asaxon
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Last spring, I got invited on a first season (Oct 13-17, 2012) DIY elk hunt in Colorado with some “good ol’ boys”. These guys had been elk hunting in W. Colorado for 30 years but one of the regulars couldn’t make it so I got a call. I signed up in a heart beat. I figured that 1) these guys really knew the lay of the land and the elks’ patterns plus 2) some of them were close to my age and therefore wouldn’t be expecting me to run up any 13,000 foot mountains. I was assigned to VS as his hunting partner; we met a couple of months before the hunt – I figured he wanted to check me out to see if I represented some kind of danger. I was on good behavior and fooled him so I got the nod. I put in for and drew a cow tag; the Admiral and I were not interested in a trophy bull but rather the better tasting meat of a cow elk.
Amazingly, several “elk” showed up in my backyard in Santa Monica in mid-September so I had weeks of elk
shooting practice with my air riffle – getting use to looking at their silhouette and aiming for the vitals. I even put an extension on a metronome with elk targets on it so I could get used to shooting at a moving elk. Ever seen an elk go backwards? Had to put the metronome on adagio (slow); on prestissimo (fast) I’d have needed a shotgun to hit the damn thing.
Oct 8[SUP]th[/SUP] rolls around and I’m on track to get a very full days work done so I can leave in the early am. What do I get, freakin’ OBAMAGEDDON! My day starts spending 2 hours going a distance that should take 15 minutes. “The Pres” Is here to raise campaign money and they completely block off access to a whole section of LA and of course, the place I need to be is right in the middle. They give NO WARNINGS for “security reasons”. After what those of us stuck in Obamagedden had to say, the Pres would definitely need increased security. Finally, at 0’dark thirty on the 9[SUP]th[/SUP], I head out to meet up with VS but the curse of Obamageddon was still haunting me. No less than 3 free way interchanges - exits I needed to take were either closed or detoured so I ended up driving all over the damn place with lots of cursing of the Pres, all government in general, CalTrans and anyone else who crossed my mind.
After meeting up with VS, life returned to normal. Gas in Californica was $4.79/gal while
in Utah, it was $3.71. Surprised? The drive through the Virgin River valley and the San Rafael Swell by Capital Reef National Monument in Utah was absolutely gorgeous - simply majestic country. The next day we rendezvoused with some of the other fellows in Colorado and it was out to “camp” which was about 40 mi, ½ by paved road and ½ by dirt road. Over the years, they’d developed a real funky rustic elk camp cabin out of the remains of an old settler’s home in the middle of elk country. It has a gas stove and lights, bunk beds, a pot belly stove, a hot shower etc. Camp hadn’t been opened since they left after the 2011 elk season so the rest of the day was spent putting up the water tank/system, cleaning up around the cabin, sweeping out the rat/mouse dropping, cleaning &
moping and generally putting everything in order. A quick trip up the road to get firewood revealed lots of elk tracks of various ages and some fresh bear scat. I’m getting excited now….
The next morning, we cleaned up of a bit more and then I took a hike up the road into the higher country. I did not hike into the places we planned to hunt for after all these years, the fellows knew where the elk were likely to be and the consensus was there is no sense giving them a warning about opening day. I came across more fresh bear scat that was pretty large – either a good sized bear or a small bear with a large a**hole. Others saw bear scat nearby; there was definitely a bear in the neighborhood as subsequent events would prove. I sat by the stream the trail followed just across from large canyon mouth.
I must have dozed off for when I looked to the north along the trail, here is a spike horn elk no more that 50 yards away. He clearly hadn’t seen me but as he gets to the trail and directly down wind of me, he raises his head, looks all about and briskly walks back in the direction he must have come from. Holy Echinoderm Sponge Bob, even that very young bull elk is huge; now I’m definitely excited. The only other sighting of notice was a very large golden eagle that was sitting by the stream. It took off before I could get a picture. Its wing span had to be 6 feet for sure. I saw that eagle and its mate flying about numerous times over the following days. That evening, the rest of the crew arrived with the main stock of supplies which were quickly stowed away. Like all “camps”, certain items accumulate over the years. There were bottles of Teriyaki Sauce in the cup board that could easily have been feature items on the Antique Road Show.
