Good luck to our elk hunting brethren!
08-30-2007, 08:20 AM
#12
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Dover, PA USA
Posts: 5,497
RE: Good luck to our elk hunting brethren!
I have been texting with Greg a bit and he finally called yesterday to give me an update.........
Said the pressure in the Montrose CO. area from other hunters is incredible.
He got in an altercation with one guy because he scouted and found a nice wallow that another guy supposedly hunted the last 4 yrs. Greg had a treestand hung over it and the guy followed him allthe way from the gate to the wallow even after Greg TOLD him he was hunting there.[:@]
The guy just hounded him until Greg finally said just take the stupid spot.
(Of course the jerk shot a nice 4X4 bull that night [:'(])
I guess it's tough to get away from people because of all the hidden backroads that people come in from. He'll hike miles and think he's away from everyone and someone will come in from a road 1/2 mile the OPPOSITE direction.
All the early sign dried up and he's trying to relocate the scattered herd.
Had a spike at 3.5yrds and a couple other spikes in range but no legal bulls and not even a single cow yet.
Sounds like tough hunting but he's at it until tomorrow afternoon.
Said the pressure in the Montrose CO. area from other hunters is incredible.
He got in an altercation with one guy because he scouted and found a nice wallow that another guy supposedly hunted the last 4 yrs. Greg had a treestand hung over it and the guy followed him allthe way from the gate to the wallow even after Greg TOLD him he was hunting there.[:@]
The guy just hounded him until Greg finally said just take the stupid spot.
(Of course the jerk shot a nice 4X4 bull that night [:'(])
I guess it's tough to get away from people because of all the hidden backroads that people come in from. He'll hike miles and think he's away from everyone and someone will come in from a road 1/2 mile the OPPOSITE direction.
All the early sign dried up and he's trying to relocate the scattered herd.
Had a spike at 3.5yrds and a couple other spikes in range but no legal bulls and not even a single cow yet.
Sounds like tough hunting but he's at it until tomorrow afternoon.
09-01-2007, 08:43 PM
#16
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Jackson, Missouri
Posts: 7,051
RE: Good luck to our elk hunting brethren!
Thanks for updating the guys in my absence, Matt...
You both missed; he was from Wisconsin. And if I'd known how skittish the elk were going to get after the second day of the season and clear out, I'd probably not have been so nice to his whiny little butt. They just literally disappeared after two days.
One of my hunting buddies and I got out the topo map on the third day and found the nearest hellishly scary canyon/mountain range we could find that we thought they may have escaped to. According to my GPS, it was nearly 450 feet straight down... Literally. My fanny pack touched the ground behind me more than once as I walked down into it. I'm not entirely sure how we would have got an elk out of there if we shot one, but we were going to give it our best attempt in finding one; that's for sure. Though the area looked absolutley incredible, and we stopped seeing as much human sign, we found no fresh elk sign.
My other camp partner found another area that night in his search, and we all three moved into it the next day. They got to see a monster chocolate-phase black bear approaching an cow elk carcass that had been stripped (at 20 yards!), and we're hoping to have some pics turn out from those encounters.
I did end up finally getting a shot at a cow elk Thursday morning. She was leading her calf down the mountain along a ridge which dumped into the bottom of which I had planted myself over another wallow we'd found. I hadn't brought the treestand out in a few days, but on this trip I'd lugged it out the mile-plus trek back in there this morning so I could increase my effective shooting range since I was going to be basically stationary.
I had tried to call her and her calf down into the bottom with me -- very softly -- when I saw they had an opportunity to come down. I say softly, because one of my hunting partners had three different cows bolt at the first sound of a cow call. (When Matt said the pressure was unbelievable, he wasn't kidding; the first couple days, any cow call would immediately be answered from four different directions with other cow calls.)
Since I didn't turn them, I started scanning ahead of the elk in the direction they were walking. I was basically eye-level with them, and 33 yards away. I picked out a pie-plate sized opening just ahead of the cow and came to full draw. When I saw the front of her shoulder enter, I let the Muzzy-tipped ACC fly. I cow-called to her in rapid succession as she crashed down the ridge slope in the direction she was heading, and I saw her trip over a log as she turned back uphill, momentarily giving me cause for hope.
