My first elk hunt, lessons learned and general rambling.

[pdk25]

And here is a pic of Dave striking a pose from the top of the drainage.

 

[cacciatore]

Am I wrong or I see some Tips there?

[el greco]

Could you do any recommendations or comments about the backpacks you guys  used?

[monterey]

Yeah, that law requiring muzzle loaders to be out of breath causes a whole lot of misses.  :p

[pdk25]

Felix, I was using a Silvertip that I got from Bill Webster that was around 62#@29" with canebrake skins and antler limb tips.  Usually I use longbows, but my thunderchilds aren't well suited to a bow quiver.  Dave was using his beautiful Dale Dye bow that is black and white ebony that Bryan was kind enough to modify for him on the hunt.  Bryan was using his trusted ACS that he killed a cow with last year.  Dave and I practiced a fair bit with broadheads at distances up to 50 yards prior to the hunt, and we all shot in camp.  I would say that we all shot about the same and felt comfortable out to 40 yards, but were really confident 35 yards and in.  You know when a shot feels right.

Here are some pics.  Dave texted me a pic of his first 2 shots of the day with broadheads at 30 yard.

 

I grabbed my bow.  First 3 shots with field tips into crosswind at 50 yards.

 

Then 2 shots with broadheads at 34 steps, straight into the wind.

 

Next two shots at 44 steps.
 

Then chips shots at 20 yards.
 

That silvertip doesn't shoot half bad.

[pdk25]

lmao, Monterey.

[awbowman]

Originally posted by pdk25:
awbowman, I had some trouble with a bloody nose too, but I think it was from the dry air.  I started smearing petroleum jelly in my nose and the problem went away.

centaur, it definitely left a bad taste in our mouths, but it didn't ruin the hunt.  There were some good experiences to be had.

Yes the antihistamines aggregated the situation

[pdk25]

el Greco, I will tell a little about the packs.

Bryan would using an ICON 7000 pack from Kuiu, which he likes but we didn't talk much about it.

Dave had decided on the pack from EXO mountain gear, and he got the 3500 ci model.  He was nice enough to send it to me to try out as I was deciding on a pack.  I appreciate the pack more now than I did then, and it is a very sturdy pack with an innovative titanium frame capable of handling very heavy loads.

I chose a nomad pack from kifaru with a camp bag mounted on a lightweight bikini frame.  I added a longhunter lid and a couple of belt pouches to increase the storage capacity.  All of them easily had the capacity for a 7 day backcountry hunt and are well suited to hauling meat out, although we didn't get the opportunity.  Dave's pack and mine also had a good capacity to be reduced down to a daypack.  Bryan packed his smaller Sitka gear pack along to use as a daypack.

[killinstuff]

Ha Pat, trucks are a little better.  I drove my Audi A4 to Montana on my elk hunt 10 or so years ago and ripped the metal stone guard off trying to back out a creek I found to deep to cross in a car. Folks in town heard me coming from a mile away as it dragged on the road. Had to used the tire iron to finish the job the rocks started.

Hopefully theres a happy ending yet to come?   If not and knowing you, you'll dissect this hunt a hundred times and have a better second half game plan for the next hunt.

[Dirtybird]

Originally posted by el greco:
Could you do any recommendations or comments about the backpacks you guys  used?

I was using EXO hunting pack, Pat was using a Kiafaru pack, and Bryan was using a Kuiu pack.  My pack performed great carrying the loads I had packed.  

I also second Pats decision on the firstlite merino.  Hands down the best merino I have used.

[pdk25]

Ok, I will try to get started on the Saturday hunt, but I am going to the movies with my wife, so likely won't finish.  

We already know that it is Bryan's last day to hunt, and it also will be Dave's last day because his back is killing him, and he is catching an early flight back home out of Colorado Springs to get to his regular chiropractor.

We set the clocks for 3:00 am, and are hiking our way into the drainage by 3:30, with Bryan in front and me in the back and both using green flashlights, and Dave using no light at all, using the light from our flashlights as a guide.  He did a better job than I would have, and we did a pretty could job of being quiet up until the end of the hike in.  We were about half way there, when we heard bugling.  A total of 3 different bulls were in the drainage bugling, and we were trying to get ahead of them before daylight.  We might have been able to do it, but we were literally surrounded by cow calls.  In every direction, you could here 'eeoo', so we got bogged down waiting for them to move off and hoping that we wouldn't get busted by the wind.  We thought we were in the clear, but could only make it to a lookout deep in the drainage, but we could here the sound of bugling heading deep in the dark timber on the far side of the drainage as daylight broke.  We periodically would hear a bugle in the timber from the same location, and decided the best bet was to wait all day until he would come down the drainage to get a drink and feed rather than likely get busting working through the timber with a disadvantageous wind.

[Matty]

Hey pat!
Sorry I never called you back, when you were driving home.  There alway something getting in the way. Glad you had a semi good time. And it seems you were well prepared.
 we had our best elk encounter last night. Julie called a nice 6x6 about 15 yards away (from her) and about 25 from me. I just needed one more step. But it didn't happen.
Write on. I'm still reading

[Jayrod]

Wish you guys could of had a better time but you give the upmost effort and had a great time it's just a shame that some people don't treat the outdoors like most of us do and have respect!!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Thanks for the update.  Beautiful country but wayyy too many people in that area.

