bucksmut
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So this year I was a little disappointed with the Utah archery deer hunt as I was not able to get on the big bucks I had been watching throughout the summer but I really didn't care that much because I was getting very excited for my Colorado elk bow hunt. I went and scouted the area out with a friend one Saturday back in July and I saw a large herd of elk within the first two hours I was there so I figured that would be a good place to start. Here are some pictures of the area in beautiful Colorado.
So over Labor Day weekend I went to go try out my spot and the first couple days were amazing; the elk were going crazy and bugling a ton. My brother and brother in law walked up and down this huge gorge with me a couple times a day to get into the elk and we finally called in a six point herd bull that came within 30 yards and I tried to weave an arrow in between two branches which was the only shot I really had and I missed and shot right under him. I will show you a picture of the miss. It was cool though because I got to see that big ol? boy come right in and rake a little pine tree to shreds and pee all over himself. So we went home that night empty handed and I was really bummed I missed that nice of an elk. Here is the missed shot photo and the tree the elk raked before he came in. The real funny thing about this miss is that it was such a steep shot that I couldn's see the last five yards of arrow flight and for those of you who don't know... a rotton log sounds alot like a hit on an elk so you can imagine my dissapointment as I walked up the hill to find my arrow in the wron kinda brown!
So I waited for a couple weeks to let the elk get deeper into the rut and the last week of the hunt I took all week off of work and I tried it again. We got there on Tuesday afternoon and I went out and hunted alone while My Dad set up camp. I went back to the same area I was at before and that night I called in a smaller 6-point within 25 yards but it was too dark to shoot. So I was pretty excited because they were more in the rut this time. So the next morning I called for about an hour by myself because my Dad didn't want to walk in that far so I went alone and called on this hillside and I had that same herd bull that I missed two weeks ago going crazy. All the sudden from the opposite side of the hill I herd a twig snap and I saw this satellite bull coming in really quite trying to steal some cows. He was a nice five point that I would have loved to have but at 35 yards I shot right over his back and he ran off. After looking at the angle I realized that I should have shot much lower as it was very steep but I guess that is how we learn. I was deeply annoyed, however, that I missed one that nice that close due to the fact that all year I had been practicing angled shots at the range, I guess I just got a little ?bull fever? since after all the hard work I finally had a perfect scenario! Well I went and told my Dad about it and he was excited that I got on one so he decided to come out with me that night. We set up and I had him up about a hundred yards on the hill as I crept in on that same herd bull to try and cut him off as he went to investigate the cow calls. The problem was that this night the wind was blowing the wrong way and we spooked the elk out of the canyon. This was the last I was to hear from this bull I thought, but I was wrong. It was getting darker and so I walked back up to my Dad and we decided to call it a night as it was getting too dark. I called a couple times as we were walking up the hill and a satellite bull went crazy really close so I ran down the hill 20 yards and had my Dad hit the hootchie mama a few times and that herd bull that I thought we ran out of the area came right in between me and my Dad so quietly that he did not even know it was there. He was behind a pine tree and he winded us before I got a shot and he ran off! I thought it was funny how brave he got when the sun went down a little bit! So that was a fun night hunt. Well earlier that day I had called a couple other hunting partners to come up and help me get on a bull and hopefully pack one out and we met them back at camp that night. We told them of our success stories of getting on bulls and they were excited for the morning hunt.
As we were walking in the next morning I could have shot a large spike but I decided I wanted a more mature bull. So we called all morning and the only thing we called in was some mad old man that was wearing moccasins and carrying a recurve that said we needed to stop calling and bugling because we were deceiving other hunters. After looking at the hill he just walked down I could see why he was upset to find us instead of elk but that gave him no excuse to be such an ignorant ass so I signed an imaginary diploma in the air with my finger and handed it to him and said welcome to public land elk hunting and that didn't really calm him down any but it was pretty funny because my hunting partners were pretty upset with him until then.
