FNG here in CO, first year out, DIY 2nd season OTC hunt. Everything, but meat in the freezer....
First, thank you all for graciously sharing your experiences, it put me in a position to succeed.
Last year the opportunity presented itself to fulfill a long term dream, move to CO for a great job! It also put the opportunity to elk hunt right in my backyard. Took a bit to settle into the job, but not long to start planning my elk hunt for this year. In January I started to plan the hunt with a fellow new transplant to CO, his being a little newer to CO we settled on the idea of an OTC hunt as he wouldn't be eligible for an in-state license until after the draw.
I was able to spend a good bit of time late this summer and into September getting to know the area I planned to hunt, it doesn't suck to spend your free time in the woods here. Ended up deciding to hunt an area 1.5 hrs up what has to be the worst road in Colorado, it's a love hate relationship with that road for sure.
The plan was to head up Thursday prior to season, pack 2-3 miles into an area where I thought there would still be water and set up a base camp that would put us in the middle of 4-5 drainages that I thought looked promising. A couple weeks prior to season my hunting partner tells me he probably won't be able to get out until Friday night or Saturday. Another buddy had also planned to come and camp/hang for the week, same story, he'd be up Thursday night or Friday.
Finally it's go time. I have pins dropped for my friends to find me and set out into the wilderness with all of the gear for base camp. I must have looked like a rented mule, passed a couple guys scouting mule deer, first question...."How far you plan on packing that in?" Not far, but at 12,800 ft the air is getting a little thin. Found a good spot to setup camp, get all setup and head out scouting. No sign or water to be found up high that evening, one area checked off. Settled into camp for the night and start messaging my buddies with location pins. First guy, "looks like I won't be able to drive up and camp in the truck until Sat night at the earliest". Second guy, "Went camping last week, should prob spend some time at the house, let me know if you need help packing an elk out".
This was not the plan....Thursday night I spent the coldest night of my life sleeping in my big ass tent next to the woodstove I couldn't use r/t the fire ban. Big Agnes I call BS on your 0 degree sleeping bag, not even close. Two insulated pads, a zero degree down bag, and all my clothes on and still froze my ass off at maybe 15 degrees.
I was slow to dethaw Friday morning, decided with out the ability to use the woodstove I should probably plan to camp at the truck the rest of the trip where I had another sleeping bag. Looked like camp needed to defrost, so I headed out to check out another area. Headed for the big rock outcropping I was hoping to glass from, had to pass through a saddle to get there. The woods started showing all the right signs as I passed through the saddle. Made it to the outcropping and discovered it din't offer any good glassing. Dipped back into the saddle and started working back towards camp, sign looking better and better. Followed the sign into a little meadow with a solid stream and tons of fresh sign. Bingo!
Back to base camp, then back to truck with a plan for the morning. Ran into a coworkers husband at the truck, whose hunt up north was cancelled d/t the fires. Invited him to join camp the next day instead of commuting on the terrible road. Opening morning I'm up early and headed for my spot at O dark thirty. 30 minutes up the trail, still an hr and a half before sunrise I hear a rifle crack back towards the truck. WTF? Someone spot light an animal on the way in? Nope, accidental discharge. Later heard the only casualty was a couple pairs of underoos, neither the shooter or the other guys still at the trucks were injured.
Bush wacking back to my meadow in the dark took 20 minutes longer than I had guessed, got there right at sun up. Sat all morning with not so much as a rabbit passing through the meadow. Hunt my way back to the truck for a hot lunch on my way to another area for the evening. Failed to head a key piece of advice, don't leave elk to find elk. That evening hunted from perfect glassing point, a finger point between two drainages, no elk, but a ton of fresh mule deer sign and a couple decent looking bucks.
Back at camp, my coworkers' husband was setting up camp and cooking an amazing fresh grouse dinner. Text from original hunting parter, "will be up tomorrow sometime". Spoke to the neighboring camp hunting deer, pointed them to the mule deer I found that evening. Over dinner, my new buddy and I start talking about am plans. He planned to hike in 5 miles to an area he had scouted Friday, I offered to join for the early morning hike in. Conversation starts around this other area a little closer he had found he might want to hunt, he describes a little, I start thinking it sounds an aweful lot like my secret meadow. Another beer, out come the maps. Yup, same damn meadow. New plan for the am. We agree first person to spot an elk gets the opportunity.
