Curious, First Timers and Encounters..

[PredatorX]

It offers one of the greatest adventures in hunting. I think about it or do something related to it (train, read,scout,etc) every day.

In my first year we had a calf jump over us as we knelt behind a log. Stupidist thing I ever did was not take cows when I had the chances.

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[Wentworth6]

First timer here,
No exp elk hunting. 16;year old son and I. I’m 54. I realize how big it all is like you all have said. Our first year and he shot a cow in southern Colorado. I waited 35 years to put my hands on that elk. We took a chance and went and did it. Even if we had no success the time out there and recon for the future would have been worth it. We are all in. Hooked like many here have posted. My first post and I wish to say to anyone thinking about elk hunting. Just get the tag and do it. Read all the old posts here and research research and pull the trigger.
Thanks again

 

[sneaky]

First timer here,
No exp elk hunting. 16;year old son and I. I’m 54. I realize how big it all is like you all have said. Our first year and he shot a cow in southern Colorado. I waited 35 years to put my hands on that elk. We took a chance and went and did it. Even if we had no success the time out there and recon for the future would have been worth it. We are all in. Hooked like many here have posted. My first post and I wish to say to anyone thinking about elk hunting. Just get the tag and do it. Read all the old posts here and research research and pull the trigger.
Thanks again

Welcome to Rokslide!

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[AMMOT]

I my self also a first timer on rokslide, love the site.i went to the mountains 8 years in a row,it took me 4 years to shoot my first bull,i called in 2 5x5s to 15 yards of course the second one was bigger so I was waiting for the shot on that one,i almost blew it,the first elk busted me,but it all worked out good in the end.lots of hard work,i have not been in 4 years,but ive got the itch bad,making plans to head out this fall with my 18 year old son,it will be his first year,it is something every avid hunter should experience in his lifetime,the whole package is something to see,from the drive across this country till the first time you see those mountains,till the first animal you see,it is absolutely one of the most jaw dropping experiences a man can have

 

[5MilesBack]

A guy could easily study up on elk and calling techniques beforehand and get into elk their first time out. My first archery hunt I'd had my bow for less than 3 months before opening day, had a Primos blue reed bugle, and a couple cow calls. Opening morning I hiked in in the dark and at first light from on top of a ridge side, I let out my first bugle. I immediately got a response from directly below me in the timber so I waited and waited and nothing showed. We went back and forth bugling for a little while until I got bored with that and dove off the side after him. I eventually got to within 50 yards of a bachelor group of bulls......2 raghorns and a decent 5x5. The two raghorns were bedded and the 5x5 was standing but was covered by some bushes. After a few minutes the two raghorns stood and I could have shot one of them, but after seeing the bigger 5x5 I was hoping to get a shot at him. I didn't and they eventually moved out of sight and that was that.

I did shoot a raghorn bull later on that hunt on the 12th of September, but I was into elk most every day. I look back on that first year and today I can't even stand hearing those Primos bugles. This Pilgrim has come a loooooong ways since then.

 

[rayporter]

the few guys I have taken hunting all have one thing in common. they all say "you told me it would be hard, but you never said it would be this hard"--it aint nothing like tv.

 

[Wentworth6]

Thanks Sneaky
We’ve got the bug and are planning out next trip now. This site is awesome. Gave up T.v to get in shape and read old Rokslide posts. Happy new year to all.

 

[Stilpr]

Google earth lies, videos and pictures of terrain are deceiving. I almost peed myself and definitely did heart damage the first time I got really close.

Can’t wait to do it again.

 

[Mrfoozle]

Flew out to Colorado this year from the east coast, and hit the ground exploring a unit, with the goal of gaining on the ground intel for next years hunt. The trip was a success, and we know what and where we want to do and go next year, but making contact and getting a successful stalk on an animal wasn't possible for us.

I do expect that next year we will have encounters, and be able to atleast start learning that part of the hunt beyond locating the animals on a vast landscape.

tldr: its difficult to pick an area from the internet, and bag a bull the first year.

