Just got back and settled from a very unique and truly epic elk hunt in Southern CO. This was not your traditional mountain hunt, not in the least. I selected this area because my Dad has a bad achilles tendon right now, so climbing and scrambling wasn't gonna happen for him. The whole goal of this hunt was to get my Old Man his first big bull. My brother-in-law and I joined in with cow tags.
This area looks like a huge flat scrub brush wasteland. Classic pronghorn looking country. It nestles up against some 12-14K peaks, and even an expanse of sand dunes. It doesn't look like it would hold an elk, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are innumerable little cuts, draws, hills, knolls, old roads, and even the odd irrigation canal that carve up this landscape. Just enough to hide a surprising number of elk, and even a group of hunters when needed.
I put in quite a bit of effort scouting and securing access. I found several key water sources, and some routine travel corridors that I wanted to target. This place is a dizzying patchwork of private, public, BLM, conservation, and park lands. Markers or decent fences were few and far between. Good maps, constant vigilance, and creative stalking were needed.
I went down to set up camp in an old house and scout. Dad & BIL arrived a day later. Looking at the sunset as they arrived, I knew this was going to be a special hunt.
DAY 1
The first morning, we hiked in to a knoll overlooking a spring and creek. This was the sunrise that greeted us.
As you can tell, this isn't your typical elk country. It felt like I was doing something REALLY wrong and stupid as we glassed they sandy scrub brush, and a promised my partners there were elk out there somewhere.
Shortly after sunrise, we heard our first bugle, somewhere out among the dunes. We tried to move to intercept, but ran into a boundary (this would be a common theme on our trip). We caught a brief glimpse of the bull at about 600 yards, pushing his cows across the sand. The only thing we could all agree on, he had hella-big whale tails. The guys were warming to this idea of hunting flatland elk.
The morning wained, and the sun grew hotter. We decided to head for another area. About 2 miles later, I caught glimpses of antlers above the brush. We finally found this bull pushing a decent sized herd, as they crested a hill.
The wind was in our favor, so we moved to intercept. We had to parallel them for about 1500 yards, not having a play to get closer. I spotted a small dip ahead, and theorized they would use it for cover. We pushed ahead, and set up over the dip, just as the elk rounded the corner.
While nice, this was not a Day 1 bull, so my Dad decided to pass. We quickly got my Brother-In-Law set up for a shot.
After a few minutes, a cow lagged behind enough for a clean shot. He got a little excited, and hit her just a bit back. A follow up shot quickly ended the stalk and began the blessed work of a hungry man. Smiles all around!
A short pack out to the truck was appreciated in the growing heat. After cow 1 rested safely in the coolers, we ate lunch and headed to another area to glass midday.
We were glassing a big area, and spotted a HUGE herd several miles out. The longer we looked, the more elk materialized. There were easily 75-100 head. We just weren't quite sure if they were on private land or the next section we could hunt.
So, we drove around to the public, and began hiking in. We constantly had to tack back and forth, as the winds and terrain changed often. We knew about where we thought they were, but it had taken a few hours to get there so we were going in blind.
We would carefully glass each knoll we topped, and pick our way to the next one. Finally, I spotted something white mixed in with the brush. I swore it was a bull's antler, so we stopped. Eventually, he materialized.
Picking apart the brush, we began to see an ear here, a leg there, the flick of a tail... then the elk began to stand a short while later. We were virtually surrounded on 3 sides. We had essentially walked into the middle of this herd, but could only really see about 20 at a time.
So we sat back-to-back-to-back, quietly analyzing and comparing our groups. In short order, we found the best bulls and focused on those.
My Dad debated this bull for a bit, until we all felt another one was bigger.
Then, the herd bull began making his way in front of us at 200 yards. He was a great 7x6. Real Wide, with decent mass. He had an enormous body, which made his antlers hard to judge. Ultimately, we decided he fronts weren't quite there, and his tops didn't finish enough to be a Day 1 bull. He got a pass. It was a tough choice for sure!
So, I decided to try and take a cow from the back of the herd. They were all slowly working away. I got set up and had 3 lanes to shoot, though they were all narrow. The elk were at 350-375 yards now, and I spent 11 minutes bouncing from lane to lane waiting for a perfect clean shot. (We have those shenanagins in video). Finally, a tasty looking cow stepped into a hole with no other elk behind her. She paused JUST long enough. I picked a hair behind her shoulder, took a breath, and began squeezing. The Bergara HMR broke crisp, and the 6.5 CM barked a loud report through the muzzle brake. I actually watched her hide ripple as the 143gr ELD-X flew true to its mark. She hunched, staggered about 12 yards, and that was it. Smiles and handshakes all around, then wondering how far from the truck we had wandered in the heat...
