First DIY Western Elk Hunt... Tell Me Your Story

[rayporter]

5milesback- I laff now. we were not quite smart enough to be worried at the time.

it was a heck of a start to mountain hunting. from the 34 hour drive out to the guy with a Lincoln [rented] that plugged the road at the trail head because the fat bugger was paranoid he was going to pay rent on that Lincoln all winter long. [we had to push it down the mountain]

some folks from ohio I knew threw in with some razorbacks at 10000ft and could not get out. a chopper got them out but 3 horses died.

going over wolf creek pass with chains on was a treat too. [ it was the only pass open at the time]

 

[Mi_fiveo]

I don’t feel like typing it all out again if you search on here you can find a long write up I did a few weeks ago. Colorado OTC archery elk


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[Transition Wild]

Wow what a story! Are anyone else’s eyes sweating? It’s the weirdest thing. I wish I had been able to get started as young as you did. My first hunt was last year at 29 years old. 2nd rifle in Colorado after moving to Denver in the spring. I had no idea what I was doing. Still don’t, but I had a blast figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Mostly what doesn’t. Can’t wait till next season now that I can enter the draw. My largest takeaways are basically how I like to go about living in the backcountry for a time. Don’t hunt so high in the late season (I hunted 4th rifle too), don’t spend so much time trying to get away from other hunters, just out hike them. Stuff like that. Also I learned that being fit doesn’t translate to the mountain. Mountain fit is a specific kind. I’ll also be better in that regard in my 2nd year living here.


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I agree - that was a great story for 5MilesBack. It sounds like you learned some valuable lessons and takeaways from your first season and you will be able to apply those for 2018. The most important thing from last year is that you had a blast doing it. Good luck this fall!

 

[Transition Wild]

while I realize you said with out any input from friends, my first trip on my own was still a huge step to take.

in '83 a good friend invited me to go to help drive as his partner had cancelled out. I was 34 and finally getting to go!

so in '84 I told my bud 'we can do this' and we borrowed dads mules and I built wooden pack panniers for packing. we went in 15 miles in the snow and it never quit snowing. the 3 season tent collapsed under the snow. about daybreak on the first day of season we were riding the mules up the trail and my mule stopped and stared off to the side. it was an elk. I turned to Sam and says 'do you want this one'

his tongue hit the saddle horn as he tried to clear the rifle and get off. cause he has not seen it yet, he had to crawl through 3 ft deep snow to get into position. bang! one down. I sat and watched him tag it and just had to say ' skin that one pilgrim, I will get you another one'

so before noon I got mine and then the fun started. the mules did not care but man my packing skills were nonexistent. plus we only had one packer and had to get camp out too. the next day I found an outfitter taking his people out because of the storm and he helped us get our meat out. my stuff fell off many times going out. that mule just stood and waited till I got it back on. the deep snow wore out the animals quickly but we knew we had to get the first 3 miles behind us or risk not getting out. it was a long ride. at the trail head it was pandemonium as everyone wanted off the mountain.

we had a shovel and had to dig out the tires and then we had to put on chains to go down the mountain to get to town.

a side note- we had decided to both carry a 30-06 to cut back on ammo. each of us carried 10 rounds and there were 10 rounds in camp.
Sam had bought a savage and when we got the truck he went to clear the magazine. the bolt would not open. we thought it was a warped wood stock. we beat the bolt open and neither of us has had any use for a savage since. he sold it and went to a 7 mm mag. with a synthetic stock.

man do I wish I had started sooner. Sam passed in '09 and the end is near for me.

Lots of good stories with this one. Thanks for sharing! It seems nowadays that deep snow like you describe is non-existent. I've been out for 3 years during rifle in CO and we are lucky to have any snow, let alone sub 50 degree temps! I also like the aspect of packing in/out with mules. I wish to do a horseback hunt someday.

 

[Transition Wild]

The past three years I have hunted OTC archery elk in Idaho, mostly solo. I finally killed an elk this last September at twenty yards after calling him in while snow was swirling. Many days were spent without hearing a bull or seeing an elk (up to five days in a row in 2017). If you can grind it out and work through all of the struggles you'll encounter it will be worth it.

