First Colorado elk hunt

[Jlowry809]

Headed home from my first Colorado elk hunt and I’m hooked. I was shooting 140g bergers out of my 6.5 PRC Tikka. A group of 7 of us came and hunted in groups of 2-3 with OTC elk tags. Plan was to take the first legal bull I could and managed to do it on day 2. Me and a buddy did a quick 1.5 mile hike in to a small corner of public land on a mountain that is bordered by private and no access public trust land.

Right at sunrise my partner spotted two bulls, a nice 6x6 and a smaller rag-horned 3x1 bull with the main portion of his left antler broken off at the base along with the left tine broken off half way up. The right tine was clearly over 5 inches so he was good to go. 515 yards slight up hill with a light 4-5 mile per hour breeze.

I aimed for a lung shot and was able to spot my impact, exactly where I was aiming. He ran about 75 yrds and collapsed.

My buddy ended up missing his first shot but put 3 into his bull, one of which was a lung shot but the bull didn’t drop. Another hunter in the area shot the bull and lunged him a second time and he dropped. We were unsure of the laws of who would be able to claim the bull and after the group of 4 hunters challenged us to a fist fight over it my buddy said they could have it. We are both cops and didn’t want to get into anything crazy that would jeopardize our jobs.

I didn’t take many photos while processing but didn’t have too much meat damage. Berger did its job and opened up shredding the lungs and lodged into the inside scapula of the opposite shoulder since he was quartering slightly away from me.

2 other guys in the group also got some decent bulls.

 

[waspocrew]

Congrats! Sounds like it definitely won't be your last!

 

[Chief23]

Job well done !

 

[JRay]

Congrats

 

[RufusB.Marion]

Would love to hear more about the dispute, sounds like a sketchy deal. Does anyone know the law on who claims the kill, first to touch it lol? Last bullet in?

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Congrats, yall did well! I've always been afraid of a dispute like that in the backcountry, wondered how it plays out in my mind many times.

 

[eddielasvegas]

Congrats and good story.

And not to be condescending, but y'all handled that bull kill question perfectly. Well done.


Eddie

 

[rcompart]

Congrats on your bull and sorry to hear about your buddy’s. I too am extremely interested in how something like that would be handled from a legal standpoint.

 

[RufusB.Marion]

This appears to clear the legality side up - https://missoulian.com/lifestyles/r...cle_c8925436-236d-5951-97cc-18c84e3f689a.html

 

[ScreamingPotato]

This appears to clear the legality side up - https://missoulian.com/lifestyles/r...cle_c8925436-236d-5951-97cc-18c84e3f689a.html

So it's not "first blood" as far as the law is concerned.

^That story sounds like BS though, Elk was dead 100 yards away and the other group supposedly shot it... bet you $10 they shot it postmortem.

 

[Mtndawger]

Would love to hear more about the dispute, sounds like a sketchy deal. Does anyone know the law on who claims the kill, first to touch it lol? Last bullet in?

Pretty sure the law supports the bully in this case. Doesn’t make it right though.

 

[Mtndawger]

Headed home from my first Colorado elk hunt and I’m hooked. I was shooting 140g bergers out of my 6.5 PRC Tikka. A group of 7 of us came and hunted in groups of 2-3 with OTC elk tags. Plan was to take the first legal bull I could and managed to do it on day 2. Me and a buddy did a quick 1.5 mile hike in to a small corner of public land on a mountain that is bordered by private and no access public trust land.

Right at sunrise my partner spotted two bulls, a nice 6x6 and a smaller rag-horned 3x1 bull with the main portion of his left antler broken off at the base along with the left tine broken off half way up. The right tine was clearly over 5 inches so he was good to go. 515 yards slight up hill with a light 4-5 mile per hour breeze.

I aimed for a lung shot and was able to spot my impact, exactly where I was aiming. He ran about 75 yrds and collapsed.

My buddy ended up missing his first shot but put 3 into his bull, one of which was a lung shot but the bull didn’t drop. Another hunter in the area shot the bull and lunged him a second time and he dropped. We were unsure of the laws of who would be able to claim the bull and after the group of 4 hunters challenged us to a fist fight over it my buddy said they could have it. We are both cops and didn’t want to get into anything crazy that would jeopardize our jobs.

I didn’t take many photos while processing but didn’t have too much meat damage. Berger did its job and opened up shredding the lungs and lodged into the inside scapula of the opposite shoulder since he was quartering slightly away from me.

2 other guys in the group also got some decent bulls.

Thanks for the story. Too bad you had to experience that. All too common is the state of elk hunting in Colorado anymore. Too many guys stepping all over each other out there turns it into competitive hunting. It’s one of the reasons I work hard to get away from all that into less occupied terrain. It’s harder than one would think though.