CO DIY bull bear buck and lots of luck

[Khunter]

Well, not sure where to put this Colorado DIY archery season summary, so Elk forum is as good as anyplace, since an elk was the first to leap into my arrow trajectory. Unlike most years, this one was about filling tags and not being picky.

Required disclaimer: An ATV, albeit wielded with better skills than exhibited by Dinkshooter , and an expandable broadhead were used in the commission of acts described herein.


Here is the raghorn I arrowed on September 1st.





Perhaps Nicest thing about this bull other than it dropped in sight 35-40 yards from where I arrowed it is I killed it in an easy to pack out spot instead of the butt-kicking 3 miles in where I saw its twin+1 the day before at 35 yards and decided no reason to be stupid about it 2nd day of the season. Here are the dinks that I found playing roughhouse way back in a nasty spot opening day when really trying to find a buck.

 

[Khunter]

Three days after taking my bull, this is the scene.A chocolate sow and cub come in before I can even get the harness on to safely climb the tree stand I put up 23 yards from the elk gut pile. So they trot in and before they reach the elk gut pile I start hollering at them to leave (so maybe a legal bear would/could come in.

Cub runs off immediately.and the sow takes 5-8 minutes to finally amble off, never getting a meal off my elk.

After maybe 5 minutes the "sow" comes back and into to view at 30 yards close to where she exited. So I started hollering at it again, still at base of my tree but with harness on, but this time 'she' walks straight at me and past the gut pile and looks me over from maybe 12 yards away. Pretty spooky for this guy with almost no bear experience.














Thinking I better diffuse the situation or I am going to have to arrow this 'sow', I shimmy up the tree without doing all the safety belt stuff and she immediately turns and walks to the gut pile and starts eating while i snap pics and video, lamenting this 'sow' with a cub that is hidden somewhere nearby has taken over my gut pile to the exclusion of a legal/ethical bear.

 

[Khunter]

After getting set up in the stand and As I alternate between taking pictures and glassing this bear at 23 yards, i finally see this bear roll over enough to see its pecker, so, "aha, not a sow but a good size chocolate boar....". Game changes. Wait another 5 minutes till it gets up and presents a good shotopportunity.

40 lightning-speed yards later...


First thing I check out on this bear is to double check that "he" is a boar, and he is. Celebration time, my first archery bear and no ground shrinkage.




I killed this boar just before dark, skinned and quartered it in a rainstorm that came on just as I was getting into my work. Got everything hung to cool overnight and the hide laid out. Then hiked back in with a couple hunting partners to pack it out in the morning.














A pleasant surprise was this bear is great eats. Had heard many time bear was pretty gamey to downright awful. Not so for this bear.

 

[Khunter]

Much to the chagrin of my hunting partners who had yet to tag an elk, as I was looking for a good buck,I got close in (8-30 yards) to various cow elk and elected to not fill my "B" list cow elk tag.. Next couple pictures were taken laying down as I was sitting a seep. 15 elk streamed by at 8-15 yards never sensing I was there.





Another cow elk encounter a couple days later


And another



And another



Very different set of pictures and encounters than when I hunted unit 2 in Colorado but still a ton of fun all the way through.

 

[Buck Fever]

Great story and animals, way to start the fall off!

 

[Zach]

Looks like a pretty awesome season for you, congrats on the notched tags.

 

[sbhooper]

Great job on the hunt and the pics. Those pics are real trophies.

 

[elk_hunter]

Kirby, that's awesome! Congrats on the bull and bear! Great pics and story dude!

 

[Muskeez]

Wow, Congrats! that's one heck of good start! Very cool bear and elk pics. We found some "seaps", like you showed, on our first elk hunt last week. Are those usually good places to sit downwind from them if they have fresh sign? Do you just do that in the evenings?

 

[Khunter]

Thanks. I will get to the buck part of season soon.

 

[putm2sleep]

Great job man.

 

[kansasdad]

Your bear showed a very surprising lack of concern regarding your presence. You sure are proving yourself to be quite the ninja sneaker in the mountains.

 

[Frenchy]

Looks like a great season!

 

[ID_deerslayer]

Congrats on a great haul so far this year. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

[dihardhunter]

Awesome thread. That bear is beautiful, can't wait to read more...I'm assuming there is a dead buck in the mix from the title of the thread...

 

[Khunter]

Awesome thread. That bear is beautiful, can't wait to read more...I'm assuming there is a dead buck in the mix from the title of the thread...

Yes, very much Toe Up as they say.

 

[Khunter]

This is what you see when your bull drops in sight yards away.


http://s799.photobucket.com/albums/yy273/khunter1/?action=view&current=IMG_0981.mp4

Not sure how to load a video on here,maybe not possible?

 

[MT_elk]

Awesome story! Thanks for sharing.

 

[SHEDZILLA]

Great pics!

 

[Dinkshooter]

Find any mushrooms?