Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Back from Colorado ranch elk hunt

I had the opportunity to hunt some private ground near Carbondale this year and thought I'd share the report I already posted to my thread in the elk hunting forum. I good time was had by all.

I got back Sunday night and overall it was good. Very different than any elk hunt I've ever been on because I've never spent that many days sitting on my ass in my life. But the views in the area were gorgeous. This was from the highway below the ranch.



We arrived about 1:30 a.m. on opening morning and caught a few hours of shut eye in our trucks until we met the ranch manager about 5:30. The hunting party was my cousin, his 18 year-year old son, his dad (72) and me. The RM gave us the lowdown on the blinds, tree stands and how the elk flow on the property and talked about the two big bulls he'd seen several times in the past two weeks. It was a nice set up with all angles covered and no shot over 400 yards. There's a large pond on the ranch below his and the elk go down there at night for water. I stumbled on the elk highway later in the week and the amount of sign up there was insane - a trail 6 feet wide covered in elk tracks all going the same direction - away from the water.

Opening day we simply sat in blinds and waited we had a few cows wander through , but we wanted to save our cow tags for later in the week as we were hoping for a chance at the two big bulls in the area. Early afternoon, we had a small 4 point bull come in with a spike and two cows. We let him come through, hoping that a bigger bull would follow, but no luck. Later in the week, we would regret letting that small bull pass through.



Come day three, we had seen some elk, but not in any numbers and no bulls since the spike and 4 pointer. It had gotten hotter every day and was in the 70's, so the elk were mostly bedded down and higher during the week. That was the hottest week of elk hunting I've ever experienced. I'm guessing it is much more like what the fellas in Arizona and New Mexico get most years.

Day four and we were at the halfway mark - no elk down, no deer down and time was ticking, so we decided to start filling the freezer. Later in the afternoon I had a decent 4x5 come out with a few cows. I settled my 270wsm behind his shoulder at 175 yards, thought about those phantom big bulls and squeezed the trigger. His legs went all wobbly and he staggered about 30 yards before he tipped over. I was shooting the 150gr Fusion and it went clean through with a small exit wound, leading me to surmise that the bullet held together despite going through both sides of the ribcage.





On Wednesday, my cousin had a similar 4x5 appear in front of his blind and he dispatched it with a 450 Marlin behind the shoulder at 125 yards. (sorry no pics of that one but it was a little bigger than mine). The 450 Hornady LeverRevolution slug came to rest just inside the skin of the far chest wall and it performed beautifully, retaining a lot of its initial mass.

Thursday, my cousin's son was getting itchy for a kill and harvested a nice mule deer doe with his 300wsm. She was in the trees less than 75 yards from the tree stand he was in and the shot was perfect behind the shoulder. No elk on Thursday made an appearance.

By Friday, we only had 2 elk down and it was hot as Hades, so we decided to risk kicking the elk off the mountain side and I volunteered to go put the sneak on some bedded elk and see what we could stir up. I spent the better part of 2 hours carefully moving around what we assumed were the prime bedding areas, moving slowly and keeping the wind right. For this task I took my 1957 Marlin 30-30 in case i ran into a nice deer. About 90 minutes in I about stepped on a cow in her bed. I never saw her before she bolted, despite only taking a few steps at a time and scanning the trees. I saw her but as she jumped away and 45 seconds later a shot rang out from the blinds below. Success! My cousin's son drilled her with a neck shot from 100 yards and she piled up on the spot! Three elk and three perfect shot placements equaled a lot of great meat for our families.

Not much happened on Saturday. I walked the trees again, but there were n elk on the reservation. I spotted a doe at 75 yards, but she was at the top of the ridge with no backstop, so I had to let her pass and watch her jump the fence to the next property.

Sunday morning, we finally had a premier opportunity. Not a bull, but a giant mulie buck. He walked out 375 yards broadside to my cousin's Dad and started to eat some alfalfa. Cousin's dad is a part-time deputy sheriff in a small Colorado county and brought his AR-10 and was loaded with 168gr Ballistic silvertips. He had a rest in his blind and I heard 4 shots ring out in short order - but no dead buck. I saw the dirt fly at the buck's feet. Way low. He was positive he hit it. I asked him where he aimed and he said he was zeroed at 200, so he aimed upper shoulder "because his gun only drops 6 inches at that distance". With an 18" barrel bleeding velocity, his bullet drop was probably more like 38" at 375 yards. Oh well. But what a buck. Hopefully his progeny will be running that area for years to come. Spectacular rack on that one.

Probably the best thing about the hunt was that we were able to drive a truck to within 50 yards of every kill so it was the easiest elk loading of all time. The only thing easier would be if they jumped in the truck before dying.

I also made a good contact for a 5th season cow hunt for my son in December and January. So it ended up not being the bucket list hunt that I hoped for, but still a fabulous week and a full freezer.