GunsAreFun
WKR
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2019
- Messages
- 1,911
Was in Colorado last week. We had not been hearing elk except early and late in the day. We hear a bugle a few hundred yards away and take off after checking wind. It’s about 6pm. We are moving down hill through some timber through tons of recent sign.
We get to the bottom of the drainage which was some aspens of varying sizes and pretty narrow and see a group of elk feeding on a sage brush “hill” on the opposite side at 140 yards to my left. It was a bull and 15 cows at first and they just kept coming…counted at least 40 with several spikes, a 2x2, and the larger bull. They’re feeding our way and toward a private field we’ve seen them in multiple nights. It’s 40-50 yards from my spot to the hillside directly across from me, and I have good cover.
The person with me has a decoy but isn’t a competent caller and is behind me 15-20 yards. I am willing to shoot the first cow that comes into range unless a legal bull is shortly behind.
In the photo below, you’ll see our yellow travel path, the red wind direction, and the green elk direction.
The wind, while heading their direction, was staying in the ditch, and they were 30’ vertical above it. The terrain upwind from us is open, young pine forest that provided little cover, was crunchy, and VERY steep.
The bull was staying up high bugling, chuckling, and scent checking cows. The cows and calves were mewing and chirping. Everyone seemed happy. I decided to stay put and let them work their way it to range. This had the added advantage of letting me catch my breath, get those initial excitement jitters out, and range several markers. I was calm as can be and ready to shoot at my max range of 50y (I practice 65 regularly but don’t shoot that far in the field).
Moving up didn’t seem practical with that many ears and eyes. I considered calling, but they were on their way to a destination and were maybe 5 minutes from being in my zone anyway so didn’t want to risk drawing attention to my area (even if I called behind me or backed up into cover) or introducing a foreign animal to a content crew.
Well, some calves were playing around and wondered down into the ditch. A cow went in to round them up, and I believe winded me, though they didn’t blow out. They just kind of lightly jogged and then fed the other direction. As soon as I didn’t have eyes on me, I ran up the drainage and tried lost calf calling. Apparently I was successful in getting a couple cows to come back but I couldn’t see them. My friend could see them but he couldn’t see me once I ran up and he couldn’t move because the cows would see him.
We did get back on them later on their way to another field but that’s not the point of the post.
Anyone think I should have done something differently?
We get to the bottom of the drainage which was some aspens of varying sizes and pretty narrow and see a group of elk feeding on a sage brush “hill” on the opposite side at 140 yards to my left. It was a bull and 15 cows at first and they just kept coming…counted at least 40 with several spikes, a 2x2, and the larger bull. They’re feeding our way and toward a private field we’ve seen them in multiple nights. It’s 40-50 yards from my spot to the hillside directly across from me, and I have good cover.
The person with me has a decoy but isn’t a competent caller and is behind me 15-20 yards. I am willing to shoot the first cow that comes into range unless a legal bull is shortly behind.
In the photo below, you’ll see our yellow travel path, the red wind direction, and the green elk direction.
The wind, while heading their direction, was staying in the ditch, and they were 30’ vertical above it. The terrain upwind from us is open, young pine forest that provided little cover, was crunchy, and VERY steep.
The bull was staying up high bugling, chuckling, and scent checking cows. The cows and calves were mewing and chirping. Everyone seemed happy. I decided to stay put and let them work their way it to range. This had the added advantage of letting me catch my breath, get those initial excitement jitters out, and range several markers. I was calm as can be and ready to shoot at my max range of 50y (I practice 65 regularly but don’t shoot that far in the field).
Moving up didn’t seem practical with that many ears and eyes. I considered calling, but they were on their way to a destination and were maybe 5 minutes from being in my zone anyway so didn’t want to risk drawing attention to my area (even if I called behind me or backed up into cover) or introducing a foreign animal to a content crew.
Well, some calves were playing around and wondered down into the ditch. A cow went in to round them up, and I believe winded me, though they didn’t blow out. They just kind of lightly jogged and then fed the other direction. As soon as I didn’t have eyes on me, I ran up the drainage and tried lost calf calling. Apparently I was successful in getting a couple cows to come back but I couldn’t see them. My friend could see them but he couldn’t see me once I ran up and he couldn’t move because the cows would see him.
We did get back on them later on their way to another field but that’s not the point of the post.
Anyone think I should have done something differently?
