KHunter Colo last minute opportunity hunt

[Khunter]

After a challenging AZ archery hunt that was a great time but no arrow released on big bulls and then a 2-day rifle pronghorn hunt where I actually, for the first time with pronghorn, never even came close to killing a buck—Granted a very marginal Colo lope unit but still—Anyway, I was trying to decide what is next for this fall prior to a coming archery sheep hunt in December.

Calendar is ticking by and I get to thinking over Colo rifle elk season options...

Day before the opener, with no scouting, decided to snap up whatever tag I could get for 1st rifle, elk-only season and give it a go to fill the freezer. So I did buy a tag with a plan to get packed and on the road within about 3 hours.

Only really had weeklend to hunt as had a work commitment Monday morning early. I could probably go back out, few hours drive from home, for the season closing Tuesday/Wedneday but really hoped to get R done on the weekend.

As luck would have it, Dinkshooter agreed to come along, without a tag so just to help. Perfect recipe for a great time and ton of laughs at a minimum. And I was definitely thankful to have the company and the help. Thanks Dink AND Mrs. Dink for the hall pass.

On the road again...No doubt none of us tire of the great feeling of open road ahead on the way to hunt new ground as we run through opening day options in our head...





Photo is view just before first light. We are perched to glass expansive areas before us to find elk.


Dinkshooter waiting for enough light to spot bulls for me!

 

[noharleyyet]

You had me at Dinkshooter....

 

[Khunter]

Opening morning was slow, we were in a great spot to glass and Dinkshooter spotted a ragorn, a spike and a couple cows way off in the distance. Nothing to make the heart pound so we relocated way to the south to an area i knew just a bit from years ago and near some areas Dinkshooter was a little bit familiar with.

We hiked in a mile or so for an afternoon look see and were stepping on fresh tracks all over but not bumping any elk. Thick oaks with a few ponderosa and large manzanita patches.

We set up on a few vantage points along some rims overlooking various basins and glass, glass and glass some more. Trying to pick out a bit of brushed up horn or whatever elk parts we can discern in the thick stuff.

 

[Khunter]

Well about 2:30 or so we are scratching our heads about all the fresh tracks and dearth of live elk seen/heard and packing the glass up to get out of ouir last glassing spot and try to find another spot for late afternoon/evening...if we really hustle we can do another set up in a new spot for evening.

Dink turns around and right below us down a steep hill at 308 yards is a bull and a cow. The bull is chasing the cow around and she is being dodgy. Decisions, decisions....in pretty easy range, and broadside in the open....all I gotta do is lay prone on the rock ledge we are on with a solid rest and shoot. The elk hunting gods were clearly smiling on me.





Not a big bull but maybe an “I have only 2 days and day 1 is almost spent type of bull”. Is what I am kinda thinking.




I tell Joe I think he is small but dang he is “Right There!!!” He says he won’t judge me so do what I like but we can keep looking. Ultimately I said well he is way down the hill, short as it is but choked with oaks and STEEP. Maybe if he decides to come up to our level I will give it serious consideration, cuz well...it would then be super convenient and we would only have a pretty flat mile plus pack out to the truck...



I did not get later photos of the bull but darned if the cow did not lead him out and away from us giving me the relief of not having to ponder it further...and then she comes back our way and is leading the bull right by us. As they side hill up to us with the wind in our face all I can see is top half of his rack at 60 yards.

Dink helpfully suggests “ If you are going to have a shot you need to pull back 50-60 yards so you can see him well enough to shoot as they climb up the narrow draw they are headed for to top out.”

So I do that as Dinkshooter waits at our glassing spot to see what unfolds. Well I can hear the bull in the thick brush. Very very close just below me and the wind is perfect. The bull tops out and steps out at 75 yards nose to the ground on what I presume is the cow’s scent trail. I never saw her top out but there is the bull and I have safety off, rifle on shooting sticks, waiting for a clear clean shot. Bull turn broadside in a shooting lane and stops for a couple seconds...decision time!!! Day one of a two day hunt, easy bull, small barely 6 point in essentially point blank range....for a tag I just bought for a unit I have never elk hunted...easy decision and yet not a no brainer for me me I guess. I pass and hustle back to Dinkshooter before ths bull can walkm up to me an MAKE me shoot in self defense.

Now it really is just barely too late to get back to truck and expect to relocate in time to glass new terrain so we relocate to a new nearby vantage and glass till we have just enough time to still hunt back to the truck, looping through new terrain, again covered in fresh tracks but no elk spotted rest of the day.

