Bull down teaser...

I'm just now starting to catch up at home and work. Once I have, I may share a more detailed story of my British Columbia Mountain Goat hunt. It was an incredible adventure. Everything I wanted in a goat hunt; a physically demanding but beautiful grind. Lots of flights, horses, learning, and calories spent. The only disappointment is that my buddy didn't get one too. I now know these guided hunts are far from a guarantee. He went step-for-step with me and never once got discouraged or complained. He even managed to film my hunt. I hope to share more details and pictures once I get time. Here are some of my favorites:

I mean fifth

Awesome! Congrats brother!!!

That pic with you taking your hat off... that PERFECTY captures the essence high country hunting! -> "hard work, hard work, hard work, hard work, YEAH!, oh crap more hard work..."

Well, got my little brother on one this morning as well. His is much bigger than mine.

Will update with pics and story once we get back to Texas. Just happen to have spotty service in camp so wanted to check in with you fellas.

Alright, you degenerates...

tl;dr - My brother and I both tagged out on a DIY OTC public land elk hunt in Colorado.

Here is the recap of my first elk hunt. This was DIY in Colorado, OTC 2nd Rifle. Our group included me, my brother, my dad, and a childhood buddy (Sam). Since I was the only one with any Western hunting experience, I pretty much headed up the planning and execution of our hunt.

We left Madison Co. around noon on Friday the 19th and drove straight through to Cortez, CO. We got to Cortez around 6:00 am Saturday the 20th and hit the local Walmart for a few last minute supplies and a Denny's for some breakfast, before heading out to our hunting area.

We got our camp set up and did a little bit of exploring/spotting on Saturday afternoon, only turning up a few mule deer (does and a spike). Sunday and Monday were more of the same... exploring the area and looking for elk, or at least elk sign, and spotting mule deer. We found LOTS of mule deer and bear sign, but only a little elk sign. Around noon on Monday, we ran into a cowboy on horseback looking for some stray cattle. He reiterated what we thought... that because of the drought there hadn't been much moisture in higher elevations, and thus the elk weren't in the area like they should be. He gave us a few tips where he had been seeing the most sign while tracking cattle, so we headed that direction Monday evening.

Spotting was unfruitful on Monday evening. It also rained Monday night, so we slept in a little bit and spent Tuesday morning riding the road on the SxS and doing some exploring. We turned up some fresh elk tracks crossing the road, but ultimately ending up on private land. To this point, we still had not seen an elk.

On Tuesday afternoon, we decided to split up our rifles (only my brother and I had tags) and cover two different areas. My dad and brother went to an area about 1.5 miles west of camp where we had found a secluded water source. Sam and I went into an area that I had wanted to check out from the beginning, but hadn't yet because it was about 3 miles east of camp.

Sam and I covered about 10 miles through various terrain. We found lots of sign - mule deer, bear, and even elk, but still couldn't locate the elk. We found some very cool spots though. This meadow below is tucked between two ridges at around 8,000 feet.



On the way out of this area, we ran into another hunter with a cow tag. He hadn't seen any cows, but told us about 2 5x5 bulls and a spike he had seen bedded earlier that morning. We weren't sure exactly where he had seen them, but headed to the general area to see if we could locate those bulls. That proved unfruitful, so we decided to sit a water hole for the last hour or so of daylight and see if one of the bulls might come in to water.

After sitting for 30 minutes or so, Sam decided to get up and spot a small valley behind us. Almost immediately he spotted a single elk, which we confirmed was a small bull. He was headed over a ridge to the east of us, so we bailed off of our spot with rifle and binos in hand and hurried to cut him off. After run/walking about 0.6 miles, we located the bull feeding in a small meadow. We had about 15 minutes left of shooting light, so I hurried to get in position. My first shot was at ~165 yards, and I believe I missed him. I'm not sure how that happened, but I was squatting down, rested on my knee, and obviously breathing hard from both the trek over and adrenaline. He turned and ran slightly toward us as I stood up. My 2nd shot hit back in his ribs. He stopped and looked at me, quartering forward and to the left. My 3rd shot hit him in the shoulder and dropped him. He was still struggling to get up, so I put another one in his neck that finished him off. My first elk was down! He is a small/young 5x4, but I couldn't be happier.



It was getting dark and we were about 3.2 miles to the SxS, so we took a couple quick pics and got to work breaking him down. We hiked the meat parts (straps & loins), head, and 1 hindquarter in the first trip. We left the other three quarters hanging in some oak brush. We made it back to camp around 12:30 am and decided to get some rest and go back in the morning for the rest of the meat (also that would allow my brother to go as well and help out).



We carried the rest of the meat out Wednesday morning. That afternoon my dad and I drove into town for some ice and a bottle of whiskey, while Sam and my brother we back to the same general area in search of the other bull that was allegedly in the area. They didn't turn up anything. That night there was some discussion of whether or not they wanted to go ahead and pack up Thursday morning and head home early. I convinced everyone to stay and hunt Thursday, because I really wanted to get my brother on an elk as well.

Thursday morning, all four of us headed back into the same area I killed my bull. We spotted some elk wayyy up on the side of a big ridge about a mile away. As far as we could tell, they were all cows. My dad and I went to spot a different valley while Sam and my brother climbed up a side ridge to look into the area where we had seen the cows. It didn't take long before we heard a shot ringing out through the valley. My brother had shot his first elk (a good 5x5)! His shot him at 415 yards across the canyon, with his .375 H&H magnum. The bullet was a complete pass-through on both shoulders. The bull ran about 50 yards down hill and crashed into the thickest oak brush around. In fact, the whole hillside where he shot him was extremely thick oak brush. Since we were all around for the quartering and packing, I was able to snap some pics. You can see the thickness and slope of the ridge here. The pack out for this one was just over 4 miles, with the first 1/2 mile or so being down that oak brush ridge and then up another.






Here is my dad, brother, and me at the bottom of the hill (after the first 1/2 mile of his packout). His bull was killed about half way up the farthest ridge over his head in this pic (just below the cedar/juniper line).




A few other pics back at camp:







And a few landscape and misc pics:












Overall, it was a freakin' fantastic trip with my dad and brother. We never expected we would kill one elk, much less tag out with two public land bulls on our first try. I know my dad really enjoyed all of our time together and all of us are talking about how we can/will do things differently or improve things next year!