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That is awesome, David. Congrats and thanks for sharing! Elk hunting can sometimes be more of a mental game as opposed to the physical side of things. Way to keep after it and close the deal. I'm sure that moment was something special. I wish you continued success in 2018!

 

[Transition Wild]

1980 was my first elk season ...17 and no idea what an elk looked like nor what or how to do it An army brat lived in many places and came from Georgia to north Idaho. A time of wool and borrowed gear. Still remember that first morning in the camp of elk killers, the sound of my uncle rifle echoing and the sight of an elk in close, who let that horse loose left a lasting impression and one I wanted to expand on. I eventually moved on to my own camp and that is where I learned by trial and error to hunt in a new fashion and areas the old timers had not tried...so many resources today to learn quickly and much nicer gear to keep you smiling for a longer period of timeIt was as dreamed and better now with knowledge and an appreciation of each season

That is great, Ross! Sounds like you have lived through the evolution of elk hunting and blazed your own trail with your own camp. Is it elk season yet??

 

[Transition Wild]

Mine was a collective of what others have shared. In full disclosure, my first elk hunt was in 2016, but I had to go back this past year as the hook was sunk deep. My friend who took me in 2016 couldn't go. While I tried to recruit others to join me (primarily for safety and companionship), I knew I was going regardless of whether someone was going to join me. I picked a new area to concentrate on as I wanted it be a new totally DIY experience. I did carry a Sat phone to give my wife piece of mind.
I had similar goals as others in this thread. I was hoping to see an elk and possibly get them on film (I was self-filming). I was also hoping to get one to bugle back to me. I was mistaken on my initial choice on the map, in that the mountains surrounding my canyon were almost too steep to climb. I stuck it out for two days when I realized with all the snow and subsequent melt that I'd be lucky to get my rental car (Jeep Patriot) out of the canyon I was in. I broke camp and was very fortunate to make it out to the main road through some very nasty mud. I eventually ended up back in the same drainage as I was the year before as my backup spot had worse roads then my first choice.
I knew the area I was in the year before would have better roads and some more hunters around in case I got the Jeep stuck so I took the hour drive over to that area. Despite not wanting to go back to the area I was in previously, I promised myself to explore new canyons everyday to better learn the area. The heavy snow kept me a little lower as I wasn't seeing much sign up high. By day three I finally heard an elk, by day 5 I had a nice bull at 80 yards before an ATV spooked them (I was pissed). On my last morning I was fortunate enough to get in on the same herd of elk I was one the previous day and I took out the herd bull. For me, this hunt worked out perfectly. Lots of struggle, followed by hope and disappointment, ultimately finding success on the last morning. I've posted my video on here before, but here's the link in case you didn't see it.

Yes, I'll be going back this September!

Wow - so many good things stemmed from this hunt! Congrats on a great bull and thanks for sharing! I will definitely be watching your video, self filming is incredibly tough. That is too cool that you went for it solo and didn't let anything stop you. Hats off to you! I hope you do it again in September!

 

[Transition Wild]

I bought a bow in about 2008 and finally got around to putting in for and drawing a tag in 2011. I drew the Pecos. I researched what I could on elk hunting, but not the resources like there are now via forums like this. I remember spending a lot of time on a 'how to hunt elk' website put together by a guy out of Montana. I'm not sure whose site that is/was (never bookmarked it or anything; I remember his wife had ads for her massage therapy business on the site), but knowing much more about elk hunters now, I'd be curious if anybody knows what site that was. It was helpful, but nothing like being on the ground and learning first hand.
I chose an area I that I'd seen elk on the prior November, and started there. 2 days hiking around there yielded no elk. I drove to another spot one afternoon to try a different elevation and saw a few cow elk well below me about 300 feet down and a quarter mile away. I didn't think I wanted to go all that way to get after an elk, so I kept on driving and hunted another area that was as elk-less as the first. I began to realize that one has to hunt elk where the elk are, and headed back up to near where I saw the cows and spent the night. In the morning, there was about 40 elk grazing in the meadow below me, half mile away, 300 feet down and another 100 feet up the other side of the valley. Too far away. A truck drove up and it turned out it was a guy from California scouting for a rifle hunt later in the year. I hailed him in my normal volume of voice and he 'shushed' me immediately and told me there was elk over there. I told him I knew that but they were too far away. He convinced me otherwise and helped me plan a stalk as they filed out of the meadow back into dark timber (too many eyes - get ahead of them and let them pass you by). It didn't work (didn't get ahead of them, but T-boned them), but I got close. Every day after that I got up before dawn, hiked down into the canyon, back up the other side, and was into elk essentially every day after that once I understood how hard one has to work - this isn't hunting whitetails in the midwest. I've since found that this scenario - the distances covered and elevations covered weren't nearly as severe as others encountered since, but it was a good baby step to get me out of my whitetail hunting bubble and into the world of western hunting. I also learned how much it sucks to get up at 5:00 in order to hike 3 miles to get to where the elk are. I now usually backpack hunt and cover many fewer miles per day.