Not a bad backdrop for an elk hunt! Odd as it may be.
Something really odd- look at this cow's hooves. I guess from walking in the sand, instead of the rocks and mountains, they hooves don't get work down like normal. It looked like a horse in desperate need of a ferrier.
We headed back to camp to get the cow on ice, figuring 2 elk on day 1 was good enough. As we crossed back into our main hunting section, I noticed some brown patches to our right. We stopped the truck, and 40 heads popped up to look at us. A couple smaller bulls, nothing to get too excited about. As I was glassing them, a mammoth of a bull raised his head from the brush. All I could manage to utter was "big... bull. VERY... big... bull!!!!" He was tremendously wide, heavy, and dark horned. As he turned we could see he has unbelievable 4ths, easily 12+" 5ths, and wavy tails. His 3rds were longer than his head too. This was a day 1 shooter, without question.
The only problem, he was now taking his cows and kicking up dust as they ran. We drove up ahead of them, and piled out to try and find a spot to shoot where we thought they would cross. Though we couldn't see the elk, we could see the dust kick up where they were running. Then I felt a strong breeze on the back of my neck, blowing right to them. Sure enough, they stopped short of the hill a couple hundred yards away, and turned hard left and crossed the 2 tracker we were driving on. A couple hundred yards later, they crossed a boundary we could not hunt.
They kept an eye on them, and I feverishly looked on the map. There was one other section that way which we could hunt, and I knew a spot that had trees and water. They seemed to be heading in that general direction, so we got in the truck and hauled buns over there. It felt so odd leaving sight of this massive bull, but we had no other choice.
We parked, and hikes in as quietly and quickly as possible. We bounced a group of pronghorn, but thankfully they went the opposite way. We got to a little knoll with about 45 minutes of shooting light left. There was a dry irrigation ditch that ran about 600 yards to an open field, and I knew there was a small spring on the far side of that ditch, about 400 yards down.
I peeked around the corner, and I could see elk down towards the water. I didn't know for sure, bu figured it had to be the group we were chasing. We crept down the irrigation ditch, until there was a little break in the cover. We could see the elk now, 350 yards. But, we could only see their heads and antlers, everything from the chin down was covered in brush. But there he was, in all his glory- every bit of a 350" 6x6 if I've ever seen one. Truly massive animal. I spotted a little break in the brush, ahead of where they were moving, and got Dad set up on it. It was a tiny window, but if we could get the bull in it, we would have a shot. Finally, the bull worked to the hole. When he stepped into it, I gave a sweet little wine on my Elk Reel. That stopped him. I gave a quiet wimpy little bugle, and that got his attention. He turned into the hole, and faced right at us. The only problem, he was facing directly at us, and 4 other elk squeezed in beside him. No shot.
He gave a little chuckle, as if to remind everyone who is in charge. I decided to get aggressive, put on my big boy pants, and mustered the nastiest growling bugle I've ever thrown in the woods. I followed that with a few cow calls. That got his FULL attention. It was so cool to watch his neck almost turn black as his hair stood on end, and he screamed a response. I slid down the hill behind my Dad (where they couldn't see), and scooted to my right while giving another kind of broken bugle. I wanted him to think I was going to round the corner looking for a fight.
It worked, he stormed through the brush, knocked all kinds of crap down as he went. My Dad back down and we moved 40 yards down the ditch to another little opening and got set up. The elk were now 125-150 yards away.
The bull had all his cows down in that thick crap, and we couldn't get him to give a clear shot. It was MADDENING to be that close and not be able to shoot. He finally stopped in a little opening atop a small hill, I told Dad "Let me hit him again, and see if he will step down that incline below the cows. If he does, light him up."
I gave him a little bugle, and he stepped down the embankment. It was a tight shot, and he was only clear for about 2-3 seconds, but that's a shot my Dad can make. Just not that day. He leaned into the gun a little too much trying to follow the bull down, and pushed the shot right below him.
The bull and all the cows trotted off, and we had one other clear shot as they crossed the field. But it was at 400yds in fading light and be never came to a full stop. My Dad very wisely decided not to throw lead in desperate frustration.
Sadly, we weren't able to get any pics of this sequence, as it all went down so fast.