Based on me getting to the meadow late the first morning we head out a little earlier. Make our approach based on the wind and get to our spot right at legal shooting light. End up a little above my preferred spot on the side of a steep hill. We sit down, I pull out my binoculars. Holy Sh*t there's a bull! Get my buddy's attention and ask for his shooting sticks, he doesn't understand why the hell I want his shooting sticks. He looks up and sees not one, but three bulls in the meadow! He hands over the shooting sticks, I look back and the bulls are out of sight. They had walked the creek bed away from us and popped back out at 337 yards. That's fine, I practiced at 300yards all summer off my binocular tripod and pack. The trophy bull was already out of view headed into cover, I'd be happy with any legal bull. Split second broad side presentation, send it! Hit!! Top rest falls off of the shooting sticks. Bull spins, limping. Trophy bull comes back out into meadow and they all stand there broad side at 350 yards.
Me, to my buddy. "Shoot him!!!!!". He had set his rifle down 10 yards away while moving to spot for me....No go. I get the opportunity for a couple follow up shots, now trying to shoot off of broken shooting sticks, then my knee. No where else to move to and rest the rifle. Bulls take off, my bull keeping up, but limping. We give it as much time as I can stand and go get on the trail. No blood in the meadow. My buddy picks up the trail where they entered the woods. A little bit of blood, then 2-3ft spurts of arterial blood. Good blood trail for 1/2 mile, then it starts to decrease, never find an area where he layed down, I'm not feeling it. Last 1/4 mile we are hands and knees following intermittent pin pricks of blood. Then one last drop at the edge of an old road and a steep hillside with no clear path through the brush and the snow starts...
We did circles for an hr. Nada. Original hunting partner shows up and we spend another 2 hrs doing circles. Defeat.
One, bit of good news. Those neighboring mule deer hunters harvested a buck right where I said it would be that same morning.
Snow sets in legit that night, forecast says up to 2ft over the next 24 hrs in my location. But hey, I can use my fancy new woodstove, it and the tipi kicked ass in 40-50 mile an hr winds and snow. Wake up the next am to blowing snow storm, 1.5 hours up a crappy road with minimal truck recovery gear, but a least a weeks worth of supplies. I feel like I'd had my chance, and the original hunting partner felt risk/reward of staying wasn't there. End of season 1.
Have played this back over and over in my head...All I can say is I blew it. I took a split second shot at 337 yards with a steady cross wind at 20-25 miles an hr, enough to shift impact 6 inches. I'd love to blame the wind, but really it was me being excited to see my first bull, shooting off an unfamiliar rest, and taking a quick (but what felt good) shot. My best guess is that I hit him in the front shoulder. B/c some of you will want to know... and I've second guessed it. .308 165gr quality ammo.
Not the story I'd hoped to share, but I'll be back next year, better prepared and hopefully the story will end with meat in the freezer. Again thank you all!!
First, thank you all for graciously sharing your experiences, it put me in a position to succeed.
Last year the opportunity presented itself to fulfill a long term dream, move to CO for a great job! It also put the opportunity to elk hunt right in my backyard. Took a bit to settle into the job, but not long to start planning my elk hunt for this year. In January I started to plan the hunt with a fellow new transplant to CO, his being a little newer to CO we settled on the idea of an OTC hunt as he wouldn't be eligible for an in-state license until after the draw.
I was able to spend a good bit of time late this summer and into September getting to know the area I planned to hunt, it doesn't suck to spend your free time in the woods here. Ended up deciding to hunt an area 1.5 hrs up what has to be the worst road in Colorado, it's a love hate relationship with that road for sure.
The plan was to head up Thursday prior to season, pack 2-3 miles into an area where I thought there would still be water and set up a base camp that would put us in the middle of 4-5 drainages that I thought looked promising. A couple weeks prior to season my hunting partner tells me he probably won't be able to get out until Friday night or Saturday. Another buddy had also planned to come and camp/hang for the week, same story, he'd be up Thursday night or Friday.
Finally it's go time. I have pins dropped for my friends to find me and set out into the wilderness with all of the gear for base camp. I must have looked like a rented mule, passed a couple guys scouting mule deer, first question...."How far you plan on packing that in?" Not far, but at 12,800 ft the air is getting a little thin. Found a good spot to setup camp, get all setup and head out scouting. No sign or water to be found up high that evening, one area checked off. Settled into camp for the night and start messaging my buddies with location pins. First guy, "looks like I won't be able to drive up and camp in the truck until Sat night at the earliest". Second guy, "Went camping last week, should prob spend some time at the house, let me know if you need help packing an elk out".
This was not the plan....Thursday night I spent the coldest night of my life sleeping in my big ass tent next to the woodstove I couldn't use r/t the fire ban. Big Agnes I call BS on your 0 degree sleeping bag, not even close. Two insulated pads, a zero degree down bag, and all my clothes on and still froze my ass off at maybe 15 degrees.
