So I got back from unit 2 several weeks ago but have been super busy catching up from missing a week of work. The hunt ended up being amazing tons of animals all day everyday. The bugles are still haunting my dreams. As I have said before this was my first bull taken. I started this journey 16 years ago putting in for the license. I thought I was going to go 1st rifle season but the point creep has made that seam like a never ending battle so this year I decided to put in for a muzzleloader tag with about a 60% chance of drawing the license. I was pumped when it showed up on the CO backdoor a couple months ago.
I won't bore everyone with all the details...aka, we saw 4 bulls no cows at 7:00, saw a different 5 bulls and 2 cows at 8:15, almost got ran over by a 340 bull with 4 raghorns, 3 spikes, and 6 cows at 10:30...blaw blaw blaw, but that is about the frequency of seeing elk in this unit and it was incredible!
A couple of cool things I will talk about was one evening we were coming out at just about dark (not shooting light) and out in the flats we stopped the truck hopped out into some junipers and started whaling on the cow calls, simultaneous hootchie mammas, and bugling, all hell broke loose as about 6-8 bulls were within a half mile. We saw one bull get kicked off another group and bolt directly at us. He closed the distance to about 40yds and just on the other side of a couple trees, we could see him but he couldn't see a cow so he held up. We kept cow calling, and he started BARKING. He barked just like a dog only in the pitch of a throaty bugle and was rearing back and jumping as he did it! It was incredible to watch and I have never heard that before. He was so mad that the cow wouldn't come to him, anyway it was now dark and buggy so we split.
Another day we spotted a bull that had 23 cows with him and was chasing bigger satellite bulls off for the first 2 hours of light. We were 6 miles away but knew he was big and the satellites were bigger so we decided to put a move on the group. We ended up chasing them and got on them in by mid day. They ended up bedding down in a big patch of grass about 2mi x 2mi. We had a perfect wind the entire day and worked in to 500 yards. I debated a long time on whether I wanted to take him and decided I wanted to. We belly crawled through the grass to 250yds which I thought was more like 150yd and took the shot. Thought I hit him but the group wandered about 200 yards away and stopped. I thought he was going to fall over right there but he started bugling and then started feeding again. Now severely out of range we move back into the timber without getting busted and continued to watch for the next couple of hours. He ended up not being wounded and I ultimately decided to pass on him. He was a great bull in the 335 range but had dink 3rds.
When we were backing away from the group we decided to play around with him and see what he did. We ripped a bugle and started beating a big tree. He immediately responded and started rounding up his cows and got between them and us. We traded bugles a half a dozen more times and I told my dad to watch him and the next time as soon as he starts bugling, rip one right on top of him. When we did this he got pissed and was locked on us. A couple minutes passed and I told my dad to bugle and when he did this bull immediately tried to bugle bigger right over him. It felt like we were at a who's tuffest standoff late night at the bars!!
Anyway, it was awesome hunt and wish I could go back next year. We hunted 7 days and were in the field for 9. Passed on 50-60 bulls mostly in the 310 range with the occasional 330-340 bull. I was holding out for a 350 bull and wanted to put in the work to get one. I didn't end up taking that class bull but it wasn't for lack of effort.
We ended up going back a couple miles into in area before light and as it started getting light we realized we were completely socked in with fog. As we came down into a bowl that we had chased elk the night before there were 8-10 different bugle locations within 600yrds. Talk about an eeery and awesome time, wind in your face, visibility of 30yds and walking into the bugles of that many bulls. We saw that the fog was slowly lifting and got to a good vantage point to glass once it lifted.
When it lifted we were sitting in the middle of a huge sage basin under the only tree in the area. Looking left we saw several elk and took a closer look it turned out to be 5 bulls and 3 cows. 4 of the bulls were decent low 300 bulls but feeding uphill was a bigger bull with his cows. They weren't moving anywhere fast so we were looking around us for any more elk and being perfectly downwind from about 800yrds we heard some crashing and those 4 bulls had paired off and they were going at it. They were younger bulls and were pushing eachother around learning how to fight. They had no intention of messing with the bigger bull up the hill. We got another look at the bigger one and decided we ought to put a move on him. Once they fed down into the drainage between us and them we closed the gap and got to within about 400yds. At this point wind was good and I worked down the opposite face of the same drainage they were in and the sneak began. I had some decent cover and got to about 200yds. At this point I couldn't see the cows anymore and was afraid they had bedded right there looking right at me. I crawled another 25 yds and ran out of cover. The bull was feeing to his right quartered away, locked on the bipod, hammer back, cloud of smoke, buckled elk!
