Irrelevant
Well-known member
What ^he said.
Feeding the Rat (AKA GrantK's elk hunting obsession)
- Thread starter GrantK
- Start date
Pahoundsman
Well-known member
Enjoyed your recap and the pictures were awesome. Good luck on the rest of your season.
Rabid_Chihuahua
New member
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2021
- Messages
- 19
Thanks for sharing, such a great recap...made my day!
noharleyyet
Well-known member
Superb play by play...as usual
GrantK
Well-known member
Hunt 2 was an OTC tag that wasn’t in CO... that should be all the info needed to figure out where I was, read the rest of the story and ask yourself if you really want to subject yourself to this hunt before you get too excited….
I had actually bought this tag before acquiring my archery tag as somewhat of a panic buy thinking I wasn’t going to get to go on an out of state elk hunt, and I had burned some of the time I had allocated to it by staying a couple extra days on my archery hunt, the goal on this was to get some meat for the freezer as I was just eating the last of last years bull and this would free me up to look for a big one at home…I do have a little experience on this tag as my brother and I had hunted it a couple years back on another year without a second elk tag, we went 1 of 2 on that one, my brother finding a nice bull while I struggled through the giant storm that rolled in on the second day and reduced visibility to about 40 yards for almost the entire rest of the season, I did pass up a spike, which I regret a bit, I’ve shot quite a few elk but never a spike, should have rounded out the collection…
I had actually bought this tag before acquiring my archery tag as somewhat of a panic buy thinking I wasn’t going to get to go on an out of state elk hunt, and I had burned some of the time I had allocated to it by staying a couple extra days on my archery hunt, the goal on this was to get some meat for the freezer as I was just eating the last of last years bull and this would free me up to look for a big one at home…I do have a little experience on this tag as my brother and I had hunted it a couple years back on another year without a second elk tag, we went 1 of 2 on that one, my brother finding a nice bull while I struggled through the giant storm that rolled in on the second day and reduced visibility to about 40 yards for almost the entire rest of the season, I did pass up a spike, which I regret a bit, I’ve shot quite a few elk but never a spike, should have rounded out the collection…
GrantK
Well-known member
this was some of the better visibility the previous go, one of the coldest hunts I've ever been on...
GrantK
Well-known member
I think its a practice thing, the first hunt of the year it's always hard to flip the switch to "woods mode" The second go seems to happen almost instantly for me...
I 1000% agree with not hunting with someone, I operate on whims and gut feelings most of the time, it works great for me but trying to explain why I'm doing something that seems illogical is tough, for that reason I don't even really remember the last time I was in the field with someone with the same tag, I love sharing camp but pretty much hunt with people who operate the same way, we gather in the evenings coordinate plans and share beta but the hunt itself is every man for himself.
GrantK
Well-known member
I figured I would start by going to the general area where we had had success the time before, but as a backup, I E scouted a couple of other spots that had similar terrain features and vegetation…
I rolled in mid-afternoon and set up camp, then went to glass, I hadn’t been on the binos more than 5 minutes when I glassed up two separate herds, both with nice bulls, unfortunately, they were a bit too close to the road, and I could see them looking uncomfortable as the opening day crowds started to arrive, I watched until it was completely dark and made a plan to be sitting on them bright and early in the morning, for all the traffic they weren’t visible from the road and I didn’t see anyone else glassing so I figured there was an even chance they would still be in the area in the morning.
I woke up before my alarm by the number of side-by-sides blasting up the road, I looked at my phone and it was 3 AM, I decided I would go and park where I wanted to be so I would hopefully keep other people from going in before shooting light, I grabbed breakfast and a stove to make coffee and rolled out, only to find 3 truck shoehorned into a one-vehicle space and 6 guys headed up the mountain, 3.5 hours before shooting light… I turned around and headed to plan B, where I could still see the same area but from a much less advantageous angle, nobody there but I watched headlamps walk right through the area the elk had been in and sit on a high point, all together, keeping the headlamps on until it was light, strange tactics? I also had a crew of 5 park next to my truck and follow me in, even when I turned around and flashed my headlamp at them a couple times. Given the amount of people I spent a pretty short amount of time glassing and headed to where I knew the escape route for the entire hillside was, the tracks made it look like everything had vacated in the middle of the night, no big surprise there…
I rolled in mid-afternoon and set up camp, then went to glass, I hadn’t been on the binos more than 5 minutes when I glassed up two separate herds, both with nice bulls, unfortunately, they were a bit too close to the road, and I could see them looking uncomfortable as the opening day crowds started to arrive, I watched until it was completely dark and made a plan to be sitting on them bright and early in the morning, for all the traffic they weren’t visible from the road and I didn’t see anyone else glassing so I figured there was an even chance they would still be in the area in the morning.
