P
Piker
Guest
OK, I'm an easterner, and I've never hunted elk before. This year my buddy and I split our CO points and drew unit 66 MZ bull tags. 9 days to hunt elk in a SW Colorado wilderness!
We hiked a couple of miles in the rain the day before the opener, and set up camp with elk bugling nearby.
Day 1 Nothing in the morning, moved camp another 2 miles, called one that wouldn't come in the early evening. Just enough rain to keep us from drying out.
Day 2 Nothing all day, moved camp another 2 miles, nothing in the evening. Just enough rain to keep us from drying out again!
Day 3 Followed a couple of buglers for about a mile in the morning to no avail. Moved camp about 1 mile back towards trailhead. Now about 5 miles from trailhead. Called one in the evening that wouldn't come. Starting to dry out.
Day 4 Buddy went low and I went high (just above treeline). Finally we have good weather. I called with a Hoochie Mama to one of the three bugles I heard in the morning, and he went away. Heard a bugle at 1:00 PM. I called / followed him all afternoon. Mid afternoon I decided to get closer. I bumped him and a cow. He calmed down and was comming to hoochie mama when the cow went the other way. He followed her. Later in the afternoon I repeated this series of unfortunate events. Meanwhile my buddy came up, and we called this and another bull till dark. They talk, but they won't come.
Day 5 More good weather. Buddy saw lots of elk, I saw nothing.
Early evening, after walking away from a pair of big 4 points or small 5 points my buddy actually called a good bull into shooting range with just minutes left in shooting hours. The bull came in silelently. Buddy only called because we had nothing better to do. He missed.
Days 6,7,8 wind tried to blow us off the planet. No bugling was heard. Day 8 we moved camp back to 2 miles from trailhead.
Day 9 Woke up to 20 degrees inside the tent, 6 degrees outside. No more wind. We heard 2 bugles during breakfast. Choose poorly and called in a pair of archery hunters. Later the wind came back. Never heard another bugle.
All in all we saw about 15 bulls with 8-10 being good 5 points or better. Most called to went away. Some that went away, we know had a cow along.
2 days of good weather out of 9 was much worse than we expected. Were we unrealistic? The only time the wind didn't change direction ever couple of minutes was when it tried to blow us away. Is this normal for this region? How do you hunt like this? We would really like to try hunting elk with our bows, but we couldn't even get the job done with muzzleloaders, and we don't know what we did wrong.
TIA
We hiked a couple of miles in the rain the day before the opener, and set up camp with elk bugling nearby.
Day 1 Nothing in the morning, moved camp another 2 miles, called one that wouldn't come in the early evening. Just enough rain to keep us from drying out.
Day 2 Nothing all day, moved camp another 2 miles, nothing in the evening. Just enough rain to keep us from drying out again!
Day 3 Followed a couple of buglers for about a mile in the morning to no avail. Moved camp about 1 mile back towards trailhead. Now about 5 miles from trailhead. Called one in the evening that wouldn't come. Starting to dry out.
Day 4 Buddy went low and I went high (just above treeline). Finally we have good weather. I called with a Hoochie Mama to one of the three bugles I heard in the morning, and he went away. Heard a bugle at 1:00 PM. I called / followed him all afternoon. Mid afternoon I decided to get closer. I bumped him and a cow. He calmed down and was comming to hoochie mama when the cow went the other way. He followed her. Later in the afternoon I repeated this series of unfortunate events. Meanwhile my buddy came up, and we called this and another bull till dark. They talk, but they won't come.
Day 5 More good weather. Buddy saw lots of elk, I saw nothing.
Early evening, after walking away from a pair of big 4 points or small 5 points my buddy actually called a good bull into shooting range with just minutes left in shooting hours. The bull came in silelently. Buddy only called because we had nothing better to do. He missed.
Days 6,7,8 wind tried to blow us off the planet. No bugling was heard. Day 8 we moved camp back to 2 miles from trailhead.
Day 9 Woke up to 20 degrees inside the tent, 6 degrees outside. No more wind. We heard 2 bugles during breakfast. Choose poorly and called in a pair of archery hunters. Later the wind came back. Never heard another bugle.
All in all we saw about 15 bulls with 8-10 being good 5 points or better. Most called to went away. Some that went away, we know had a cow along.
2 days of good weather out of 9 was much worse than we expected. Were we unrealistic? The only time the wind didn't change direction ever couple of minutes was when it tried to blow us away. Is this normal for this region? How do you hunt like this? We would really like to try hunting elk with our bows, but we couldn't even get the job done with muzzleloaders, and we don't know what we did wrong.
TIA