Successful Cow Elk Hunt

Wasatch

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Since I love reading all the stories (both long & short) and looking at pictures of everyone else?s hunt, I thought I'd post up the story of my cow elk hunt from this past weekend. Even though this was just a cow hunt, I think it ranks right up there as one of the most fun hunts I've ever had?..Warning ? long story!

So my buddy Nate and I both drew tags and so we met at my house on Friday afternoon and quickly loaded up my gear. But first we had to make s top at O?Reilly auto parts to pick up a new battery for the 4 Wheeler. The 4 wheeler itself was in great working order, however, the starter was having issues so we had to start and shift the thing manually?.no big deal, but everyone thought that it was the battery that was causing the issue. Long story short, we ended up at a place called Batteries Plus in Lehi where they sell ATV batteries that are already charged and ready to go (most require an initial 10 hour charge?something we didn't know beforehand). Anyway, we bought a new battery took it out to install it and it made no difference?.not only that but the store worker came running out telling us the old battery was good and was holding a solid charge?..So we debated for a few minutes about what to do but since the 4 wheeler started fine without the battery and since the dash and headlights all worked as well, we returned the battery and drove the thing all weekend with no battery installed! Who knew a 4 wheeler will function perfectly without a battery???

Finally we were headed south again towards elk camp. We arrived in camp around 5:30. All the way in we had talked and joked about seeing tons of elk and having 2 cows down by dark but to be honest I didn't think it would happen! Plus we had all day Saturday and Sunday to hunt why end it first thing? Anyway, before even pitching the tent we decided to hop on the 4 wheeler and mosey up the trail into the area I knew the elk liked to hang out. Neither of us changed our street clothes, we just threw on jackets and Nate grabbed his rifle at the last minute more as an ?in case? measure than anything. The area we camped in was down in the river bottom, so as we climbed the trail out of the river bottom into the sage flats just before heading up the mountain we immediately saw 4-5 elk, all cows and calves. They were just slowly making their way up the hill through the oaks. They were watching us but were unconcerned and never ran away. They were about 300 to 400 yards away though and so we held off making a move on them. It was fun to see elk right away though! So we continued up the trail further up the mountain into the high aspens where we turned off onto a side trail that took us about a mile or 2 deeper into the aspens. It was a little after 6 when we arrived to the spot and turned off the 4 wheeler . Immediately we started hearing bulls bugle! There were at least 3 or 4 different bulls bugling, a few further away, but one very close, just down out of sight in the aspens. That sure got us excited, so we slowly walked along a trail out of the aspens onto a sage covered hillside cow calling and chirping along the way?.as we came out of the aspens I turned to look down hill and saw about 10 or so cows and calves just feeding below us at what I thought was about 150 yards away. Later when we ranged it they were at 200 even?..Anyway, Nate and I sat and talked cow called and set up for a shot and the cows never even knew we were there! They would occasionally look our way, but just continued feeding. It took about 5 minutes or so of setting up and finally getting a cow to present a broadside shot or a shot without another elk in the way when Nate finally got a nice big cow in his scope and fired! I was watching through my binoculars and she dropped like a rock?.She was dead before she hit the ground! At the shot about 30 more elk that we couldn't see and had either been bedded or were feeding also stood up and ran down the hill?..with the sun setting, bulls bugling and both of us in street clothes still we had an elk down! At seeing all those other elk I commented to Nate that I should have brought my rifle too! So we walked on down the hill to Nate?s elk and saw that he had hit here just in front of the right shoulder at the base of the neck. A perfect shot! Although I think he was aiming somewhere else! LOL?.