That was one hell of a day of elk hunting. We were on elk all day, passed on 2 very nice bulls, had a shot at the bull of a lifetime, and killed 2 cows in the process.
This area looks like a huge flat scrub brush wasteland. Classic pronghorn looking country. It nestles up against some 12-14K peaks, and even an expanse of sand dunes. It doesn't look like it would hold an elk, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are innumerable little cuts, draws, hills, knolls, old roads, and even the odd irrigation canal that carve up this landscape. Just enough to hide a surprising number of elk, and even a group of hunters when needed.
I put in quite a bit of effort scouting and securing access. I found several key water sources, and some routine travel corridors that I wanted to target. This place is a dizzying patchwork of private, public, BLM, conservation, and park lands. Markers or decent fences were few and far between. Good maps, constant vigilance, and creative stalking were needed.
I went down to set up camp in an old house and scout. Dad & BIL arrived a day later. Looking at the sunset as they arrived, I knew this was going to be a special hunt.
DAY 1
The first morning, we hiked in to a knoll overlooking a spring and creek. This was the sunrise that greeted us.
As you can tell, this isn't your typical elk country. It felt like I was doing something REALLY wrong and stupid as we glassed they sandy scrub brush, and a promised my partners there were elk out there somewhere.
Shortly after sunrise, we heard our first bugle, somewhere out among the dunes. We tried to move to intercept, but ran into a boundary (this would be a common theme on our trip). We caught a brief glimpse of the bull at about 600 yards, pushing his cows across the sand. The only thing we could all agree on, he had hella-big whale tails. The guys were warming to this idea of hunting flatland elk.
The morning wained, and the sun grew hotter. We decided to head for another area. About 2 miles later, I caught glimpses of antlers above the brush. We finally found this bull pushing a decent sized herd, as they crested a hill.
The wind was in our favor, so we moved to intercept. We had to parallel them for about 1500 yards, not having a play to get closer. I spotted a small dip ahead, and theorized they would use it for cover. We pushed ahead, and set up over the dip, just as the elk rounded the corner.
While nice, this was not a Day 1 bull, so my Dad decided to pass. We quickly got my Brother-In-Law set up for a shot.
After a few minutes, a cow lagged behind enough for a clean shot. He got a little excited, and hit her just a bit back. A follow up shot quickly ended the stalk and began the blessed work of a hungry man. Smiles all around!
A short pack out to the truck was appreciated in the growing heat. After cow 1 rested safely in the coolers, we ate lunch and headed to another area to glass midday.
We were glassing a big area, and spotted a HUGE herd several miles out. The longer we looked, the more elk materialized. There were easily 75-100 head. We just weren't quite sure if they were on private land or the next section we could hunt.
So, we drove around to the public, and began hiking in. We constantly had to tack back and forth, as the winds and terrain changed often. We knew about where we thought they were, but it had taken a few hours to get there so we were going in blind.
We would carefully glass each knoll we topped, and pick our way to the next one. Finally, I spotted something white mixed in with the brush. I swore it was a bull's antler, so we stopped. Eventually, he materialized.
Picking apart the brush, we began to see an ear here, a leg there, the flick of a tail... then the elk began to stand a short while later. We were virtually surrounded on 3 sides. We had essentially walked into the middle of this herd, but could only really see about 20 at a time.
So we sat back-to-back-to-back, quietly analyzing and comparing our groups. In short order, we found the best bulls and focused on those.
My Dad debated this bull for a bit, until we all felt another one was bigger.
Then, the herd bull began making his way in front of us at 200 yards. He was a great 7x6. Real Wide, with decent mass. He had an enormous body, which made his antlers hard to judge. Ultimately, we decided he fronts weren't quite there, and his tops didn't finish enough to be a Day 1 bull. He got a pass. It was a tough choice for sure!
So, I decided to try and take a cow from the back of the herd. They were all slowly working away. I got set up and had 3 lanes to shoot, though they were all narrow. The elk were at 350-375 yards now, and I spent 11 minutes bouncing from lane to lane waiting for a perfect clean shot. (We have those shenanagins in video). Finally, a tasty looking cow stepped into a hole with no other elk behind her. She paused JUST long enough. I picked a hair behind her shoulder, took a breath, and began squeezing. The Bergara HMR broke crisp, and the 6.5 CM barked a loud report through the muzzle brake. I actually watched her hide ripple as the 143gr ELD-X flew true to its mark. She hunched, staggered about 12 yards, and that was it. Smiles and handshakes all around, then wondering how far from the truck we had wandered in the heat...
