Solo Elk Adventure to Remember

[nontyp]

I have been hunting elk every year with my brother since 2017. We generally have done party applications on archery tags and have gotten pretty lucky including drawing NM twice. We have also been marginally successful. Between my older brother and myself, we have killed 7 bulls since we started. Definitely should have had many more, but still not terrible for a couple guys from IA and KS.

This year was a little different. We swung and missed in the draws. The only exception being that I had a small stash of CO points, but my brother did not. I decided I should probably just plan to burn them on a hunt and see if anyone wanted to tag along. That is what I did, but I couldn’t find any takers for a hunting partner. I only asked a few people, and ultimately knew I would likely be going alone.

Fast forward to October and I headed out on my first solo hunting trip. I was slightly anxious, but overall pretty comfortable. I’ve now spent enough time in the mountains that I feel pretty comfortable out there.

My grand plan was to arrive 4 days early in order to acclimate and scout. The ultimate goal was to find a bull and get him killed on day 1. I set that goal with the presumption that the hunt would only get more difficult as shots rang out and the days drug on.

 

[nontyp]

Day 1:

I left my home in KS at 3 AM. The drive was set to take about 13 hours. I don’t have a trailer or ATV, so I can be pretty efficient with just my truck.

I made great time and arrived early in the afternoon. I stopped on a piece of BLM about 1.5 hours from my hunt area to do some target shooting and confirm my dope chart. I’m glad I did because I was definitely shooting a little higher than I do at 900 ft elevation in KS.

After shooting, I made my way to the hunt area. My plan was to set my wall tent at a campground as a basecamp, and start scouting the following day. Everything took a little longer due to being solo, but I think I finally made it to bed around 10:30.

 

[nontyp]

Day 2:

I set my alarm for 3:30 AM. My plan was to hike in to a spot that wasn’t too crazy far away and do some glassing. I was trying to be somewhat mindful of the elevation. I arrived to my glassing knob in the dark and prepared to have eyes on the mountainside at first light. The first hour turned up nothing. I was hoping to maybe hear a bugle or two, but it was cold and the wind was really blowing that morning.

After finding absolutely nothing in the basin I was glassing, I decided to look further and higher. Almost instantly I picked up a large herd of elk, then another, then another one after that. It was exciting, but ultimately deflating. After reviewing OnX I realized these elk were several thousand feet in elevation, and 7+ miles from the road. A task too big for a solo Kansas guy with a backpack.

Mid day I packed up and drove to a new area to glass for the evening. It was a 40 minute drive and a 2 mile hike. I wanted to hit as many places as possible in the 3 days of scouting in order to give myself perspective and options. I ultimately found a pretty nice 5x6 that evening and heard a few bugles as well. I felt pretty good about the information that I gathered that evening.

 

[Khunter]

following.

 

[Derek44]

I’m in on this one for sure

 

[F250]

This should be good !

 

[Deerhunter6250]

I'm from Iowa and did my first elk solo hunt at 61 this year after 30 years of elk hunting with a partner. So, I can't wait t see how you did.

 

[nontyp]

Day 3:

The beginning of night 2 was pretty rough. I think the elevation was actually getting to me. I had a pounding headache and was very nauseous. By the morning of day 3 I was feeling really good though. The headache persisted at a low level, but my legs were finally feeling strong. For whatever reason, my legs usually feel weak and shaky for the first couple of days so that part was not unexpected.

I knew this was the day that I needed to dive deep into my #1 spot to see if I could turn up any elk. I had held off exploring this area due to elevation and the number of miles required.
My alarm went off at 3:30 and I was leaving camp at 4. An inch of snow had fallen over night, so glassing conditions were prime. The hike in was long and steep. I arrived to my glassing location a little later than expected. Though I was slowed down by a cow moose encounter and a bear encounter.