Your first hunt sounds like it was a success in my eyes. It opened up a whole new world of hunting, as compared to what you knew with whitetails. I'm sure you were hooked ever since. Good luck in 2018!

 

[Transition Wild]

I don’t feel like typing it all out again if you search on here you can find a long write up I did a few weeks ago. Colorado OTC archery elk


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I just found the thread and, wow! Congrats on that 5 point bull. Talk about making the most of limited opportunities. You had one legal bull in range for that duration and pulled it off. That is too cool! Sounds like you were able to get some good use and feedback from the gear you were using. I hope you find success again in 2018!

 

[David Gough]

That is awesome, David. Congrats and thanks for sharing! Elk hunting can sometimes be more of a mental game as opposed to the physical side of things. Way to keep after it and close the deal. I'm sure that moment was something special. I wish you continued success in 2018!

Thanks Adam, same to you.

 

[Mi_fiveo]

I love reading everyone’s stories. Success can be found in OTC units.


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[5MilesBack]

It seems nowadays that deep snow like you describe is non-existent. I've been out for 3 years during rifle in CO and we are lucky to have any snow, let alone sub 50 degree temps!

Yep, but weather patterns go in cycles. One of these years a lot of people are going to be caught off guard. In the 80's and 90's I can remember many years pushing snow with the bumper coming out. I can also remember a few years hunting in sub-zero temps. I had a thermometer one year that froze stuck at -15. Another year my cousin shot a cow in the morning and after gutting her we continued to hunt until about noon. When we got back to the cow she was frozen solid.

 

[Ross]

Been several good decades Transition and always planning something elk in my household

 

[PredatorX]

I was spoiled my first year. Got into elk the very first morning. Should have shot some cows but we passed them all in hopes of tagging a bull.

Got into a herd and we didn't ease up on the hoochie mamma. Cow and a calf came running to us and as my buddy and I were hunched down next to a log, the calf literally jumped over him. We were lucky one of us did not catch a hoof to the head.

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[archer wapiti]

Your first hunt sounds like it was a success in my eyes. It opened up a whole new world of hunting, as compared to what you knew with whitetails. I'm sure you were hooked ever since. Good luck in 2018!

Thanks Adam! I'm certainly hooked, it's among my favorite things and one I live for every fall. Good luck to you as well!
Arch

 

[cnelk]

My first elk - Me in the middle.
Sometime in the late ‘70s. Skipped school and drove out to Colorado and hunted elk.

Story is fuzzy. Since I can’t remember the 80s, sure as hell won’t remember the 70s

 

[2rocky]

Bought my first Elk Tag during college in Idaho. Soon found out that Elk Hunting is not something you just do after class like the Blacktails back home. Saw some live elk across the canyon that year but ate tag soup in 1995. I did however kill a whitetail buck solo on that piece of ground.

The next year a friend from Oregon invited me to a weekend rifle hunt on his family's ranch. I managed to sneak through the timber and have a bull elk come trotting by through the lodgepoles. I missed that bull with a bad case of buck fever. It haunts me still today.

After graduating from college, I didn't draw an elk tag again until 2006. A friend invited me to bowhunt Central Oregon with him. I killed my first elk, a 5x6 bull, on the third day of that trip thanks to his calling. Since then I've managed to kill 11 elk in 4 states.

Every one of them, whether I was solo or with a friend did to one degree or another rely on assistance. Nothing is EVER totally solo when it comes to elk. From scouting help, folks with stock, calling,etc. Hell even some guy driving through the unit, and watched me shoot my 2010 Tule bull came and helped skin and quarter him.