Friday was “get ready for hunting” day. We had a meeting after breakfast to square away the areas the pairs were going to hunt. Everyone had their favorite spots so it was more to confirm were folks were planning on starting out. A few guys made sure their rifles were sighted in but did this a long ways away from where anyone was planning to hunt to. Most were using 7mm RemMag or 30-06 or but 2 were using Weatherby 300 Mag – a very serious caliber. I’d taken my Browning A-Bolt II 30-06 to the range the week before and sighted it in with Federal Vital Shock pushing 165 and 180 grain Barnes TSX bullets. After lunch, VS and I went out to the edge of the area we were hunting on opening morning, mainly to familiarize me with the geography as we’d be going in before sunrise.
After that is was just a day of hanging around and making sure everything was good to go.
Saturday AM – opening day of the 5 day first elk season in Colorado. After a full breakfast at 4 am, everyone headed out to their designated areas. VS and I went to a long valley/meadow whose stream was one of only two water sources in the region. We hunted up to the head of the valley beginning at sunrise with the wind in our face with VS working the ridge top and me in the valley floor looking for elk he expected to push out on the hillsides. While the valley turned out to be void of elk with very little sign, there was lots and lots of moo-cows with their calves. And they were the “moo-iest” cattle I’ve ever heard. A constant mooing/bleating rang out for the whole morning. It was as noisy as being in down town New York City. I figured the elk had buggered out of the valley as it was so noisy they couldn’t sleep – well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it…
We got back to camp at 2 pm Sat to find a gorgeous 6x6 Bull elk hanging. Only then did I appreciate how damn big Rocky Mountain Elk are. Those bulls are the size of a horse! So after a quick lunch, VS and I hiked a series of steep ravines that was loaded with elk sign. VS told me to lead so I could have the first shot. But I figure he just wanted me to break brush as the area had become so over grown since he’d had been there last that I’d have needed a bayonet to kill an elk as I pushed through the very thick cover. With about 30 min of shooting time left, we finally got down to the canyon floor by following a dry stream bed. Just then we heard a bunch of rounds going off in quick succession right up the road. We watched/waited but no elk so soon as shooting light was gone, we got back to the car and drove up the road to look for the rest of our bunch. Maybe ½ mile away we found
them with 3 cow elk down. They had been coming down the road when a herd of 75 or so elk simply crossed in front of them. They all said it was an amazing sight- like something from the National Geographic. Plus they already had 2 more bull elk on the back of the vehicles from earlier that afternoon. First day and 6 tags filled – not bad. We all set to work gutting and dragging the cows close to the road where they were loaded vehicles and ferried to camp. Dinner was eaten while everyone pitched in skinning out all 6 elk. We got to bed after 1 am. Here is a picture of just some the carcasses hanging the next morning. There were two more skinned elk hanging from the frame as well.
Sunday AM – everyone slept in. With 6 elk in camp, everyone took the morning off cleaning up camp, disposing of the hides, heads and bits and generally “catching our breath”. That evening TT and DD, who are tagged out, take me to try the high country where that herd of elk appeared to be headed. We only saw 3 cows but they were1000 yds off and moving away but by getting up high, I got a great appreciation to the topography of the area we were hunting.
Monday AM – back to serious hunting. I go up canyon at daybreak with TT & DD and sure enough, about 20 min into shooting light, I spot two cows trotting along a ridgeline to our left. We immediately scurry off uphill in a ravine to the left to try to cut them off. It worked. Five minutes later, the two cows cross in front of us and start running up the ravine on the other side only 100 yds away. They certainly are a big target. I simply had to drop down on on
e knee and BAM, 165 grain Barnes –Federal right through the lungs/liver. The cow buckled, stumbled about 20 yds and dropped. Elk down and the Admiral and I have food for the winter! The guys figured she was a 3 year old cow and weighed about 450 lb. I did my first total body evisceration of an elk on the side of the hill – the operation was a success but the patient died. We dragged her down hill to a flat area where TT managed to drive his je
ep where with a good deal of huffing and puffing, we got her loaded and lashed onto jeep’s back carrier. She was hung at camp and I got my first opportunity at elk skinning. It was actually easy to skin once hung, just lots of surface area to cover. This lesson paid off for just after I get done skinning, VS shows up with a larger cow elk which I helped him skin.
