Living with "Failure"

[TransplantHunter]

In an effort to chronicle my hunting career a little more, I wanted to spend some time writing about my 2025 hunting season, even though I had a LOT of tag soup.

The TLDR;
I had 4 tags in Colorado this year. A cow elk OTC archery tag (list B), a doe pronghorn tag, a 3rd season buck tag, and an OTC bull tag for 3rd season. I came home with zero meat in the freezer. This season was full of first's for me with various things happening, some in my control - others not. It was a learning experience and while I am frustrated that I didn't harvest anything, I am hoping that it will make me a better hunter in the future.

The long story:
Archery season - OTC cow elk tag.

It was going to be a short hunt for me. Historically, I have had people that I hunt with and prefer to spend time out there with friends. This season, my various hunting friends were busy so I went on this adventure by myself. I only had one weekend to work with so on Sept 19th, I headed up into a spot that I discovered the previous year. My plan was to get there mid afternoon on Friday, hike up the drainage, climb a hill, and glass / listen for the evening to get a grasp of what was happening in the area. I made it in 1.5 miles from the truck and started to climb the hill that I wanted to glass from when I heard a bugle coming from behind me on a hill on the opposite side of the valley. I thought that it sounded strange to me - very squeaky with weird changes in pitch. Honestly, it sounded like a hunter to me so I kind of wrote it off. A few minutes later, I heard it again and I decided that I would try to find an opening in the tree's to look. Well, after a moment, I was able to look across the valley and discovered that it was a bull elk! OK, we're off to a good start. I stayed put for another moment or two and saw that there was a pair of cow's with him. Cool, game on.

I descended back down the hill, crossed the valley, got downwind of their location, and started climbing the hill. I was closing the distance nicely but I was running out of light and the elk were moving around the hillside away from me. I was able to close the distance down to about 90 yards and setup with a few shooting lanes. I decided to start calling to see if I could get the bull to come down and bring the cows down with him. Well, it was working but I ran out of time and it got dark before they came all the way down. I was able to call the bull into 40 yards and the cow's were just behind him. I retreated and set up camp back down in the valley to be near water and went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up to silence so I roamed around the area to look for sign and see what I could dig up. It was a pretty quiet day and I had covered a lot of ground in the area before I decided to go back to where I had encountered the elk the night before. I wanted to see where they had come from so I started climbing the hill. As I climbed, I noticed more and more land being exposed for me to be able to glass so I figured I would keep climbing and glass from up high. As the afternoon slipped into evening, I was greeted with a quick moving wind/rain storm, so I threw on some rain gear and waited out the storm. Well, as I sat there - in between wind gusts - I swore I could hear some bugling. As the storm passed and the wind gusts died down, I heard them again. They were coming from back down in the valley that I was camping in - but much further up the creek. I gathered my gear, planned my route, and started to descend into the valley and then follow the creek up the drainage.

As I was walking up along the creek, I was hearing more and more bugling coming from the hillside to my left. He was still going off pretty regularly so I thought that I would get near an opening near the creek and see if they would come down for some water. Well, as soon as I arrived to where I wanted to be, I heard another bugle from further up the drainage. Seems like I had worked my way in between two different bulls. Perfect! I stayed quiet and let them work it out. Well, the bull up the hill to my left decided that he wanted to fight and he started coming down the hill towards me. I stayed put - hoping that he would walk through the opening that I could see. He did! He was a really nice 6x6 and he had enough of this other bull. Well, the cows that were with him came down the hill further up the creek and I only got a fleeting glimpse of them going through the forest. Had I been about 30 yards further up the creek and on the opposite side, I would have had a clear view of them passing at 10 yards. The sun set and I was now way behind them without any chance of catching up in time. In hindsight, I should have been more aggressive and gone set up further up the creek towards the second bull to be directly in the middle of them.

I went down the stream a bit and set up camp and listened to them bugling and fighting until 11pm. I never thought I would say this, but it started getting annoying and kept me awake.

The next morning, I woke to a bull bugling below me - down stream. I was already out of position because the thermals were carrying my scent down towards him, but I decided to keep to the opposite side of the creek from him and make a play down towards him. I got down into a clearing and started to call to him. I had him pretty fired up but after about 30 minutes, he got bored with me and bailed out of the drainage. Afterwards, a storm started to roll in and all of the action shut down. I kept searching around until mid afternoon but I had to leave in order to get home. I left empty handed but smiling because I was right in the thick of things in an OTC unit!

Elk 3 - Mike 0.

Up next, pronghorn season.

 

[TransplantHunter]

My second tag of the year was a pronghorn doe tag for near Kremmling.

You can read about it in this post on HuntTalk

The short version, I had three opportunities but discovered that my scope had gotten trashed and I wasn't able to get a new one installed / sighted in before the end. If you want the gritty details, check out the link above.

Pronghorn 3 - Mike 0

Final chapter, 3rd rifle season.

 

[TransplantHunter]

3rd Rifle - Buck tag (unit 80) and OTC bull tag.

3rd rifle was the season I was most looking forward to. This year, I had drawn a tag in unit 80 for a buck (took 3 preference points) and I threw on an OTC bull elk tag. Last year, I was down there on an elk hunt and was successful so I was hoping to have a repeat season. My friend and his son were coming in from OK for this hunt so it should be fun.

I left Thursday night before the season started and drove a little more than half way to the unit that night. I camped in the back of my truck, got up early, and drove the rest of the way down on Friday morning. Upon arriving at camp, I moved all of my stuff into the wall tent and got things ready to go. After the experience of my pronghorn season, I thought it would be a good idea to make sure my rifle was still accurate. I found a rock across the valley and ranged it at 550 yds. I dialed my scope to the correct setting and squeezed off a shot. Drilled it! Now I am feeling pretty good about the season starting. I went out on an evening scouting mission but didn't really see anything. Next up, opening day.

