No sleep until...

[GrantK]

A little late in posting this year's adventures so far as a live hunt so here they are as one story…

Disclaimer: There is a noticeable lack of photos, I’m terrible at remembering to take any while I’m hunting

Day one: this year started out joining my brother on a UT Limited entry tag on my way north to my own archery hunt, I only had a day, maybe a day and a half max before I needed to get moving to hunt my own tag but my brother had been scouting for 8 days before opener and we figured the actual hunt wouldn’t take too long. I was trying to get out of the office Thursday to get a full day of scouting in but as it tends to go I found myself at work until midday Friday, I packed my gear, threw it in the truck, and headed west, managing to get into the unit and find my brothers camp early enough to get out and glass for the evening… I had been lucky enough to have an archery tag in the same area in 2016, managing to kill my biggest bull to date so I had a good general lay of the land. I headed up to a familiar glassing knob, seeing a couple of raghorns and hearing a couple of bugles but nothing worth chasing…

 

[GrantK]

my bull...

 

[GrantK]

Day 2: My brother had managed to keep tabs on the biggest bull he had seen over the last week and decided that he was going to attempt to kill that bull on opening day, a task complicated by a couple other tagholders also seeing the bull the night before season, we figured that the odds were in our favor as we have a lot of experience outsmarting the masses in OTC seasons in CO…

We got started early, riding in for an hour plus on a four wheeler followed by a nasty bushwack through a fresh gamble oak burn on a very steep and rocky hillside, gaining 700’ of elevation in a half mile to get on top of a mesa overlooking where the bull had been the night before, in the opposite direction from the easy access trail we figured the other hunters would be approaching from… it was lightly raining the whole way up and we stumbled on a nighthawk that looked stunned by out lights and let us get right up to him…

 

[GrantK]

 

[GrantK]

As we worked our way through the oak on the mesa top we could hear bugles in 3 directions, the question was which one was the big bull, he didn’t have a particularly distinctive bugle… we decided to head for the closest one, and within 10 minutes had the bull under 100 yards, unfortunately we couldn’t get a visual as he was below us hidden by a ridge, we kept edging closer, hoping to avoid having a too close encounter as we knew there were a couple bulls that might trick a guy into shooting if you didn’t get a good look at them… then the bull came out- it was a little bit of a fire drill as I was trying to get the spotter on him while my brother was getting a rest and preparing to shoot if it was the big one… it took a minute but we determined that it was one of the look-alikes, a really pretty bull but with a broken 5th point on one side and a short one on the other… we stayed put as we could still hear several other bulls bugling, watching multiple herds but failing to lay eyes on the big bull…

 

[GrantK]

We eventually hunted our way to all the bulls we could hear, checking them off the list one by one, while still failing to find the big one, finally ending up on top of the mesa glassing almost in a complete circle around us, we were in a ton of elk but the big one remained elusive, it was getting toward midmorning and the wind had changed so we were considering what to do next when another bull started bugling a long, long way away, so far that we couldn’t get a good direction on the sound, both of us would point in whatever direction we were facing every time we would hear the bugle... we split up to see if we could triangulate the sound and decided it was coming from well below us, on a south face directly above the four wheeler, a super odd place for an elk to be, considering that the high was supposed to be close to 80 degrees and there was almost no shade on that aspect.

 

[GrantK]

We had pretty much exhausted the options on top so we figured we may as well take a look, we made a large hook to get the wind right and started easing in, the bull bugling once to let us know we were on the right track then shutting up, we kept easing down through burned out oak to a point where we could see almost the entire face, with just a small ridge that originated at about half height obscuring a bit of the face below, at this point we stopped and glassed for a while trying to figure out what was going on, we finally figured the elk had to be on the same slope we were on but in a little fold that was keeping him out of sight, we decided to walk out on the little ridge and glass back at the hillside to see if we could turn him up.

