publichunter1
Well-known member
I'm posting all of this hear as the elk forum is where I asked the most questions before season. Here is a recap of my hunting so far.
As a lot of you know I moved to Fort Collins for the year. I was blessed enough to have a archery either sex OTC elk tag and a third rifle mule deer tag around Fort Collins. I only was able to hunt four weekends and a couple of day hunts of the archery elk season due to work but had a great time. My gps shows I walked a total of 101.2 miles over that time and ranged in elevations from 7500 to 12000ft. It was a blast and saw a lot of great country.
Only had four encounters with bulls and a couple passed chances at cows but learned a lot this season. Sadly, the last day of season ended with a bugling 5x4 walking straight at me at 80 yards and a guy comes out of nowhere to run him off. He basically told me if he wasn't getting him no one was. I am glad to say this is the only bad person I run into up in the mountains. Most everyone else was extremely nice and helpful. However, my season still ended with no kill.
Had one 8" snowfall that led to some slick conditions and sightings of a mountain lion and a sow black bear with two cubs.
Fast forward to second rifle, I met a guy through school that had never been hunting and wanted to get into it so I told him to buy a cow elk tag and I would take him. We go out opening morning and run into a herd of 50-60 elk with a monster 5x5 bugling at 50 yards with no bull tag. After a few shots my buddy had a small cow down and we were happy to say the least. Had a four mile pack out but was well worth it knowing we had gotten one. Most elk I have ever seen by the way with four legal bulls in the group.
Third rifle season rolled around and I had found one pocket of deer on public ground the week prior to season. I go in opening morning and they are nowhere to be found with several people in the area. So me being a little crazy and I guess liking hard work packed on in another mile or two and started glassing. It wasn't long and I saw a couple does and then a good rack with high forks. They were probably 600 yards off so I bust it down and up a few ridges to cut the distance. I pop up about 200 yards from where the deer were with no deer to be seen. I start glassing again and notice the does coming up a ridge about 300 yards out. I see a tall rack coming up behind them so I range an opening at 305 yards and shoot when the buck steps into it. He acts like he's not hit and runs up about 10 yards and stops. I shoot again and he goes down. I was very excited as this was the longest shot I have ever taken at an animal. I'm use to hunting public land in MS with your long shots being 200 yards. Just then another buck pops up on the ridge and it’s the buck I thought I had shot. Not knowing if it was the same buck or not I decided to take the ethical route and go over and see if I had shot another buck. After crossing another valley and back up the other ridge I found my buck. It wasn't the one I was planning to shoot but was still happy with my first ever mule deer.
It has definitely been a time crunched few months but the times that I have gotten to spend in the outdoors has been incredible. Have also caught a 24” brown and 24”rainbow trout, killed a blue grouse, a few squirrels, etc. Looking forward to hopefully killing at least one pheasant. Any tips or hunting partners suggested for that in Northeast CO please feel free to shoot me a pm.
Also wanted to say thanks to all the members on here for the advice and happy wishes. And finally thanks to the good Lord for making all this possible!
As a lot of you know I moved to Fort Collins for the year. I was blessed enough to have a archery either sex OTC elk tag and a third rifle mule deer tag around Fort Collins. I only was able to hunt four weekends and a couple of day hunts of the archery elk season due to work but had a great time. My gps shows I walked a total of 101.2 miles over that time and ranged in elevations from 7500 to 12000ft. It was a blast and saw a lot of great country.
Only had four encounters with bulls and a couple passed chances at cows but learned a lot this season. Sadly, the last day of season ended with a bugling 5x4 walking straight at me at 80 yards and a guy comes out of nowhere to run him off. He basically told me if he wasn't getting him no one was. I am glad to say this is the only bad person I run into up in the mountains. Most everyone else was extremely nice and helpful. However, my season still ended with no kill.
Had one 8" snowfall that led to some slick conditions and sightings of a mountain lion and a sow black bear with two cubs.
Fast forward to second rifle, I met a guy through school that had never been hunting and wanted to get into it so I told him to buy a cow elk tag and I would take him. We go out opening morning and run into a herd of 50-60 elk with a monster 5x5 bugling at 50 yards with no bull tag. After a few shots my buddy had a small cow down and we were happy to say the least. Had a four mile pack out but was well worth it knowing we had gotten one. Most elk I have ever seen by the way with four legal bulls in the group.
Third rifle season rolled around and I had found one pocket of deer on public ground the week prior to season. I go in opening morning and they are nowhere to be found with several people in the area. So me being a little crazy and I guess liking hard work packed on in another mile or two and started glassing. It wasn't long and I saw a couple does and then a good rack with high forks. They were probably 600 yards off so I bust it down and up a few ridges to cut the distance. I pop up about 200 yards from where the deer were with no deer to be seen. I start glassing again and notice the does coming up a ridge about 300 yards out. I see a tall rack coming up behind them so I range an opening at 305 yards and shoot when the buck steps into it. He acts like he's not hit and runs up about 10 yards and stops. I shoot again and he goes down. I was very excited as this was the longest shot I have ever taken at an animal. I'm use to hunting public land in MS with your long shots being 200 yards. Just then another buck pops up on the ridge and it’s the buck I thought I had shot. Not knowing if it was the same buck or not I decided to take the ethical route and go over and see if I had shot another buck. After crossing another valley and back up the other ridge I found my buck. It wasn't the one I was planning to shoot but was still happy with my first ever mule deer.
It has definitely been a time crunched few months but the times that I have gotten to spend in the outdoors has been incredible. Have also caught a 24” brown and 24”rainbow trout, killed a blue grouse, a few squirrels, etc. Looking forward to hopefully killing at least one pheasant. Any tips or hunting partners suggested for that in Northeast CO please feel free to shoot me a pm.
Also wanted to say thanks to all the members on here for the advice and happy wishes. And finally thanks to the good Lord for making all this possible!
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