At this point, 8 of 9 elk hunters had tagged out. One guy had bought a bear tag so plans were laid to go bear instead of elk hunting that evening. We had seen a fair amount of fresh bear scat and sign at the base of one canyon. The bear hunter plus two others laid in wait near a rivulet in the canyon where there was lots of sign while I and others took up stations in the vicinity both to spot for them (we had 2-way radios) and in case they wounded it. Sure enough, at 6:50 pm with 5 min of shooting light left, a bear showed up. Bam- Bam, the shooter puts two 7mm RemMags into the bear but she still ran off and the chase was on. (The shots turned out to be in the belly, not in the vitals.) Over the next 5 minutes, two fellows chased her down the ravine, through a stream and then into some aspens. By now, it was dark and they could hear her snorting and growling in the bushes and but couldn’t see her. One guy was for coming back in the morning but the other guy was adamant about “going for it” because he didn’t want to lose the trail as happened to him two years before. So the two of them attached flashlights to their 9 mm side arms and slowly pushed through the underbrush only to find the bear was just 20 feet in front of them and NOT happy. Two 9 mm rounds and she was off but she was spotted by the original shooter because of the lights and he put another two 7mm RemMag rounds into her and she was “done.” Whew! The bear turned out to be a light cinnamon colored sow that according to the bear expert in the group weighted an honest 450lb.
What a way to end a day. It took several hours for the adrenaline rush to pass.
Tuesday, we cleaned up camp, got our gear together, and squared “camp accounts.” VS and I cut our elk in half and took them to the local butcher. VS had his quartered while I had them bone mine out and vacuum seal the large pieces of meat so it would be easy to take it home. The others quartered their elk and got them all set to load up in the morning for an early start. A short hunt in the morning and evening produced no elk for the last fellow’s tag but no one really cared. 3 bulls (we only had 3 bull shooters), 5 cows and 1 bear was enough – there was plenty of meat to share with him. On Wednesday AM, I made a quick stop at the butcher to pick up the vacuum sealed meat which was 80% frozen already. I put on a top layer of dry ice in the cooler and headed for Santa Monica where I arrived on Thursday with the elk meat all frozen and set to go into the freezer. Hell of a trip! And for those of you who want to know about cost, the whole trip including food, license, cow tag, gas, lodging, butcher fees etc was about $2000, a real “steal”.
*No animals were harmed in the telling of this story but the truth was somewhat bruised.
Amazingly, several “elk” showed up in my backyard in Santa Monica in mid-September so I had weeks of elk
shooting practice with my air riffle – getting use to looking at their silhouette and aiming for the vitals. I even put an extension on a metronome with elk targets on it so I could get used to shooting at a moving elk. Ever seen an elk go backwards? Had to put the metronome on adagio (slow); on prestissimo (fast) I’d have needed a shotgun to hit the damn thing. Oct 8[SUP]th[/SUP] rolls around and I’m on track to get a very full days work done so I can leave in the early am. What do I get, freakin’ OBAMAGEDDON! My day starts spending 2 hours going a distance that should take 15 minutes. “The Pres” Is here to raise campaign money and they completely block off access to a whole section of LA and of course, the place I need to be is right in the middle. They give NO WARNINGS for “security reasons”. After what those of us stuck in Obamagedden had to say, the Pres would definitely need increased security. Finally, at 0’dark thirty on the 9[SUP]th[/SUP], I head out to meet up with VS but the curse of Obamageddon was still haunting me. No less than 3 free way interchanges - exits I needed to take were either closed or detoured so I ended up driving all over the damn place with lots of cursing of the Pres, all government in general, CalTrans and anyone else who crossed my mind.