Not a bad backdrop for an elk hunt! Odd as it may be.
Something really odd- look at this cow's hooves. I guess from walking in the sand, instead of the rocks and mountains, they hooves don't get work down like normal. It looked like a horse in desperate need of a ferrier.
We headed back to camp to get the cow on ice, figuring 2 elk on day 1 was good enough. As we crossed back into our main hunting section, I noticed some brown patches to our right. We stopped the truck, and 40 heads popped up to look at us. A couple smaller bulls, nothing to get too excited about. As I was glassing them, a mammoth of a bull raised his head from the brush. All I could manage to utter was "big... bull. VERY... big... bull!!!!" He was tremendously wide, heavy, and dark horned. As he turned we could see he has unbelievable 4ths, easily 12+" 5ths, and wavy tails. His 3rds were longer than his head too. This was a day 1 shooter, without question.
The only problem, he was now taking his cows and kicking up dust as they ran. We drove up ahead of them, and piled out to try and find a spot to shoot where we thought they would cross. Though we couldn't see the elk, we could see the dust kick up where they were running. Then I felt a strong breeze on the back of my neck, blowing right to them. Sure enough, they stopped short of the hill a couple hundred yards away, and turned hard left and crossed the 2 tracker we were driving on. A couple hundred yards later, they crossed a boundary we could not hunt.
They kept an eye on them, and I feverishly looked on the map. There was one other section that way which we could hunt, and I knew a spot that had trees and water. They seemed to be heading in that general direction, so we got in the truck and hauled buns over there. It felt so odd leaving sight of this massive bull, but we had no other choice.
We parked, and hikes in as quietly and quickly as possible. We bounced a group of pronghorn, but thankfully they went the opposite way. We got to a little knoll with about 45 minutes of shooting light left. There was a dry irrigation ditch that ran about 600 yards to an open field, and I knew there was a small spring on the far side of that ditch, about 400 yards down.
I peeked around the corner, and I could see elk down towards the water. I didn't know for sure, bu figured it had to be the group we were chasing. We crept down the irrigation ditch, until there was a little break in the cover. We could see the elk now, 350 yards. But, we could only see their heads and antlers, everything from the chin down was covered in brush. But there he was, in all his glory- every bit of a 350" 6x6 if I've ever seen one. Truly massive animal. I spotted a little break in the brush, ahead of where they were moving, and got Dad set up on it. It was a tiny window, but if we could get the bull in it, we would have a shot. Finally, the bull worked to the hole. When he stepped into it, I gave a sweet little wine on my Elk Reel. That stopped him. I gave a quiet wimpy little bugle, and that got his attention. He turned into the hole, and faced right at us. The only problem, he was facing directly at us, and 4 other elk squeezed in beside him. No shot.
He gave a little chuckle, as if to remind everyone who is in charge. I decided to get aggressive, put on my big boy pants, and mustered the nastiest growling bugle I've ever thrown in the woods. I followed that with a few cow calls. That got his FULL attention. It was so cool to watch his neck almost turn black as his hair stood on end, and he screamed a response. I slid down the hill behind my Dad (where they couldn't see), and scooted to my right while giving another kind of broken bugle. I wanted him to think I was going to round the corner looking for a fight.
It worked, he stormed through the brush, knocked all kinds of crap down as he went. My Dad back down and we moved 40 yards down the ditch to another little opening and got set up. The elk were now 125-150 yards away.
The bull had all his cows down in that thick crap, and we couldn't get him to give a clear shot. It was MADDENING to be that close and not be able to shoot. He finally stopped in a little opening atop a small hill, I told Dad "Let me hit him again, and see if he will step down that incline below the cows. If he does, light him up."
I gave him a little bugle, and he stepped down the embankment. It was a tight shot, and he was only clear for about 2-3 seconds, but that's a shot my Dad can make. Just not that day. He leaned into the gun a little too much trying to follow the bull down, and pushed the shot right below him.
The bull and all the cows trotted off, and we had one other clear shot as they crossed the field. But it was at 400yds in fading light and be never came to a full stop. My Dad very wisely decided not to throw lead in desperate frustration.
Sadly, we weren't able to get any pics of this sequence, as it all went down so fast.
That was one hell of a day of elk hunting. We were on elk all day, passed on 2 very nice bulls, had a shot at the bull of a lifetime, and killed 2 cows in the process.
