Feeding the Rat (AKA GrantK's elk hunting obsession)

GrantK

GrantK

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Messages
679
Location
Western CO
There’s a bunch of epic hunts being shared this year, I’m not the storyteller of some of those guys but hopefully there is some knowledge to be gained by my failures and successes, full disclaimer, at this point 2/3 of the way through my tags I have not shanked a tent, pushed the SOS button, done any real rumination of why I'm doing what I'm doing, or really even considered any of the above, guess I'm missing out on some of the more exiting parts of the experience?


This year I should end up with three elk tags, the first I picked up a very last minute returned outfitter allocation tag in a certain state I love to archery hunt in, I had struck out through all the earlier tag sales and picked up what was available, I had never set foot in the unit prior to the hunt, however I had a friend that had killed good bulls there 3 years running and I had hunted a couple adjacent units with good success, I squeezed in a little E scouting and confirmed I was on the right track with my friend, expecting big bulls behind every tree as I do on any hunt in a new zone…
 
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Day 0, I
got started late due to last-minute work obligations and pointed the truck North for the 11-hour drive , I was planning on driving around to get a lay of the land and see where people were camped and parked but by the time I got into the unit it was clear I was going to have time to glass one spot...I parked at a trailhead where I should be able to glass into the main drainage I was interested in with a short, steep hike, but with the difference between a map and real terrain I settled for gaining as much elevation as I could in the drainage I was parked in and glassing, no elk seen, the weather was nice so I just tossed down a sleeping bag and pad next to the truck and passed out.
 
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Day 1

Somehow I managed to lose my phone in my sleeping bag and slept through my alarm, fortunately, I woke up just before it got light and figured it out. I slammed a coffee and boogied up to ridge where I could glass the main drainage I wanted to check, there was one other car in the parking and with all the on-trail options I figured they would be headed anywhere but where I was, which was a nasty bushwhack, but as I got to the ridge I could hear a bunch of pretty phony sounding bugles, then while trying to skirt around and get a different angle ran into a really friendly guy from LA, who said his son was out front checking out the basin, I talked for a while as they had been covering a ton of ground and didn’t seem too stingy with where they had seen elk… after parting ways I climbed the large peak above the basin to glass, never seeing an elk but hearing a couple bugles a long ways out.
 
After the uneventful morning of day one I packed up and drove up to check out some higher country per the suggestion of the LA guys, I left the truck around 2 with the intent of mostly walking a trail to gain a prominent peak to glass, midway up I got sidetracked with how good some of the basins I was passing looked and decided to make a big loop through them to see if they were being used by elk and had any active wallows as it was really, really hot... around 4 I glassed up a lone elk really high up, shortly followed by hearing a bugle and seeing a bull walk across the basin I was in, I decided not to make a play on him because the wind was pretty terrible but after two consecutive glassing sessions with no elk found it was nice to feel back on the right track...

As I continued along I glassed up what appeared to be a pretty good size herd directly above camp, they were too far to get to before dark but I had a plan for the morning, I also noted that there was a ton of fresh sign on a small ridge I descended to get back to the truck, I should probably keep an eye on this hillside...
 
Day 2

As I got ready to leave camp in the morning three ATVs pulled in and the guys in them bailed out and took off running past me up the trail, I waited a bit wanting it to be shooting light before I got too close, as soon as I could see I eased into the draw I had seen elk in the night before, it turned out to be one of the best-looking basins I had been in, and shortly after I heard a bugle up near the head of the basin, I started to close in, the bull was bugling enough I didn’t have to call to keep him located, I thought I was getting close but he shut up, I was looking for a good setup to call and was surprised to bump right into a huge herd of domestic sheep, apparently the bull was surprised as well and had left the area in a hurry...

With my plan A blown up and it still being prime time I decided to hustle up to the adjacent ridge and spend some time glassing into the next basin over, I barely got sat down when I picked up a cow clear across the drainage about 3 miles out, as I watched her a huge bull appeared from the backside of the ridge and eventually pushed her and 5 other cows down into the timber... I was both super excited and also unsure what exactly to do about it, these elk were essentially sitting on top of a 2,000' tall cone that had no cover taller than ankle high for the last 1,000' to the top, it was clear that they waited up top looking down until the wind switched before they would come down to bed, it was going to be challenging to get a chance but now I had found what I wanted, I would just have to get creative...

It started dumping rain and visibility dropped to almost nothing so I decided to go back and figure out an approach from the other side... on the walk back to the truck in a lull I glassed up another small herd back on the ridge where I had been the night before, I didn't get a great look before the clouds closed in again but there appeared to be a pretty good bull with them. For the afternoon hunt, I decided to go after that bull because the wind seemed to be better than for the monster...
 