As Nate was beginning the process of cleaning his elk I asked if I could take his rifle and walk down to see if there was anything left in the area. He said I could so I walked down the hill maybe 25 yards to where I could see down below us and there in a small clearing all by herself was a cow standing apart from the others that were just milling around in the aspens. So I pulled up found her in the scope and shot and again the huge heard jumped up and ran through the trees, the elk I shot at followed along and I didn't know if I'd hit her or not so reluctantly, because it was quickly getting dark, I ran down to look for blood or anything. I didn't see anything so I walked towards the trees the elk were in and the cow I shot jumped up and started walking away so I shot again and she took maybe 10 more steps and stopped. There were only 2 bullets in Nate?s rifle so I was out of ammo and couldn't shoot again, but it was unnecessary because she then stumbled and dropped. I didn't know if she was dead though or not so I backed out and headed back up to Nate letting him know I had an elk down too! Unbelievable! Within a half hour of arriving we were surrounded by bugling bulls and had 2 elk down within a few hundred yards of each other! The bright orange sunset was pretty incredible too! Anyway, we decided that since it was now dark and the temperature was falling we would just clean the cows, let them cool overnight and come back in the next morning to cut, quarter and pack them out. As Nate was cleaning his we heard a coyote howl and bark so we peed a circle around his elk so they'd leave it alone. Once Nate was done cleaning his we decided to head down and see if my elk was dead or what?.by now it was pitch black and the stars were shining but with the headlamps on we were able to walk right to her finding that she was dead and hadn't moved an inch. While I was cleaning her we saw that my first shot had entered just in front of the left hind quarter as she was angling away and clipped the top of the gut. My second shot had hit perfectly just behind the right shoulder and took out the lungs exiting just in front of the left shoulder. After she was cleaned, we peed a circle around my elk too and then headed back up to the 4 wheeler. It was just before 10 PM when we got back to camp. Once we were there we pitched the tent and set up our beds then built a nice fire where we sat down and enjoyed some sandwiches and Mt. Dew and the fact that we had both just killed elk! 2 cows down! We now had Saturday and Sunday to get our elk out and hung on the meat pole and go back out to chase bugles and see if we could find the big bulls!

Saturday morning, we decided to wake up early and head back in just as it was getting light to see if we could catch the elk out in the open again before starting all the hard work. Fortunately the 4 wheeler we borrowed had a hitch on it, so we hitched up the little trailer we towed the machine down on and headed up the road. The road is an old road that has degraded into more of a glorified 4 wheeler trail over the years. Plus with the ruts from the snow 2 weeks ago and the rocks it made for quite the ride! Especially because the trailer was empty and light so it just bounced and banged all the way up. I'm sure that any other hunters in the area, not to mention any critters, were wondering what the heck was happening out on the road! Anyway, we got to the area just to see a big heard of elk on the far ridge running down and away from us. We did hear a few bugles again but as soon as the sun rose they shut right up. So we parked the trailer up top where the trail ended and headed down to cut and quarter our elk. Once the quartering was done we hauled the cuts and quarters back up to the 4 wheeler and loaded all the meat onto the trailer secured it with tie downs and headed back to camp. Everything was complete by noon. So we hung the quarters on the meat pole, lounged around camp, ate lunch and then hit the tent for a nice afternoon nap.

Around 4:30 after a nice long nap, we decided to hop on the 4 wheeler and mosey south along a 4 wheeler trail leading to the south up to a big open meadow surrounded by aspens where I had seen a huge heard of elk including lots of big bulls a few years previously. We headed up the rough road into some absolutely beautiful country but didn't see any critters. So we decided to sit out along the edge of the meadow as evening came on to see if anything would come out or any bulls would sound off. Sure enough just as the sun was setting we started hearing bugles. They actually sounded further away than they really were. After a while I decided I was going to go chase the bugle and see if I could find the bull?..I thought Nate would follow but he decided to stay down in the meadow. Soon I was heading up a small ridge along the stand of aspens where it sounded like the bugle was coming from. As I came to the top I bugled and got a great response from a bull just inside the aspens. He sounded close! But I still couldn't see him so I started glassing into the trees and saw the body of an elk but no head. So I decided to walk into the trees and be aggressive. As I approached and entered the trees I was cow calling trying to sound as much like an elk as possible. Just inside the trees a cow with two calves trotted of and up a little hill about 100 yards away. They didn't run though, they just sort of moseyed on an angle up the hill to my left. As I was watching them a spike walked out from where the bull was bugling from and was headed across the hillside towards the cow and her calves?..Meanwhile I was continuing to bugle and cow call when all of a sudden I hear something running down the hill right towards me. So I bring up my binoculars and here comes the spike on a fast trot right towards me. He literally came right to me. He finally stopped at about 15 yards and just stared trying to figure out what/where I was. The funny thing is I had my bugle up in one hand and my cow call in the other so that without moving I could do both?..So I did, even with him looking at me I bugled and cow called and for the next 10 minutes or so he circled first to my right then circled back around holding his nose up high and his head back licking his lips and circled around to my left. Fortunately there was no wind so he never caught my scent. Then just as he was right behind me here comes the cow and her calves doing the same thing and literally running right to me. They also stopped about 15 yards in front of me and just stood there as I continued to bugle and cow call. This went on for about 15 minutes. Every time the cow turned to leave I bugled and she came right back she must have paced there in front of me like 20 times! Soon the spike had had enough and decided to run off from behind me and back into the trees to my left. When the spike left so did the cows, but they didn't go far because as I continued bugling and cow calling they came right back and began cow calling too! At this point there was a second spike that was side hilling in the same spot the first one had come from. He never came down like the others, but was still close! I never did see the big bull, but he was just barely out of sight because every time he bugled he sounded so close! The cool thing is there were at least 3 bulls in there all bugling! I just wish I could have seen them. If it hadn't gotten dark so quick I would have been more aggressive. Finally I started hiking back down to Nate but found him on his way up to me and only about 100 yards back from where I was?..I wish so bad I'd had a video camera or something with me it was such a cool close encounter! Heading back to camp we got back around 8:30 built a fire and ate dinner. We finally went to bed about 10 with the intent to wake up Sunday morning and head back into where we shot our cows to see if we could chase the bugles again and get a glimpse of one of the big bulls.

