On the way home from my first elk hunt. I've wanted to do this since I was probably 10 years old. Once I decided to commit to going it took me 4 years to draw the tag. I decided I wanted to take my first elk DIY, with a bow, come hell or high water. We spent a week in the Rocky Mountains in north Colorado. This was beautiful, breathtaking country and truly exhausting hunting, at around 10k feet the whole hunt. I don't know exactly how much we hiked but it was somewhere around 30 miles. And I think it was all up hill... The rut was apparently late this year and we didn't hear our first bugle until two days left in the hunt. But on day 5, the woods that appeared to hold basically no elk, erupted with bugles, squeaks and roars! We could hear them bugling all through the night from our wall tent.
I didn't end up taking, or even getting a crack at, the mountain-top monster I had envisioned, but I'm very happy nonetheless! Yesterday, the last day of the hunt, I took this young bull that was grazing in the aspens, waiting for dark to hit the open meadows. Elk steaks ah plenty! Mathews DXT, 62#, NAP spitfire. I made a good shot but didn't get a pass through (slightly quartering to me at 42 yards). When the arrow broke off the wound shut and the bleeding slowed a lot. I decided to back out and go back in at day light. He was dead 50 yards from where I stopped tracking the night before. I also got a mtn blue grouse. Tasty bird! And we saw some huge mule deer and even a sierra moose!
An outstanding experience that I can't wait to do again, and again!
I didn't end up taking, or even getting a crack at, the mountain-top monster I had envisioned, but I'm very happy nonetheless! Yesterday, the last day of the hunt, I took this young bull that was grazing in the aspens, waiting for dark to hit the open meadows. Elk steaks ah plenty! Mathews DXT, 62#, NAP spitfire. I made a good shot but didn't get a pass through (slightly quartering to me at 42 yards). When the arrow broke off the wound shut and the bleeding slowed a lot. I decided to back out and go back in at day light. He was dead 50 yards from where I stopped tracking the night before. I also got a mtn blue grouse. Tasty bird! And we saw some huge mule deer and even a sierra moose!
An outstanding experience that I can't wait to do again, and again!
Comment