By the time I made it back to the truck it was time to cram down lunch and get going up the opposite side of the drainage again, the approach to this ridge was barely over a mile but the entire way was through an old burn where the blowdown was ....fun? I was planning on going up almost to Timberline but ran into a herd headed down toward some wallows a good ways short, I was able to get a good look at the herd bull, about a 320 6x6, he was thrashing trees and pushing cows everywhere, acting super aggressive but never bugling... I eased down into the wallows trying to keep from being seen in the open burn, the wind was perfect and I figured if I could beat the elk to water it would be a slam dunk...

The bull pushed the cows into a patch of thick spruce and I was able to make a run for it, I jogged the last 60 yards to what looked like good cover but discovered that what looked like a sweet setup was ankle-deep in water, I kept going up the hill to get to a lone bush about 20 yards short of the treeline, all the while hearing the bull walking around maybe 100 yards out... I got set up and an arrow nocked, not a moment too soon as cows started to pour out of the timber, I was ready to roll but the bull was still back in the timber, I had cows at 20 yards on 3 sides and couldn't move for probably close to 10 minutes.

The situation was pretty tenous, the wind was good but the cows were going to wind me any minute I could see some of them lifting their heads to get a better sniff... then I saw the bull up on the hill maybe 90 yards out, pushing a cow away, I figured that since I was in the middle of the herd now was the time to get aggressive and so I waited until he couldn't see me and screamed a challenge bugle at the bull, almost immediately he was back in sight, and I could see him get angry, shaking his head and growling, but still not bugling, he dropped his head and started down the hill my way, unfortunately, the cow with him must have been hot because he would not leave her by more than about 10 yards, he would get incredibly angry, pacing back and forth and shaking his head, tearing up trees and putting on quite the show, I wanted to push him but I didn't think I could get away with another bugle, he could see most of the meadow I was in when he came closer and he was only about 75 yards at this point, he wasn't going to buy a challenge bugle out of the lone bush in the meadow...

I sat there playing this out for the next 30 minutes, still having multiple cows within range, unfortunately the cow with the bull took him away from the herd and I had to wait until the rest of the herd was done watering before I could escape and take up the chase, as I tried to catch up I ran into another herd almost immediately and spent until dark at 50 yards from at least 6 cows but a bull never showed. I ended up being very late back to camp by the time I snuck out, but I was pretty sure I hadn't really bumped any elk so I was optimistic about the next morning...
 
Day 3
I rolled out of camp about an hour before light planning to be within about a half mile when it was shooting light, I eased up over the last ridge and sure enough, elk exactly where I had left them, unfortunately, they were all spikes... I ducked back behind the ridge and gained a couple hundred feet of elevation, hoping to get past the spikes without pushing them into other elk, easing back over the ridge I stopped and listened for about ten minutes without hearing anything, I decided to try a locator bugle, letting a fairly loud bugle ring I got an immediate response from way back where I had come through in the dark, it sounded pretty fake, so I figured that it was other hunters who had got a late start..

While I was looking for the source of the bugle I heard another bugle, which was super faint but had the heft of a real bull, as I was trying to figure out where it had come from I heard a tending grunt and realized I had accidentally parked myself pretty much right on top of the herd, I eased up about 10 yards and had calves and cows in the bowl under me at 60 yards, unfortunately no bull, I quickly realized that the herd was about double in number from the day before, and this time the bull was up front, as soon as the cows were out of sight I backed down the opposite side of the ridge and ran as fast as I could to try to intersect the herd where I figured they would cross the ridge, I almost made it when I could hear hoofbeats coming up, no sooner had I dived into cover than I had cows coming through at 40 yards, I was ready to go if the bull followed but I could hear him grunting back in the thick timber, every time the cows would get out of sight I would creep up to the next cover, unfortunately he seemed to know exactly how far I could see and I could hear him parading up and back maybe 50 yards out but on the other side of a string of thick Christmas tree sized pines, I kept pushing as hard as possible and finally got busted by a cow as I came through the pines, she took off and there was a lot of noise as it sounded like the whole herd took off, then everything went silent.

I figured the morning was over, but I was in no hurry as I didn't really have a plan B for the morning, as I was deciding on my next moves the bugle way below sounded off again, and I was about blown out of my shoes when the bull bugled maybe 60 yards away in thick cover, immediately it was back on, elk going everywhere cows and calves playing, apparently, the spooked cow hadn't bothered any of the other elk... I continued creeping along in the herd, hearing the bull grunt but never breaking cover, I had my bow up to draw multiple times as he pushed cows across shooting lanes but he would never follow, finally, I could see his antlers right behind a cow at 20 yards, I started to ease the string back sure it was finally going to happen, and as I did I felt the wind, which had been steady all morning, swirl and hit my back...

It seemed like only one elk winded me, my bad luck was that it was the cow the bull was following, she did a 180 and was gone, and shortly the whole herd took off, dejected, I walked back to camp, short morning, everything was blown up by 9 am...
 