I woke up before my alarm by the number of side-by-sides blasting up the road, I looked at my phone and it was 3 AM, I decided I would go and park where I wanted to be so I would hopefully keep other people from going in before shooting light, I grabbed breakfast and a stove to make coffee and rolled out, only to find 3 truck shoehorned into a one-vehicle space and 6 guys headed up the mountain, 3.5 hours before shooting light… I turned around and headed to plan B, where I could still see the same area but from a much less advantageous angle, nobody there but I watched headlamps walk right through the area the elk had been in and sit on a high point, all together, keeping the headlamps on until it was light, strange tactics? I also had a crew of 5 park next to my truck and follow me in, even when I turned around and flashed my headlamp at them a couple times. Given the amount of people I spent a pretty short amount of time glassing and headed to where I knew the escape route for the entire hillside was, the tracks made it look like everything had vacated in the middle of the night, no big surprise there…
D
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GrantK
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I still hunted through thick aspen flats and into the really thick timber, popping out to canyon rims to glass as often as possible, but managed to turn up zero elk, the temperatures were incredibly warm, reaching 70 in the sun by 9 AM and changing the wind to an uphill thermal by an hour into daylight, I decided to try to avoid blowing bedded elk out and bailed back to the truck.
Midday I decided to check some timberline country we had found elk in the last time but were unable to capitalize with the low visibility, I walked a 7-mile loop, all in snow, and saw zero human tracks, unfortunately, all the elk tracks appeared to be in the day after the storm, which had been a week ago at this point, about 2 PM I figured with the lack of sign I should just hustle back to the truck and go sit where I had seen the elk the night before, I dropped back to the truck, pretty much circling two basins and still seeing nothing promising as far as sign...
I managed to get back with time to glass before dark and parked myself up high on a glassing knob with 15’s on a tripod, unfortunately, despite being able to see 4 drainages I didn’t see an elk… day one ended with zero elk seen, it had been a long time since that had happened to me, especially with 12 miles on the boots.
Midday I decided to check some timberline country we had found elk in the last time but were unable to capitalize with the low visibility, I walked a 7-mile loop, all in snow, and saw zero human tracks, unfortunately, all the elk tracks appeared to be in the day after the storm, which had been a week ago at this point, about 2 PM I figured with the lack of sign I should just hustle back to the truck and go sit where I had seen the elk the night before, I dropped back to the truck, pretty much circling two basins and still seeing nothing promising as far as sign...
I managed to get back with time to glass before dark and parked myself up high on a glassing knob with 15’s on a tripod, unfortunately, despite being able to see 4 drainages I didn’t see an elk… day one ended with zero elk seen, it had been a long time since that had happened to me, especially with 12 miles on the boots.
you own binoculars and a tripod and understand what their purpose is, which automatically sifts you to the top of the list compared to many of my friends who are lifelong hunters lol
GrantK
Well-known member
you guys are doing it right, most of the time only one of you has a tag... I go along on every elk hunt I possibly can as a spotter/packer... get that time in so you have gut feelings to act on...
GrantK
Well-known member
on this hunt you get weird looks for having binos, I can't even begin to list all the bizarre things I have witnessed, last time my brother was glassing and had a grown man with a daisy BB gun set up below him glassing through the scope?
GrantK
Well-known member
Day 2:
I decided to start up higher in the drainage I had seen the elk in to see if I could relocate them, no such luck so I rolled back and took down camp, time for plan C, I drove to the most promising of my e scouted spots, which was about 12 miles as the crow flies but required a 2-hour drive to get to… I didn’t set up camp, figuring I’d give it an evening look and decide if I wanted to stay or keep moving.
