My 2024 Elk/Deer Season Recap

[Southern Elk]

2024 was another season of too much work and not enough hunting. It turned out to be a productive year though.

I love bow hunting and it’s always my goal to get a bull with my bow. This year was no different. I shoot my bow all summer. It’s something that I enjoy doing most evenings after work.

For opening day this year, I wanted to do something that I always say I’m going to do, but always find an excuse not to. That is sit a wallow all day. I’ll be honest, I sat in a tree stand so many times before moving out west that I don’t really enjoy sitting anymore. I normally have several trail cameras out all summer and one in particular always produces a lot of good pictures. The problem with sitting water/wallows is sometimes the elk don’t hit them everyday. After checking my camera the weekend before season, the plan was set. Sit the wallow all day Saturday and Sunday of opening weekend.

 

[Southern Elk]

Opening day of archery season was hot and smoky. That seems to be the norm. That didn't matter to me since I would be hiking to the wallow before daylight while it was still cool. Plus maybe the hot weather would make a bull want to take a dip.

After sitting for a couple of hours, I decided to check the camera. Sure enough the elk were there the day before. It looked like the most active time was from noon to about 3:00pm. I sat all day and unfortunately I didn’t see anything. Here’s a picture of my view of the wallow about 40 yards away.

 

[Southern Elk]

That all day sit was brutal. The days are so long during the early season. I think it ended up being a 14 hour sit. I decided that I couldn’t do it again on Sunday. I ended up hunting Sunday my normal way, just hiking, glassing and listening. I saw a bull on an opposite hillside at about 700 yards with 30 minutes of shooting light left. There was a deep nasty canyon between us, so I decided that I didn’t have enough time to chase him.

Now is probably a good time to talk about deer. Last year I was fortunate enough to shoot my best mule deer. I decided that having killed several of them, I didn’t want to shoot another one unless it was bigger. My son is 14 and he had previously taken two small bucks. I told him that he could shoot whatever he wanted to, as long as it was legal. Here’s a picture of my deer from last year.

 

[Southern Elk]

Fast forward to weekend number two of archery season. The plan was to meet up with my best hunting buddy @el unit. He was going to hunt Friday evening. Unfortunately I had to work and wouldn’t get to camp until it was dark.

Just as I’m getting camp set up, he drives up and says he shot a cow and filled his B tag. He already had her quartered up, so all that was left to do was pack her out. We had the meat in his truck before midnight.

We wake up Saturday morning and El Unit says he’s going home to start processing his meat. I do some scouting Saturday morning for how I want to access a new area for the evening hunt.

My plan for the evening was to try to cut some elk off before they fed out into a piece of private land where we had been seeing them. The access was a little tricky but I figured it out and by mid afternoon I was sitting in my ambush location. I started hearing bugling about an hour before dark. Would my plan work? In hindsight I should have cut the distance between us instead of waiting, because they didn’t make it to my location before dark.

No luck Sunday morning. Weekend two was in the books.

 

[Southern Elk]

I was going to do a more thorough write up, but due to time constraints, I’ll just skip to the good parts.

We had a very exciting hunt the 3rd weekend of archery, but didn’t loose and arrow. The next time that I was able to get out was the rifle opener. My son and I hunted a meadow that has always been a place where the elk like to feed. After siting for a couple hours and growing restless, we scouted our way back to trailhead. We found a lot fresh sign on a grassy hillside overlooking the meadow. I made a mental note to come back to this spot the following weekend.

 

[Southern Elk]

I was able to get off work early enough on Friday Nov 1 to do an evening hunt. My plan was to hunt all weekend if necessary. I hiked up the mountain and through the meadow that we had hunted opening weekend. I was able to find a nice spot on the grassy hillside above where I could see in each direction without too much deadfall in the way.

As I was putting on a hat and an extra jacket I heard a bugle on the other side of the meadow that I had just walked through. A bugle on Nov 1? That’s crazy. I listened for little while longer and heard it again. Being November I didn’t have a bugle with me, but a did have a cow call in my bino case. I cow called and he answered back. He was bugling continuously every minute or so.

I hurried back down the hillside to the edge of the meadow where I thought the elk would cross. They were now a couple hundred yards up the meadow still in the timber on the opposite side. I didn’t have a shot where they would likely cross the meadow. There’s a ton of blowdown in the area. I didn’t want to walk into the meadow, so I go back up the steep hillside, navigate around deadfall and come back to the edge of the meadow in a better position. After some maneuvering to get a view of the upper part of the meadow, I finally see them.

At first I only see the cows, but the bull is still bugling, so I know he’s there somewhere. I’m standing by a tree using it for a prop for my rifle. Finally I see the bull. I waisted no time. I shot and the elk scattered except for the bull who was still standing there. I shot him again and dropped him. He was trying to get up, so I shot him one last time and that was it.

 

[Southern Elk]

The bull turned out to be a small 6x6. I’m excited. It’s almost dark and I have a lot of work to do. I send two messages on my inreach. One to my wife letting her and my son know that I got one and one to El Unit. I get the bull quartered up and head down the mountain knowing that I have a long day of packing by myself on Saturday.

I decide to drive out to make a phone call and go get my son. He’s old enough to pack and would be a lot of help. When I got service the best news possible popped up in a text message. El Unit said that he and his wife would be at the trailhead in the morning with their horses. I slept good that night knowing that we had an easy day of packing the next day.

I hike in before they arrived to make sure there wasn’t a bear on the carcass. They made it there about an hour after I got to the meadow and we had an uneventful pack down the mountain.

 

[cohunter14]

Congrats on a successful hunt!!

 

[Southern Elk]

My son said that he would rather deer hunt than elk hunt, so we made that our priority for the rest of the season. He’s killed a couple of smaller bucks and said he would like to shoot a nice buck. I told him he could make the call on what was a shooter.

One afternoon we found a group of does and decided to watch them. The rut was on and we knew sooner or later a buck would show up. A short while later one did. My son said he wanted to shoot this one. We had to wait for what seemed like several minutes to get a good shot. The buck was chasing the does and never stopped at a good angle. Finally he stopped broadside and the boy made a perfect shot. The buck ran about 20 yards.

 

[Addicting]

Good buck! Did he shoot him with a axe?

 

[Southern Elk]

Good buck! Did he shoot him with a axe?

That’s the exit wound. .243 with a 90 grain ELDX. That’s the 3rd deer that we’ve killed with that setup. Great little deer round.

 

[Pagosa]

Beautiful bull and great buck. Congratulations on some nice animals. Nice looking rifle on the bull!