I have hunted elk five times now. I had a cow tag the first year and while I did see elk my then hunting partner wasn't up to going down in the canyon after them. The second year I had a cow tag and the first thing I saw was a five point bull. I got my new partner and we managed to get on him after another hunter spooked him down the canyon. He was near the bottom in dead fall city and it took two more days to get him out. I had one day left to get a cow, found some cows, and another hunter spooked them just as I was getting ready to shoot. I didn't get anything.

Three years ago my partner and I both had either sex tags. We got on a herd at 400 yards on the last day. We only saw cows at first but then I spotted a bull up higher. I use a 300 Weatherby which was 10" low at 400 yards with that load. I held a little high since he was over 400 yards but we were shooting steeply down hill and I shot over him. My partner killed him and I killed a cow so at least I had my first elk.

Last year we went on a high dollar guided hunt in Montana and never saw a legal bull.

I was frustrated and this year I was determined to get my bull. I am 62 years old and not getting any stronger so I figured it was now or maybe never. My partner couldn't go this year so my wife went with me. We drove to Grand Junction and I bought a second season OTC bull tag. We then went back to the steep little canyon where my partner and I had taken our last three elk. It is right next to the road and you can drive all around the top. It is a haul getting up but it is easy once you reach the top. It is steep though so it gets very little hunting pressure and it has elk. We got there Thursday and set up camp and then went looking in the evening.

Saturday morning they were gone. Later I spotted the big five point down in the next little side canyon. He was feeding in a strip of deadfalls running down hill. We drove around the top and went down the ridge across from him. By the time we got down about level with him he had laid down in the timber. We were at 500 yards. I could see a patch of hair through the pine boughs with the spotting scope. I got my sticks set, consulted my drop card, dry fired a few times and settled in to wait for him to get up. While we were waiting I took a closer look at how we would get him out. He was in the dead falls which was bad enough but there was also a rim rock above him. There was a shallow draw up through the rim rock that maybe we could get up but it is probably near vertical. Above the rim rock the slope eased some but it was still full of dead falls. There weren't any good routes. I finally decided to leave him be and we climbed back to the top. He was back up feeding, broadside, when we reached the top.

We didn't see another bull that we could reach until Tuesday. He was a raghorn with a broken tine on one side. His brow tines were well over five inches so he was legal but with the broken tine he was a 3 X 2. I couldn't get motivated to go down in the canyon to kill him so we just watched him until he disappeared. No bulls Wednesday but it snowed about four inches. Thursday started out dead but I spotted my bull at 11:00 AM. He was feeding. It was the small five point we saw Friday morning.

I decided he would do so we angled down through the timber across the canyon from him. Meanwhile the bull bedded. Then something above him spooked him and he got up and moved. I lost sight of him in the timber but we kept going. We left the timber and got into the oak brush. The bull was bedded again. He was laying on his side with his head down on the ground in the open. We kept going and it was exhausting, slipping and sliding through the snow down that steep hillside. I fell through some dead limbs and the bull heard me so he started watching us. I ranged him at 560 yards and it started snowing. He didn't look spooked yet so I decided to keep going. Trouble was the snowfall was getting heavier and it was getting hard to see. I went down a little more and decided it was now or never. I was not climbing out of that hell hole empty handed!

I found an opening in the oak brush, sat down, got my elbows on my knees, and got my sticks adjusted perfectly. The range finder wouldn't read through the snow but I figured we were at 550 yards. My drop card got wet the day before and I took it out of my pocket to dry. I forgot it and all I could remember was that the drop at 550 is 25 or 30 inches. I was still shooting downhill so, based on the last elk I killed there, I reduced the drop 5 to 10 inches which left me with 20" of drop. I decided to hold about 6" over his back. I had time. He was watching me but wasn't spooked so I dry fired twice. The first time the cross hairs made a little circle. The second time the crosshairs barely quivered. Ready! I dropped one in the chamber and squeezed it off. The bull started jerking his head up trying to get up. Nothing else was following. I thought I had under estimated the drop and broke his legs so I held a hair higher the second shot and he rolled. It was 2-1/2 hours after we first saw him. I just had time to get some landmarks and pick a route to him before it whited out.

An hour and a half later we were across the canyon and found him.


My wife had a ball! I will never be able to go elk hunting again without her.


We got him skinned and taken apart by sundown. There was a nearly full moon and with the snow we were able to see well enough that we never needed a light. One and a half hours to the top and a 45 minute walk back to the truck. Two more trips down and we had about 220 pounds of boned elk in the coolers.

