The Elk Thread

[Caprock]

Caprock, what's the story on that bull. I am dying to get back on 52. You are a good brother!

We were there for 17 days (we got there early to scout). The bulls were pretty quite until the end of the hunt. We actually called in 2 bulls when this one was shot and almost got a double. We were kind of glad we didn't connect on the second one as the pack out was pretty brutal.

The excitement started when I bugled and we got 2 answers. We knew it was going to get pretty exciting pretty quick because the next time I bugled they had covered one ridge and one valley and were closing the distance fast, bugling the entire way! We set up on a little shelf and they came from the bottom of the valley. When they stopped short I bugled again and they both came charging up the hill. My BIL stopped one of them and made a beautiful shot at 40 yards. My brother just missed his with his recurve but the one that was hit only made it 35 yards. We hung the meat in the fading light in a light rain shower and took what we could carry.

We darn near got another shot at another bull when we went back for the rest of the meat the next morning. When we got there I bugled just to see what was around and got an instant response from an elk that was close by. We set up quickly but when he started moving in to the bugle the wind swirled and he busted out of there. We almost had 3 bulls within 100 yards of each other. We were kicking ourselves during the pack out wishing we would have brought our horses for the heavy lifting.

We saw 7 bulls (5 of which we called in and 2 of which we walked up on), over 35 elk cows, 3 nice bears, lots of pronghorn, and lots of mule deer, one of which I would love to have been able to shoot, he was huge.

We learned a lot about the unit as we moved camp several times and covered a big portion of it. We saw a monster bull on the South side of the unit that was herding his cows around, I was able to get within 11 yards of a bunch of the cows but could never get close to the bull. I would have loved to have had him.

We talked to one bear hunter that said he saw 6 bulls being packed out by horses that had come from the basin. We took ours near the basin as well. We moved camp once and went through Chama, someone had a monster in the back of their pickup. We hunted near Chama for a few days but the ATV's were everywhere so we moved again.

Had a great time but sure was glad to sleep off the ground once I got home!

[simek]

Awesome experience, amigo....glad you all connected!

[ELKAHOLIC]

I just did my harvest report for Utah. This is what I wrote for comments, I hope they read it.

It took me 9 years to draw this tag, and it was the worst Elk hunt I have been on in the past `10 years!! I have hunted elk in at least one state every year for the past 25 years.
The season is too early, Part of what makes bow hunting so fun is being able to hunt the rut. Bow hunters have a big disadvantage to start with, The one advantage that bow hunters normally get, is being able to use calls and hunt the rut. I did see bulls while glassing early in the hunt. However I did not see anything I would shoot. The biggest bull I saw was probably a 290" 6 point. I saw nothing that warrants a tag that takes this long to draw. The amount of people cow/ spike hunting alone ruins this hunt for me! ( I read about how the cows in this unit have been slaughtered, and now I have seen it for myself, it is sickening!)
Labor day weekend, As soon as all the cow / spike hunters leave, thousands of people come in to camp and ride ohv's and bikes, it's a mad house!!! We had a very hard time just trying to just find a place to park so we could get out in the woods and hunt. If there was a spot big enough to park one rv there was 5! We saw people camping just barely off the road, it was crazy. It sucks when you have hiked miles in to try to get away from all the people and then motorcycles come screaming by!!! Every year I go elk hunting partly to decompress, to get right with God and to make peace with myself. After this trip I came home beat down, worn out, and more frazzled than I was before. I am grumpy and I feel like I didn't even get to go elk hunting at all. I do not rate an elk hunt on a kill, I rate it on overall experience. Some of the best hunts I have ever had, I came back with nothing. It is a shame people burn all there points on this hunt. I wish I had mine back. I honestly would not go back on this hunt again if it was given to me every year!

[BuckSmasher]

Elkaholic, were there any remote areas to get away from the madhouse?

I have 7 points in Utah and will be keeping your experience in mind choosing units!

[Chris Martin]

I just did my harvest report for Utah. This is what I wrote for comments, I hope they read it.