That night I did kinda question my judgment but am at peace with the decision to pass. I guess when you pass on lots of 320 range bulls in bow range over the years in primo units across the west, it shifts your perspective even on last second opportunity hunts. Not saying it is smart, just what it is.

One more day to hunt...

 

[Buschy]

I have a funny feeling you made a very good decision!

 

[LuketheDog]

I just did that same thing on an average antelope buck with a very sub-par leftover Wyoming tag a couple days ago, and now heavily regret it, I hope your story has a better ending than mine does!

 

[Crumb]

You’re crazy!

 

[Khunter]

Day two of what I am hoping to be a two day hunt.

This day we took ATVs from camp a few miles and then down the mountain a few miles to glass big broad country at first light. Aside: Used “Fin’s” Chopper mitts with heavy wool liner mitts inside and kept reasonably warm riding in 12 degree temps.


Moon setting as sun, behind us, is coming up



Dinkshooter awaiting adequate light to put his sharp azz elk spotting skills to work.
We were way ahead of ourselves and had to wait in refreshing 12 degree temps with a stiff breeze for 20 minutes to start glassing. Not a minute into glassing Dinkshooter spots a bull and says with urgency. “Good Bull, get your spotter set up”



I take a fast look with binos to see what he sees and get to setting up the spotter. By the time I get set the bull has dissapeared but Dink located him bedded and brushed up in tall oaks close to where we had seen him.


Here, via phone skope at 60 power through spotter is what we were looking at over a mile from us!
Not a bad start to the day.

 

[Khunter]

Well, spotting a big bull in thick oak brush bedded at first light over a mile away is not exactly the same as 'hunting/stalking' said bull. A lot has to go right to make it happen.

Dinkshooter judged him a bull in killable position and I agreed, we could see upslope of the bull where I might sneak in and hopefully be in rifle range among a pile of rocks. As we studied the terrain it sure looked like it was bedded a hundred yards of so from what looked like a trail of some sort. Examined the maps and using a compass, well, yes that must be a horse/foot traffic only trail that starts at the top of the mountain and we estimate the bull is about 2.5 miles down the mountain within 100 or so yards.

The plan we hatch is Dinkshooter staying on the Bull with the spotter while I ATV back up the mountain and down a main ridge a couple miles to a trailhead. Where I will then pile out and hike down the mountain 2 or so miles fast as I can into this hole the bull is bedded in and try to re-find him and get a shot opportunity through dense, tall, oak brush. Sounds simple! Ha.

One complication we foresee is it sure looks like the Bull will be in the sun soon and likely move to a better day bed, probably while I am enroute and unseeing. Anyway off I go to see if we can pull this off on an outsized bull for the area.

Any thoughts/guesses on the size of this bull?

 

[JLS]

Any thoughts/guesses on the size of this bull?

muy grande

 

[noharleyyet]

Plenty grande enough...

 

[JKM1754]

Day 1 Shooter

 

[elkduds]

Some seriously fine glassing so far in this thread.

 

[kiwi hunter]

suspense,,huge if he was here in nz

 

[crock239]

Muy muy grande.

Best thread I've read in a while....good luck! Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

 

[cmbbulldog]

so Far so good!

 

[rtraverdavis]

First one was grande enough for me man. You guys have it dialed.

 

[Khunter]

So I head back up the mountain a few miles on the ATV and catch a 2 track and go a couple miles to the trailhead for a hiking/horse only access trail that I believe will take me 2 to 2.5 miles steeply down the mountain to, if I figured bull location correctly, with a hundred yards or two to where the bull is/was bedded.

I take off hiking fast as I can and track progress toward a waypoint I made of bull’s estimated location.








I get down the trail a mile plus and realize in my rush I must have missed a turn where the trail stayed high and followed a bench. I was hiking on a great trail but was in the bottom of a deep creek bed instead of 600 feet higher elevation up on that bench. Crap.

Bust my way through thick tall oaks bruch pretty much straight up hill about 1/3 mile and get myself back on track. Huffing and puffing but GPS and OnX say I am about a mile from the bulls last location. Hopefully the delay is not costly.

As I near the area where I believe I have the bull marked in OnX I slow it down, manage to communicate with Dink via inreach. He says I am not visible to him but the bull is. Said bull moved a bit to north and seemed unable to step on right hoof or at least was avoiding best he could. Could not spot any blood on the elk, just a bad foot best he could tell at the mile plus distance he was at. At present all he could see was tips of antlers.