So we walked the long walk of shame back to camp and regrouped to figure out what we wanted to do for the night hunt. At this point it was Thursday and the hunt ended on Sunday so we were getting eager to shoot an animal. Earlier in the month on the Labor Day trip we met some sheep herders that my Dad befriended and talked to them through my brother?s Spanish skills and we found out that there was a big 7-point herd bull with cows that was coming down this certain canyon with his cows to water every night at around 6 p.m. so we decided to go and ambush him. Well I went down one side of the canyon and my callers went down the other side to try and to call and pull the bull over and also they would be able to see the elk long before I would be able to. So we sat there for 2 hours in the freezing cold and the only thing I seen was a large two point buck on the other side of the canyon where those guys were. About a half hour before dark my buddies called me on the 2-way radio and told me that they were watching two bulls fighting about 2 hundred yards above me down the canyon a ways. They said it was a long shot but we might as well try to get on them and try to get a shot. So I was tired of sitting there freezing so I decided to walk toward them a ways. During the walk I bumped my radio and it went to scan mode so I could only hear bits and pieces of what was being said and I thought I heard them say that they were coming down towards me. Right then I looked across the open meadow I was standing in and on the fringe of the pine trees I saw the bigger of the two bulls with his he head down looking right at me smelling me since he was downwind. I froze and knocked an arrow slowly and was trying to figure out how I was going to get an arrow through the pine tree he was behind. As I was watching him I heard a snap behind me and I slowly turned my head and saw the other bull. They had split up and circled me as they were heading towards the cow calls on the other ridge. It reminded me of Jurassic Park when the raptors split up to hunt the people because those elk were super fast and silent. I made a decision right then that I was going to try and shoot the second smaller bull as he was in the open and I knew that the bull below me was about to bust any second. So I tried to draw back quietly but the second smaller bull heard me and stopped dead in his tracks. After about 2 minutes of getting stared down he decided I was a bush and he came 20 yards further down the hill towards me. I decided it was now or never and drew back on him and guessed the yardage because it was too noisy to use my rangefinder. I released and heard the sound of my arrow plunging into soft flesh. The bull spun around and headed back up the hill from where he came and I noticed he was limping so I knew I had hit him. Just then I thought to stop him and shoot again so I cow called and sure enough he stopped and I guessed again and let another arrow fly and this time I heard a loud smack like I hit the shoulder or something. I was pretty excited because I knew that I connected with him at least once and I was positive on my left to right just a little sketchy on up and down. So I waited a few minutes and then ran up the hill and found my first arrow covered with blood so I knew I got him and from the sounds of it I had a lung shot that was a complete pass through. So I was thinking that he would be like 100 yards away in the pines so I finally figured out the radio and called the others to come over and help me find it; and at this point it was completely dark. So we fumbled around in the dark for a few minutes and then decided to come back first thing in the morning after the blood trail vanished and we couldn't find my second arrow. Here is the shot site. Picture is taken from where the bull was standing. I was down by the shadows near the pines.
So after a long night of trying to sleep, the next morning we headed in to look for the bull. Two of us went to the spot of the last shot and one circled up the hill a couple hundred yards. At the site of the shot we were stumped and could not find any more blood or my second arrow like I thought we would be able to in the daylight. So I was getting pretty bummed out when my other buddy that circled up and around radioed to us and told us that he found a drop of blood on the trail. So we hurried up to where he was, which was about 300 yards up the hill and started tracking very minimal amounts of blood on this trail. It was sometimes over 100 yards in between a single drop of blood on a log or on some grass and there were many moments of despair as we were on our hands and knees looking for blood. Luckily we kept trailing this elk for over a mile and then we stepped over a log and almost fell back down the hill as my friend screamed "There he is!" Well I was way excited and walked towards the elk and examined my shots that I had made. I was astonished that I had hit this thing twice and there was so little blood on such a long track. It was a great example to me of how persistence and patience in tracking can turn around a long ride home into an unforgettable hunt.
So long story short I got a 5-point elk and I couldn't be happier! Sure I had my chance at some 340 class bulls but when it was all said and done I am tickled pink that I was able to shoot and find this guy and I think I learned more on this hunt than I have in the past few hunts combined! Along with that I have also gained more respect for these magnificent animals at how intelligent and outright tough they really are. This was truly an unforgettable hunt! Thanks Dad, Nathan, Clint, Bryce and Robbie! Couldn't have done it without your help!