After meeting up with VS, life returned to normal. Gas in Californica was $4.79/gal while
in Utah, it was $3.71. Surprised? The drive through the Virgin River valley and the San Rafael Swell by Capital Reef National Monument in Utah was absolutely gorgeous - simply majestic country. The next day we rendezvoused with some of the other fellows in Colorado and it was out to “camp” which was about 40 mi, ½ by paved road and ½ by dirt road. Over the years, they’d developed a real funky rustic elk camp cabin out of the remains of an old settler’s home in the middle of elk country. It has a gas stove and lights, bunk beds, a pot belly stove, a hot shower etc. Camp hadn’t been opened since they left after the 2011 elk season so the rest of the day was spent putting up the water tank/system, cleaning up around the cabin, sweeping out the rat/mouse dropping, cleaning &
moping and generally putting everything in order. A quick trip up the road to get firewood revealed lots of elk tracks of various ages and some fresh bear scat. I’m getting excited now….The next morning, we cleaned up of a bit more and then I took a hike up the road into the higher country. I did not hike into the places we planned to hunt for after all these years, the fellows knew where the elk were likely to be and the consensus was there is no sense giving them a warning about opening day. I came across more fresh bear scat that was pretty large – either a good sized bear or a small bear with a large a**hole. Others saw bear scat nearby; there was definitely a bear in the neighborhood as subsequent events would prove. I sat by the stream the trail followed just across from large canyon mouth.
I must have dozed off for when I looked to the north along the trail, here is a spike horn elk no more that 50 yards away. He clearly hadn’t seen me but as he gets to the trail and directly down wind of me, he raises his head, looks all about and briskly walks back in the direction he must have come from. Holy Echinoderm Sponge Bob, even that very young bull elk is huge; now I’m definitely excited. The only other sighting of notice was a very large golden eagle that was sitting by the stream. It took off before I could get a picture. Its wing span had to be 6 feet for sure. I saw that eagle and its mate flying about numerous times over the following days. That evening, the rest of the crew arrived with the main stock of supplies which were quickly stowed away. Like all “camps”, certain items accumulate over the years. There were bottles of Teriyaki Sauce in the cup board that could easily have been feature items on the Antique Road Show. Friday was “get ready for hunting” day. We had a meeting after breakfast to square away the areas the pairs were going to hunt. Everyone had their favorite spots so it was more to confirm were folks were planning on starting out. A few guys made sure their rifles were sighted in but did this a long ways away from where anyone was planning to hunt to. Most were using 7mm RemMag or 30-06 or but 2 were using Weatherby 300 Mag – a very serious caliber. I’d taken my Browning A-Bolt II 30-06 to the range the week before and sighted it in with Federal Vital Shock pushing 165 and 180 grain Barnes TSX bullets. After lunch, VS and I went out to the edge of the area we were hunting on opening morning, mainly to familiarize me with the geography as we’d be going in before sunrise.
After that is was just a day of hanging around and making sure everything was good to go. Saturday AM – opening day of the 5 day first elk season in Colorado. After a full breakfast at 4 am, everyone headed out to their designated areas. VS and I went to a long valley/meadow whose stream was one of only two water sources in the region. We hunted up to the head of the valley beginning at sunrise with the wind in our face with VS working the ridge top and me in the valley floor looking for elk he expected to push out on the hillsides. While the valley turned out to be void of elk with very little sign, there was lots and lots of moo-cows with their calves. And they were the “moo-iest” cattle I’ve ever heard. A constant mooing/bleating rang out for the whole morning. It was as noisy as being in down town New York City. I figured the elk had buggered out of the valley as it was so noisy they couldn’t sleep – well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it…
We got back to camp at 2 pm Sat to find a gorgeous 6x6 Bull elk hanging. Only then did I appreciate how damn big Rocky Mountain Elk are. Those bulls are the size of a horse! So after a quick lunch, VS and I hiked a series of steep ravines that was loaded with elk sign. VS told me to lead so I could have the first shot. But I figure he just wanted me to break brush as the area had become so over grown since he’d had been there last that I’d have needed a bayonet to kill an elk as I pushed through the very thick cover. With about 30 min of shooting time left, we finally got down to the canyon floor by following a dry stream bed. Just then we heard a bunch of rounds going off in quick succession right up the road. We watched/waited but no elk so soon as shooting light was gone, we got back to the car and drove up the road to look for the rest of our bunch. Maybe ½ mile away we found
them with 3 cow elk down. They had been coming down the road when a herd of 75 or so elk simply crossed in front of them. They all said it was an amazing sight- like something from the National Geographic. Plus they already had 2 more bull elk on the back of the vehicles from earlier that afternoon. First day and 6 tags filled – not bad. We all set to work gutting and dragging the cows close to the road where they were loaded vehicles and ferried to camp. Dinner was eaten while everyone pitched in skinning out all 6 elk. We got to bed after 1 am. Here is a picture of just some the carcasses hanging the next morning. There were two more skinned elk hanging from the frame as well. Sunday AM – everyone slept in. With 6 elk in camp, everyone took the morning off cleaning up camp, disposing of the hides, heads and bits and generally “catching our breath”. That evening TT and DD, who are tagged out, take me to try the high country where that herd of elk appeared to be headed. We only saw 3 cows but they were1000 yds off and moving away but by getting up high, I got a great appreciation to the topography of the area we were hunting.