The Weatherby and the antlers.


First hit with a 168 TTSX launched at 3300 FPS from the 300 Weatherby from 550 yards. Because he was laying on his side the bullet broke his spine. The second shot broke his neck.



So I finally got my bull!

Very cool.

Congrats!

Good deal!!!!! Congrats! You did great...

Great writeup! Congratulations!

Good job and nice elk. Any elk is a trophy, but when you have to work that hard, it just seems even more valuable, IMHO.

Wish my wife was enthused about elk hunting! Congrats on having such a great mate!

For times like that, I got a Simpson chain saw capstan winch and lots of good rope. I've used it a couple times in situations like yours and it was worth every penny.

Bob

Way to go

Good deal!

Great report and enjoyed the conclusion as you did. Congrats to you and your new hunting partner.

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your picture and story. Sounds like you earned that one. Great that you have a new hunting partner, too!

Very cool! Congrats!

Nice bull and sounds like it was a long time coming

Marc,Congratulations!

Marc, yours is a story that gets me excited... absolutely fantastic, and thanks for sharing as well as a BIG congrats to you and your wonderful bride!

Great story and hunt.

Well done, Marc! Both you and your Mrs.

L.W.

Congrat's on a neat story, a good bull and a great hunting partner !

Congrats! You worked very hard for him.

Contrats from here, too. I also spent a long time getting bull #1. I got a few cows in the meantime, but that 1st rack took a while.

Congrats on the bull!

Amazing adventure, kudos for perseverance...congratulations on the your hunt!

Thanks! It was great fun and I don't remember the work now so it is even better. I am indeed lucky my wife enjoys it. She hunts deer with me and has killed a few deer. She isn't really into the hunting, she calls it grocery shopping, but she loves the outdoors.

Great story and excellent bull!

Very nice bull.

Marc,
Congrats on the bull. Its great when a plan comes together.

Well done, Marc!

You earned that bull and all the good eating.

Congrats. Being 62 myself I know how thin the air is in elk country and it's not getting any thicker. But now that you've broken the ice and figured out how to do it, the next one should be no problem!

Lots of hard work and patience and a nice reward. Congrats!

Awesome story Marc. Nothing like hunting elk!! I live for the stuff. Good shooting too and you're lucky to have a such a great wife to share the experience with.

Congratulations!

There's times I wish my wife took an interest in elk hunting, then there's times I'm glad she hasn't!

Hey, your wife helped you by holding your 338 win mag when you took pictures of it to sell it...I remember

She just got back from a weeklong Carribean cruise with her girlfriends last night, still looking for tanlines...

Congrats!

Wow Marc,

Great work, determination, and skill on your part. Congratulations on harvesting a fine bull. You obviously
put alot of effort and study into this hunt. I am impressed
that your sweet lady went with you, and you are blessed to have a wife who wants to share this with you. What a great trophy!

Great story! Congrats!!

What a great trophy! And I admire your effort--trophy elk are not easy. Good shooting too.

Thanks again! It was a thrill!

I was reading my story again and see I lost a paragraph somehow in my first post. We saw a nice six point bull and a big five point Thursday evening before the opener. On Friday morning the smaller five point I killed was with them. Friday evening the six point and the big five point were still there. Saturday morning, opening day, they were gone. We never saw the six point again. I think the big five point we saw in the deadfalls was the same one we saw with the six point.

I was wondering where Friday and the 5 point went and came from.

Nice work-congrats.

Ah heck, that's just too cool!

I am sitting here just grinning for you! A DIY elk hunt with your wife along is absolutely spectacular!

Well done Marc! Really.

Really nice story. Great job on the bull.
For the most part hunters don't fill Colorado OTC bull tags unless they know what they are doing.
Congratulations!
I enjoyed that about dry firing prior to a long shot. Someone showed me that for the first time this year. It really is helpful.
Are you done with costly hunts in Montana now?

Congratulations on your first bull, it was a great hunt and to be able to share it with your wife is fantastic!!!! Great narrative. Thanks for sharing. !

Congratulations Marc, you definately earned your bull, and a great story. Excellent choice of bullets and caliber, my favorite for elk.

Way to go! Great story and how cool that your wife was there to experience it with you! My wife thinks hunting is "icky".. lol.

Eric

Great story and great shooting!

Yes, I am done with the high dollar Montana hunts! I am glad you all enjoyed my hunting story. I sure enjoyed doing it!