[pdk25]

That is what happens on public land with over the counter tags.

Sounds like a good opportunity, Matt.  You figure with enough of them something good will happen.  

Back from the movies and back to the story.  So we spend the daytime alternating between taking naps, taking a few shots without risking getting busted, and with Dave and Bryan seeing if they can catch a brook trout with a sapling some serving material, and a small sharpened piece of wood.  Great fun, but we are eagerly awaiting the evening, and moved a little down the drainage to better glass the meadows and to keep the wind in our favor.  We moved a few hundred yards, and it is drizzling now, but Bryan forgot his bugle at the last spot, and goes to retrieve it, while Dave and I wait for him.  In the drizzle, it is hard to see Bryan even with binocs.  Well in this time interval, two local muzzleloader hunters that are not wearing the requisite orange come into the picture.  One heads down into the drainage and up the other side of the drainage near where the elk is bedded, and one stays up on the other hill. Now personally, I don't really care about the orange.  What I do care about is how obnoxious it was to cut Bryan off, plus the fact that the only way they got there was to illegally ride their ATV's into the drainage.  Well, Bryan lets out a bugle before the guy can get all the way to well the bull is bedded, and Dave and eye get quite a view.  A nice 4x6 bull runs full tilt down the hill and stops 35 yards from Bryan, looking around.  He is a little confused because at this point both of the muzzleloader hunters are cow calling to him.  All Bryan needs is one more step to his left to clear some brush, but the bull puts his nose in the air and runs full tilt back up the hill, having winded fat boy up on the hill.  Then to make matters worse, stops 30 yards broadside from the other hunter and the shot goes off.  The bull stumbles down into the drainage to die around 40 yards from Bryan.

[pdk25]

I guess I should mention how I know they were riding ATV's.  Dave had previously said that he thought that heard an ATV.  I didn't hear it, but Dave's hearing is much better than mine.  After the bull was shot, we went over to take a look at the bull, and noticed they had daypacks that could barely fit a sandwich.  I commented that they would need a bigger pack, and the younger of the two said they would ride the ATV's down into the drainage to get the meat.

We took the long walk back the truck, vowing never to hunt during the muzzleloader season again.

[pdk25]

Sunday morning saw Dave and Bryan packing up to head back to Colorado Springs, and I intended to stick around for some solo hunting until the following weekend.  I didn't know a lot of the adjacent country and was barely getting competent at cow calling, but figured I couldn't kill one if I wasn't I the woods.  I took Sunday morning off from hunting to see Dave and Bryan off, and prepared to get back in the woods Sunday evening.

[pdk25]

Time for some more gear comments.  I had packed several items for having clean water during the trip.  A camp bag gravity filter system that holds around 10 liters, a sawyer one liter squeeze filter bag, and an older msr pump filter.  I opted to leave the pump filter in the car when we made the back country ascent to save weight.  Mistake.  The one liter squeeze bottle would fill in the low flow creek near our camp and is basically useless unless you have a source like  deep water are water with a much higher flow rate.  The gravity bag also was very difficult to fill without having tons of debris from the creek bottom in the bag.  Fortunately, Bryan spotted a small pan that one of the prior hunters/slobs left behind, and I could use this to dip water out of the creek to fill the bag.  Once filled, it worked like a charm and was more than enough water to supply me for 2 days when my camelbak bags and msr dromedary bags were filled.  It made the half mile hike to water worth the trip.  I won't leave my pump filter behind anymore, though.

[pdk25]

So sunday afternoon comes, and I head back into the drainage that we had been hunting, but in the lower end hoping that the elk wouldn't be spooked from the activity in the upper portion the day before.  I head to the top and sneak through the timber, hoping to catch site or sound of some elk.  On Saturday Dave had see a cow and calf in this area and I was hoping they would still be there.  I didn't see or hear anything, but I would stop and glass and cow call occasionally working my way back toward lower elevation and trying to keep the evening thermals in my favor.  I hadn't heard anything and was relocating when I caught sight of a nice 5x5 bull in an area that I called the gap, on a hill between stretches of timber.  He was silently looking for me, and I was not in a great spot.  He was only a couple hundred yards away, and when he headed downhill through the gap I quickly closed the distance using the available cover.  If he would have kept his same line, I would have had a 40 yard shot, but instead, when he was out of site, he circled into the lower timber.  I think he my have caught my motion and I heard him take off.  I made a couple of cow calls, and surprisingly he came back.  Unfortunately, he stood there broadside at 60-70 yards for a few seconds, lifted his head to sample the air and the thermals gave me away and off he went.  A great experience, but if I had gone straight downhill I would have had a shot.  It just seemed risky, with not enough time or cover to get where I needed to be.  Live and learn.

[pdk25]

Monday came, and it basically rained on and off all day, and was so foggy that you couldn't see anything more than 50 yards in front of you.  I opted to take the day off, drive in to town, and do some laundry.