Hatchie Dawg
Well-known member
My first attempt at an elk hunt ended with a close encounter but no animal in Nov of 2011 in northwest CO. I learned alot that week alone in the foothills of the Rockies and planned one more try for 2012. I would be 45 by then and had work to do if I wanted to accomplish my goal the way I wanted to do it.
My first priority was upgrading equipment in several areas and I went about doing so cruising the net for bargains and saving Cabelas points until I had picked up a Marmot Lithium, a Nikon ED 50 and finally a pair of the Cabelas Alaska Hunter boots by Miendl. These products addressed most weaknesses in my system from last year.
Next I started looking at rental horses to access back country and conserve energy, but after reading enough horror stories about rental horses I settled on llamas and started tracking down sources for such. I found a guy in Salida that had hunted with llamas for 30 years and he became a great resource in general for my upcoming hunt. Llamas it would be.
Once again the electronic and telephonic scouting was almost endless. I again contacted wardens, and the district biologist as well as a guy or two from this board that were kind enough to lend a hand. Google Earth and the CO State NDIS system were reviewed and compared repeatedly as my focus narrowed on an alpine unit with plenty of wilderness, steep country, a high success rate and 100% draw for first rifle.
Last year I hunted alone but this year my neighbor Pat would go. We began our physical training in the spring and really focused through the late summer early Fall. We ran more than anything but the running was supplemented squats, push ups, shoulder press, and curls. We did most of it at home going to the gym only for the squats. Pat is about as good a man as the Lord makes anymore. His upbringing on a central MO farm left him with a work ethic that is hard to beat when there is a difficult job ahead. I kind of pushed him and pestered him about his training but when the chips were down I had no doubt he would get it done. I was not wrong.
I guess the last thing we really focused on was the shooting. Pat dialed in his .270 pushing out 140gr Nosler Accubonds and I did the same with a buddies .300 Win mag with Remington Core Lokt Ultra Bonded bullets. I upgraded fire power from my trusty 6.5x55 since this would likely be my last elk hunt for a while. If I could take a poke at em, I wanted the gun that would do it no questions asked. We practiced from 100yds to 300yds, both with good results.
The time came and we loaded up the truck and headed north, then west on Tuesday the 9th of October. Nineteen hours later we rolled into Salida. At 7:30am the next morning we met Bill of Antero Llamas for instruction on llama handling/packing. Bill also invited us in for coffee and reviewed our maps and plans. He said it was an aggressive plan but we had high and low country available and the main thing was to not ignore elk sign wherever we found it. The llamas were easy to handle.
We headed to our hunt area and immediately went to the trail head to check things out.
Things looked good so we went back to town had a good meal, organized and got some encouragement from the front desk at the hotel. Really, everyone we met was nice out there. The next morning, Thursday, we headed into the mountains.
There was still some color
We climbed to 11540' and made camp. Weather was moving in so we pitched the tents stoutly and glassed that evening and the next morning.
There were signs of old camps but no people or hunters around. The ridge we were on was tore up with rubs and such but nothing real fresh. The first evening and next morning we glassed 4 bulls and about 23 elk altogether. One of the bulls was a dandy. The long throw from TN had landed us right in the middle of em. To say we were stoked was an understatement. Weather moved in however and we lost the ability to glass Friday afternoon and 99% of the Saturday opener. We had it all, rain, sleet, snow, and hail. It was never bad however, just a little uncomfortable. The Marmot Lithium really felt great.
We hunted several hours in miserable weather and visibility for the opener but eventually retreated to camp and climbed in the tents for the middle part of the day. Visibility was horrible but we hunted the last three hours before dark. We did get a little snow
We gave up the next morning, Sunday, to glass but we saw absolutely nothing. After a strategy meeting we agreed that we should move camp down and about one half mile to put us within striking distance of the big bull and most of the elk we had seen. The task was completed by just after noon. With sun and a drop in elevation the snow retreated fast. Here is a pic of the second campsite
About 2pm we set out for the last place we had seen the big bull, about .5 mile south but we didn't have to give up much elevation. Pat and I settled in for the wait on a steep meadow with aspen to either side. The weather was nice and the wind was in our faces but little was moving. A couple of mule deer were spotted and gave a brief surge of adrenaline. At about 6:15pm however everything changed. I heard some sort of noise and looked down the hill to see a large cow elk standing in the edge of the aspen. She was working her way out into the meadow at 174yds. Pat and I had discussed how long we would wait on a bull and three days was the consensus but here I had a nice animal in the open at the end of the second. The effort and preparation all ran through my mind as did last year's missed opportunity. I really didn't think about that long I guess as I worked the shooting stick under the .300 mag. Pat made no argument as I leveled the rifle and tried to steady the cross hairs on the cows shoulder. The angle was steep but the path was clear. When the gun went off the cow didn't even flinch that I could tell. She ran under the lip of the hill we were sitting on and was lost from view. All hell broke lose for a moment as three or four elk were running this way and that. One nice cow stopped in the open and Pat rolled her with a single round. She was feet towards the sky and down for the count. We eased down and looked over the edge of the hill to see my cow down also. We almost hugged each other.