 

[GrantK]

We hadn’t gone more than 10’ toward the ridge when we jumped 4 cows bedded 100 yards below us in a tiny depression at the base of the ridge, we both started scanning for the bull immediately, and spotted him standing in a clump of live oak, it was a good one but was it was the one? my brother dropped and racked in a round, I was on the bino’s trying to confirm, the bull stood dead still for what seemed like an eternity then turned and started sneaking out, giving us just enough of a look to confirm he was in fact the one, as he hit a tiny window my brother shot, dropping the bull instantly, and then he was back on his feet, a second shot exploding a burned out brush 10’ short of the bull, cutting him up with fragments but not doing any damage, before a 3rd round put him down for good… 300 yards from the road… after breaking down the bull it was a short but extremely nasty packout to the road, we spent the evening hanging around camp with my brother’s family who had jointed for the weekend.

 

[GrantK]

I'll leave the pics with my brother for him to post if he wants...

 

[GrantK]

Day 3:

I was up early to make the drive up to my Archery hunt, give or take 10 hours depending on road closures for fire… about halfway through the drive I noticed that I had an odd tickle in my throat, as I got closer to camp it became a full blown fever, not great timing, but at least I was at a lower elevation than home , I could still breathe… as I rolled closer to my unit I stopped to check fire closures, Crap, almost everything I had Escouted was going to be closed, I hadn’t hunted this unit before but had hunted an adjoining one and had some Idea where elk should be, so much for starting close to the known, I decided to start with a drainage I had originally thrown out as too much of a main thoroughfare, hoping that it was maybe going to have less people as it was close to the closure…

 

[GrantK]

After gassing up and grabbing some extra food I rolled into the drainage just over an hour before sunset, not having ever been on the ground I decided that first priority was to get some eyes on as much terrain as possible to make a plan for the morning, I grabbed just a spotter and tripod, puffy and headlamp and jogged up the closest peak as quickly as my rapidly deteriorating lungs would take me, I managed to get up approx. 1,000’ to the ridge and was rewarded with expansive views in all directions, and zero elk…

There was a bunch of week old sign on the ridge so I figured I wasn’t completely in the wrong place, but I could see miles in every direction in fairly open terrain, I should be seeing or hearing something… then, maybe 10 minutes before it was too dark to glass I caught a cow in an old burn, then another, then what appeared to be a decent bull, although by this point it was too dark to see more than a frame, the elk were in a flat area that would be tough to navigate when you were on the same level as them so I moved a couple hundred yards to triangulate them and dropped a pin where I thought they were, then dropped back down and set up camp at my truck… I am not being all that picky on this hunt, any 6-point bull is in trouble as this is an OTC area I have never set foot in and my freezer is close to empty…

 

[GrantK]

Day 4: I woke up feeling worse, but fortunately wasn’t coughing or sneezing so figured it was game on, I did have a bit of a conversation with myself on how far from the truck I should pursue elk as the way I was feeling packing an elk a long way solo wasn’t going to be all that great…

I made it about a mile before it was light enough to see, grateful I had dropped a pin as the terrain was nothing like what it had looked like from up top… sure enough as I glassed back at my glassing ridge there was a lone bull standing right where I had been the night before, I briefly considered busting it back that way but figured I’d just keep an eye on him and make him plan B for the day… I slowly hunted through a mix of really old burn and thick timber, seeing no elk sign, and hearing nothing for long enough to make me think the elk I had glassed may have been a fluke, just moving through… then I heard a faint bugle, just enough to give me a direction, I hustled that way as the sun was peeking over the horizon and wind was getting shifty, I hadn’t gone more than 200 yards, making time up the bottom of a steep gully, when I saw antlers silhouetted on the skyline 80 yards out heading down the same trail I was standing on, I leaned against a tree and nocked an arrow, this might actually Happen!

 

[GrantK]

what a staggeringly beautiful spot...

