I posted this over in the game cameras forum for my homebrew buds but figured it should be here. He's nothing huge but i had a blast nonetheless. Licenses are a bit pricy at $450 out of state but for me it was well worth it. The high country was just what the DR ordered to clear my mind of all the turmoil for a couple weeks...
Anyways here are a couple of pics from my recent hunt in Colorado. The hunting was done near Delores, CO in the bear creek watershed. The hunt was the second week and the land was all public land although I only saw a couple local hunters. By way of my GPS camp was at 11,400 feet and hunting took place up to around 12,800. I went with 3 buddies and 2 brother's, a camp cook, a camp coyboy (no lie!) and the owner of the setup. The hunt was not guided but rather free ranging, fair chase, High country adventure! :smiley-thumbs-up:
***I'm not ToddP at writing my thoughts, so i'll do my best***
My story...
After arriving 2 days early we broke up into small groups to do some scouting and to kinda just take it all in. This was my first visit to the high country and to be honest I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it all. I decided at that point that no matter what happened (kill or no kill) I was in a place that would make everything worth it. Actually I felt very very small in those mountains.
First Day...
For the most part day 1 was eventless for me. I did see 4 cows (2 cows, 2 calves) but the weather was nice and I enjoyed the day. After arriving back at camp I found that 4 out of 6 had bagged bulls.....only slightly did i wonder if i was in the wrong place :confused-yellow:
Day 2, 3, and 4......
Pretty much eventless as far as Elk sightings. I did see 9 cows/calves come into a draw I was watching but no bull. I wondered if maybe he was hanging back because it was a bit windy and after several days without a shower the words "scent-free" took on a whole new meaning :smile-big-blue:
I hunted in different places during these days but had no luck scoring. We had a few inches of snow on the 2nd night so the weather was "good" for hunting. I was starting to think that maybe I wouldn't get an opportunity at a bull since the first day there seemed to be some hunters pushing the Elk a bit but now during the week they're probably at work and I kind of felt "alone" out there. Still the hunting was great and anything is better than working....
Day 5, the LAST DAY of hunting....
It was extremely windy during the night and the tents shuttered all night so i didn't get much sleep. While I layed on my COLD cot i started to wonder if it would be even worth it to get up early since the wind would surely keep the ELK "tight". Shortly thereafter i must've dozed off cause around 4am my brother woke me and said "Let's go after em!". The wind was calm and I jumped up, threw on some light clothes, put the heavier stuff in my pack and took off. We were heading for the highest country we could find since others had good luck there and the Elk seem to like it up there as well. The walk was about 2 hours and as we climbed the wind picked up and the temps dropped. It was somewhere around 10 degrees with a very stiff wind and blowing snow. There were about 5 parks(we call em fields back east) that we were gonna check out and hopefully spot some Elk. The first 3 parks resulted in nothing so onward we went. We had to climb another fairly steep crest to get to the next park and things were getting cold. After rounding the last switchback on the climb up we started to glass a park off to our right. There about 250 yards out was what looked to be a nice bull...I immediately dropped to the ground and threw my pack out in front of my for a gun rest. My brother was talking to me from the side and must've asked 50 times if I had a good hold. To his and my disgust I couldn't get a lock on the bull. The ground in front of me sloped upward slightly and took the bull out of my line of sight when i was lying down. After gathering it up a bit we both decided that the best thing to do would be to move to a spot about 25 yards up the trail, this would give a good line of sight. The bull was feeding and had no idea of our presence so the move would be safe and necessary if i was gonna get a good shot at him.
Looking through the scope after repositioning i quickly found that the line of sight was good and i was gonna get a good opportunity. With the lack of air at that elevation it took what seemed to be an hour (probably 2 minutes) to catch my breathe and calm down a bit...Once i got a good hold i slowly squeezed and with one from the Rem 300 ultra-mag through both lungs the bull collapsed. He slid downhill about 100 feet and came to rest against a big tree fall. Hunt Over!
Here are some pics (yes that's me sitting on the prey). He's not huge but for public land hunting in Colorado I'm happy! He ended up being a 5x6. He was up the bank in the background when I shot him and believe me the picture does not do justice to the steepness of everything out there. That bank was steep and we had to pack the meat up it without the horses cause it was too steep for them to get down. We also had a nice fire going but you can't see it from the pics taken. I have some pics of the butcher process but need to get them developed yet and scanned...