I just got back from Arizona. I went to help a friend fill an elk tag. We saw them but just couldn't get it done.

That line made me chuckle, knew how it was going to end.


Congrats on the bull, I enjoyed the story.

So how old were you when you first started elk hunting? It sounds like a recent passion. But better late than never!

Marc,

Being as I am of a similar age, I greatly admire your drive and effort to come up with a bull. From personal experience, I know just how hard it is to get a bull, or any elk. Rarely has it been easy for me, no matter how good things looked before the hunt started.

Having your wife along to participate in the hunt is a huge bonus, and one that many men would appreciate in their own adventures. You are lucky to have such a partner in life!

Congratulations on a bull well and truly earned. I hope the two of you will continue to hunt elk in the future.

Sounds like the voice of experience.

WyoM70, I was 57 the first year I hunted elk. It has become a passion. I intend to keep doing it as long as I can. I told my wife we needed to find an easier place to hunt but I don't know if there is such a thing. I have always tried to get beyond the crowd when I hunt. In this case the distance was vertical. If it was flatter country I would just have to hike further, so it probably doesn't make any difference in the end. The main thing is to stay healthy and in shape to do it.

Oh yeah. There's been more than once I was wishing I'd have taken a little better look around before pulling the trigger.

Marc,

You have no idea how much that impresses me! To take up something as difficult as elk hunting at that age is simply astounding to me! More power to you!

My first Wyoming bull elk came at the age of 29, due to the terrible accident of being born in a state with no elk. I felt I was way behind the curve compared to other elk hunters who had already taken a number of elk at a much earlier age.

But with no way to start much earlier, it was the best I could do.

While I had always thought I would like to hunt elk, that first elk hunt started a fire in me that has not died out even to this day.

And I have to say, my wife's passion for elk hunting probably matches mine. My wife and I have very different styles of elk hunting, but both styles kill elk.

She is probably the better hunter, and definitely holds the record for the *closest* shot on a bull elk (*13 yards*) which she dumped right there with one killing shot from her .338 Win Mag. Sad to say, that bull elk was 7 miles from the trailhead!

We have had many elk hunts together over the years, and very few, if any, of those hunts would be considered an easy elk. Cow elk hunts have been some of the worst, for whatever reason.

Almost all of our hunts have been do-it-yourself, hike in on foot, hunt till you drop kind of hunts. Nonetheless, we have killed a lot of elk over the years in Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana.

I wouldn't trade those years and those hunts for anything.

The best way to find an easier place to hunt is to hunt in a better place.

Trying to get beyond the crowd in Colorado is difficult. Much of the Colorado country is carved up in such a way that if you hike far enough, you will just meet your counterpart coming from the other side. This is particularly true in the general elk areas.

In my experience, you have three options to make things work better.

First choice, get a tag in a good unit with limited numbers of licenses available. Better game opportunities with fewer hunters tends to make the hunt less of a marathon ordeal. You don't have to outrun so many other hunters either. You will still need good luck and good weather. A tough mental attitude that allows you to hang in there will often make a big difference. My first Wyoming bull elk was killed in the very last minutes of the last day of my hunt, after having seen almost nothing up until then.

Second choice, go on a fully guided hunt on horseback with a good outfitter in a good area. Weather and timing still play a huge part in the outcome. Costs can be high, even if it is a ranch hunt. And you have to sort out the good from the bad before putting down your money. It can work out very well though. Or as you have already experienced, you may never get a shot. Remember that the odds are against you, and most of the time you will be doing very well to get a single shot at a bull elk.

Third choice, get a horse of your own (there is never just one!), change your entire life to accommodate your new herd of horses (or mules), and try to find a good place to hunt where your your new livestock gives you significant advantage over the poor foot hunters (like me).

With five years experience, you are starting to become a much more experienced elk hunter. You are learning how to find elk, and how to successfully hunt them. You will get better with more time in the field.

Also remember that some years you simply will not get an elk, no matter what you do. But don't let that douse the passion inside of you for next year!

Best of luck for your next bull!!

Thanks for the advice. I did start to late. I had a family and financial goals that kept me from doing it sooner.

I am going to look at different areas for next year. I have a few points in Colorado so I might be able to draw a little better area. I am interested in Montana too. They have a 5 week season which gives plenty of time to hunt new areas. I am going to look at Wyoming also since my other hunting partner has enough points to draw a moose tag there and wants me to go with him. Maybe I can hunt elk on the same trip. If all else fails I can always buy an OTC tag in Colorado.