I won't bore everyone with all the details...aka, we saw 4 bulls no cows at 7:00, saw a different 5 bulls and 2 cows at 8:15, almost got ran over by a 340 bull with 4 raghorns, 3 spikes, and 6 cows at 10:30...blaw blaw blaw, but that is about the frequency of seeing elk in this unit and it was incredible!
A couple of cool things I will talk about was one evening we were coming out at just about dark (not shooting light) and out in the flats we stopped the truck hopped out into some junipers and started whaling on the cow calls, simultaneous hootchie mammas, and bugling, all hell broke loose as about 6-8 bulls were within a half mile. We saw one bull get kicked off another group and bolt directly at us. He closed the distance to about 40yds and just on the other side of a couple trees, we could see him but he couldn't see a cow so he held up. We kept cow calling, and he started BARKING. He barked just like a dog only in the pitch of a throaty bugle and was rearing back and jumping as he did it! It was incredible to watch and I have never heard that before. He was so mad that the cow wouldn't come to him, anyway it was now dark and buggy so we split.
Another day we spotted a bull that had 23 cows with him and was chasing bigger satellite bulls off for the first 2 hours of light. We were 6 miles away but knew he was big and the satellites were bigger so we decided to put a move on the group. We ended up chasing them and got on them in by mid day. They ended up bedding down in a big patch of grass about 2mi x 2mi. We had a perfect wind the entire day and worked in to 500 yards. I debated a long time on whether I wanted to take him and decided I wanted to. We belly crawled through the grass to 250yds which I thought was more like 150yd and took the shot. Thought I hit him but the group wandered about 200 yards away and stopped. I thought he was going to fall over right there but he started bugling and then started feeding again. Now severely out of range we move back into the timber without getting busted and continued to watch for the next couple of hours. He ended up not being wounded and I ultimately decided to pass on him. He was a great bull in the 335 range but had dink 3rds.
When we were backing away from the group we decided to play around with him and see what he did. We ripped a bugle and started beating a big tree. He immediately responded and started rounding up his cows and got between them and us. We traded bugles a half a dozen more times and I told my dad to watch him and the next time as soon as he starts bugling, rip one right on top of him. When we did this he got pissed and was locked on us. A couple minutes passed and I told my dad to bugle and when he did this bull immediately tried to bugle bigger right over him. It felt like we were at a who's tuffest standoff late night at the bars!!
Anyway, it was awesome hunt and wish I could go back next year. We hunted 7 days and were in the field for 9. Passed on 50-60 bulls mostly in the 310 range with the occasional 330-340 bull. I was holding out for a 350 bull and wanted to put in the work to get one. I didn't end up taking that class bull but it wasn't for lack of effort.
We ended up going back a couple miles into in area before light and as it started getting light we realized we were completely socked in with fog. As we came down into a bowl that we had chased elk the night before there were 8-10 different bugle locations within 600yrds. Talk about an eeery and awesome time, wind in your face, visibility of 30yds and walking into the bugles of that many bulls. We saw that the fog was slowly lifting and got to a good vantage point to glass once it lifted.
When it lifted we were sitting in the middle of a huge sage basin under the only tree in the area. Looking left we saw several elk and took a closer look it turned out to be 5 bulls and 3 cows. 4 of the bulls were decent low 300 bulls but feeding uphill was a bigger bull with his cows. They weren't moving anywhere fast so we were looking around us for any more elk and being perfectly downwind from about 800yrds we heard some crashing and those 4 bulls had paired off and they were going at it. They were younger bulls and were pushing eachother around learning how to fight. They had no intention of messing with the bigger bull up the hill. We got another look at the bigger one and decided we ought to put a move on him. Once they fed down into the drainage between us and them we closed the gap and got to within about 400yds. At this point wind was good and I worked down the opposite face of the same drainage they were in and the sneak began. I had some decent cover and got to about 200yds. At this point I couldn't see the cows anymore and was afraid they had bedded right there looking right at me. I crawled another 25 yds and ran out of cover. The bull was feeing to his right quartered away, locked on the bipod, hammer back, cloud of smoke, buckled elk!
WOW! That thing is smokin!
