hunting from dawn to dusk, solidifying my decision to leave this camp to search for greener pastures the next day. As it turned out my camp neighbor decided to bag his hunting season, tag unfilled, by noon Monday/today. In discussions he mentioned setting camp and hunting this same spot year after year but had never killed an elk in here but usually would go to a slam dunk spot way down south. Begs the question, why keep hunting the same nonproductive site. Overall, l decided this particular hunt spot was not especially great and do not have plans to return in future years if I get a tag. Simply too many miles and elevation gain needed to be made to get into elk when they were not right here in the valley and adjacent terrain I was camped at.

 

[Khunter]

Day 5, Tuesday, Moving Day and 5 days left in season

Absent something extraordinary happening on this morning’s hunt, the plan is to hunt the morning in this spot then pack camp onto the ATV and relocate.

While I had been chatting with HTer @YZF-88, Jason, via inreach somewhat regularly and he had stated “this year I am living vicariously though my friends with elk tags”, he really was helpful and became a more regular ‘participant’ going forward in my ‘solo’ hunt when I mentioned I was headed of toward new location XX that I had never seen but that looked good. The new spot would provide yet another angle through promising looking elk terrain toward the Round One spot as well as providing access to harder to reach spots than the bigger hunt crowds who were camping along roads were likely going to try.

Before I had even left my tent for the morning hunt, Jason had Inreached (that’s a verb, right? haha) added details about how he transitions from ATV trail to set deeper camps etc. depending on what the elk are doing. And also how to get a jump on the competition that have to hike the ATV trail daily (thanks IDFG for your ATV restrictions).

As it turns out Jason had hunted in a l of that country I was headed toward and had great advice as relates to where I intended to set an ATV camp to jump off from, water availability, potential elk hotspots, etc. Can’t say enough good things about how he was openly sharing some hard-earned intel on the general area and a couple very specific spots plus his observations of elk patterns on his prior hunts. Elk are inconsistent generally and are where you find them each year but it is nice to hear what prior hunters have experienced.

Another HTer also had hunted, a week prior, the general area I was headed but not nearly as deep into the woods as I was headed but the insights were appreciated all the same. He had already headed home from his hunt.

HuntTalk is a great community of folks who are pulling for each other! I have given and received a ton of help and encouragement from folks I have never met other than through this site. Very cool and have made many lasting friendships on here and added more this year.

The morning hunt was uneventful and do not really recall much bugling, but did see a bull I had seen a few time WAY OFF on another mountain gathering and pushing his cows from an open area into the timber.

Packed up camp on the ATV and made some miles to the new location where, again, ATVs are not allowed if not doing a spike camp.

 

[Khunter]

Day 5 Moving Day Cont’d

When I reached an especially high spot while in transit over a mountain to the new spot I had a sliver of cell so hopped on a call with @YZF-88 to discuss options and approaches I was thinking about. He mentioned that if I get a bull in a tough spot he could be there in 3 ½ hours to help pack it out. Very, very cool hardly covers how nice an offer that was.







In preparation for the hunt, being solo, I had also received a commitment from an outfitter to pack a bull out if I dropped one deeper than I could physically handle. Hardly ever have hired a packer, but hunting a totally new area, wanted to be free to hunt wherever the elk take me rather than always thinking, “Can I get one out of here”.

So I felt pretty good about ability to take care of whatever may come in terms of elk packing, if not too absurd I would pack on my back and if more than I want or can handle, I had an outfitter I could send an inreach msg to, and lastly, although a presumed long shot since we had not met in person, @YZF-88 might come help.

So now I am all set with a new camp overlooking a broad view of perfect looking terrain that I hope is stuffed with elk.

A couple positives about the new spot, once I hit the ATV trail, I saw zero camps along the way. It seemed, at least from this direction, I kind of had it to myself if no miscreants day hunt via ATV. Granted there were a number of pack trails in several directions that could, and probably were, holding camps and hunters. But I was happy to have an unlimited and bright elk hunting future in this spot till proven otherwise. HaHa

No evening hunt as it was late afternoon when I had camp set up so I opted to glass and listen from my new vantage point. Did hear a couple distant bugles and actually saw a rag horn sidehilling across the valley at 1,100 yards at dusk. Once it was dark, I had a moose grunting just behind camp. Same as I heard at the prior camp spot. I heard but never saw this bull moose almost daily.

 

[Dully]

Awesome write up and picks. Have enjoyed reading day by day experiences. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to the next installment

 

[Khunter]

Day 6, Wednesday, 4 days till season end

Up early and hike down down and more down to a creek and then downstream till reached a spot that should account for the prevailing wind meaning, I would enter the basin from the south side, to climb up and over a hill to hunt a basin @YZF-88 told me about. I was huffing and puffing and wondering why I am climbing toward no elk sounds but keep going.




Heard no bugles before daylight as I was hiking. As I climbed up enough to finally cross over the ridge to drop into the basin, WHAM. Bugle, Bugle, Bugle from inside the basin and from a couple directions. Just one of those settings where you can’t hear sounds the ridge line is blocking. Immediately thinking hell yeah! Let’s go! I worked my way around and further into the basin where I could see across and in short order there’s a nice 6 pt bull strolling along after a cow and bugling regularly. He was into mixed aspens ad pine before I could get a photo (although with just an iphone at 900 yards would have been nearly useless. Distance was 800 yards across the basin when I first spotted him.

Then I spotted another bull further up basin that was a raghorn with a cool sounding bugle but was a dink. Here is a crummy pic and believe I have circled the bull for what it is worth. He was also right with a cow and they soon crossed over that little ridge and out of view.







At this point I am having a great time, full of anticipation, and inreached Jason , LOL.



And he proceeded to share additional intricate details no doubt earned from experience in the area. I could tell from his inreach messages he is enjoying tagging along on my hunt and no doubt wishing he had a tag as well.

I kept hearing a great growling bugle perhaps 500 yards away on my side of the basin but a further up basin on my side. OK, now it is getting real and have been waiting for this kind of action and opportunity.

Work my way toward the bull and do a little light bugling and am getting responses. Once about 200? yards away I added in some cow calls and realy got strong responses. Before I know it the bull has come to me and I can just see him through the trees at 80 yards coming my way.By the racket I am hearing in the timber he is n ot alone. Is it really going to be this easy? Sure seems like it.