I found a small herd of elk right away when I started glassing. I wasn’t surprised because this spot looks like elk paradise. I watched the herd for a while. There was a decent 5 point running the show and 1 small raghorn. I continued glassing but couldn’t turn anything else up. There were also other hunters glassing the same herd from the trail. I decided that I needed to get up into the spot deeper. I was hoping that with the fresh snow (several inches up here, 3k feet above camp)I could locate some tracks and possibly glass some bedded elk. Well that effort was futile and exhausting. I went up into the elk paradise, but found only a few sets of tracks. I did not turn up any new elk. I was very surprised. I had spoken to a hunter that had the tag last year, and he said this area was chalk full of elk, including multiple large herds. Something had changed, or something was different. I really wasn’t feeling like this was the spot. I hiked back down to regroup and plan for the evening. The hike down was much faster because it was mostly straight down. The steep downhill was starting to bother my knee by the time I reached the bottom. This isn’t a new problem, but I knew that I probably shouldn’t push too hard in the evening. I had put on over 11 miles that morning and it was only 1:30 pm.

I decided to try an easy spot that I had escouted where I could hike a couple miles on a closed road and glass. I was starting to think that the spot was empty until I heard a bugle, but back towards the trail head. I hustled back down the trail and set up to glass. I found the herd. There were 8-10 cows and a small 5. I was slightly interested though. They were 1 mile of easy hiking back to the road. I’ll keep this spot in my back pocket and use as needed.

 

[rjthehunter]

Following along!

 

[jvanhoy]

Subscribed!

 

[duckhunt]

Following

 

[nontyp]

Day 4:

My alarm went off early again. This time I didn’t hop out of bed though. My left knee was sore from all the downhill that I had done the day before. I sat there for about an hour trying to decide what to do. I could push it and go scout hard again, but I had to keep in mind that the hunt hadn’t even begun yet. I still had potentially 6 more days to grind through.

I decided to take the morning off and get a couple more hours of sleep. I woke up around 7 and started pondering my next move. This is the day before season. I decided that instead of scouting new locations, it was time to start planning for my goal of killing a bull day 1. The decision I made was to load up my pack with my backpacking tent and spike in to a spot for a few days. I figured the 5x6 I had found was the biggest bull, and the bugles I had heard gave me hope for a backup plan.

I drove to the trailhead and arrived at 12 pm. My heart sunk as I parked my truck. What was a nearly empty trailhead 2 days before, was now full of vehicles and camps. 17 trucks to be exact. I sat there for a bit debating whether to dive in or go to plan B. I decided this was still an OK plan, but it may be highly competitive. I had to put my mind in a place of competition and playing offense.

I packed in and set up camp about 2.5-3 miles in. After camp was set, I grabbed my gear and started hiking to glass the area where I had last seen the 5x6. Before I had even arrived to my destination I started hearing bugles across the valley on the next ridge. I was thinking wow this is cool, he’s bugling and I should be able to find him.

I sat down directly across from where the bugling was coming from and listened for a bit. The bugles started getting louder so I began glassing up near the ridge. After a few minutes I saw the cows. Then, just below the cows I see the bull. I focus my attention to him and my first impression was, wow, he looks bigger than he did 2 days ago. As I continued to watch him he came out into an opening. I was like holy **** that is definitely a different bull. BIG 6 point with tall tines. The excitement was high. Another bull started bugling just up the ridge 400 yds from the herd with the big bull and cows. I started glassing up there and boom, here stands a lone giant bull. I pegged him to be even bigger. Maybe 350+. Once he started bugling the herd bull started marching that direction until they were only 100 yards apart. I now had the 2 biggest bulls I have ever seen having a screaming match in my view at the same time. After 20 minutes of lip bawls and challenges, the bigger bull on the ridge slowly turned and left. The herd bull also slowly worked his way out of sight taking the herd with him.

I was obviously really excited, but also very concerned that 10 other people were watching and hearing the same thing.

I made a little video journal for this hunt so that my 3 young boys could watch and follow along. I’ve kept that video private, but here is a little clip to bring you guys a little perspective from this afternoon.

 

[duckhunt]

Day 4:

My alarm went off early again. This time I didn’t hop out of bed though. My left knee was sore from all the downhill that I had done the day before. I sat there for about an hour trying to decide what to do. I could push it and go scout hard again, but I had to keep in mind that the hunt hadn’t even begun yet. I still had potentially 6 more days to grind through.

I decided to take the morning off and get a couple more hours of sleep. I woke up around 7 and started pondering my next move. This is the day before season. I decided that instead of scouting new locations, it was time to start planning for my goal of killing a bull day 1. The decision I made was to load up my pack with my backpacking tent and spike in to a spot for a few days. I figured the 5x6 I had found was the biggest bull, and the bugles I had heard gave me hope for a backup plan.