Monday AM – back to serious hunting. I go up canyon at daybreak with TT & DD and sure enough, about 20 min into shooting light, I spot two cows trotting along a ridgeline to our left. We immediately scurry off uphill in a ravine to the left to try to cut them off. It worked. Five minutes later, the two cows cross in front of us and start running up the ravine on the other side only 100 yds away. They certainly are a big target. I simply had to drop down on on
e knee and BAM, 165 grain Barnes –Federal right through the lungs/liver. The cow buckled, stumbled about 20 yds and dropped. Elk down and the Admiral and I have food for the winter! The guys figured she was a 3 year old cow and weighed about 450 lb. I did my first total body evisceration of an elk on the side of the hill – the operation was a success but the patient died. We dragged her down hill to a flat area where TT managed to drive his je
ep where with a good deal of huffing and puffing, we got her loaded and lashed onto jeep’s back carrier. She was hung at camp and I got my first opportunity at elk skinning. It was actually easy to skin once hung, just lots of surface area to cover. This lesson paid off for just after I get done skinning, VS shows up with a larger cow elk which I helped him skin. At this point, 8 of 9 elk hunters had tagged out. One guy had bought a bear tag so plans were laid to go bear instead of elk hunting that evening. We had seen a fair amount of fresh bear scat and sign at the base of one canyon. The bear hunter plus two others laid in wait near a rivulet in the canyon where there was lots of sign while I and others took up stations in the vicinity both to spot for them (we had 2-way radios) and in case they wounded it. Sure enough, at 6:50 pm with 5 min of shooting light left, a bear showed up. Bam- Bam, the shooter puts two 7mm RemMags into the bear but she still ran off and the chase was on. (The shots turned out to be in the belly, not in the vitals.) Over the next 5 minutes, two fellows chased her down the ravine, through a stream and then into some aspens. By now, it was dark and they could hear her snorting and growling in the bushes and but couldn’t see her. One guy was for coming back in the morning but the other guy was adamant about “going for it” because he didn’t want to lose the trail as happened to him two years before. So the two of them attached flashlights to their 9 mm side arms and slowly pushed through the underbrush only to find the bear was just 20 feet in front of them and NOT happy. Two 9 mm rounds and she was off but she was spotted by the original shooter because of the lights and he put another two 7mm RemMag rounds into her and she was “done.” Whew! The bear turned out to be a light cinnamon colored sow that according to the bear expert in the group weighted an honest 450lb.
What a way to end a day. It took several hours for the adrenaline rush to pass.Tuesday, we cleaned up camp, got our gear together, and squared “camp accounts.” VS and I cut our elk in half and took them to the local butcher. VS had his quartered while I had them bone mine out and vacuum seal the large pieces of meat so it would be easy to take it home. The others quartered their elk and got them all set to load up in the morning for an early start. A short hunt in the morning and evening produced no elk for the last fellow’s tag but no one really cared. 3 bulls (we only had 3 bull shooters), 5 cows and 1 bear was enough – there was plenty of meat to share with him. On Wednesday AM, I made a quick stop at the butcher to pick up the vacuum sealed meat which was 80% frozen already. I put on a top layer of dry ice in the cooler and headed for Santa Monica where I arrived on Thursday with the elk meat all frozen and set to go into the freezer. Hell of a trip! And for those of you who want to know about cost, the whole trip including food, license, cow tag, gas, lodging, butcher fees etc was about $2000, a real “steal”.
*No animals were harmed in the telling of this story but the truth was somewhat bruised.
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