Read the Quote at the top below...it is very true.

 

[loggerchas]

My mom and dad raised me to be a deer hunter (mulies). We hunted the pinon country around Montrose and elk at that time (70’s - 80’s) were just not prevalent down that low. As a family we knew deer and that is just what we did. Deer meat from the 3-5 deer per year we harvested as a family kept me in good groceries all through college. Dad was a school principal so time off was always an issue. After college I lost a bet and started working a forestry career in Utah. A coworker, Brad, who for some unknown reason remains my best friend, asked me to go elk hunting with him.

It was his first year hunting elk somewhere other than cow elk in the sagebrush in the dead of winter late season hunt.
“It will be fun”, he said. “Elk are cool”, he said. “Just a big deer”, he said. “I know an easy spot”, he said. “Only have to buy a bugle for new equipment”, he said. A professed Christian man, his proclivity for lies and half-truths are troubling to me in retrospect….

The much abbreviated story:

We started our journey in an area near where we archery deer hunted. Well, camp was the same sopt. The hunting location was slightly different. The “easy spot” was a three mile hike in the dark up a watershed with enough downfall timber to make a preacher curse. Along the way he kept mentioning “it wasn’t this bad last time I was here”. I kept picking up sticks to hit him with but the spruce deadfall was so thick I couldn’t get a full swing at the back of his head.

Two hours later we ended up at nevermindthename Spring. OTC archery spike tags in our pocket, and elk sounding off in the nearby spruce thickets. I should mention here that Brad had convinced me to tie a brown rag which had been soaked in cow-in-heat urine to my pack. “It will calm them down”, he said. That short man sure does have a lying problem, have I mentioned that? More on that later.

About 200 yards away we hear the worst bugle we have ever heard. It had to be a lost hunter still trying to catch his breath after hiking through the deadfall and cantaloupe sized rocks of the drainage. The bugle sounded more like a cat going through a blender than the magical 3-note sweet and crisp bugles we had been practicing in the truck for the precious 3 weeks while traveling to and from timber sales. Anyway, we decided to jack with the lost hunter who for some reason decided this was a good place to mess up our hunt. We set up 20 yards apart on the edge of the small meadow and let out a spike squeal. We were answered by a second cat going through a blender, but only about 100 yards away, downhill and downwind.

The next 5 minutes slowed into a time warp. In slow motion a very nice 6x7 bull elk came through the trees on the side of the meadow heading right towards me. Not a spike, I just gazed in amazement at the huge animal. At a distance of 15 yards from me he laid his head back and let out another of those horrible “fake” bugles! Brad was letting out soft ,hot and sexy, mews in response. I could see his nostrils flaring and his pecker slapping his belly as the bull was scenting the wind. It was about this point I realized that the cow-in-heat scent rag was working a bit too well. My good buddy was 20 yards from me with an excited grin in his face and I was right in the path of a huge bull elk that was going to mount something – and it appeared that was going to be me!

At 10 yards, I broke. I stood up waving my arms and blowing the bull out. He ran about 20 yards and again bugled at me (winking as he did so) before trotting off into the trees. “HOLY CRAP!” was being repeated over and over behind me by Brad. His first truthful statement of the week and it was an understatement at best. By the end of the week we both had killed a spike elk.

So, what did I learn?
1. Brad is a pathological liar in need of extreme counseling.

2. Elk live in nastier places than I had imagined or experienced deer hunting (for meat).

3. Two guys just DO NOT grab and drag an elk (or a half, for that matter).

4. Cat Quivers are great, but are quickly destroyed by packing a rear elk Quarter.

5. A Buck 110 is still the best knife I own to do everything.

6. Scent rags in a Ziploc will survive the washer, but ziplocs burst open in the dryer.

7. Wife version 1.0 does not appreciate the smell of cow-in-heat urine in the dryer.

8. The 1-800 number on the cow urine bottle should be for a divorce attorney.

9. A 50# Oneida shooting 2219 arrows with 145 gr. Bow Bullets will pass through an elk.

10. Not all elk sound the same.

11. I have a lot of better and newer equipment now (25 years later), but old school sweat and equipment works just fine.

12. New plastic scent wafers left on a belt loop have same effect as a scent rag going through dryer.

13. Wife version 2.0 doesn’t appreciate that smell either.

14. Never call wife (either version) from a bag phone on the road at 9:00 p.m. asking her to buy super glue, JB Weld, razor blades, and a knee brace at KMart before they close.

