Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Late season Cow Elk

Good luck to you. Snow can be a fickle friend. About a hundred kinds of snow. About seventy percent of them can work against you. I love to hunt in the snow, but its not always in your best interest.

Hunting in the snow: It can be cold too.

(Jk)

Wishing you all some great luck.

PM'd prairie dog shooter to tell us what happened on his hunt.

Regarding the 275 yd shot. Muzzleloader shot was out of the wind. We found three groups of cows in one canyon! Two were closer so my friend did a stalk on them. The wind in the drainage was minor with just breezes coming and going. The wind was screaming past me on the high ridge as I watched the show.

I saw the cow drop then heard the boom of the rifle. She rolled down the slope for 70 yds until a log stopped her. It was a great accomplishment for his first elk. Friend's rifle is a Arrowhead custom 45 cal using a 300 gr bullet (BC .355) sized to bore with no sabot. Using BH209, velocity 2500 fps.

Well, what happened on my hunt;

First, I was not prepared for how limited my mobility was with the snow. I was unable to get into any of the areas I had scouted and wanted to hunt. Just getting into the unit I had to dig the truck out of the snow three times. The limited mobility also concentrated all the hunters into that one small area. Opening day was a traffic jam the likes of I-75 in North Dallas rush hour. I gave up my first stand that morning after the fifth vehicle passed me and got stuck in the same spot as the others 100 yards behind me.

I relocated to the top of a South facing slope of timber with some level benches and sat up in a blowdown to watch what I thought would be the escape route of any elk pushed out by other hunters. At 3:00 pm six cows passed through within 100 yards of my position. I was never able to find a clear shot through the timber and lower brush. I kept my scope on them until they crossed over the ridge and I followed their tracks for about 600 yards. The snow was so noisy to walk in, I never caught up enough to see them again.

The second and third days I tried to get back into some lower areas where the elk were likely to be but kept getting stuck before I could get into walking distance. I finally got tired of digging the truck out and sitting out glassing and seeing nothing so I called it a learning experience and gave it up.

For a southern boy, who had never hunted in snow before, it was an eye opener. On the positive side, my layers of budget level and surplus store winter clothing was very effective. Low temps of zero degrees, highs in the twenty's and an all day snow storm didn't hamper me a bit. I remained very comfortable through it all. My biggest concern was how to keep my Nalgen water bottle from freezing up but that wasn't a problem after all.

I carried a freighter frame pack with gear to bone out an elk, first aid kit, survival kit, fire kit, and to hold layers of clothing as I added or removed them. I also carried a tall hiking staff of aspen wood. That saved me from a couple of tumbles.

Although I did not kill an elk , I had a good time and I feel more confident and prepared for the next time.

Some things I will do differently next time;
Put in for an earlier season hunt. Or get some snow shoes, tire chains, and rent a snowmobile.

Prairie dog Shooter,
Well, you have a good attitude which will pay dividends next year. If you are near Angel Fire you are probably at least at 8,000 feet. Wheeler Mt. isn't too far away and its over 13,000 feet - the highest in NM. Every year the snow depth is unpredictable as Mother Nature isn't consistent, You can have 20 inches in the pines but the south facing slopes might have none. A likely feeding area though. The best snowstorms come out of CA. and head towards "four corners". Obviously the elk sense the impending low pressure and feed heavily the day before. They hold up during the storm and come out to graze as soon as they can. We glass small meadows for active animals and plan accordingly.
While it's certainly not fun to travel in fresh snow, it certainly helps out when it comes to notching a tag. If there appears to be at least a foot of snow on open level ground, we put 'em on and head out. You can always take them off and cinch them to your pack or start with them there and put them on as need be. Snowshoes on thin crust are noisy but they still save energy. About five years ago I was in thin-crust moseying up to cut off a small group of 6 cows just over a ridge. As I thought I was near them, I kick the shoes off and crept the last 50 feet to peer over the ridge. Using a dead pine as partial cover, as I topped out, there were 6 sets of eyes watching in my direction. The rifle was already ready and I picked off a fat one off to one side as they were a bit bunched up ready to travel. They stuck around long enough to have five head out. I used a .308 Win. and a 165 Partition on that cow at 85 yards. Lots of good clean fun!

I have much more confidence in my ability to find elk and deal with cold weather and hunting pressure now. I'm encouraged about my prospects for the next hunt!