My first elk. 2015 Colorado OTC
Five years ago I decided I wanted to do a backcountry elk hunt, I spent three years piecing together the right gear and reading up on the subject. Last year I was able to find a great hunting partner with the same desire to kill an elk with archery equipment and we made the trip to Colorado. We learned a lot last year through trial and error but did not get a shot at an elk. This year we managed to get into the elk right away and I killed this 5x4 on the second evening of the hunt. Being deer hunters from the midwest (Wisconsin/Minnesota) we decided to go earlier in the season this year to sit in likely spots and softly cow call rather than try to get aggressive and bugle. On the evening of Labor Day I was sitting on a downed aspen log and had just finished cow calling when I heard the brush cracking up the hill. I stood up and got ready and out of the timber stepped this bull. He was about 50 yds away up wind and up hill from me and he quickly started closing the distance. I was standing pretty much in the open and the bull looked at me several times but kept feeding toward me. At 26 yds the bull went behind a small pine tree and I drew my bow, he stepped out broadside and I took the shot. I hit him farther back than I wanted to but he only went 15 yds and went down. I went and got my buddy and we found the bull right where I had seen him go down. We had about a 5 mile pack-out to the trailhead and we both loaded our packs with as much meat as we could carry. It took us a little over 3 hours to get out with the first load. The trail conditions were horrible due to all the rain and the packout through ankle/boot-top deep mud was horrible. We rested in the truck for a few hours and went back up the hill for the rest of the meat, antlers, and our bivys. When we got on the trail we found tracks in the mud from a family of bears following our backtrail. When we made it back to camp we found that the bears had climbed the tree we hung the last bag of meat and antlers in and had broken off the limb to get the meat. The bears destroyed the meat and hauled away the skull and antlers. After the extreme exertion from the packout and the walk back in combined with the lack of sleep the emotions for both of us of losing that last bag of meat and the head felt like a punch in the gut. I kicked myself for not taking the antlers out on the first trip, but I knew that I had done the right thing getting as much meat out and on ice as possible first. When we got back and on the road I sent a text to my wife with a pic of the elk and that we had lost some meat and the anlers. When we stopped to re-ice I called home and my wife said not to cry over losing the antlers because my son was doing plenty of crying for both of us. He was devestated that he wasnt going to be able to see the antlers. He told my wife that he hates bears and even took a teddy bear out of his room because he said he didnt want to see any bears. When I got home I was able to convince him that losing the anlers was ok and he helped run the meat grinder and process the elk meat. So it was a very fun and memorable trip for me. Thank you to all you Roksliders who have helped me along the way.