I drove to the trailhead and arrived at 12 pm. My heart sunk as I parked my truck. What was a nearly empty trailhead 2 days before, was now full of vehicles and camps. 17 trucks to be exact. I sat there for a bit debating whether to dive in or go to plan B. I decided this was still an OK plan, but it may be highly competitive. I had to put my mind in a place of competition and playing offense.

I packed in and set up camp about 2.5-3 miles in. After camp was set, I grabbed my gear and started hiking to glass the area where I had last seen the 5x6. Before I had even arrived to my destination I started hearing bugles across the valley on the next ridge. I was thinking wow this is cool, he’s bugling and I should be able to find him.

I sat down directly across from where the bugling was coming from and listened for a bit. The bugles started getting louder so I began glassing up near the ridge. After a few minutes I saw the cows. Then, just below the cows I see the bull. I focus my attention to him and my first impression was, wow, he looks bigger than he did 2 days ago. As I continued to watch him he came out into an opening. I was like holy **** that is definitely a different bull. BIG 6 point with tall tines. The excitement was high. Another bull started bugling just up the ridge 400 yds from the herd with the big bull and cows. I started glassing up there and boom, here stands a lone giant bull. I pegged him to be even bigger. Maybe 350+. Once he started bugling the herd bull started marching that direction until they were only 100 yards apart. I now had the 2 biggest bulls I have ever seen having a screaming match in my view at the same time. After 20 minutes of lip bawls and challenges, the bigger bull on the ridge slowly turned and left. The herd bull also slowly worked his way out of sight taking the herd with him.

I was obviously really excited, but also very concerned that 10 other people were watching and hearing the same thing.

I made a little video journal for this hunt so that my 3 young boys could watch and follow along. I’ve kept that video private, but here is a little clip to bring you guys a little perspective from this afternoon.

This is getting exciting.

 

[Hplayer13]

Very cool

 

[nontyp]

Day 5 Morning:

This is the first day of the actual hunt. I didn’t get up quite as early since I was already spiked back into elk country. I had heard a bull bugling off and on during the night and he wasn’t too far away. It sounded like the big herd bull from yesterday, but I wasn’t 100% sure. I left the tent around 4:45 because even though the bull was close, I needed to make a big loop through the thick timber to get downwind of him in a position to make a shot. The bull’s bugling started picking up as daylight approached. He was in a large valley meadow working his way down toward me. I was in a good position and started working closer to the bull. In the meantime, another hunter starts flashing his headlight at me on multiple occasions. He was about 600 yds from me on the opposite ridge and I was in the valley. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with that signal. Im already way closer to the elk than he is, so I pressed on. I started wondering how many other hunters were chasing this bull. He kept bugling, so I had a good bead on his location. I snuck to a spot that was maybe 3-400 yds from his last bugle and got set up. A few minutes after settling in, a cow bumps and runs out into the meadow in front of me. She then went back to walking and feeding. I had pushed maybe a little too close. After that I noticed some other cows in the meadow about 100 yds away. The bull was still bugling and getting closer. A little while later the herd started moving into the timber and up the ridge to bed. The bull had come to around ~100 yds but I never could get eyes on him. They quickly moved to bed at daylight. The good news is that he was bugling the whole way and gave several bugles from a stationary location once the elk were bedded. There was also another bull about 1/3 mile down on the same ridge bugling from his bed, so I had great intel for the evening hunt even though the morning didn’t go as planned. I also randomly saw the other big bull from the day before heading to his bed late morning on the opposite ridge.

Midday:

I went back to camp to regroup and come up with a plan for the evening.

 

[nontyp]

Day 5 Evening:

Let’s speed things up with a couple video clips.

The Setup:

After the Shot:

 

[nontyp]

Thanks for following along. It’s nice when a plan actually comes together.

 

[Caseknife]

Awesome story and great hunt, beautiful bull in nice country. Did you ever run into the hunter that was signaling that was his basin?

 

[nontyp]

Awesome story and great hunt, beautiful bull in nice country. Did you ever run into the hunter that was signaling that was his basin?

Thanks! No I didn’t. It seemed like all of the shots and hunters were 1-3 miles away. I apparently found a small zone with no hunters.

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

That's a great bull and sounds like it was a fun hunt. Congrats!