ShedHunterMD
FNG
It all started with a coffee
About a year ago my buddy Steve called and asked if I was interested in going on an elk hunt with him. It had been about 4 years since our Moose hunt together and he thought we were overdue for another hunt. I was instantly pumped to go on this hunt, Steve has hunted for elk in many states but this particular hunt is exceptional with quality animals. Elk was #1 on my bucket list.
Friday September the 8th 2017 I left the house and stopped for a coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts, I peeled off a game piece and won a free bagel, and from the point on I knew it would be a good trip! Everything fell into place, our flights were all early and we had zero mishaps with baggage. Even flying home with my meat in the luggage we had no problems.
September 9th we took to the sky making our way to Grand Junction Colorado. We had no responsibility for the next 24 hours, so we decided to have a few beers, starting at 10:30AM and had our last beer 13.5 hours later 12:00 AM.
We had a great dinner with the ranch owner and guide then went to bed. I did not sleep much because of the anticipation of the next day’s hunt. In the morning we met up with the guide and bought all of our groceries for the week and left Grand Junction for the ranch. The drive was about 1 ½ hours from town, we were settled in by 2:00pm. The area has had very little rain so we decided to hunt a waterhole. There were some pretty good elk on trail cameras at my location, 290”-310” range. I did hours of research for field judging elk. I also spoke with the ranch owner as he drove me to the waterhole for my first sit. He told me to look for any type of non-typical points explaining that often the older bulls have some extra stuff on their headgear. He dropped me off on top of the mountain and I snuck down to the waterhole.
At about 5:00pm I heard my 1st bugle. Over the course of about 1 ½ hours I heard the same bull bugle 9 more times and he was getting closer. I looked at my phone and looked at the trail cam time the bulls were there. They were there at 6:20pm, I was very nervous one of them was going to come and I would be stuck with a decision to shoot a 290-300” bull on the 1st day. Fortunately for me a much larger bull walked to the pond! I instantly knew he was a shooter, he has non-typical points and super length in tines. In order to not be seen I had to draw my bow by spreading my arms in front of me, instead of drawing the bow like normal. Drawing my bow like this made the tendons in both elbows pop, it was extremely painful. After I got the bow back the bull had already walked up the pond bank and I was sure he was going to blow out of there. I made a quick shot that hit back and exited about 8” behind his shoulder. This all transpired in about 10 seconds. He ran off and stopped about 75 yards behind the pond, I could see the blood pumping from behind the shoulder, and I knew he was a goner. As it got dark I snuck out of there and we decided to play it safe with a morning recovery. At day break we went to look for him. Steve and the ranch owner Warren took up the blood trail and me and Jay the guide paralleled them about 75 yards away. We walked up the canyon to get some visibility and that is when we spotted him lying in his bed, they are tough animals! I stayed there and watched him for about an hour. All the sudden he slowly rose to his feet and walked up the mountain, I though he just walked out of my life for good. We walked on the opposite canyon rim to try to look across and get eyes on him, we never did spot him. We had rain coming in fast and we decided we had to trail him right away. Warren got on the tracks fast and I kept my eyes peeled ahead of us. Warren followed his tracks through countless other elk tracks; I was very impressed with his tracking skills. After about 1.5 miles we reached the end of the mesa. We snuck out on a rock outcrop and I could hear my heart beat in my ear, that is when we realized it was not my heart beat it was the bull directly below us breathing very heavy! I peeked over the cliff and saw the bulls antler tips directly below me about 10’ away, he did not know we were there! I nocked an arrow and very slowly leaned over the cliff and sent the final arrow through his lungs. It was a bittersweet moment, to be in such a pretty area and to be so close to a magnificent animal as he took his last breath was truly a challenge for me emotionally.
Check out the movie of the finishing shot at the bottom of this story.
We took some pictures then Warren left to round up help, it was just me the elk and fantastic view for 2 hours when they returned.
Once the crew got there it was lots of high fives then getting right to work.
We named him the Bow Hook bull.
After we got the elk taken care of it was time to start looking for a Mule deer. It was early in the week I had already decided it was going to have to be big for me to shoot. The number in my head was about 185” to be a shooter. I got up with Jay the next morning and we drove about 5 miles and we were in a ton of deer. I saw about 150 doe Mule deer but only a few bucks. We were about to leave when I spotted antlers just cresting the mountain. We determined he was about 165”. I decide to put a stalk on him, I got within 35 yards and watched him get up and run away. It felt real risky passing such a nice buck.
