Colorado Elk Hunt

cchioda3

cchioda3

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2A Bourbon Hound 2024
2A Bourbon Hound OG
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I was able to get an opportunity this year to go to Colorado with my father in law for an elk hunt. Right now we are through day 2 of 5. Property is nice. So far we are having trouble spotting elk. Neighboring properties aren’t really hunting them from what we understand so they aren’t moving much.

The stands are interesting. They use big oil drums and build a wood stand on top. Not too bad. Keeps us out of the wind. Yesterday the forecast was winds 20 mph gusting 25. In reality it was gusting closer to 40.
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The second picture is the stand I was in yesterday morning (11/18). Had some nice views.
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This morning I sat in the same stand as I did yesterday evening. In my inexperienced elk opinion, it has some really good potential. I was hopeful in this stand.
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this was the view straight out. Would have been great to catch them coming off the ridge on that trail.
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This was the view to the right. Looked like great potential to get them coming down out of the aspens.
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This was my view behind me to the left. The thicket was about 160 yards and the first field was 350-400 yards everything beyond was out of reach.

This afternoon we put on a few drives at some spots but no elk. We’ll see what tomorrow does.
 
Elk are an interesting animal to hunt. They cover a LOT of ground and patterning them is impossible “unless in rut or pre rut” even then it’s not a pattern, it’s just them letting you know where they are.... stay after them. Have patience. You may see nothing but you may be pleasantly surprised. None the less, you’re in beautiful country. Take it all in
 
matttahoe53 said:
Welcome to Colorado. What part of the state are you in?
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About 20 miles straight south of Hayden. Hunting off of (state road?) 55 a few miles south of 29.
 
chuckcraig said:
Elk are an interesting animal to hunt. They cover a LOT of ground and patterning them is impossible “unless in rut or pre rut” even then it’s not a pattern, it’s just them letting you know where they are.... stay after them. Have patience. You may see nothing but you may be pleasantly surprised. None the less, you’re in beautiful country. Take it all in
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You aren’t kidding. Didn’t see an elk til morning of day four. Then I saw quite a few. The week started out slow but finished fast. It is beautiful country out here. I’ve always liked the view in Colorado.
 
So day 3, which would have been 11/20, was rough. We left the outfitters land to go to new land they just got access. They never hunted it tho. It was 900 acres. We walked like 4 miles that day and saw a ton of elk sign. But I knew early on that you aren’t gonna sneak up on elk. Especially when the ground is frozen solid. We tried anyway with no luck. Didn’t even bump any out. Ended up finding a spot that looked promising and sat the rest of the afternoon. Nothing.

Day 4, yesterday 11/21, we went back to the outfitters land. The elk, that were seen across the road by the three other guys out here hunting who has seen cows just about every day so far, had finally crossed over to our side. I saw about 15 cows and calves 400 or so yards from the stand at first light. Even got to finally hear a bull bugle. It was exciting seeing our first elk the whole dang hunt. The bull never did come out. In the afternoon I took a risk and went back to the same blind since we knew they went to bed down in the hillside adjacent to the blind. Hoping to catch that bull come out to graze. About 30 cows and a few calves came out around 3:30 or just before. Came off the hill about 300 yards away and walked straight to me to about 70 yards away and just grazed. Couldn’t believe it. Just so many of them. The bull came down with them. Turned out to be a spike. So I was forced to pass. Didn’t shoot a cow because I was still holding out for a bull and day five was my bull/cow tag magically turned into a cow tag, if I was to be so fortunate. But what a sight those elk were.
My father in law was about 900 yards away in another stand and while I was watching these elk, he had about 10 cows come out 200 yards in front of him. Having already a bull mounted at his house, he shot a cow. We ended up not getting a picture of it. Oh well.

Today was day 5, the last day of the hunt. I’ll write about that tomorrow.
 
Nice photos.
I'm just a little jealous. It's on my bucket list, if I don't get to the bucket before i get to go elk hunting.
 
matttahoe53 said:
Nice! Stay warm I think some snow is heading your way.
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Yeah we got out of there just in time I think. We left today (11/23). Stopped in Rifle CO to eat at shooters grill. Very pro 2A establishment. They encourage all their employees and customers to carry. Super cool place. I went in with my 1911 on my hip and my father in law with his .44 mag.

