There's a million elk hunting stories on the net....

[BrianfromTulsa]

This one is mine.

[adeeden]

ahhhhh I like where this is going already!

[BrianfromTulsa]

Before I start, I would like to sincerely apologize to Hooked.  After reading your story, I could swear we were in the same place.  

That being said, my story will be that of a complete novice on a DIY hunt based on information I gathered mostly from Tradgang.  In particular, I would like to thank just_a_hunter #9535 for his post  http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=059344;p=1  which started this whole mess.

I would also like to thank everyone who sent me tips and advice via pm including invites to share a camp.  This experience has truly changed my life.

[BrianfromTulsa]

To begin with, I'm 42 years old and have always dreamed of hunting elk.  Never enough time, not enough money etc, etc.... you know the story.  I've always been somewhat athletic, played football in college but as the years passed, I've grown bigger, and softer.  Not what you'd picture as a mountain stalking machine.

That being said, my reason for this thread is to encourage anyone (I mean anyone) who has dreamed of doing this, to get out and make it happen.  I survived and you can too.  Didn't break the bank and enjoyed what I would consider an absolute success.

The day I read the above mentioned post, I printed a copy and started a file.  I now have a multitude of paperwork and maps compiled over the past year and a half which served me well this past week.  Just got home this morning so I'll try and get as much in as I can.

[BrianfromTulsa]

Part 1: conditioning
You've all heard it, some of you have said it.... be in the best shape you can be in, mountain air and terrain are unfriendly foes.  

I believe in that but "the best shape you can be in" is a relative term.  I'm a hair taller than 6 foot and alot closer to 300 lbs than 200.  I started a year ago doing 20 minutes a day on an eliptical machine.  Worked my way up to an hour a day which finally bored me to the point that I could no longer continue.

I began walking in the most vertical terrain I could find and now do 3 to 4 miles a day.  I'm still a "XXL" but I have definately improved on my physical condition.... this is a side affect I fully intend on continuing.

I won't sugar coat this because I was definately gassed alot of the time but I walked slow and sure with alot of glassing in between and I found myself 1-3 miles from camp each day without serious problems.

Our base camp sat at 9300 feet.  Everything was UP from there.

[Shinken]

You are making great progress Brian - Part 1.

Bring it on Man!

Shoot straight, Shinken

[BrianfromTulsa]

Part 2: logistics

I absolutely had no idea where to start.  I narrowed it down to Colorado and picked a unit.  Nothing scientific here, I had two friends going with me and Steve's in-laws had a cabin that we could use in an emergency, so I picked the closest OTC unit a picked it apart.  I obtained maps from the BLM and made some of my own from the Colorado division of wildlife site.  We would be hunting the Routt National Forest.  We were going to hunt a 10% success unit, but hunter numbers were low.  We agreed that it was a fair trade off.

I watched the "Weather Channel" website religiously for a month prior to our hunt and finally settled on a forecast of mid 50's during the day and upper 20's at night with slight chances of rain early in the week with clear skies later.

NOTE:  NEVER TRUST A WEATHER FORECAST

We had one week to hunt and picked the dates based on one Tradganger's statement.  I don't recall who said it but I was told that hunting bugling elk during the last week of the season was like "chasing 800 lb turkeys"!!!!!  how could we say no to that.  We had a general location and our vacation time set.  

We studied the maps and narrowed it down to two locations.  We agreed that a higher altitude would be a good bet given the weather forecast and could possibly eliminate some competition.  Here we go.

[straitera]

Love DIY. This if gonna be good.

[jcar315]

Keep it comin!!!!!

[Davo]

dude I am home sick with the flu hacking my brains out.  Where is the rest of the story.

[champ38]

Love the way you write..very thorough.

[BrianfromTulsa]

Equipment notes:
before the hunt, let me touch on a few equipment notes.  We live in Oklahoma and primarily hunt tree stand white tails.  We are not hiking, camping, back country savvy and our equipment was somewhat limited as you will see.  I borrowed a decent pair of binoculars and decided to buy a good pair of boots and rain gear.  