After a 30-minute wait before climbing down, my heart sank to find one extremely stinky, slimy arrow covered with greenish poo. Not the tiniest drop of blood could be seen anywhere. My first thought was that I had to have somehow been the victim of a limb deflection, but I later came to the conclusion that the arrow was exactly where it should have been given my shooting position. And shooting through a pie-plate sized hole at 33 yards after the thousands of shots I've taken this summer at 50 and kept them in a softball-sized area had presented no difficulty; I wasn't nervous in the least, just ready to seal the deal. I think what got me was the speed at which elk walk. The animals are plain immense, and a second's worth of walking probably resulted in her moving that much to cause me to miss the vitals.
As I get caught up from being absent for almost a week and a half (over 100 personal e-mails and probably twice that many work e-mails), I'll try to post a thread showing some of the pics that were taken out there. The country is awe-inspiring, and I can't wait to head back out there next year.
You both missed; he was from Wisconsin. And if I'd known how skittish the elk were going to get after the second day of the season and clear out, I'd probably not have been so nice to his whiny little butt. They just literally disappeared after two days.
One of my hunting buddies and I got out the topo map on the third day and found the nearest hellishly scary canyon/mountain range we could find that we thought they may have escaped to. According to my GPS, it was nearly 450 feet straight down... Literally. My fanny pack touched the ground behind me more than once as I walked down into it. I'm not entirely sure how we would have got an elk out of there if we shot one, but we were going to give it our best attempt in finding one; that's for sure. Though the area looked absolutley incredible, and we stopped seeing as much human sign, we found no fresh elk sign.
My other camp partner found another area that night in his search, and we all three moved into it the next day. They got to see a monster chocolate-phase black bear approaching an cow elk carcass that had been stripped (at 20 yards!), and we're hoping to have some pics turn out from those encounters.
I did end up finally getting a shot at a cow elk Thursday morning. She was leading her calf down the mountain along a ridge which dumped into the bottom of which I had planted myself over another wallow we'd found. I hadn't brought the treestand out in a few days, but on this trip I'd lugged it out the mile-plus trek back in there this morning so I could increase my effective shooting range since I was going to be basically stationary.
I had tried to call her and her calf down into the bottom with me -- very softly -- when I saw they had an opportunity to come down. I say softly, because one of my hunting partners had three different cows bolt at the first sound of a cow call. (When Matt said the pressure was unbelievable, he wasn't kidding; the first couple days, any cow call would immediately be answered from four different directions with other cow calls.)
Since I didn't turn them, I started scanning ahead of the elk in the direction they were walking. I was basically eye-level with them, and 33 yards away. I picked out a pie-plate sized opening just ahead of the cow and came to full draw. When I saw the front of her shoulder enter, I let the Muzzy-tipped ACC fly. I cow-called to her in rapid succession as she crashed down the ridge slope in the direction she was heading, and I saw her trip over a log as she turned back uphill, momentarily giving me cause for hope.
After a 30-minute wait before climbing down, my heart sank to find one extremely stinky, slimy arrow covered with greenish poo. Not the tiniest drop of blood could be seen anywhere. My first thought was that I had to have somehow been the victim of a limb deflection, but I later came to the conclusion that the arrow was exactly where it should have been given my shooting position. And shooting through a pie-plate sized hole at 33 yards after the thousands of shots I've taken this summer at 50 and kept them in a softball-sized area had presented no difficulty; I wasn't nervous in the least, just ready to seal the deal. I think what got me was the speed at which elk walk. The animals are plain immense, and a second's worth of walking probably resulted in her moving that much to cause me to miss the vitals.
As I get caught up from being absent for almost a week and a half (over 100 personal e-mails and probably twice that many work e-mails), I'll try to post a thread showing some of the pics that were taken out there. The country is awe-inspiring, and I can't wait to head back out there next year.
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