This spot was an old logged area that was being taken over by Aspen, I had targeted some parks about 3 miles from the road that looked like they would be seldom hunted as there was no road or trail anywhere near on the map, at the parking I was surprised to see 2 horse trailers, but figured they would be taking the obvious trail that went into the next basin over, as I started what I thought would be a completely off trail hike though I was disappointed to find a pack trail that was well disguised for the first ½ mile but then became a full on cut trail, as it turned out this was really handy to get through the deadfall and slash, there were horse tracks but it looked like a single horse with a mule behind it at least several days ago…
The country looked fantastic but there was no elk sign, I reached an incredible-looking park and finally found some tracks, however, they looked a couple of days old at least. I continued on, the trail more or less going where I wanted to go, until I ran into a giant camp, at least 4 wall tents and a dozen horses that I could see, right in the middle of the main park I had pinned on google earth, Damn, this spot wasn’t going to be worth it…
I decided to start up higher in the drainage I had seen the elk in to see if I could relocate them, no such luck so I rolled back and took down camp, time for plan C, I drove to the most promising of my e scouted spots, which was about 12 miles as the crow flies but required a 2-hour drive to get to… I didn’t set up camp, figuring I’d give it an evening look and decide if I wanted to stay or keep moving.
This spot was an old logged area that was being taken over by Aspen, I had targeted some parks about 3 miles from the road that looked like they would be seldom hunted as there was no road or trail anywhere near on the map, at the parking I was surprised to see 2 horse trailers, but figured they would be taking the obvious trail that went into the next basin over, as I started what I thought would be a completely off trail hike though I was disappointed to find a pack trail that was well disguised for the first ½ mile but then became a full on cut trail, as it turned out this was really handy to get through the deadfall and slash, there were horse tracks but it looked like a single horse with a mule behind it at least several days ago…
The country looked fantastic but there was no elk sign, I reached an incredible-looking park and finally found some tracks, however, they looked a couple of days old at least. I continued on, the trail more or less going where I wanted to go, until I ran into a giant camp, at least 4 wall tents and a dozen horses that I could see, right in the middle of the main park I had pinned on google earth, Damn, this spot wasn’t going to be worth it…
GrantK
Well-known member
I decided that since it was too late for another plan I’d give the area a good look, I climbed a big ridge that gave me a pretty good look at the entire drainage, while glassing I heard a couple of bugles but they were so faint that I couldn’t get a direction on them. At this point it was about an hour from dark, I figured I’d hunt my way back toward my truck on the backside of the ridge from the camp.
I was moving along at a pretty good clip through some really crunchy aspen, trying to move along at a cadence that sounded like an elk as I figured anything within 200 yards could hear me, occasionally throwing out a cow call, when I heard what I swore was a bugle, but the volume just sounded wrong, I stopped and could hear footsteps in the leaves… shortly followed by a cow and calf crossing in front of me, I waited until they were out of sight and kept going up the ridge, there was suddenly elk sign everywhere, tracks visible by the shine on the turned over aspen leaves, they couldn’t be that far ahead...
I continued as fast as possible up the ridge, hearing more elk below me I found a lane and watched as another cow and calf caught up from behind and passed me, there had to be a bull somewhere? I looked at my map and figured everything was headed to a big meadow about a half mile away, the race was on, and I had about 15 minutes of light left, at this point I was pretty much jogging through the woods, every time I would stop I could hear elk in the leaves and hooves hitting deadfall, but even at a full jog I wasn’t gaining an inch… I did hear one half hearted bugle, so at least I knew there was a bull in the group.
With about 5-7 minutes of light left I broke into the park, it was a long thin park that wrapped around a corner of the ridge, making only about half of it visible from the end I was at, at this point I could hear a bull raking at the edge of the park at what sounded like 40-50 yards, I eased along the edge of the park and sure enough, ran right into the bull raking a tree at 30 yards, I checked my watch and realized I had 4 minutes, I leaned against a tree and got him in the scope, he was a tiny raghorn, but he was going down… as soon as the cow behind him would move, which she wasn’t doing, I had him broadside for the remainder of shooting light, but never a shot without a cow directly behind him, I ended up hanging out for another half hour until the entire herd had fed far enough around the corner I could sneak out…
I booked it back to the truck and found a spot to camp as close to the trailhead as possible.
I was moving along at a pretty good clip through some really crunchy aspen, trying to move along at a cadence that sounded like an elk as I figured anything within 200 yards could hear me, occasionally throwing out a cow call, when I heard what I swore was a bugle, but the volume just sounded wrong, I stopped and could hear footsteps in the leaves… shortly followed by a cow and calf crossing in front of me, I waited until they were out of sight and kept going up the ridge, there was suddenly elk sign everywhere, tracks visible by the shine on the turned over aspen leaves, they couldn’t be that far ahead...