It took me 9 years to draw this tag, and it was the worst Elk hunt I have been on in the past `10 years!! I have hunted elk in at least one state every year for the past 25 years.
The season is too early, Part of what makes bow hunting so fun is being able to hunt the rut. Bow hunters have a big disadvantage to start with, The one advantage that bow hunters normally get, is being able to use calls and hunt the rut. I did see bulls while glassing early in the hunt. However I did not see anything I would shoot. The biggest bull I saw was probably a 290" 6 point. I saw nothing that warrants a tag that takes this long to draw. The amount of people cow/ spike hunting alone ruins this hunt for me! ( I read about how the cows in this unit have been slaughtered, and now I have seen it for myself, it is sickening!)
Labor day weekend, As soon as all the cow / spike hunters leave, thousands of people come in to camp and ride ohv's and bikes, it's a mad house!!! We had a very hard time just trying to just find a place to park so we could get out in the woods and hunt. If there was a spot big enough to park one rv there was 5! We saw people camping just barely off the road, it was crazy. It sucks when you have hiked miles in to try to get away from all the people and then motorcycles come screaming by!!! Every year I go elk hunting partly to decompress, to get right with God and to make peace with myself. After this trip I came home beat down, worn out, and more frazzled than I was before. I am grumpy and I feel like I didn't even get to go elk hunting at all. I do not rate an elk hunt on a kill, I rate it on overall experience. Some of the best hunts I have ever had, I came back with nothing. It is a shame people burn all there points on this hunt. I wish I had mine back. I honestly would not go back on this hunt again if it was given to me every year!

Sorry to hear you had a bad Utah hunt. Another one to stay away from is Plateau Thousand Lakes Archery Deer Tag. Your experience sounds a lot like this hunt.

[ELKAHOLIC]

Elkaholic, were there any remote areas to get away from the madhouse?

I have 7 points in Utah and will be keeping your experience in mind choosing units!

Not that we found. In any case the archery season is just too early in Utah. Go for the any weapon season in another unit. It may take several more years to draw, but.......

[Briar Friar]

Any body have any words of guidance concerning second rifle season elk in CO unit 24? We are looking to park and hump into the Flat Tops wilderness from either Hill Creek or South Fork B off hwy 10 or the Marvine Campground off Hwy 12. We are developing several hunt plans dependent on weather. 82 degrees in Meeker yesterday.

[wlgiv]

Was fortunate to harvest a 6x6 in the Castle Mountains, Montana this week

[texas shag]

pernell should be giving us a write up soon. I know he should be wrapping up his trip based on earlier posts. I hope he was successful...he typically has killed big bulls on his yearly gila trip.

[Felix40]

A few pictures from our CO OTC wilderness trip.

[Danimal14]

Now that's a hunt...very cool pics

[rhendrix]

The Elk Thread

Felix40, I ran into you on Saddle Mountain, how'd the rest of your trip go man?

We ended up going into an area north of there and got into some elk, never got a shot though, they gave us the slip multiple times.

[Felix40]

The Houston guys that we busted in on after hiking all day?! We got into a bunch more deer and had a stalk on a little bull that didn't quite pan out. They gave up after another couple nights. Did you go into the creek that comes out by the trail head? I was pretty obsessed with that creek the rest of the trip.

[rhendrix]

The Houston guys that we busted in on after hiking all day?! We got into a bunch more deer and had a stalk on a little bull that didn't quite pan out. They gave up after another couple nights. Did you go into the creek that comes out by the trail head? I was pretty obsessed with that creek the rest of the trip.

That's us man, I'll shoot you a PM of where we went. We got into about 14 elk, but couldn't get them to come to calls and never could get a stalk to work in our favor. Tag soup blows!

[Felix40]

Sounds good. Somehow I just get lucky enough to bump into a group of cows that want to play every year. If you have any interest in putting in for deer there I can send you the spots we saw decent bucks. If I remember right you can draw that unit with 0 points. Seems like it would be a gimme to kill something. I have to take the family camping next year or I would be doing it myself