Thanks for reading!
So over Labor Day weekend I went to go try out my spot and the first couple days were amazing; the elk were going crazy and bugling a ton. My brother and brother in law walked up and down this huge gorge with me a couple times a day to get into the elk and we finally called in a six point herd bull that came within 30 yards and I tried to weave an arrow in between two branches which was the only shot I really had and I missed and shot right under him. I will show you a picture of the miss. It was cool though because I got to see that big ol? boy come right in and rake a little pine tree to shreds and pee all over himself. So we went home that night empty handed and I was really bummed I missed that nice of an elk. Here is the missed shot photo and the tree the elk raked before he came in. The real funny thing about this miss is that it was such a steep shot that I couldn's see the last five yards of arrow flight and for those of you who don't know... a rotton log sounds alot like a hit on an elk so you can imagine my dissapointment as I walked up the hill to find my arrow in the wron kinda brown!
So I waited for a couple weeks to let the elk get deeper into the rut and the last week of the hunt I took all week off of work and I tried it again. We got there on Tuesday afternoon and I went out and hunted alone while My Dad set up camp. I went back to the same area I was at before and that night I called in a smaller 6-point within 25 yards but it was too dark to shoot. So I was pretty excited because they were more in the rut this time. So the next morning I called for about an hour by myself because my Dad didn't want to walk in that far so I went alone and called on this hillside and I had that same herd bull that I missed two weeks ago going crazy. All the sudden from the opposite side of the hill I herd a twig snap and I saw this satellite bull coming in really quite trying to steal some cows. He was a nice five point that I would have loved to have but at 35 yards I shot right over his back and he ran off. After looking at the angle I realized that I should have shot much lower as it was very steep but I guess that is how we learn. I was deeply annoyed, however, that I missed one that nice that close due to the fact that all year I had been practicing angled shots at the range, I guess I just got a little ?bull fever? since after all the hard work I finally had a perfect scenario! Well I went and told my Dad about it and he was excited that I got on one so he decided to come out with me that night. We set up and I had him up about a hundred yards on the hill as I crept in on that same herd bull to try and cut him off as he went to investigate the cow calls. The problem was that this night the wind was blowing the wrong way and we spooked the elk out of the canyon. This was the last I was to hear from this bull I thought, but I was wrong. It was getting darker and so I walked back up to my Dad and we decided to call it a night as it was getting too dark. I called a couple times as we were walking up the hill and a satellite bull went crazy really close so I ran down the hill 20 yards and had my Dad hit the hootchie mama a few times and that herd bull that I thought we ran out of the area came right in between me and my Dad so quietly that he did not even know it was there. He was behind a pine tree and he winded us before I got a shot and he ran off! I thought it was funny how brave he got when the sun went down a little bit! So that was a fun night hunt. Well earlier that day I had called a couple other hunting partners to come up and help me get on a bull and hopefully pack one out and we met them back at camp that night. We told them of our success stories of getting on bulls and they were excited for the morning hunt.
As we were walking in the next morning I could have shot a large spike but I decided I wanted a more mature bull. So we called all morning and the only thing we called in was some mad old man that was wearing moccasins and carrying a recurve that said we needed to stop calling and bugling because we were deceiving other hunters. After looking at the hill he just walked down I could see why he was upset to find us instead of elk but that gave him no excuse to be such an ignorant ass so I signed an imaginary diploma in the air with my finger and handed it to him and said welcome to public land elk hunting and that didn't really calm him down any but it was pretty funny because my hunting partners were pretty upset with him until then.