That afternoon Steve and Jay saw 3 nice bucks one with a double main beam, Warren and I put a stalk on the 3 times with no luck. Warren and I decided to head down to his ranch headquarter where he has about 100 acres of alfalfa. Warren told me that when he was cutting hay in the summer he saw a drop tine buck, that had my full attention.
The deer have been moving off the mountain and into these fields more each day. The ranch helper witnessed 17 bucks there that morning. Warren and I kept glassing the fields a nice group of bucks came out, but again decided they were not big enough.
We counted 13 bucks in total, so we knew we were missing 4 bucks, since 17 were spotted that morning. We drove over to Warren’s neighbor’s field across a small stream and we spotted 4 more bucks, they were our missing bucks. I got my binos on them and instantly said I would shoot the one with a drop tine. He had great tine length and was not crab clawed like so many mule deer are. We put a long stalk on him and got a 45 yard shot at last light. Both Warren and I did not see where the arrow hit, so we confirmed the hit with blood and came back the next morning, found him 100 yards from the hit!
The buck gross scored 182 ¾” and the bull scores over 360. Both are gross scoring Boone & Crockett's, they won’t make B&C after deductions but it sure is cool to be that close and they are both easily eligible for Pope & Young.
Steve had opportunities at bulls smaller then what he has already killed, so he elected to pass them. He had a great time and is always fun to be in camp with. Without Steve generosity and selflessness I could have never experienced such an awesome place, can’t thank him enough!
Within 6 hours of my bull hitting the ground the pictures of my elk made the rounds locally and a hunter from the adjacent public hunting ground had been keeping tabs on my bull and saw him in a 5 mile area. He was nice enough to send me video of the bull on public in velvet.
https://youtu.be/jxoFJSClmRs
Here is my finishing shot video on my bull
https://youtu.be/6_4V6dL9UQo
I had to limit most of the pictures,
To see all pics click this linK: https://marylandwhitetail.websiteto...lorado-elk-rut-journal-2017-8947884?trail=100
About a year ago my buddy Steve called and asked if I was interested in going on an elk hunt with him. It had been about 4 years since our Moose hunt together and he thought we were overdue for another hunt. I was instantly pumped to go on this hunt, Steve has hunted for elk in many states but this particular hunt is exceptional with quality animals. Elk was #1 on my bucket list.
Friday September the 8th 2017 I left the house and stopped for a coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts, I peeled off a game piece and won a free bagel, and from the point on I knew it would be a good trip! Everything fell into place, our flights were all early and we had zero mishaps with baggage. Even flying home with my meat in the luggage we had no problems.
September 9th we took to the sky making our way to Grand Junction Colorado. We had no responsibility for the next 24 hours, so we decided to have a few beers, starting at 10:30AM and had our last beer 13.5 hours later 12:00 AM.
We had a great dinner with the ranch owner and guide then went to bed. I did not sleep much because of the anticipation of the next day’s hunt. In the morning we met up with the guide and bought all of our groceries for the week and left Grand Junction for the ranch. The drive was about 1 ½ hours from town, we were settled in by 2:00pm. The area has had very little rain so we decided to hunt a waterhole. There were some pretty good elk on trail cameras at my location, 290”-310” range. I did hours of research for field judging elk. I also spoke with the ranch owner as he drove me to the waterhole for my first sit. He told me to look for any type of non-typical points explaining that often the older bulls have some extra stuff on their headgear. He dropped me off on top of the mountain and I snuck down to the waterhole.