Saturday morning came and we were up at 4am. We had breakfast, got geared up, and hiked in to our glassing spot. We arrived at the top of the mountain by 6 am and started glassing. While we were up there, my friend asked me if we could get his son the first shot on an elk since he had never shot one before. I agreed and we got to work. Shortly later, I had glassed up a lone elk about 700 yards away. We closed some of the distance and got his son set up. I pulled out the spotting scope and we had to abort - it was a lone spike. We decided to sit there for a bit and see what else would start to show up. Well - all of a sudden, we were seeing a bunch of deer pop out of the aspens at the bottom of the valley. We spotted a little forky and some does at first. Then out popped a pair of small 4x4's. I seriously debated about shooting one of them but I wanted to hold out for something bigger than that. I can't believe it, but I am going to pass.

Next, the two 4x4's started to fight and that sparked the attention of another hidden in the tree's. He came out to join in the fun and when I threw the spotter on him, he was a bigger 4x4 with eye guards and a cool kicker off the driver side. He also had a little trash up on top. It didnt take me long to realize I was excited about that buck so I got on my rifle. I grabbed the range, set up prone on my backpack, and settled in for a shot. I squeezed off a shot but just as the rifle went off, he had taken a small step forward (downhill and left) and I hit him high and a little back. He jumped, walked about 20 yards and stood in front of a tree. I watched him for a while and noticed that he was bleeding a little from his mouth and he looked like he was about to lie down when one of the small bucks came up and rammed him in the side. My target buck jumped up and ran around the side of the hill into the timber.

We thought it looked like a good hit so we decided to give him an hour and settle down. After the hour had passed, I went to where I last saw him and picked up the blood trail. He side hilled for a mile and into a nice bedding area but no beds. The blood trail dried up and we were left to do a grid search. After 5 hours and a few miles, we came up with nothing. I had lost the buck.

After we regrouped and went back to our glassing spot, we had talked to another hunter that said that sometime while we were tracking the blood, he had been in the bedding area looking for elk and he said he bumped a nice buck. He said the buck went up and over a ridge and looked totally fine. Damn. That evening, we didn't see anything so we went back to camp.

Sunday morning, we went up to the same spot. Again, we were seeing a lot of does down in the valley and we spotted a herd of elk (only cows and calves) on a neighboring ridge. Later that afternoon, my buddy and his son decided to traverse the ridge we were glassing from and get some other perspectives. As evening set in, I had spot a few bulls a little ways away, but I wanted to focus on my deer tag. Well, right where I shot at the buck opening day, a legal bull popped out of the woods and was standing broadside. I called my friend and told him to haul ass back to me (he was about 2/3rds of a mile away on the ridge and couldnt see him). The sun was setting and he had only 20 min before legal shooting light was over. I ranged him, got set up on my rifle and was looking at him - but I held off. I watched the bull go back into the timber a mere 3 minutes before my buddy and his son showed up. Too late.

The next day, we went back up into our spot and were again seeing only doe's and a few cow elk. We decided to do the long sit and just hang out there for the day. Again, as evening approached, we were seeing bulls pop out into the fields to feed. We spotted a nice one about 40 minutes before shooting light ran out. I told my friend that they better haul ass if they wanted to get over there for a shot. Well, they did and I sat there and watched the bull through the spotting scope. They made it over there with a good 20 min to spare and got set up. Next thing I know, as I watched through the spotter, my friend took a shot (not his son). I saw a clean miss and I heard him shoot a second time. The bull ran off to the left. My friend got up and walked over the ridge towards where the bull went and I heard two more shots rang out. He called me and told me the bull was down. I congratulated them and told them I would meet them at camp.

Tuesday, I went back in to the area where we were seeing deer and my friend and his son went to get the bull. They had to go on another trail so they took his 4 wheeler and rode in on the atv trail that went near the bull. Well, apparently in the commotion, they shot a second bull that was smaller. Still legal, but way smaller than the nice one they went after. There was no sign of blood at the sight of the first bull and I can confirm that they had missed twice. They processed the bull but told me to hold off shooting any small bucks because they had seen nice deer on the way in to the other trail. I decided to leave the area and go check that spot for the evening. Well, we went there in the evening and only saw a small forky and some does.

Wednesday was my last day to hunt so I packed up camp and left early to go over to the new spot and just leave from there. I got there way early and started glassing. Well, I didn't see anything other than does.

I went home empty handed but learned a lot of things this year.

 

[TransplantHunter]

Archery season was awesome. I only had two days to hunt but I had a great time being in the middle of bugling bulls in an OTC unit. Honestly, I have never had that experience and it was only something I have seen in videos on Youtube.

Pronghorn season taught me to double check my gear. I know that the rifle was accurate before getting there, but I didn't consider the rough road screwing with my scope. My wife told me that after I missed the first one, I should have checked my zero. She knows that I don't miss very often.

3rd rifle taught me a couple of things. 1) If I go back there on a deer tag, I will not be buying a bull tag. I think I would have been more willing to leave the main area and check new places had I not been seeing elk. 2) Don't make deals about saving an elk for someone. I passed on a legal bull to let someone else try and they were unable to get there in time. If I wouldn't have made that deal, I would have had an easy shot on a legal bull and things might have ended up different.

Overall - I would saw that this year has taught me a lot. I failed to get ANYTHING but with those failures came lessons for the future. I just hope that I am smart enough to apply those lessons and not make the same mistakes.