So we walked the long walk of shame back to camp and regrouped to figure out what we wanted to do for the night hunt. At this point it was Thursday and the hunt ended on Sunday so we were getting eager to shoot an animal. Earlier in the month on the Labor Day trip we met some sheep herders that my Dad befriended and talked to them through my brother?s Spanish skills and we found out that there was a big 7-point herd bull with cows that was coming down this certain canyon with his cows to water every night at around 6 p.m. so we decided to go and ambush him. Well I went down one side of the canyon and my callers went down the other side to try and to call and pull the bull over and also they would be able to see the elk long before I would be able to. So we sat there for 2 hours in the freezing cold and the only thing I seen was a large two point buck on the other side of the canyon where those guys were. About a half hour before dark my buddies called me on the 2-way radio and told me that they were watching two bulls fighting about 2 hundred yards above me down the canyon a ways. They said it was a long shot but we might as well try to get on them and try to get a shot. So I was tired of sitting there freezing so I decided to walk toward them a ways. During the walk I bumped my radio and it went to scan mode so I could only hear bits and pieces of what was being said and I thought I heard them say that they were coming down towards me. Right then I looked across the open meadow I was standing in and on the fringe of the pine trees I saw the bigger of the two bulls with his he head down looking right at me smelling me since he was downwind. I froze and knocked an arrow slowly and was trying to figure out how I was going to get an arrow through the pine tree he was behind. As I was watching him I heard a snap behind me and I slowly turned my head and saw the other bull. They had split up and circled me as they were heading towards the cow calls on the other ridge. It reminded me of Jurassic Park when the raptors split up to hunt the people because those elk were super fast and silent. I made a decision right then that I was going to try and shoot the second smaller bull as he was in the open and I knew that the bull below me was about to bust any second. So I tried to draw back quietly but the second smaller bull heard me and stopped dead in his tracks. After about 2 minutes of getting stared down he decided I was a bush and he came 20 yards further down the hill towards me. I decided it was now or never and drew back on him and guessed the yardage because it was too noisy to use my rangefinder. I released and heard the sound of my arrow plunging into soft flesh. The bull spun around and headed back up the hill from where he came and I noticed he was limping so I knew I had hit him. Just then I thought to stop him and shoot again so I cow called and sure enough he stopped and I guessed again and let another arrow fly and this time I heard a loud smack like I hit the shoulder or something. I was pretty excited because I knew that I connected with him at least once and I was positive on my left to right just a little sketchy on up and down. So I waited a few minutes and then ran up the hill and found my first arrow covered with blood so I knew I got him and from the sounds of it I had a lung shot that was a complete pass through. So I was thinking that he would be like 100 yards away in the pines so I finally figured out the radio and called the others to come over and help me find it; and at this point it was completely dark. So we fumbled around in the dark for a few minutes and then decided to come back first thing in the morning after the blood trail vanished and we couldn't find my second arrow. Here is the shot site. Picture is taken from where the bull was standing. I was down by the shadows near the pines.
So after a long night of trying to sleep, the next morning we headed in to look for the bull. Two of us went to the spot of the last shot and one circled up the hill a couple hundred yards. At the site of the shot we were stumped and could not find any more blood or my second arrow like I thought we would be able to in the daylight. So I was getting pretty bummed out when my other buddy that circled up and around radioed to us and told us that he found a drop of blood on the trail. So we hurried up to where he was, which was about 300 yards up the hill and started tracking very minimal amounts of blood on this trail. It was sometimes over 100 yards in between a single drop of blood on a log or on some grass and there were many moments of despair as we were on our hands and knees looking for blood. Luckily we kept trailing this elk for over a mile and then we stepped over a log and almost fell back down the hill as my friend screamed "There he is!" Well I was way excited and walked towards the elk and examined my shots that I had made. I was astonished that I had hit this thing twice and there was so little blood on such a long track. It was a great example to me of how persistence and patience in tracking can turn around a long ride home into an unforgettable hunt.
So long story short I got a 5-point elk and I couldn't be happier! Sure I had my chance at some 340 class bulls but when it was all said and done I am tickled pink that I was able to shoot and find this guy and I think I learned more on this hunt than I have in the past few hunts combined! Along with that I have also gained more respect for these magnificent animals at how intelligent and outright tough they really are. This was truly an unforgettable hunt! Thanks Dad, Nathan, Clint, Bryce and Robbie! Couldn't have done it without your help!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks anyways though! 