At about 5:00pm I heard my 1st bugle. Over the course of about 1 ½ hours I heard the same bull bugle 9 more times and he was getting closer. I looked at my phone and looked at the trail cam time the bulls were there. They were there at 6:20pm, I was very nervous one of them was going to come and I would be stuck with a decision to shoot a 290-300” bull on the 1st day. Fortunately for me a much larger bull walked to the pond! I instantly knew he was a shooter, he has non-typical points and super length in tines. In order to not be seen I had to draw my bow by spreading my arms in front of me, instead of drawing the bow like normal. Drawing my bow like this made the tendons in both elbows pop, it was extremely painful. After I got the bow back the bull had already walked up the pond bank and I was sure he was going to blow out of there. I made a quick shot that hit back and exited about 8” behind his shoulder. This all transpired in about 10 seconds. He ran off and stopped about 75 yards behind the pond, I could see the blood pumping from behind the shoulder, and I knew he was a goner. As it got dark I snuck out of there and we decided to play it safe with a morning recovery. At day break we went to look for him. Steve and the ranch owner Warren took up the blood trail and me and Jay the guide paralleled them about 75 yards away. We walked up the canyon to get some visibility and that is when we spotted him lying in his bed, they are tough animals! I stayed there and watched him for about an hour. All the sudden he slowly rose to his feet and walked up the mountain, I though he just walked out of my life for good. We walked on the opposite canyon rim to try to look across and get eyes on him, we never did spot him. We had rain coming in fast and we decided we had to trail him right away. Warren got on the tracks fast and I kept my eyes peeled ahead of us. Warren followed his tracks through countless other elk tracks; I was very impressed with his tracking skills. After about 1.5 miles we reached the end of the mesa. We snuck out on a rock outcrop and I could hear my heart beat in my ear, that is when we realized it was not my heart beat it was the bull directly below us breathing very heavy! I peeked over the cliff and saw the bulls antler tips directly below me about 10’ away, he did not know we were there! I nocked an arrow and very slowly leaned over the cliff and sent the final arrow through his lungs. It was a bittersweet moment, to be in such a pretty area and to be so close to a magnificent animal as he took his last breath was truly a challenge for me emotionally.
Check out the movie of the finishing shot at the bottom of this story.
We took some pictures then Warren left to round up help, it was just me the elk and fantastic view for 2 hours when they returned.
Once the crew got there it was lots of high fives then getting right to work.
We named him the Bow Hook bull.
After we got the elk taken care of it was time to start looking for a Mule deer. It was early in the week I had already decided it was going to have to be big for me to shoot. The number in my head was about 185” to be a shooter. I got up with Jay the next morning and we drove about 5 miles and we were in a ton of deer. I saw about 150 doe Mule deer but only a few bucks. We were about to leave when I spotted antlers just cresting the mountain. We determined he was about 165”. I decide to put a stalk on him, I got within 35 yards and watched him get up and run away. It felt real risky passing such a nice buck.
That afternoon Steve and Jay saw 3 nice bucks one with a double main beam, Warren and I put a stalk on the 3 times with no luck. Warren and I decided to head down to his ranch headquarter where he has about 100 acres of alfalfa. Warren told me that when he was cutting hay in the summer he saw a drop tine buck, that had my full attention.
The deer have been moving off the mountain and into these fields more each day. The ranch helper witnessed 17 bucks there that morning. Warren and I kept glassing the fields a nice group of bucks came out, but again decided they were not big enough.
We counted 13 bucks in total, so we knew we were missing 4 bucks, since 17 were spotted that morning. We drove over to Warren’s neighbor’s field across a small stream and we spotted 4 more bucks, they were our missing bucks. I got my binos on them and instantly said I would shoot the one with a drop tine. He had great tine length and was not crab clawed like so many mule deer are. We put a long stalk on him and got a 45 yard shot at last light. Both Warren and I did not see where the arrow hit, so we confirmed the hit with blood and came back the next morning, found him 100 yards from the hit!
The buck gross scored 182 ¾” and the bull scores over 360. Both are gross scoring Boone & Crockett's, they won’t make B&C after deductions but it sure is cool to be that close and they are both easily eligible for Pope & Young.
Steve had opportunities at bulls smaller then what he has already killed, so he elected to pass them. He had a great time and is always fun to be in camp with. Without Steve generosity and selflessness I could have never experienced such an awesome place, can’t thank him enough!
Within 6 hours of my bull hitting the ground the pictures of my elk made the rounds locally and a hunter from the adjacent public hunting ground had been keeping tabs on my bull and saw him in a 5 mile area. He was nice enough to send me video of the bull on public in velvet.
https://youtu.be/jxoFJSClmRs
Here is my finishing shot video on my bull
https://youtu.be/6_4V6dL9UQo
I had to limit most of the pictures,
To see all pics click this linK: https://marylandwhitetail.websiteto...lorado-elk-rut-journal-2017-8947884?trail=100
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