Again on the advice of Tradgang members, I found a pair of Meindle Perfekt Hikers in Cabela's bargain cave.  I love the boots but would recommend that you hold out for the Perfekt Hunters.... the higher tops will help should you encounter snow. (hint, hint)

Also in the bargain cave, I found a pair of rain suede bibs for $49.00.  Best deal I ever made.  I wore those bibs on 5 of the 6 hunting days and love them.  I added to that a space rain suit pullover top which I had to pay full price for but love the packability and weight.  

Our camping gear was a little inadequate but we used what we had.  We all had packs should we need to get away from the crowds but we never used them as we managed to find a decent base camp location.

[Bowhunter4life]

 

Oh, and thanks for sharing with us!

[BrianfromTulsa]

Thanks for the replies, I've read these for years and am glad to be contributing one of my own finally.

We arrived at our destination last Saturday, Sept 19th at approximately 1400 hrs.  The weather was clear at maybe 60 degrees.  I noticed that there were several camps in the general area and many of them had four wheelers.

We set up our camp at our chosen trail head and noticed that there was not a lot of sign that our chosen area had been heavily used.  Four wheelers were allowed on the main roads but our chosen trail was off limits.  Hopefully they would comply. so far so good.

 

We got everything settled in and soon figured out that most of the camps/four wheelers were weekend campers and not hunters at all.  The closest group, which ended up camping about a 1/4 mile down the road was very loud and partied until nearly 3 am.  We could hear shouting, music and fireworks and began doubting our choice from the beginning.

[BrianfromTulsa]

pictures too big, I'll work on resizing.

[BrianfromTulsa]

You can see from the picture that there was alot of beetle kill in the area.  I didn't reallize how serious the problem is until we arrived.  For those not familiar, beatles are killing alot of trees in the Rockies.  There was alot of brown that should have been green.

[BrianfromTulsa]

Alright, we finally got some sleep and awoke on day one.  Our plan was to hike up the drainage behind camp and check out a series of pastures (parks) that stretched aproximately two miles.  I was worried that the weekenders had ruined all my plans but trudged up the trail anyway.  

We were walking single file up the trail when Tim gave the fist up, stop signal.  He pointed to his left and motioned "BULL"... Steve and I looked and could not believe what we saw.  Not 75 yards downhill was the largest animal I have ever seen in the wild.  Bear in mind that this is a 4x4 bull but it might as well have been Godzilla to us as it was giant.  

At this point I should note that due to our newness to elk hunting, we all purchased cow tags and did not have a bull tag between us.

This bull never saw us and walked parallel to the trail out of sight.  We gave him time to get out of the area and then continued.  I don't know that we could have ever managed to get a shot at him as he was slightly ahead of us and we would have had to play keep up but we were 45 minutes into our hunt and had already seen a bull elk in the wild.

I looked at my GPS and noted that we were .6 mile from camp.  As far as I was concerned, this hunt was already a success.

We split up at this point.  Steve and Tim went down hill toward the park area while I continued down the trail working my way uphill to try and locate a vantage point.

[highcountry]

Don't be stingy with the pictures Brother! I know you got more.  

[BrianfromTulsa]

At approximately noon, I was a mile and a half in when it began to cloud up and rain a little.  The rain then changed to sleet.  I never did find a good vantage point where I could observe any of the park area but after a nap and lunch, I began slowly working my way back toward camp.

about two hours before dark, I found a good hide on the east side of the park and sat down.  The rain/sleet soon stopped and almost immediately I heard my first real bugle.  It took me by surprise and I was a little unsure of what I heard but when he let out a second bugle followed by a series of grunts, I knew that all my hard planning had come together.  My plan was to sit there and get a good feel for where the elk were coming into the park.  I had 5 more days to hunt and I was not about to rush in and mess this up.  As I sat there, I could hear two more bulls bugling, all across the drain from me on the east facing slope.  I never saw any of these elk but one had to be within 200 yars of my location.  I could have went home at this point a winner.

I made my way back to camp and compared notes.  Tim had come back early during the rain and worked around camp, Steve had heard several bulls bugling as well and we were stoked.  Another benefit we soon discovered was that it being Sunday and raining, the weekenders had exited en masse.  Yeah!!

We somehow managed to get to sleep and awoke the next morning to the sound of rain hitting the tent.  I peeked out and discovered that the rain was no rain at all, but was a sleet/snow mix.  So much for weather predictions.

[BrianfromTulsa]

Monday morning.