My first priority was upgrading equipment in several areas and I went about doing so cruising the net for bargains and saving Cabelas points until I had picked up a Marmot Lithium, a Nikon ED 50 and finally a pair of the Cabelas Alaska Hunter boots by Miendl. These products addressed most weaknesses in my system from last year.
Next I started looking at rental horses to access back country and conserve energy, but after reading enough horror stories about rental horses I settled on llamas and started tracking down sources for such. I found a guy in Salida that had hunted with llamas for 30 years and he became a great resource in general for my upcoming hunt. Llamas it would be.
Once again the electronic and telephonic scouting was almost endless. I again contacted wardens, and the district biologist as well as a guy or two from this board that were kind enough to lend a hand. Google Earth and the CO State NDIS system were reviewed and compared repeatedly as my focus narrowed on an alpine unit with plenty of wilderness, steep country, a high success rate and 100% draw for first rifle.
Last year I hunted alone but this year my neighbor Pat would go. We began our physical training in the spring and really focused through the late summer early Fall. We ran more than anything but the running was supplemented squats, push ups, shoulder press, and curls. We did most of it at home going to the gym only for the squats. Pat is about as good a man as the Lord makes anymore. His upbringing on a central MO farm left him with a work ethic that is hard to beat when there is a difficult job ahead. I kind of pushed him and pestered him about his training but when the chips were down I had no doubt he would get it done. I was not wrong.
I guess the last thing we really focused on was the shooting. Pat dialed in his .270 pushing out 140gr Nosler Accubonds and I did the same with a buddies .300 Win mag with Remington Core Lokt Ultra Bonded bullets. I upgraded fire power from my trusty 6.5x55 since this would likely be my last elk hunt for a while. If I could take a poke at em, I wanted the gun that would do it no questions asked. We practiced from 100yds to 300yds, both with good results.
The time came and we loaded up the truck and headed north, then west on Tuesday the 9th of October. Nineteen hours later we rolled into Salida. At 7:30am the next morning we met Bill of Antero Llamas for instruction on llama handling/packing. Bill also invited us in for coffee and reviewed our maps and plans. He said it was an aggressive plan but we had high and low country available and the main thing was to not ignore elk sign wherever we found it. The llamas were easy to handle.
We headed to our hunt area and immediately went to the trail head to check things out.
Things looked good so we went back to town had a good meal, organized and got some encouragement from the front desk at the hotel. Really, everyone we met was nice out there. The next morning, Thursday, we headed into the mountains.
There was still some color
We climbed to 11540' and made camp. Weather was moving in so we pitched the tents stoutly and glassed that evening and the next morning.
There were signs of old camps but no people or hunters around. The ridge we were on was tore up with rubs and such but nothing real fresh. The first evening and next morning we glassed 4 bulls and about 23 elk altogether. One of the bulls was a dandy. The long throw from TN had landed us right in the middle of em. To say we were stoked was an understatement. Weather moved in however and we lost the ability to glass Friday afternoon and 99% of the Saturday opener. We had it all, rain, sleet, snow, and hail. It was never bad however, just a little uncomfortable. The Marmot Lithium really felt great.
We hunted several hours in miserable weather and visibility for the opener but eventually retreated to camp and climbed in the tents for the middle part of the day. Visibility was horrible but we hunted the last three hours before dark. We did get a little snow
We gave up the next morning, Sunday, to glass but we saw absolutely nothing. After a strategy meeting we agreed that we should move camp down and about one half mile to put us within striking distance of the big bull and most of the elk we had seen. The task was completed by just after noon. With sun and a drop in elevation the snow retreated fast. Here is a pic of the second campsite
About 2pm we set out for the last place we had seen the big bull, about .5 mile south but we didn't have to give up much elevation. Pat and I settled in for the wait on a steep meadow with aspen to either side. The weather was nice and the wind was in our faces but little was moving. A couple of mule deer were spotted and gave a brief surge of adrenaline. At about 6:15pm however everything changed. I heard some sort of noise and looked down the hill to see a large cow elk standing in the edge of the aspen. She was working her way out into the meadow at 174yds. Pat and I had discussed how long we would wait on a bull and three days was the consensus but here I had a nice animal in the open at the end of the second. The effort and preparation all ran through my mind as did last year's missed opportunity. I really didn't think about that long I guess as I worked the shooting stick under the .300 mag. Pat made no argument as I leveled the rifle and tried to steady the cross hairs on the cows shoulder. The angle was steep but the path was clear. When the gun went off the cow didn't even flinch that I could tell. She ran under the lip of the hill we were sitting on and was lost from view. All hell broke lose for a moment as three or four elk were running this way and that. One nice cow stopped in the open and Pat rolled her with a single round. She was feet towards the sky and down for the count. We eased down and looked over the edge of the hill to see my cow down also. We almost hugged each other.
Eastern Tenderfoots
