well, just returned from 3rd season Colorado, we went there armed with 2 bull tags and 2 leftover cow tags, the weather of course sucked, full moon , 30 in the am and 60 the rest of the day with bright sunshine, we were hunting low on private land that held no elk, but, elk transitioned thru the ranch heading back to BLM daily hopefully. The season started off well, we killed a cow opening morning but didn't see any other elk that day,next day rain and no elk, Monday I was lucky enough to kill a beautiful young but very large cow, incidentally, the first cow was shot with 300 win mag 180 gr noslers out of a Christiansen arms long distance shooter, it took 3 rounds to put her on the ground at about 140 yds, first 2 were thru both lungs and she didn't act like she was even hit, the 3rd broke her shoulder and she dropped, my cow shot with my .338 win mag at the same distance using 225 gr Barnes x and she literally went legs up in the air. So now to the ethics situation, we had a blind set up overlooking a 500 yd meadow that we were able to use only 200 yds of our private and BLM land, the rest was a neighbors and off limits. Unfortunately there is an oil company gravel road that cuts thru the far edge of the property, fast forward to weds evening around 5:00 pm, now, shooting is over at 5:33 pm, with 30 min of shooting light left a herd comes out of the trees and starts grazing toward us, the wind is in our favor , leading the pack are 2 6x6s followed by a 5x5 a 5x4 2 spikes and about 8 cows and calves, they cross the road onto our side and they stand there grazing, we could have made these shots but I got greedy, choosing to wait until they were closer , suddenly a pickup come up the rd and the herd splits, the truck stops in the middle of the herd and hangs out for 5 mins but doesn't shoot, finally the turn around and go away, the herd rejoins together and heads back towards us grazing slowly, another pickup comes from the other way and turns sideways in the road watching the elk,no shots fired, finally the truck leaves and the herd heads our way, we are running out of light but we still have 10 minutes for them to reach us, finally, the herd is 70 yds away standing Broadside all in a row, guns up on sticks ready to count to 3 and fire together and I look at my watch.......its 5:38 , 5 minutes past shooting time.....end of story, we let them walk. One of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. There would have been no mistake about who shot if a warden was near and Colorado has the Sampson law that kicks your butt if you poach, it actually made me physically ill to know that we had passed up a 200 yard sure shot only to have them in our pocket and couldn't shoot!
- Thread starter dirtpoor
- Start date
bsanders8181
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2012
- Messages
- 600
- Reaction score
- 0
Yeah it made you sick, but when it all comes together you'll be on top of the world. Sometimes following the rules suck. But I tell you what, when others break the rules we don't like it, what would it say about us if we did the same
Bubblehide
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2010
- Messages
- 4,166
- Reaction score
- 53
Kudos to you!
snoopdogg
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2001
- Messages
- 2,758
- Reaction score
- 138
You did the right thing and it sucks to eat expensive tags.
Quick question; are you sure that 5:33 was the right end for the location that you were at? I'm asking because if you are not using the sunrise/sunset feature on your GPS, you may be off by a few minutes either way. The CPW booklet gives you the sunrise/sunset tables, but also notes correction times based on your location away from Denver where their table is based on. That can vary by more than 10 minutes.
I check my sunrise/sunset on my GPS on the area I hunt and tell everyone I'm with we have from XX to XX to shoot.
Quick question; are you sure that 5:33 was the right end for the location that you were at? I'm asking because if you are not using the sunrise/sunset feature on your GPS, you may be off by a few minutes either way. The CPW booklet gives you the sunrise/sunset tables, but also notes correction times based on your location away from Denver where their table is based on. That can vary by more than 10 minutes.
I check my sunrise/sunset on my GPS on the area I hunt and tell everyone I'm with we have from XX to XX to shoot.
hunterdoug
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2006
- Messages
- 1,858
- Reaction score
- 12
Good story and an upstanding ending, and you brought home some meat.
7mallards
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2011
- Messages
- 916
- Reaction score
- 0
Real good story and even a better ending... Doesn't matter if it is 5 minutes early late or a minute either way the law is the law.. Great job showing restraint. The best part of this story is that there is a story because if you had shot late you would not bet telling the same story on a web site because you would have known it was not the right thing to do..
See guys shoot early and late all the time on the public refuges for waterfowl and it sucks fo rthose who do the right thing..
You did the right thing...
atiotic-wavin-flag
See guys shoot early and late all the time on the public refuges for waterfowl and it sucks fo rthose who do the right thing..
You did the right thing...
atiotic-wavin-flagI would have drilled one when they were out at 200 yards because it was still legal light but getting darker. Sorry for the confusion-
Plain and simple. The world needs more hunters like you. Never be sad you did the right thing. I truly believe it will pay off eventually. Congratulations and making the right choice and knowing you did the right thing. We all come into those situations weather it's a duck in the decoys before shooting time or bigger stakes like yours. Be proud you didn't shoot and it's not greedy to want a closer ethical shot or a more mature animal.