 

[BKhunter]

Coming from NYC I went the other year for the first time for an OTC archery hunt in CO. It was a lot of walking and not laying eyes on an elk. I saw plenty of sign though. Ran into mule deer and moose. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and can't wait to do it again. From what I read when I got back was that when I went was one of the toughest times to hunt that year due to the heat and lack of talking. I'm sure I need to go a few more times to learn what I did right and wrong but I need to learn more about animal behavior and in my opinion I'm not getting that out of books, I've tried. Open to suggestions if anyone has good material to read. Do yourself the favor and go it will be the best thing you ever do.

 

[flatlanderhuffandpuff]

First trip was a meticulously planned week long DIY for 4 first timers. We packed in 5 miles into the most rugged terrain I have ever been in. It was so steep we were al ready to call it at one time or another on the hike in. If I was alone I don't know if I would have ever got back in.

Scouted for a full day from camp without locating elk. Saw a small herd on the morning of the first day with no shot. Had a nice bull sneak in on my evening sit without seeing him until his head was hidden, wind shifted and he blew out without offering a shot.

Didn't see anything over the next 3 days and dad got a cow on the last day.

I will echo what everyone else is saying about the terrain. I knew from friends the area was very steep, but it didn't prepare me for just how steep it was. We did some hikes in the dark that I wouldn't have done if I could have seen just how far down it was.

Didn't see another group the entire week we were back and loved every minute of it. It obviously was better because we got to haul some amazing meat out of the mountains but it would have been as memorable if we hadn't even seen an elk.

 

[Steelhead]

Scouting Day before opener we stumbled across a 6 point herd bull with a half dozen cows, a couple raghorns and a few calfs. Vertical terrain, half burned, half treed, half open rockslides and…they evaporated. Spend the next 7 days chasing that bull. Bugling, getting responses and realizing he’s just moving away from our bugles, trying to get out ahead of him and getting so close the cows get bunched up staring right at me through the trees, trying to figure it out, standing dead still at a crouch so long my leg muscles are about to fail…the cows evaporate and the bull never appears. Watching him running his herd across an open sidehill 300 yards away and dropping 1,000 feet into the draw to intercept, realizing there is another, louder, bolder bull and herd already down there, growling, bugling, the air thick with elk smell, both bulls screaming at eachother as we work our way within 30 yards in heavy pine, glimpses of the cows, then…moving away, the bolder bull chasing “our” 6 point herd up and over the ridge…and the next ridge…and the next…within about 10 minutes…then barely able to hear their ongoing bugles they are so far away as we stare off in the direction they bailed. Gone for the day. We climb back out of that damn draw.
Felt hopeless many times. Demeaning, disheartening, but got back up each morning and kept moving. The entire time my legs felt waterlogged. My lungs were inconsequential because I usually wasn’t moving fast enough to get them pumping. Climbing uphill and downhill. Attempting in vain to pace myself but never feeling light. Except when those critters bugled, then it was like I was reborn. Dry and dusty the entire time. Lots of elk sign but very little, very little interaction. Pushed past the comfort zone into terrain I didn’t want to go and were rewarded by a couple curious raghorns. The only critters close enough to even attempt a shot at the entire week. Packing the meat back to spike camp and being aware on how slow I was going, counting the steps between short breaks. Hating it.
My wife told me I smelled like a homeless person when I got back… but dirtier. I’ll be going again this season for sure.

 

[ChrisS]

The mountains are WAAAAYYYYY freaking bigger than you think they are. Your lungs will burn way more than you think they can. Your legs will feel like they have lead cores at times. When you think you have covered 4-5 miles, you will just barely be getting close to 1. You may very well not find an elk. You may find an elk and if you do there is a good chance you wont get a shot because the wind is magnetized to always blow directly to the elk. Your feet will hurt, your legs will hurt, your pride will hurt, it will be the most awesome hunt you have ever been on period.

I think one of the reasons is that distance is an optical illusion because the western areas are so much more open than those in the east. You look across a draw and figure that can't be much more than a mile or so and maybe a 1,000 ft higher in elevation. Then you start walking (and walking, and walking, and walking) and its much further in reality.