Pack out was no walk in the park. 2 miles with about 400 ft up and about 600 ft down. In the dark with very rugged softball sized rock terrain the whole way. Kid still hasn't woken up.

I have a bad habit of only posting here when I've had a successful hunt, but I think that's disingenuous and maybe skews the perception of what success is in hunting. So, I'm posting my elk hunting trip report that didn't end in an elk down.

TLDR: hunted hard, tag soup, there's always next year.

This year I drew a 4th rifle hunt in southern Colorado near Trinidad. This was a private land hunt. "Private Land" may bring up a certain image in some peoples minds but imagine 40,000 acres of some of the most rugged and steep country around. Good elk genetics but a tough hunt in tough terrain. Full disclosure, this wasn't the back country hunting I'm used to. We slept in beds in a lodge and hunted a series of day hunts. I averaged 8-12 miles of hiking each day looking for a nice bull.

Day one we woke up to a bright full moon. We headed up to a glassing point and tried to glass up some bulls at first light to give us a direction and a plan for the day. It was pretty warm in the 40's and between that and the moon there were no elk to be seen.



No luck with glassing we headed to ridge where some elk had been spotted several days before. Up a steep ridge through some nasty oak brush that was over my head and across the top. We came across a fair bit of sign that appeared to be 2-3 days old. This finding would become the theme for our hunt. After about a 9 mile loop we were side-hilling back to where we started. My right foot was down the slope and slipped on some loose rock then hung up on some foliage turning my ankle. My boots are usually pretty sturdy but I think my laces had come loose over the course of the day and I felt a tearing-pop as I hit the dirt. It hurt pretty good and I could feel it swell pretty quick. We got the rest of the way down and headed for the truck. Back at the lodge I got my boots and socks off and had a pretty good goose egg on my upper/outer ankle. I iced it up and took a bunch of advil. I wrapped it up and shoved it back into my boot and we headed out for the evening hunt. We sat a meadow that night because I couldn't walk so good. We didn't see anything. The next day my ankle looked like this:



I was pretty discouraged, thinking my hunt was over before it had barely gotten started. I kept taking ibuprofen like it was candy, found and ACE wrap put it on tight. I laced my boots up secure and double knotted them and it felt OK enough the next morning to give it a go. I had them drop me on a low ridge where I could glass two adjacent ridges. I hunted alone that day because I didn't want to slow anyone else down. As I hobbled up the low ridge to my vantage point my ankle loosened up a bit a didn't feel too bad. About an hour after first light I spotted a pair of bulls feeding two ridges over. My range finder showed 840 yards. I was hunting with my long range rig which is a pretty straight shooter but I told myself I wouldn't go over 600 on a live target. As I was glassing I noticed there was a low saddle between me and them that would shield my approach from them and cut the distance. I hobbled down the ridge I was on and up the other side. It took me about 45 minutes to get up the other side and the elk were out of view the whole time. As I crested the low saddle I caught sight of them again still feeding in the same place. I ranged them again at 415 yds. A very makeable shot with my 300 WM. The sun was rising behind me and the wind was good so I got set up for a prone shot. I made my turret adjustments and got comfortable. I started looking at them through my scope. The lower elk was a young 6x6. He had nice length everywhere. Picking him apart for about 10 mins I guessed he was about a 310" bull. It's not snobbery, but I've shot a few bulls of this caliber and I was hoping for something the next level up. I turned my attention to his buddy who was directly up the slope from him. He had his head behind a bush most of the time but when he would clear it I could see he was definitely a bigger bull. Long main beams and fronts past his nose. He finally cleared the brush he was in and I saw that both of his fourths were broken off. One flush with the main beam and the other with a 4" stub. His 6th on the left was broken off as well. Again, not the bull I was looking for either. I knew some of my hunting companions would be happy with either of those bulls so I texted them to meet me and try to rendezvous to get them an opportunity. Long story short we hiked the long way around and back to the top to try to get back on them but they had disappeared.

The next 3 days were spent similarly with increasingly long hikes but never finding fresh sign (everything seemed 2-3 days old no matter where we went). A couple of the guys in our party had some close calls but luck didn't go their way and no one was able to connect. Because of the moon and the warm weather the elk were spending most of their time holed up in dark timber. We tried bushwhacking through it to push them out of their beds. Had some close calls doing this as well but its tough shooting in tight timber like that. One guy got a shot at a bull at 50 yards but somewhere in all the bush beating something stuck in his muzzle and his barrel split when he shot. Luckily no one was hurt.



The last day of the hunt we went up high again in the morning to glass. The clouds were really low that morning and it made for a beautiful sunrise.



Not great for spotting elk but beautiful. We did spot some elk on a ridge several miles away that morning. We made a play for them but they were gone before we made it to them. That evening I went back to the low ridge where I had seen elk the second day. Right before dark I spotted some elk filing down the ridge and coming out into the meadow below. I snuck down there and got in range, but it was a group of 8 cows, not a bull among them.

Overall, it was a good time. For me its all about spending time outdoors and in the mountains. I eat most of the tags I get, so I'm used to that. It was pretty tough and even somewhat discouraging with the moon, the weather, my ankle injury, etc. But I'll be headed West again next year to try it again.

I still am not sure how my ankle held up for the rest of the week. I hiked 42 miles on it after I injured it. I iced it every chance I got and kept full of ibuprofen. It looked worse everyday but didn't feel that bad. After being home for 4-5 days it took a turn for the worse and I'm paying for it now. I suspect I'll be hobbled up for the next month or so but now that I've moved back to Texas, I only get to back to the mountains once a year, so I suppose it was worth it.

Good luck!

Went on a late season antelope hunt here in CO this past Sunday. Saw quite a few and buddy and I both shot one. Long day trip with 2.5hr drive each way and covering 14miles out there. Slightly makes up for getting skunked on 3rd rifle elk.

Land of Enchantment



Desert poop imminent.

Not western, but a draw hunt in south texas. Nephew got a nice bull nilgai this morning.