I was slow to dethaw Friday morning, decided with out the ability to use the woodstove I should probably plan to camp at the truck the rest of the trip where I had another sleeping bag. Looked like camp needed to defrost, so I headed out to check out another area. Headed for the big rock outcropping I was hoping to glass from, had to pass through a saddle to get there. The woods started showing all the right signs as I passed through the saddle. Made it to the outcropping and discovered it din't offer any good glassing. Dipped back into the saddle and started working back towards camp, sign looking better and better. Followed the sign into a little meadow with a solid stream and tons of fresh sign. Bingo!
Back to base camp, then back to truck with a plan for the morning. Ran into a coworkers husband at the truck, whose hunt up north was cancelled d/t the fires. Invited him to join camp the next day instead of commuting on the terrible road. Opening morning I'm up early and headed for my spot at O dark thirty. 30 minutes up the trail, still an hr and a half before sunrise I hear a rifle crack back towards the truck. WTF? Someone spot light an animal on the way in? Nope, accidental discharge. Later heard the only casualty was a couple pairs of underoos, neither the shooter or the other guys still at the trucks were injured.
Bush wacking back to my meadow in the dark took 20 minutes longer than I had guessed, got there right at sun up. Sat all morning with not so much as a rabbit passing through the meadow. Hunt my way back to the truck for a hot lunch on my way to another area for the evening. Failed to head a key piece of advice, don't leave elk to find elk. That evening hunted from perfect glassing point, a finger point between two drainages, no elk, but a ton of fresh mule deer sign and a couple decent looking bucks.
Back at camp, my coworkers' husband was setting up camp and cooking an amazing fresh grouse dinner. Text from original hunting parter, "will be up tomorrow sometime". Spoke to the neighboring camp hunting deer, pointed them to the mule deer I found that evening. Over dinner, my new buddy and I start talking about am plans. He planned to hike in 5 miles to an area he had scouted Friday, I offered to join for the early morning hike in. Conversation starts around this other area a little closer he had found he might want to hunt, he describes a little, I start thinking it sounds an aweful lot like my secret meadow. Another beer, out come the maps. Yup, same damn meadow. New plan for the am. We agree first person to spot an elk gets the opportunity.
Based on me getting to the meadow late the first morning we head out a little earlier. Make our approach based on the wind and get to our spot right at legal shooting light. End up a little above my preferred spot on the side of a steep hill. We sit down, I pull out my binoculars. Holy Sh*t there's a bull! Get my buddy's attention and ask for his shooting sticks, he doesn't understand why the hell I want his shooting sticks. He looks up and sees not one, but three bulls in the meadow! He hands over the shooting sticks, I look back and the bulls are out of sight. They had walked the creek bed away from us and popped back out at 337 yards. That's fine, I practiced at 300yards all summer off my binocular tripod and pack. The trophy bull was already out of view headed into cover, I'd be happy with any legal bull. Split second broad side presentation, send it! Hit!! Top rest falls off of the shooting sticks. Bull spins, limping. Trophy bull comes back out into meadow and they all stand there broad side at 350 yards.
Me, to my buddy. "Shoot him!!!!!". He had set his rifle down 10 yards away while moving to spot for me....No go. I get the opportunity for a couple follow up shots, now trying to shoot off of broken shooting sticks, then my knee. No where else to move to and rest the rifle. Bulls take off, my bull keeping up, but limping. We give it as much time as I can stand and go get on the trail. No blood in the meadow. My buddy picks up the trail where they entered the woods. A little bit of blood, then 2-3ft spurts of arterial blood. Good blood trail for 1/2 mile, then it starts to decrease, never find an area where he layed down, I'm not feeling it. Last 1/4 mile we are hands and knees following intermittent pin pricks of blood. Then one last drop at the edge of an old road and a steep hillside with no clear path through the brush and the snow starts...
We did circles for an hr. Nada. Original hunting partner shows up and we spend another 2 hrs doing circles. Defeat.
One, bit of good news. Those neighboring mule deer hunters harvested a buck right where I said it would be that same morning.
Snow sets in legit that night, forecast says up to 2ft over the next 24 hrs in my location. But hey, I can use my fancy new woodstove, it and the tipi kicked ass in 40-50 mile an hr winds and snow. Wake up the next am to blowing snow storm, 1.5 hours up a crappy road with minimal truck recovery gear, but a least a weeks worth of supplies. I feel like I'd had my chance, and the original hunting partner felt risk/reward of staying wasn't there. End of season 1.
Have played this back over and over in my head...All I can say is I blew it. I took a split second shot at 337 yards with a steady cross wind at 20-25 miles an hr, enough to shift impact 6 inches. I'd love to blame the wind, but really it was me being excited to see my first bull, shooting off an unfamiliar rest, and taking a quick (but what felt good) shot. My best guess is that I hit him in the front shoulder. B/c some of you will want to know... and I've second guessed it. .308 165gr quality ammo.
Not the story I'd hoped to share, but I'll be back next year, better prepared and hopefully the story will end with meat in the freezer. Again thank you all!!