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That Lauren Boebert is the owner. She ran for and just got elected to Congress. Thought that was pretty cool.
 
bondjamesbond said:
Nice photos.
I'm just a little jealous. It's on my bucket list, if I don't get to the bucket before i get to go elk hunting.
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Thanks! It was a lot of fun. I’ll need to go back another time tho...Glad my father in law got something though. His eyes are getting bad so every hunt is one to hold on to.
 
Traceround said:
Congrats on him putting some meat on the ground! Now it’s your turn!
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Appreciate that! Wasn’t my time this trip. My day 5 was eventful though. While we sat in a blind in the morning as it got light, the guides dad (who started this whole thing and still sorta runs it) went scouting on some property they usually lease but just finally got access to for the last day. Anyway he radioed that he saw a group of cows up in their northwest corner in a little pocket on the mountain. So off we went. Stopped the side by side just so far up the path and on foot we go. Man these guys are like mountain goats. It took everything I had to keep up all week. Haha. But they were good to not rush or push us.

Anyway it’s just me and the guide so we were able to go further and quieter. We walked/stalked what seemed like forever. Come around this corner and as we look up the mountain about 290 yards a group of 5 cows got the drop on us and start heading north. I’m putting scope on them and guide says the dreadful words - “don’t shoot!” Apparently we were close to the property line and they were headed right for it and he didn’t want me shooting them. So I look back to where they came from hoping one more comes out. No luck.

We were still being very quiet. Whispering and such. After a few minutes we start heading down the hill a bit to this bottom area. As we creep we bump another group of cows about 30 yards from us as they bed in these scrub oaks. I turn and raise the rifle as I see them through this clearing in the trees. Again guide says “don’t shoot!” Oh man, you’re kidding me. We were about 90-100 yards from property line and the shot would have been 50-60 yards. Well within the boundary in my opinion. On day 5 anyway. Tell me that day 1, not the last day of the hunt. I wasn’t very happy. But we did our job and actually snuck in on some elk with some fair amount of success. Just ended up too close to property line. Silver lining is that we actually pushed them back towards the guides property.

After a quick bite for lunch I had him take me up to one of their blinds that overlooks the ridge I suspected they would head towards. Get all settled sometime between 130-2pm. Sure enough 230 a cow and calf walk over the ridge and bed down. Couldn’t believe we actually guessed right. But it was going to be a 440 yard shot. I let them stay bed down because it was still early in the afternoon. I had hoped they would come down the hill and graze giving me a much closer shot or that some other elk would come out with them and have more opportunities. Either way I sat there as they relaxed and just watched. I devised a plan as time went on that if no other elk joined or that they looked like they wouldn’t head down hill that I would just shoot as soon as she stood up. Shot looked perfectly clear through scope and binos. She was above the tops of the set of aspens below her and she was just laying right next to the base of an aspen.

I watched her for 2 dang hours and no other elk came by. When she stood at just before 430, I let one fly. Nothing, no reaction. Reload, sent another. Scope was dialed in for the distance so it wasn’t an issue of missing low. Again no reaction like she was hit. The recoil of the second shot buckled my shooting stick. By the time I got that out of the way and got scope back on her, I caught the tail end of her just walking back into the brush. Almost like nothing ever happened.

Once it got dark we went over to where I shot her to see if we could find anything. If I shoot at an animal I gotta go check even if they look like they didn’t get hit. We did find blood, but it was in her hoof print. Like a drop here and a drop there. The bullet ricocheted off something right before it got to her and nicked the front of her leg or her hoof. We followed the trail as far as we could until she walked where there was no snow. I’m not happy I missed. But glad she didn't get wounded where she will suffer. She’ll heal up quick from that.

This was very zoomed in but she was at the top of this ridge just left of the middle of this picture. In the clearing between the two sets of aspen trees near the top.
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One heck of a day and overall a really fun hunt. I definitely wouldn’t go out for fourth season in the future. These elk were just too pressured by the time we went out to hunt. Definitely first or second season next time.
 
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