I have been fortunate to have a wonderful year chasing elk this year. Tagged my first bull in October on a guided hunt and tagged a cow this week on DIY.
This is my 3rd season hunting this unit in CO for cow elk and gratefully have been able to notch my 3rd tag. This year I had the added pressure of helping my buddy tag his first elk as a wedding gift and it turned into a couples hunting trip,
Long story short, setup camp on Tuesday but my buddy had to go to the nearest big town to print another tag. We came back to camp with a heard of 70 elk within 600 yards of camp, however there was also a 20 mph crosswind and they were in the open. We tried to sneak closer, but they bailed.
Next morning, we went down to the valley where I tagged my elk last year and a heard of about 30 was just cresting the hills (we hiked in to late). Got a picture of a couple of the bulls tagging along, fun to watch them. Got back to the truck and headed back to camp to swap out socks / get warm (single digits with fresh 2" of snow from the night before).
As we were heading back to camp, I spot a single cow walking along an old fence line straight towards us. He gets out of the truck, loads up and walks off the 2 track to get setup (I stayed in the warm truck). Cow gets about 50y away and boom! Boiler room, she runs maybe 25 yards and looks back then takes another 150 grs of copper for insurance. She was down, easy packout...by easy I mean gut her and toss her in the bed of the truck. I am feeling good because now pressure is off and I can hunt. Side note, that elk was wounded with a broadhead stuck in her shoulder and was probably the reason she didn't jump the fence.
Not long after getting her in the truck I spot a heard of 13 elk about 2 miles off...I am able to drive to the truck to within 1200 yards of where they were at...hike to a spot that gave me 650 yard shot. There was no getting closer without getting right in their lap and I was not about to belly crawl 600 yards in snow. So it was take the shot or go find another heard I saw earlier in the day.
So I set up there, wind about 10 mph coming from 3 o'clock. Uses the GTP-RS legs (no trekking poles) and my pack as my rear bag. Felt like an hour, even took a dry fire because they were not going to hear it. Put one in the chamber and sent it flying down. It was not a great shot, I missed judged the wind and shot about 6" further back than I had intended. That is on me. She was lightly quartering away and I had a few petals from the hammers go through a lung, but a majority of the bullet disintegrated her liver and exited the far side.
She went about 15 yards, extremely woozy looking like a dead animal that is trying to deny she is dead. So I put one more down range, she went another 25 yards or so and expired.
So within a couple hour window, our 5 day hunt was finished. We drove my buddies elk to a butcher and quartered mine out (got to love short packouts!). Stayed for an extra day waiting for his elk to be done and then came home.
This is my 3rd season hunting this unit in CO for cow elk and gratefully have been able to notch my 3rd tag. This year I had the added pressure of helping my buddy tag his first elk as a wedding gift and it turned into a couples hunting trip,
Long story short, setup camp on Tuesday but my buddy had to go to the nearest big town to print another tag. We came back to camp with a heard of 70 elk within 600 yards of camp, however there was also a 20 mph crosswind and they were in the open. We tried to sneak closer, but they bailed.
Next morning, we went down to the valley where I tagged my elk last year and a heard of about 30 was just cresting the hills (we hiked in to late). Got a picture of a couple of the bulls tagging along, fun to watch them. Got back to the truck and headed back to camp to swap out socks / get warm (single digits with fresh 2" of snow from the night before).
As we were heading back to camp, I spot a single cow walking along an old fence line straight towards us. He gets out of the truck, loads up and walks off the 2 track to get setup (I stayed in the warm truck). Cow gets about 50y away and boom! Boiler room, she runs maybe 25 yards and looks back then takes another 150 grs of copper for insurance. She was down, easy packout...by easy I mean gut her and toss her in the bed of the truck. I am feeling good because now pressure is off and I can hunt. Side note, that elk was wounded with a broadhead stuck in her shoulder and was probably the reason she didn't jump the fence.
Not long after getting her in the truck I spot a heard of 13 elk about 2 miles off...I am able to drive to the truck to within 1200 yards of where they were at...hike to a spot that gave me 650 yard shot. There was no getting closer without getting right in their lap and I was not about to belly crawl 600 yards in snow. So it was take the shot or go find another heard I saw earlier in the day.
So I set up there, wind about 10 mph coming from 3 o'clock. Uses the GTP-RS legs (no trekking poles) and my pack as my rear bag. Felt like an hour, even took a dry fire because they were not going to hear it. Put one in the chamber and sent it flying down. It was not a great shot, I missed judged the wind and shot about 6" further back than I had intended. That is on me. She was lightly quartering away and I had a few petals from the hammers go through a lung, but a majority of the bullet disintegrated her liver and exited the far side.
She went about 15 yards, extremely woozy looking like a dead animal that is trying to deny she is dead. So I put one more down range, she went another 25 yards or so and expired.
So within a couple hour window, our 5 day hunt was finished. We drove my buddies elk to a butcher and quartered mine out (got to love short packouts!). Stayed for an extra day waiting for his elk to be done and then came home.
