Late CO report from a new guy

Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
25
Location
Niceville FL
A little mortality scare last year caused me to push the pedal on my bucket list. I’ve been absolutely infatuated with the West in recent years and having pretty much checked all my boxes in the south east, my hunting partner and I decided to go CO OTC rifle. With a total of zero elk experience between us, we chose to hunt the Arapaho Ntnl Forest because he has spent some time horseback riding there and we had access to a cabin at a very reasonable price. The cabin proved to be clutch because our camping gear (and our thin FL blood) probably wouldn’t have held up to the multiple snow events during the trip.

After e-scouting the hell out of the unit (thank you internet) and a couple of conversations with local contacts, we had what I thought was a legit hunt plan. Well, pre-season scouting went out the window due to my buddy’s wedding anniversary. Then a tropical storm was forecast to make landfall on us opening day so we didn’t even leave FL until Sunday morning. So, we arrived in CO Monday morning to a fresh blanket of snow and began to cross off plans B, C, D, and E due to the sheer number of trailers and camps at the trailheads – I expected to have competition but there were a lot more folks than I was expecting. Somehow plan A remained in play.

Tuesday morning found two complete newbies attempting to climb a ridge covered in beetle kill covered in snow in the dark. With several tumbles and lots of rest breaks it took us almost 3 hours to get to the spot we had marked. The good news was that there was a lot of fresh sign in the area, so much so that when I set my pack down I looked to my right and a very impressive, heavy horned 5x5 was staring at me at 18 yards. After a moment frozen in time, he blew down the hill, my gun still strapped to my pack. About 30 seconds later, I’m staring in disbelief and my buddy points down the hill at two more elk – a spike and a 4x4. Thinking I lost the chance at the mature bull, I went ahead and shot the raghorn. And that’s where a good day went bad. After the shot, I see a second 5x5 had been following about 50 yards behind those two, dang it. The shot felt good and we found blood, tissue, and a small piece of bone so our hopes were up. After following blood through 2.5 miles of beetle kill away from the truck, we were forced to call off the search. We found where the three elk bedded down and there was no blood when they got up and left. Now we were 4 miles from the truck and the sun is sinking low. I won’t recount the details but our trip might be best described as a sh*#show wrapped in a cluster F!@k. Bruised, beaten, exhausted, and dejected, we’d experienced the highs and lows of hunting in one day.

Fresh snow that night eliminated any chance of locating that elk the following day so we tried a few other locations, some closed by the forest service, others just not that good. A stop at a public shooting range revealed that my rifle was shooting significantly low so we can at least explain what happened. On one of my tumbles that first morning, I landed against a tree with my rifle. That was all it took for an ethical shot to become what we think was probably a low-chest and leg wound. At least there was an explanation. The rest of the week was uneventful as we did return to the plan A spot and got into cows but no bulls the rest of the hunt.

Overall, we got what we went for - an adventure, a story, and an opportunity at an elk. This year I’m pretty psyched I got drawn for NM so here we go again…
 

wytx

WKR
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Messages
2,057
Location
Wyoming
Sounds like a good learning experience.
The weather posibilities are something that is hard to explain to some. A lot of snow can fall in one night and make travel extremely difficult.
You will learn to go around beetle kill or find that small game trail through it.
One thing I'll add, I have never strapped my rifle to my pack. I always carry it.

Good luck in NM, you'll enjoy the country down there.
Thanks for your write up.
 

Sdieffen

FNG
Joined
Sep 30, 2018
Messages
66
Location
White Springs, FL
Impending hurricanes have forced my delayed departure to go elk hunt. Impending hurricanes have forced me to cut my elk hunt short after driving 30 hrs and hunting just 3 days. It's those times I don't like living in FLA.
 

elkduds

WKR
Joined
Jun 22, 2016
Messages
956
Location
CO Springs
Welcome to the forum, and the school of elk hard knocks. You were far ahead of the odds to walk into multiple elk on Day 1! Sux that scope moved, and over the hills you went. It will be that much sweeter when it all comes together and you come out heavy. Thanks for an engaging write-up. Feel free to mislead honey holers.
 

11boo

WKR
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
2,275
Location
Grand Jct, CO
I’m impressed. He traveled some 2k miles one way, thrashed around in the snow and got into elk.

All without making a thread here asking for help. Well done Aquaman, and welcome to the best Elk hunting forum. Tons of info in these pages.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2017
Messages
752
Heck yeah the adventure and the story alone is well worth it like you checking my boxes in the Midwest starting to see that even tho the end goal hasn’t changed of animals on the ground I really enjoy the adventure and stories I come back with more and more


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OP
A
Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
25
Location
Niceville FL
Impending hurricanes have forced my delayed departure to go elk hunt. Impending hurricanes have forced me to cut my elk hunt short after driving 30 hrs and hunting just 3 days. It's those times I don't like living in FLA.
Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season is not just a song, it's a way of life. I've spent some time on the Suwanee around White Springs. That's a cool part of the world.
 
OP
A
Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
25
Location
Niceville FL
thanks all for the replies. I laugh a little because the conversations on this forum are almost identical to the fishing forums I'm on. Trip reports, gear reviews, honey holes, poachers, ethics, gov't can't manage the resources, etc... Overall, a quality resource for all levels of experience.

What strikes me is the similarity of elk hunting to offshore fishing. We use a lot of the same tactics to locate and protect our honey holes. The thrill for me is putting the puzzle together.
 

njdoxie

WKR
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
623
You left out the best part...what made the trip a "a sh*#show wrapped in a cluster F!@k"? Give us the details.
 
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