21A

Justranchin · Oct 9, 2019

Kind of last minute but looking for a little bit of help on a starting point to find some elk in 21A. Hunt starts this weekend and have gathered some info from a few people I know but seems everyone I've talked to has told me something different, so I'm having a hard time making up my mind on where to go.

I was thinking of going in through Chloride and then southwest on FS157 and hiking in towards AL wilderness. A friend told me the north part of the unit around highway 59 can be good, I also got some info that north and south of highway 152 on both sides of Kingston can be good. So it sounds to me like there are elk everywhere, just a matter of finding them.

I've hunted 16B a fair amount so I know it can be steep and rough in that country. I've got two friends going to help on the hunt we're all in good hiking shape and have our minds set on hunting hard and putting in whatever effort it takes for an opportunity at a mature bull.

Any help or info would be greatly appreciated!

Bowdeadly · Oct 9, 2019

They lied to you, there ain't no elk In 21A. Just kidding I'm sure there is a few. Seen good sign up near border of 16c a few years back while hunting deer. Good luck

Justranchin · Oct 10, 2019

Bowdeadly,
At least their lies will keep us optimistic for the first couple days of the hunt lol..

We?re not looking for a lot of elk, just one good bull and a little bit of luck.

Thanks for the info, greatly appreciated!

Justranchin · Oct 14, 2019

Got it done in 21A! It was a fun hunt!

Saw 6 bulls in a day and a half and about 50 cows. Some of the elk we saw were in the dark on Thursday middle of the night about 2:30 am while driving in to the unit. They were on the shoulder of the highway but right away it made us feel better about a unit we knew nothing about other than the small amount of research I had done on onX and the little bit of info people had been nice enough to share with me.

We found the bull my buddy shot on Friday evening while glassing from a peak about 2 miles from our camp. There was about 30 elk but they were a LONG ways away and we couldn't tell anything about them other than there were bulls by the lighter color of their hide. We made a plan Friday evening but we were a little doubtful if it would work because of all the other camps close to ours and thinking these elk were being watched by other hunters too.

We found some of the elk right at daylight Saturday and they were feeding and moving right to us. There was a nice 6x bull (bull #1, who had good long main beams, and good fourths but wasn?t real heavy), a rag horn, and about 10 cows. We paralleled them on the opposite side of a canyon about 400 to 500 yds away for 30 minutes or so before we heard a second bull (bull #2) start bugling but he was a little ways away. We couldn't see him but could tell he was moving our way. Bull #1 ran the rag horn off and really started trying to move his cows as bull #2 was getting closer and screaming his head off! Bull #2 brought about 20 more cows right into the small herd we'd been watching and immediately you could tell he was the dominant bull of the two. His main beams or fourth weren't as long as bull #1 but he had better eye guards and thirds and a lot more mass. Bull 1 would bow up and scream back at bull 2 and a few times I thought we were going to get to see a fight, but bull 1 wanted no part of a fight. Me and my buddy kept paralleling these elk and watched the two bulls and about 30 cows for another hour or so trying to decide if he wanted to shoot one and if so which one. We joked about how we were taking our time and enjoying the moment, and how funny but not funny it would be if someone else was watching the same elk and shot one right in front of us. Neither of the bulls were a 330 or 350 bull that we all want to shoot but they were definitely the two dominant herd bulls in that area and after the awesome experience of watching them like we did for close to and hour and a half he decided to take bull #2. We had to move and set up 3 times before this bull stopped long enough for a good broadside shot from 350yds. The first shot was spot on in the pocket but the bull remained standing and never took a single step as his cows ran off with bull 1. My buddy bolted another round and an unnecessary but well placed second shot sealed the deal. The pack out was 3 trips each about a mile all up hill and we were done on opening day around 2 o?clock.

I've never had the opportunity to watch elk for that length of time from that close of a distance and them never have a clue we were there. It was a hunt neither one of us will ever forget and I feel lucky to have been invited to go help him on this hunt!

Good luck to all the other hunters out there! I hope EVERYONE, regardless of whether you're pulling the trigger or not, gets to experience a hunt like this one!

UhOh · Oct 14, 2019

Unbelievable!!

TerynItUp · Oct 16, 2019

Probably had enough whiskey that you stumbled right into em!

That you Russ?

Hunt Hard. Shoot Straight. Kill Clean. Apologize to No One.

Justranchin · Oct 17, 2019

Terynitup,

How?d you guess that me and Kaleb had some whiskey in our camp?

I think we each might have had a sip or two, but I promise it wasn?t at 7am before we started hunting. We waited until 9, after we tagged one.

For future reference, make sure you have water and not just Crown for the pack out lol. After the elk was quartered and ready for pack out we hiked back to the truck, drove back to camp and exchanged our day packs for pack frames. It wasn?t until our first trip out with the meat that we realized we didn't have any water, only a flask of Crown in my back pocket lol. I guess you live and you learn