15. Wives (either version) do not see the necessity of fixing a broken bow sight over draining the fluid from a very swollen knee.

16. When wife (1.0) asks how the hell you are going to hunt on a knee like that at 4:00 a.m. when your buddy shows up the next day, he should never answer “Don’t worry, if he goes down I will gut him and keep the meat fresh until life flight arrives.”

17. Many sins of a hunting partner are forgiven when you find that first elk piled under a deadfall.

18. Calling wife on road from a bag phone at 9:00 at night to go buy an external frame backpack at Kmart will result in a takeoff time of 9:00 a.m. the next morning when you have to go buy one yourself because elk are much more than just “a big deer”.

19. Quartering an elk in the middle of a deadfall is much more difficult than processing a deer on the kitchen table.

20. Apparently short guys carry the front quarters and tall guys carry rear quarters when packing meat.

21. Putting one fist-sized rock in your buddy’s backpack every time you stop is a fun game that can sometimes be played for 4 or 5 hours.

22. Make sure you are bigger or tougher than your hunting buddy in case of a “heated argument”.

23. A good camp makes for a good hunt.

24. Where you want to stop hiking is approximately ½ mile from where the elk herd is.

25. A good hunting partner is invaluable, but he will probably lie a lot.

26. Heroin or meth addiction is easier to overcome than elk addiction.

Sorry for the length, but the truth needs to be out there!

(This winter I am preparing all of my gear for a backcountry backpack archery elk hunt this year in Colorado. I am probably a bit too old and too fat to take on such an endeavor but now is the time and slow-steady will win the race. That reminds me, I need to call my little short buddy Brad and have him put in for a tag. You see, I know this great spot, right off the trailhead, easy hike in…..)

 

[tlowell02]

My mom and dad raised me to be a deer hunter (mulies). We hunted the pinon country around Montrose and elk at that time (70’s - 80’s) were just not prevalent down that low. As a family we knew deer and that is just what we did. Deer meat from the 3-5 deer per year we harvested as a family kept me in good groceries all through college. Dad was a school principal so time off was always an issue. After college I lost a bet and started working a forestry career in Utah. A coworker, Brad, who for some unknown reason remains my best friend, asked me to go elk hunting with him.

It was his first year hunting elk somewhere other than cow elk in the sagebrush in the dead of winter late season hunt.
“It will be fun”, he said. “Elk are cool”, he said. “Just a big deer”, he said. “I know an easy spot”, he said. “Only have to buy a bugle for new equipment”, he said. A professed Christian man, his proclivity for lies and half-truths are troubling to me in retrospect….

The much abbreviated story:

We started our journey in an area near where we archery deer hunted. Well, camp was the same sopt. The hunting location was slightly different. The “easy spot” was a three mile hike in the dark up a watershed with enough downfall timber to make a preacher curse. Along the way he kept mentioning “it wasn’t this bad last time I was here”. I kept picking up sticks to hit him with but the spruce deadfall was so thick I couldn’t get a full swing at the back of his head.

Two hours later we ended up at nevermindthename Spring. OTC archery spike tags in our pocket, and elk sounding off in the nearby spruce thickets. I should mention here that Brad had convinced me to tie a brown rag which had been soaked in cow-in-heat urine to my pack. “It will calm them down”, he said. That short man sure does have a lying problem, have I mentioned that? More on that later.

About 200 yards away we hear the worst bugle we have ever heard. It had to be a lost hunter still trying to catch his breath after hiking through the deadfall and cantaloupe sized rocks of the drainage. The bugle sounded more like a cat going through a blender than the magical 3-note sweet and crisp bugles we had been practicing in the truck for the precious 3 weeks while traveling to and from timber sales. Anyway, we decided to jack with the lost hunter who for some reason decided this was a good place to mess up our hunt. We set up 20 yards apart on the edge of the small meadow and let out a spike squeal. We were answered by a second cat going through a blender, but only about 100 yards away, downhill and downwind.