Anyways here are a couple of pics from my recent hunt in Colorado. The hunting was done near Delores, CO in the bear creek watershed. The hunt was the second week and the land was all public land although I only saw a couple local hunters. By way of my GPS camp was at 11,400 feet and hunting took place up to around 12,800. I went with 3 buddies and 2 brother's, a camp cook, a camp coyboy (no lie!) and the owner of the setup. The hunt was not guided but rather free ranging, fair chase, High country adventure! :smiley-thumbs-up:
***I'm not ToddP at writing my thoughts, so i'll do my best***
My story...
After arriving 2 days early we broke up into small groups to do some scouting and to kinda just take it all in. This was my first visit to the high country and to be honest I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it all. I decided at that point that no matter what happened (kill or no kill) I was in a place that would make everything worth it. Actually I felt very very small in those mountains.
First Day...
For the most part day 1 was eventless for me. I did see 4 cows (2 cows, 2 calves) but the weather was nice and I enjoyed the day. After arriving back at camp I found that 4 out of 6 had bagged bulls.....only slightly did i wonder if i was in the wrong place :confused-yellow:
Day 2, 3, and 4......
Pretty much eventless as far as Elk sightings. I did see 9 cows/calves come into a draw I was watching but no bull. I wondered if maybe he was hanging back because it was a bit windy and after several days without a shower the words "scent-free" took on a whole new meaning :smile-big-blue:
I hunted in different places during these days but had no luck scoring. We had a few inches of snow on the 2nd night so the weather was "good" for hunting. I was starting to think that maybe I wouldn't get an opportunity at a bull since the first day there seemed to be some hunters pushing the Elk a bit but now during the week they're probably at work and I kind of felt "alone" out there. Still the hunting was great and anything is better than working....
Day 5, the LAST DAY of hunting....
It was extremely windy during the night and the tents shuttered all night so i didn't get much sleep. While I layed on my COLD cot i started to wonder if it would be even worth it to get up early since the wind would surely keep the ELK "tight". Shortly thereafter i must've dozed off cause around 4am my brother woke me and said "Let's go after em!". The wind was calm and I jumped up, threw on some light clothes, put the heavier stuff in my pack and took off. We were heading for the highest country we could find since others had good luck there and the Elk seem to like it up there as well. The walk was about 2 hours and as we climbed the wind picked up and the temps dropped. It was somewhere around 10 degrees with a very stiff wind and blowing snow. There were about 5 parks(we call em fields back east) that we were gonna check out and hopefully spot some Elk. The first 3 parks resulted in nothing so onward we went. We had to climb another fairly steep crest to get to the next park and things were getting cold. After rounding the last switchback on the climb up we started to glass a park off to our right. There about 250 yards out was what looked to be a nice bull...I immediately dropped to the ground and threw my pack out in front of my for a gun rest. My brother was talking to me from the side and must've asked 50 times if I had a good hold. To his and my disgust I couldn't get a lock on the bull. The ground in front of me sloped upward slightly and took the bull out of my line of sight when i was lying down. After gathering it up a bit we both decided that the best thing to do would be to move to a spot about 25 yards up the trail, this would give a good line of sight. The bull was feeding and had no idea of our presence so the move would be safe and necessary if i was gonna get a good shot at him.
Looking through the scope after repositioning i quickly found that the line of sight was good and i was gonna get a good opportunity. With the lack of air at that elevation it took what seemed to be an hour (probably 2 minutes) to catch my breathe and calm down a bit...Once i got a good hold i slowly squeezed and with one from the Rem 300 ultra-mag through both lungs the bull collapsed. He slid downhill about 100 feet and came to rest against a big tree fall. Hunt Over!
Here are some pics (yes that's me sitting on the prey). He's not huge but for public land hunting in Colorado I'm happy! He ended up being a 5x6. He was up the bank in the background when I shot him and believe me the picture does not do justice to the steepness of everything out there. That bank was steep and we had to pack the meat up it without the horses cause it was too steep for them to get down. We also had a nice fire going but you can't see it from the pics taken. I have some pics of the butcher process but need to get them developed yet and scanned...