 

[GrantK]

The bull, who I could now see was a small 6-point, kept walking toward me like he had read the script, I ranged a couple of points and got ready, the bull kept coming, head down, straight on to 50 yards, then, hidden behind the only tree in that part of the gully, turned 180 degrees and walked straight away back out of sight…

I was disappointed but figured it wasn’t a bad encounter for 7AM the first morning, and I still hadn’t made it to the bull I had heard bugle… I moved pretty quickly toward where I had heard the bugle careful not to bump into the first bull again, the terrain was really, really open so I jogged a ways to get close to some cover again, suddenly there was another bugle, maybe 100 yards away in the thick pines, this one super aggressive, followed by a bunch of grunts… I hustled to the nearest thing that could pass as cover, a pine maybe 4’ tall, I knelt in front of it and dug my bugle out, knocked an arrow again, and waited...

 

[GrantK]

After maybe 5 minutes I could hear hoofs pounding and antlers pushing through trees, followed by another pissed off bugle, I had a call in my mouth and cut the bull off as aggressively as I could, then got my release on the string and waited, within seconds I could hear the bull coming, then I could see him at 40 yards coming in, the same bull I had run into minute before, he was hard quartering to and I didn’t have anything to draw behind the way he was going, however as he circled to get my wind he was going to pass behind a tiny stand of trees to my right, I shuffled myself as far around as I thought I could get away with and waited...

The bull never stopped as he walked 15 yards to my right in the wide open, as soon as his eye went behind the first tree I drew, twisted as far as I could, and waited for him to come out the other side of the clump of trees, he must have caught movement because he stopped, fortunately at 12 yards I could see a perfect basketball sized hole directly in line with his vitals, I took a breath and settled the pin, watching my fletching disappear right on the pin… the bull took off down an embankment behind him and was immediately out of sight, I bugled with the reed in my mouth while nocking another arrow in case I had as second shot and was cut off by a different bull that was also coming in hot, I had the second bull that was a twin of the one I shot at 20 yards within 30 seconds, I had a brief moment of “wait, I for sure put a good shot on that bull right?” before the second bull got smart and decided to go back to his cows…

I dropped a pin and checked my watch 8:02, I had been hunting for less than 2 hours…

 

[GrantK]

Well that looks good...

 

[GrantK]

And that looks like an elk...

 

[GrantK]

I decided that given the shot I didn’t need to wait too long, I gave it about 10 minutes and started to look for my arrow, shortly finding it completely covered in blood, then I started to look for a blood trail, I started to get a bit concerned as the first 200 yards there was only an occasional drop of blood, I was mostly following tracks in the frost, I was starting to doubt the shot when I came to a meadow and could see a blood trail running completely across it like someone had poured out a can of paint, after following this for 50 yards I could see an antler… now for the hard work…

This might have been the easiest spot to work up a bull solo I’ve ever encountered…

By this time I was feeling absolutely terrible, and quartering up the bull and packing him into the shade had really taken it out of me, I’ve worked up a lot of elk, usually solo I can have one ready to hit the road in an hour or so, this time in an ideal spot it took over two, I put a hindquarter in my pack and started walking, by far one of the easier elk packouts I’ve ever had, but by the time I made it back to camp I was absolutely worked, I decided against a second lap for the day and figured I would get after it in the morning, making as many loads as needed and taking a ton of rest… I spent the evening lounging behind the spotter to see if any other elk were around, and spotted absolutely nothing…

 

[GrantK]

Day 5:

I woke up feeling no better, but sucked it up and headed out, 3 loads later the entire elk was back at camp, one of the rougher 9-mile days I’ve had…I again spent the evening wandering around and glassing, again seeing no elk, it appeared that I had managed to get on the only herd in the entire drainage, better to be lucky than good…something I am realizing happens more often than one would think if you put in the time…


Day 6: I had planned to drop any elk I got off at a processor and do some climbing if I happened to be done early but I was still feeling terrible, I decided to pack it up and save time off for future adventures, I threw all my gear back in the truck and drove straight through, getting home at 10:00 PM.

In reflection, I had a great time but I wish I could have spent more time, while it was a spectacularly successful week it was more of a whirlwind of elk packing than the extended time in nature that I like to engage in…

fortunately, I still have an OTC tag at home... more to come

 

[DouglasR]

To consistently get it done on bulls of that caliber with archery equipment.
Wow.