Elk hunting

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Dave

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My elk season starts today. It will be daylight in roughly 2 hours. Deer season lasted 45 minutes for me. I am taking part in the great elk ambush this morning. I wonder if my elk hunting will be shorter than deer season was. One thing this morning at least I will have my boots on before the shooting starts.
 
Well elk season is to be continued. Maybe tomorrow. We drove several miles down rough two rut road through the sage brush. Parked and got out and walked about half a mile down the same road. Then we fanned out in kind of a fishhook to cover two big draws. We were probably a mile uphill above a couple of pivots. One with alfalfa the other has a fall barley. The elk come down at night to feed under those pivots. I was on the right end. The herd of elk came up on the left end. The guy on that end shot one. I had a nice 5x5 bull come past me but I have a cow tag so I just watched him. When the guy shot the elk it looked for a moment like they were going to turn and end my way. But instead they flanked him and went up the mountain. They didn't go too far so they will be back tomorrow or the next day. The picture is looking uphill from where I was sitting.
 

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Nice big country. We used to take our boys to western CO for the late cow season during Christmas break. It looked similar.

Sent the middle son over a ridge to block the next drainage one morning. He was 14, and shot the first elk to come into view. A huge dry lead cow. We gutted it and then sledded it up and into the next drainage. Then chained up four wheels to get close, and spun most of the way out. Was going sideways a few times... The butcher laughed hard that we had brought her out whole. Dumb out of state hunters.
 
The cow that got shot this morning died about 40 feet from the "road". Neighbor L's BIL shot it. As he was starting to gut L and I decided we should find out where C went. L said he was too young to learn how to gut and quarter an elk (he has probably shot 20 of them). I said I was too old to learn any new methods. By the time I found C and we shot the breeze for a while they had the work done. Both C and L had to go help work some cows in the afternoon and I haven't heard from them so I guess elk hunting is not on the schedule for tomorrow.

We never shoot the lead cow. They tend to be old and tough. We look for a yearling heifer. Our cow tags are good clear to December 31 but it is better to find one before the bull hunters start in Early November. The bull hunters will have them chased way back into the hills.
 
No elk around this place but .....

The neighbor got a nice white tail today that weighed in at 245 pounds dressed out. Promised me a couple of steaks for my 90 year old Dad.

He will be happy!

Best to all.
 
How goes the hunting? I would love to do a backcountry elk hunt but can definitely see the draw to dropping one under a pivot where you had tractor access.
 
We have been giving the elk a couple days to calm down. If we push the elk too hard they head back up the hills. Just back behind where we hunt the country gets real steep. A lot of it is actually vertical. All of it too steep for this old man. We don't actually hunt under the pivots. The elk are only there in the dark. Before daylight they start moving back up the draws to their bedding area. We get above them and ambush them coming up the hill.
 
Leopold light

We aren't nearly that high tech or so worried about shooting one so as to do that. Opening day there was 8 of us in the area. There was 4 30-06, 2 243, a 300 Win, and my 7x57. Two of the 30-06 were open sights. Had the guy on the left been a little farther that way it would have turned the herd into our trap and we would still been packing meat.
 
Been attacked by an elk herd once. When the shooting started, they turned down hill and came almost straight at us, plunging down a steep slope in two feet of snow. We had caught them up against a cliff and the shots must have echoed. The boys tagged out.
 
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Talked to neighbor L this evening. The great elk ambush II is on for Saturday morning. He said to be sure to wear my mittens. The weather forecast for that morning is 16 F. I hope the wind isn't blowing or that the elk get there right quick.
 
Elk hunting 2.0. Well I still have an elk tag in my pocket. Once again I could have shoot a nice bull, actually it was 3 bulls to choose from this time. This time the elk stalled out just short of getting to me. Neighbor J's daughter got one where they stalled out at. Her first elk. A nice fat cow. The elk headed up the hill but one draw too far to the west. I got a good look at them running up the hill at 500 + yards or so. There is about 100 elk in the herd. At least 6 branched antler bulls. The main herd bull is a real dandy.
 
The great elk ambush 3.0 was a success today. Over 100 elk to choose from. I shot a yearling cow. We will be eating good in the neighborhood this winter. And my hunting partner neighbors made what can be a tough job a breeze. I did get a close up look at the herd bull. Oh to have had a bull tag. He is a big high and wide 7x7. People pay thousands of dollars to hunt for elk like him. He was standing broadside at about 60 yards for 20 seconds or so. One of those sights to be locked in the memory bank for life.
 

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Always wanted to do an archery elk hunt. Has been a few years since I harvested any game. Never seems to be enough time...
 
They are a big animal.

Ken
They can be. And there sure were some bigger ones that I passed on. The one I shot was well short of the big ones but will be a lot better eating. Think of a cow nursing a calf or a heifer who has just reached breeding age. I shot the heifer. That big bull was pretty impressive. He would make a great mount for the wall but not so much to eat.
 
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