Based on the trail map in Onx I think I am close to a sharp bend in the trail. I cannot see much ahead because of terrain and vegetation but we thought the bull had bedded close to a sharp distinct bend in the trail. As such I “think” I am within 700 yards, maybe a lot closer but really not sure as the terrain is bumpy and still sloping down valley a bit so cannot see a lot in front of me. I know I am above the bull in elevation but not not sure just where he is bedded. Time to slow it down and pick my way around carefully. The wind at the moment was golden, all in my favor.

Drop my pack and hiking sticks on the trail and creep forward with gun, binos and shooting sticks. Have a bipod on gun as well. To be cautious I drop into a shallow ravine to avoid being spotted by the bull and poke over a lip looking to the south southwest. Glassing the slope thinking bull should be close or at least glassable. nothing.

drop back down and travel ravine a couple hundred more yards where there is a bit of a rocky rise or lip. I kinda think “This might be the rock pile I saw above the bull at first light? The one I might be able to shoot from if eyes were not fooled by distance and the bull was not further than he looked from it”.

I edge up there and slowly pick my way around a couple fat junipers but staying brushed up and avoiding being skylined, again looking south/southwest. Well I was not skylined for approximate bull location but Dink buzzes me and says he can finally see me. Somehow we are not dialing in on where he saw the bull and where I am so I continue scanning hillside. I poke forward a few yards and look straight west as I am hemmed in by big boulders I can just see over in front of me...”the rock pile”


There’s the bull right in front of me! Looks giant at a glance snoozing in the sun, body and head facing me head on and rack tilted to the side a bit. Layin in the sun in short manzanita. I can see all of him.
Holy crap, did he see me?! Nope! Wind? Stiffly in my face.

He is soo damn close I guess 130 yards and set up shooting sticks. Still dont know why I did not range him but know rifle is 3” high at 100 and flat at 300”. He is awake and head goes up then down and around and then down again.
Sure wish I had taken time to snap a photo with the 40x zoom camera I keep handy, it was a very cool and exciting sight to see. The bull is sunning himself instead of laying in the shade so no obstructions between me and him. Apparently when he moved out of his first bed he moved to the top of a little finger ridge in plain sight from this angle but the roll of the hill obscured all but antler tips from Dinks perch way above me.

Might this aggressive plan, that took me 5 hours from time I left Dinkshooter to this point actually pan out? It is 12:30 and I started the stalk at 7:30 am.

So this is where I maybe let the excitement get the better of me and make suspect choices. No, I do not radio Joe to say get on the glass I am gonna shoot. I dont think he even knew. Was looking right at the bull already. Just figure at this range it should be a slam dunk and to heck with waiting for the bull to stand, the wind to wreck etc... I think get on the sticks setle in and wait for bull to left his head and I can surely kill it with a frontal shot.

Up goes the head, he looks left and right and straight on. I am 150? Feet above it at about 130 yards. Settle on base of neck and top of chest. Kaboom!

 

[noharleyyet]

 

[Khunter]

I see blood pouring out. Bull stands up and slowly moves left, toward Dink and the horse trail. Shoot again, open broadside shot at slow moving bull, and looks like back of lung, I think. Bull trots? south toward trail and a ravine between it and that trail. I fire a fast shot that I have no idea where it landed. Out of bullets in the gun, need to reload and mostly glass as the bull drops out of view.

I think I am good but worried. How did that bull make it the 100 yards I saw if I nailed the first shot? Dinkshooter comes on radio. Say’s he see bull by trail. “He’s wobbling. He turned back. He just dropped. Can’t see him. Wait, I see antlers, not moving. Nope antlers moving. I see nothing. Can’t see it”

We talk as I am glassing everything I can to ensure bull is not sneaking out bottom of drainage I can see well. Drainage is 40-60 feet deep and kinda narrow. The hillslope by me obscures my view of the part of trail Dink saw bull wobbling next to and Dink cannot see the bottom of drainage but can see opposing hillside. I think we have escape routes covered betwen us and no bull seen.

In abunance of caution Dink suggests i back track the 500 yards to get my pack and then he will spot me to the point he last saw bull by trail.

I guess 30 minutes elapsed from time of my shots and I am back to my shooting spot working my way down the hill. Being cautious as the trail keeps me out of the drianage the bull should be piled up in I take the trail to ‘the spot’ on trail. I smell elk, dead elk and veer off trail. Joe is saying you gotta go further and I say nope, i smell it and as I am saying that, there it is! Euporia sets in. Dinkshooter spots a whopper, we make a plan to try for it and EVERYTHING works perfectly on this last second opportunity hunt.

First view of the bull up close: