Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 2014 Elk Season Rewind

With rifle season only a couple months away, how about sharing some of last year's stories and photos? I don't have any antlers to show but we did get some meat in the freezer.

It was my second season hunting elk in Colorado, having recently relocated for a job, but I was able to draw a fourth season either sex tag with only one point. Not having ever killed a bull before that was naturally my ultimate objective. However, I knew my wife and two children at home would rather eat elk than a single serving of tag soup, so a cow was definitely not off the table as an option.

By the time fourth season rolled around I had already broken new ground by punching my tag on a young muley buck. I grew up in southern AZ in a prime coues deer unit so I hadn't hunted a mule deer up to this point. The 140 nosler accubonds I had loaded up for my .270 worked perfectly and I was sure a Southwest Colorado bull would follow shortly.

The tag I had drawn covered multiple units from treeline through sagebrush high desert. I had been in the field the whole season prior with family members who had bought otc bull tags, but had only seen one glimpse at a legal bull, so I was hoping for some cold weather to bring the herds down to lower elevations. With no weather in the forecast fourth season arrived.

I had made a plan of four to five places to hunt depending on the amount of elk activity and primarily other hunter activity. So about a n hour before legal shooting light I began hiking to my first destination, a small strip of forest bordering a private ranch where I had seen elk holding up the week before. there was a small bowl like structure at the base of a small ridge with a couple cattle tanks for water. I moved from the back side up and over the ridge so I could get a vantage from the top looking down on what would hopefully be a sleepy group of elk. Well after glassing the bowl for a couple of hours and waving at several late rising, orange clad fellow hunters I worked my way back to the truck and drove to the next spot. The rest of the day followed suit.

Day two found me riding shotgun with my wife's older brother to try one of his spots. He had drawn the same tag but had worked the previous day. So together we hunted his honey holes with similar success as the first day. He did stumble onto a nice dead head from the year before, a young five point bull. It would have been a trophy for either of us if he'd only lived another year.

It wasn't until the middle of the afternoon after climbing switchbacks for a mile and a half to get to a secluded section of forest that once again bordered a private ranch that we saw our first bull. We had found a great vantage point overlooking a pinch point canyon where we had seen elk funnel down to water below. We'd eaten out lunches of pb and j's and maybe caught a short siesta when I finally spotted some brown through my 10X50's. Two cows, a spike and a barely legal four point sat in a small draw just 50 yards the private side of the fence. They didn't get any closer that day. Right at sundown a different group of cows crossed right into the pinch point and made there way to the water. I couldn't shoot because I knew there would be a bull in the back. Of course I was wrong.

Fourth season in Colorado is five days long and because the fifth day falls on Sunday (as it does again this year for my cow hunt) it would be a four day season for me since I don't hunt on Sundays, personal preference of course. So this would be the final day. By sun-up I was shivering on the same overlook that we had seen the bull from the evening before. Just as I was starting to get restless leg syndrome I looked straight across the canyon at a cow looking right back at me. "Oh crap, she's got me," I thought, just as she turned and kept coming right down the well worn path that crossed the fence onto the forest. She was followed by about a dozen other cows who all crossed too. No bull. Well I'm sure most of you would have waited out the day to see if that bull showed up, I didn't. That last cow stopped in an opening right at 300 yards and I put an accubond right behind the shoulder.

Remember that nonexistent weather? Well it became very existent(is that a word) 4" of snow fell on my trips hauling that thing out.

2014 Colorado GMU 63 Archery Season 6x6 Bull.

Anticipating great things...

How'd you get her to smile like that for the picture. The ones I shoot usually don't look that happy....

She was happy to have been taken with a 270 i guess.

I have a story from the trip home last season.

2014 I was driving back from an elk hunt where we had gotten a couple cows. After a couple hours driving I stopped my old 22ft RV on the summit of Monarch Pass to make a sandwich. When I shifted the 1977 rig into drive I realized the automatic transmission had lost all of its forward gears.

There are better and worse places to wait for a tow. I didn't feel like waiting at 11,300 ft and I figured I still had reverse. If I could somehow figure out how to use reverse to get the rig pointed down the eastbound slope of the divide then I knew this downhill run as well as anyone.
I had another problem
There was a flagman controlling traffic and eastbound was just one lane.

I backed the RV up a steep incline service road that led to the tramway/gondola, but from there the summit house (tourist shop) blocked my view of the flagman. Since I couldn't see the flagman I had to try to time my merge with the traffic by watching the vehicles lined up and waiting. I pulled the lever to neutral and coasted the RV through the parking lot dodging vehicles and tourists. My timing was off. I had to stop and navigate the RV backward through the parking lot - now in reverse! I hoped not to end up as comedy clip on YouTube. I backed up the tramway ramp again.

On the 3rd try I timed it correctly. The traffic wasn't backed up and the flagman's sign was flipped to SLOW instead of STOP. At the point where I passed the flagman I had lost most of my forward momentum and was only moving at only about 3 to 5 mph. He waved his arms wildly urging me to hurry up and move it along but at that point I was gravity powered.
Gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law.
I waved back at him.
I would be moving plenty fast soon enough.

Eastbound and down the rig gained momentum down Monarch Pass I thought to myself this is the sort of thing Clark Griswold would be involved in.

Anyway, to make a long one short, I was able to coast the RV 18 miles down to Poncha Springs (possible world RV coasting record?) where I was stopped by the traffic light and was able to back up into the parking lot of the local Cat Shelter. The cat ladies seemed simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by a stinky camouflaged hunter. Meanwhile the cats sniffed and licked at the dried elk blood on my boots. They were kind enough to allow me to park there until I could arrange a tow. From there I was able to rent a Uhaul and get my firearms, optics, and myself on the road home while I figured out what to do with the RV. Thankfully the other guys were hauling our elk so I didn't have that added problem.

So that drive home was an adventure in and of itself. Thought about selling the RV for salvage but eventually I arranged a tow and got it tranny rebuilt.

[img]https://goo.gl/photos/GiHqcn3TFGBLRqye6[/img]

Good story. You had me in suspense...

My story kind of went like this:








Damn 3% hunters success area....

Thanks guys, I sure have enjoyed the stories and pictures. November can't come fast enough!

I'll be chasing these bad boys again in three weeks.....

Nice bull Pat..

My first elk killed with a bow in 2014, Colorado unit 421. I cow called her in just before sunset and got a heart shot at 20 yards. She ran about 60 yards and dropped.

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Heck of a bull. And one of my favorite broadheads. I'm jealous!

Very nice bull. Didn't know anybody still used Zwickies

When Chuck Norris grows up, he wants to be Pat S. :-)

2014 I hunted 3rd rifle. Second day I was on a large heard but they knew I was there. My only options were to watch them walk over a ridge and disappear, or make a run for it assuming they were gonna double back. So I run away from the heard out of their view then sprint to where I assume there gonna pass through. After a hard Mile and a half run up a ridge i start smelling elk. I slow down as I reach the crest of the ridge and see the top of a dark rack with white tips. As I slowly work to the top the heard begins to move. When I get a view I see 60+ elk in a open bull on the opposite side. The big bull elk closest to me starts trotting south. The rest of the heard begins lining up single file to split. The first five elk as I crested the ridge were bulls. One large bull, didn't count the points, the others were satellite bulls. Unfortunately I have a cow tag. For what ever reason the elk wait to run until the all line up then start trotting right in front of me. After the bulls move through my cross hairs the cows come by. I take aim at the third cow in line, I don't shoot the number one cow, and squeeze off my 300 RUM. The shot was 30 yards max and she falls immediately. Then the work began.

Now this year I burned points to get a bull tag since the last two years nice bulls have walked out of the cross hairs. Karma will probably kick in and no bulls will be around.

Hunted elk in Montana and Wyoming last year.

Being a former Resident of Montana and being born there has it perks...including an $80 NR elk tag.

Montana bull:



Same hunt, glassed this bull and then helped a complete stranger with this one. The guy was pretty darn excited, great guy and he deserved this bull, his best bull ever:



Next up was Wyoming...early season cow:



Wyoming bull:



Late Wyoming cow:

I'd hate to see what your fall would be like if you "liked" elk hunting... Well done!