Sunday morning we woke up at 6:30 so that we could be into the area before light and move in in stealth mode so that we didn't spook the elk out like we did Saturday morning. When we arrived and shut off the 4 wheeler instead of hearing bugles as we had the previous 2 times it was dead quiet. Thinking the elk had moved out we walked straight ahead out of the trees into the open and I bugled. Immediately we got a response but it wasn?t from down below it was from up high and across to the other side of the sage?..looking through the binoculars we were able to locate the elk, there was a big bull ( a big wide 5 pt) and about 6 or so cows hanging out on the top edge of a far little ridge right on the edge of a small aspen grove. There may have been more, but if there were we never saw them. As I continued to bugle the bull would respond, but not very consistently. Personally I think I was sounding bigger and badder and he didn't want to hang around and have his cows stolen so he rounded up his cows and slowly headed the other way. Nate and I decided to be aggressive again and move in if we could to get closer. We were able to get over to the ridge pretty quick, but the bull had stopped bugling. However, as we came up the hill towards the top of the ridge there was a lone cow feeding with her head down. As she would feed we moved in, as she looked up we would hit the deck. This went on for a few minutes until we were within 100 yards. Then we tried to call her into us so I bugled and Nate cow called and we got her attention. In fact she turned around and started walking right to us but then from just over the edge the bull bugled! I thought he was right behind her and would walk out but as it turned out I think he was telling her that they were leaving and so she turned around and left. As she turned to go we followed right along and got to the top just as she headed off the edge into the trees on the other side of the property line. They had jumped the fence and moved out. So we sat and listened to the bull bugle all the way as they moved out. We had been so close! Afterwards we decided to walk down the fence line to see what we could see?.all we ended up seeing was pretty fall colors. No elk, no deer. Soon we were back to the 4 wheeler and headed back to camp to pack up and head out. On the way back to camp we did see a doe with 2 fawns but nothing else. To be honest, I was actually quite surprised at the lack of deer we saw. I think in total we saw only 5 or 6 does the entire time.

Back at camp we quickly packed up and were headed home by noon. Hunting had been incredible and chasing bugles had also been fruitful. We had seen a ton of elk and had a few close encounters to boot! All in all the scenery, hunting and over all experience were fantastic. We had a great time and my family and I will eat well this winter! I can't wait to do it again next year!

Two things that were interesting to me this weekend were the absolute lack of any deer other than just a few does and the fact that the bulls were still as vocal as they were. They were screaming each day until the sun came up and then started up again just as the sun was going down. I've heard bugles this late in October before but never in the quantity that I heard this weekend.

Anyway, if you're still reading thanks for sticking with it?.Here are a few pictures.

Nate's Elk
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My Elk
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Meat Pole
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Camp
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Deer
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Fall Colors
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Very cool. We leave for CO on Monday, I've got a cow tag and my dad will get a bull tag. This has me primed, thanks for sharing.
 
Nothing says more of a successful hunt than meat hanging from a game pole. Congrats on a great hunt.

Eldorado
 

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