The next 5 minutes slowed into a time warp. In slow motion a very nice 6x7 bull elk came through the trees on the side of the meadow heading right towards me. Not a spike, I just gazed in amazement at the huge animal. At a distance of 15 yards from me he laid his head back and let out another of those horrible “fake” bugles! Brad was letting out soft ,hot and sexy, mews in response. I could see his nostrils flaring and his pecker slapping his belly as the bull was scenting the wind. It was about this point I realized that the cow-in-heat scent rag was working a bit too well. My good buddy was 20 yards from me with an excited grin in his face and I was right in the path of a huge bull elk that was going to mount something – and it appeared that was going to be me!

At 10 yards, I broke. I stood up waving my arms and blowing the bull out. He ran about 20 yards and again bugled at me (winking as he did so) before trotting off into the trees. “HOLY CRAP!” was being repeated over and over behind me by Brad. His first truthful statement of the week and it was an understatement at best. By the end of the week we both had killed a spike elk.

So, what did I learn?
1. Brad is a pathological liar in need of extreme counseling.

2. Elk live in nastier places than I had imagined or experienced deer hunting (for meat).

3. Two guys just DO NOT grab and drag an elk (or a half, for that matter).

4. Cat Quivers are great, but are quickly destroyed by packing a rear elk Quarter.

5. A Buck 110 is still the best knife I own to do everything.

6. Scent rags in a Ziploc will survive the washer, but ziplocs burst open in the dryer.

7. Wife version 1.0 does not appreciate the smell of cow-in-heat urine in the dryer.

8. The 1-800 number on the cow urine bottle should be for a divorce attorney.

9. A 50# Oneida shooting 2219 arrows with 145 gr. Bow Bullets will pass through an elk.

10. Not all elk sound the same.

11. I have a lot of better and newer equipment now (25 years later), but old school sweat and equipment works just fine.

12. New plastic scent wafers left on a belt loop have same effect as a scent rag going through dryer.

13. Wife version 2.0 doesn’t appreciate that smell either.

14. Never call wife (either version) from a bag phone on the road at 9:00 p.m. asking her to buy super glue, JB Weld, razor blades, and a knee brace at KMart before they close.

15. Wives (either version) do not see the necessity of fixing a broken bow sight over draining the fluid from a very swollen knee.

16. When wife (1.0) asks how the hell you are going to hunt on a knee like that at 4:00 a.m. when your buddy shows up the next day, he should never answer “Don’t worry, if he goes down I will gut him and keep the meat fresh until life flight arrives.”

17. Many sins of a hunting partner are forgiven when you find that first elk piled under a deadfall.

18. Calling wife on road from a bag phone at 9:00 at night to go buy an external frame backpack at Kmart will result in a takeoff time of 9:00 a.m. the next morning when you have to go buy one yourself because elk are much more than just “a big deer”.

19. Quartering an elk in the middle of a deadfall is much more difficult than processing a deer on the kitchen table.

20. Apparently short guys carry the front quarters and tall guys carry rear quarters when packing meat.

21. Putting one fist-sized rock in your buddy’s backpack every time you stop is a fun game that can sometimes be played for 4 or 5 hours.

22. Make sure you are bigger or tougher than your hunting buddy in case of a “heated argument”.

23. A good camp makes for a good hunt.

24. Where you want to stop hiking is approximately ½ mile from where the elk herd is.

25. A good hunting partner is invaluable, but he will probably lie a lot.

26. Heroin or meth addiction is easier to overcome than elk addiction.

Sorry for the length, but the truth needs to be out there!

(This winter I am preparing all of my gear for a backcountry backpack archery elk hunt this year in Colorado. I am probably a bit too old and too fat to take on such an endeavor but now is the time and slow-steady will win the race. That reminds me, I need to call my little short buddy Brad and have him put in for a tag. You see, I know this great spot, right off the trailhead, easy hike in…..)

Lol wonderfully written. You're not Pat McManus are you?

 

[loggerchas]

Lol wonderfully written. You're not Pat McManus are you?

If only I were..... I could hire a guide to get me in and out. It's all a true story, every sordid detail. I'm stuck with Brad.....lying bugger he is, we have killed a lot of game and had many Hamm's sandwiches and epic adventures in the mountains before he moved to ID and I escaped back to Colorado. Glad we did it when we were young, not sure my liver, bones, or wife 2.0 could handle such adventures nowadays...

Blessings - Chas.