B
bowboy
Guest
I arrowed my first elk on sept 12 in colorado, he is nothing huge but a nice sized 6X6(at least for public land in colorado). Here is the story, caution it's kind of long.
After 8 years of hunting elk with a rifle I finally decided to give it a go with my bow. After finding some nice bulls last year while archery deer hunting I already had a place in mind. My hunting party still wasn't convinced it was a good idea so I split from the normal plan and got my archery tag. My brother drew a highcountry mule deer rifle tag for the area so I knew I would have a partner for the first weekend at least. After getting a buck the first weekend he was not able to join me for the rest of my outings. Unable to find a partner to go with me that could make it or was in good enough shape to hang with me in the country I like to roam, I set out on my first backcountry solo hunt. The first weekend ended in a bust when after hunting for a day in the rain, the clouds set in and I couldn't see 60 yrds. I decided to bail out and made the 5 mile hike back to my truck dissapointed. The next weekend I headed out again to give it another go, leaving my house at 2 am to make it to trail and the 6 mile hike in to glass before sun up. I once again found some elk in a basin where they had given me the slip opening weekend. I decided to make the hike over there right away in hopes of intercepting them this time. I got to the area around 11, to find they were starting to bed down and I was still 100 yrds off. I waited a bit and decided to give some estrous cow calls, a few minutes later I heard a weak bugle, so I gave him a little bugle back. Within minutes I had a nice 5X5 coming straight at me at 5 yrds, he started to drift down wind so I drew, he spooked but stopped at 15 yrds with a squeak from my call. I only had a small shooting window so I watched in disbelief as my arrow hit a tree and sailed of into no where. I couldn't believe how well that worked(besides the shot of course). That afternoon I found my self in the next canyon after climbing 2000ft over the top of the ridge, bulls were raging down below but I didn't have the energy to drop in there knowing I would have to climb back out to get back to camp. So I still hunted my way through an area I got my deer last year back to camp with no luck. The next morning I made my way up to my glassing spot once again only to find some small elk and a few small deer, except for the herd up the mountain from me. I decide to follow them after they topped the 12,000 ft ridge. I followed the ridge line down, knowing there was some nice area back there they may have gone. Reaching the end of the ridge, I heard a nasty bugle down below me in the timber. This time I decided to investigate, I made my way down the cliff like drainage into the edge of the timber, listening to the bull raging the whole way down. In the edge of the timber I was happy to find a wallow and some nice little clearings so I quickly setup and began calling. The bull responded imediately, and I could tell he was coming my way. I finally saw him at about 50 yrds, 30 yrds he stopped and gave me a nice deep nasty bugle. He was following a perfect line towards one of my shooting lanes. He continued coming, and once he stepped behind the tree I was hiding behind, I drew back. He stepped out in my clearing and stopped broadside at 10 yrds, I let it fly. I was worried I may have hit him too low, but that thought was quickly changed when I heard him pile up. He only made it 50 yrds. The work had just begun though, being alone, quartering him out was quite the chore. I then had to make the climb back up to 12,000ft to get cell phone service to call for help. I only could round up one buddy to help(I think the rest knew better than to answer their phones). We made one trip that night, getting back to the truck at midnight. I went back up to get the rest a day later. It was an awesome experience even though I didn't have anyone with me to share it with. I think I'm now addicted. Sorry for the long story, it's hard to cut it down I guess. Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know if the pictures didn't work.