I continued as fast as possible up the ridge, hearing more elk below me I found a lane and watched as another cow and calf caught up from behind and passed me, there had to be a bull somewhere? I looked at my map and figured everything was headed to a big meadow about a half mile away, the race was on, and I had about 15 minutes of light left, at this point I was pretty much jogging through the woods, every time I would stop I could hear elk in the leaves and hooves hitting deadfall, but even at a full jog I wasn’t gaining an inch… I did hear one half hearted bugle, so at least I knew there was a bull in the group.
With about 5-7 minutes of light left I broke into the park, it was a long thin park that wrapped around a corner of the ridge, making only about half of it visible from the end I was at, at this point I could hear a bull raking at the edge of the park at what sounded like 40-50 yards, I eased along the edge of the park and sure enough, ran right into the bull raking a tree at 30 yards, I checked my watch and realized I had 4 minutes, I leaned against a tree and got him in the scope, he was a tiny raghorn, but he was going down… as soon as the cow behind him would move, which she wasn’t doing, I had him broadside for the remainder of shooting light, but never a shot without a cow directly behind him, I ended up hanging out for another half hour until the entire herd had fed far enough around the corner I could sneak out…
I booked it back to the truck and found a spot to camp as close to the trailhead as possible.
Textbook "insert state here" shenanigans. I was tagging along on a hunt in that state a couple weeks ago, same days as your hunt. Some truly bizarre experiences for sure. The most impressive thing is it feels like they were some really unique and original dumbass decisions too. Where are they getting these ideas? Do they also have magic stones in a magic hat to help them guide hunting choices, or was that just Joseph?
GrantK
Well-known member
It's truly odd, I usually do pretty well at guessing what people will do but on this hunt I'm wrong pretty much 100% of the time, it feels like every camp is hunting the ghost of the one elk that they killed 20 years ago, no scouting, no glassing, mass numbers of people all together... I forgot to mention that of the 6 that walked through the elk hours before light one was wearing a white tracksuit?
GrantK
Well-known member
Day 3
After leaving elk feeding in the dark the night before I didn’t have to think too hard about where I would be going in the morning. I started a little late as I wanted to be sure I didn’t bump anything in the dark, by shooting light I was a couple hundred yards from where I had left the herd the day before, I eased along, hearing footsteps in the leaves, and ended up walking right into a bunch of deer… this was not an ideal spot to locate elk as it was mostly really flat aspens with visibility of about 80-100 yards, I pretty much picked a direction that allowed me to cover as much as possible and got going.
I quickly realized that the fresh tracks did not go any farther than where I had left the elk the night before, I spent the rest of the morning working my way through some truly heinous deadfall and confirming there had been virtually zero elk to the east of the ridge I had encountered them on the night before…
I walked back to where I could glass a ton of country that looked pretty good and spent the entire midday there glassing and waiting for the wind to calm down before going back and repeating the walk from the night before, I heard a single bugle after dark but other than that no sign of elk, I did confirm that the elk sign also did not continue on the west side of the ridge, it seemed that the elk were using about a 100 yard wide by 500 yard long area in nasty blowdown for almost all of their activity… all in all super frustrating after the action the night before.
After leaving elk feeding in the dark the night before I didn’t have to think too hard about where I would be going in the morning. I started a little late as I wanted to be sure I didn’t bump anything in the dark, by shooting light I was a couple hundred yards from where I had left the herd the day before, I eased along, hearing footsteps in the leaves, and ended up walking right into a bunch of deer… this was not an ideal spot to locate elk as it was mostly really flat aspens with visibility of about 80-100 yards, I pretty much picked a direction that allowed me to cover as much as possible and got going.
I quickly realized that the fresh tracks did not go any farther than where I had left the elk the night before, I spent the rest of the morning working my way through some truly heinous deadfall and confirming there had been virtually zero elk to the east of the ridge I had encountered them on the night before…
I walked back to where I could glass a ton of country that looked pretty good and spent the entire midday there glassing and waiting for the wind to calm down before going back and repeating the walk from the night before, I heard a single bugle after dark but other than that no sign of elk, I did confirm that the elk sign also did not continue on the west side of the ridge, it seemed that the elk were using about a 100 yard wide by 500 yard long area in nasty blowdown for almost all of their activity… all in all super frustrating after the action the night before.
GrantK
Well-known member
I did have good company while I glassed...