That afternoon, after a nap I decided to try to relocate the monster bull, and also see if the domestic sheep being moved out of the area had the elk back... I slowly climbed up through some of the elkiest basins I have ever seen, unfortunately, full of sheep sign and not much else, also fighting a serious north wind that was bone chilling and made hearing anything next to impossible... I glassed up 3 cows near where the big bull had been, and a small herd on another bluff just above the trail but too far to be practical for me to go after that night... about 40 minutes from dark I was glassing off the highest point of the ridge, and I thought I heard a bugle, I was bundled up and freezing in the wind so I had no idea of direction, I tried a couple location bugles but couldn't hear any response, I kept glassing but didn't pick up anything, eyes watering in the wind.

With about 20 minutes of light left I packed up and started down the ridge intending to catch a trail to avoid the nasty deadfall I could see below me in the basin, almost as soon as I started moving I heard a bugle, seemingly close but impossible to get a direction on with the wind, I got out my bugle and threw out a locator, getting cut off half way through by a response that sounded maybe 150 yards out, I knocked an arrow and looked for a setup, running into some scrub pine maybe 30 yards toward the bull, just as I got set up I heard another bugle, this one way farther away and lower, dammit, I started quickly making my way down towards the last bugle knowing I was running out of time... just as I thought "I should probably see if I can get him to bugle again so I don't get too close" I saw what looked like legs in some brush and froze, sure enough, after about a 5 minute staredown the bull turned and walked away, he had been sneaking in but I rushed it trying to beat the dark. Thoroughly angry with my lack of patience it was a very long bushwhack back to camp.
 
Day four
I decided to go back after the herd I had been on the previous morning, hoping I hadn't bumped them too hard, unfortunately, they were not in the basin, I did manage to glass up 2 different bulls but both were in locations I didn't like my chances in so I hiked out and went to town to re-up groceries and check-in, I also decided to try another random spot about 15 miles from where I had been, I had looked at it on google earth and thought it would be worth a look, unfortunately, the main road was closed about 5 miles before the zone I had scouted with a seasonal gate that didn't show on any of my maps, trying to salvage the evening I hiked into a cool looking basin and found a cool memorial to a fallen skier but zero elk, back to my original area and I figured I'd make another attempt to locate the big bull...
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Day 5
I’d been hedging around a little hoping the big bull would move because I didn’t love my chances where he was and I figured I'd probably only get one good chance on a bull that size, there wasn’t a good option to approach where he was hanging out, which is probably exactly why he was there… I figured I'd play it pretty safe and hope that the bull would bugle so I knew where he was and could try to intercept him on his way to bed, my plan was working great until I was 1000 feet up the cone he had been living on, still well before light, and he sounded off directly behind me, completely on the other side of the basin, I hung out until I could see and it took about 10 minutes to spot a large bull pushing 3 cows through a thin string of timber, headed cross slope through some nasty deadfall, I bailed back down to the bottom and bushwhacked across the creek for the third time that morning, hustling to cut him off, he was nice enough to bugle again so I had an idea how far up the hill I needed to get, unfortunately, I wasn't quite quick enough and I caught a glimpse of him about 100 yards above me, coming across the slope, I tried cow calling hoping it would get him to swing down just a little to get a look but he gave me about a 20 minute staredown and followed his cows.

As soon as he started moving I dropped down a bit and jogged across the slope trying to get in front of him but the wind was already getting shifty on the sunny slope so I bailed back across the creek and up the shady side, having watched this bull from a distance for a while I felt that I needed to play a pretty cautious game, he had all the big bull tricks up his sleeve and wasn't likely to make a mistake, this felt like my odds were not that good if I kept pushing it so I decided to play it safe and wait for a better opening to get aggressive.

Hoping that there would be other elk still on their feet I hunted the North facing side in the timber, glassing back I eventually found the bull bedded at the top of the stand of timber, in a perfect spot for a mule deer type stalk if the wind wasn’t changing every 5 minutes…

keeping tabs on him as I wandered through fresh elk sign all over the hillside, I stopped to call several times, and around noon after about a half-hour glassing and calling session bumped a raghorn that had been bedded 40 yards below me the whole time, guess he didn't want company?
 
Hoping to keep the weekend warriors out of the canyon I had a bull bedded in I went back to the truck and got lunch then headed straight back in, planning to spend the afternoon glassing...

As luck would have it nothing stirred until an hour before dark, when the bull and his cows stood up and made a break all the way down to the creek, where the bull wallowed in the creek, which I have never seen before, it was pretty wild, he was digging his antlers into the rocks in the creekbed and flinging them everywhere... and then ran back almost 1000 feet up the hill again, I didn’t really have a good play as the wind was still incredibly inconsistent so I stayed up a ways on my side and did a little cold calling but nothing was interested...
 
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