Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How did everyone do on opening day!

Public land opening day 5x5-
No motorized vehicles. That was a lot of packing!
Finally got home and got a shower at 12:30am.

Good luck everyone!!!

Very nice bull, congrats! Any details?

I shot a dink 6pt. Wilderness area. Disappointed I allowed my hunting partner to talk me into shooting. Had scouted a 320-30 bull and hadn't seen him since Saturday.

Oh well freezer is full and now I can go fill my other tags.

Opening day for me is this next sunday in Wyoming. I have a cow tag this year, and am running low on elk meat. I will try for a cow without a calf if, and when I see them.

Didn't hunt opening day but put a cow elk down last Saturday morning and the spouse put down a spike Sunday morning.
Still have a general tag for a bull and deer opens Sunday, we will be hunting that opening day.
Private land for us this year.

I suck at this picture stuff lol
Hopefully this turns out better

Not sure what details you may be looking for Sako.
I had known this bull was in the area for 3 weeks prior to hunting season while I was out scouting-
Almost blew him out of this area 2 weeks prior to the opener, . Went back 10 days prior to the start of the season and could see fresh activity so I knew he was close. My buddy Mike and I went in on opening day. We were the last of 8 trucks to show up that morning, hiked in about 3 miles and we worked an are about 1/4 mile from him for about 4 hours. He didn’t let out a peep. No bugle, chirp, no response to cow calls. My buddy Mike went about 1/3 mile up the draw and got on the upper ridge and I came through a little later and bounced him up between us, Mike shot him at 97 yards with one of those fancy, long range things. You may have heard of it. 308 Winchester.
That was 330 in the afternoon. It started pouring rain as I was getting the quarters off of it. We loaded up and took what we could out on our packs, 6 mile loop to the truck and back. Got home at 11:30pn. Slept for about 6 hours, came back the next morning for the rest. The rain helped keep the scent down. No cats, no bears, no wolves had touched it. Just a few bees. Packed out the rest of it in one big trip on Wednesday after my clothes and boots dried out. no rain, and we got it done in the daylight. What a difference that was. All the meat is now at the butcher. Probably about 350 pounds when it’s all said and done. The end

Nice going!

Nice work, way to get it done!

Public land, non motorized, DIY. Trail head looked like a Black Friday sale parking lot. Got about 4.5 miles back and to my spot right at sunrise. Had a group of four on horses pass me on the way up, I caught back up to them as we were going to the same area. Also had someone ditch their e-bike in the same area - F&G was waiting for him at the bottom when I came out.

Ditched the group on horses, went up on this little saddle, took a quick peek of the next ridges with my bare eyes and didn't see anything completely obvious. Went back to my pack 10 yards away, took a leak, and was about to change my shirt and get a couple more layers on to start glassing in comfort.

Happened to look back and there's an elk on the next ridge. Grab my Swaros, it's a bull! There's also a herd on the next ridge over from him with several bulls, including a nice 6 point.

Public land, people everywhere, e-bike guy's location unknown. Horse hunters locations unknown. Other hunters unknown. I'm taking the first legal bull I can.

Grab my rifle and range finder, 433 out, I lay down and get ready. Mimmick a couple cow calls to get him to turn more, which he does. Quartering shot behind the shoulder, hit him hard with the 145 LRX. He stumbles and spun around, mostly broadside, slightly away, hit him again, and he goes down the hill slightly and done.

After getting to my spot my season lasted maybe three minutes. The herd went down, not up, and a few of those bulls got taken. Word is the e-bike guy got the 6x, curious how the chat with the warden went.

Saw some great bulls when I was out for deer, and on that same opening day morning, couldn't be happier with my bull. Had there not been a ton of people out I would have gone for the 6x, but given the circumstances I'm thrilled with how it went.




My bull was on the ridge prior to the herd, ended up in the yellow bushes.




Entry and exits.






These non .8xx BC bullets somehow still work, despite what the Internet says.

I bought my Montana deer and elk tags when they went on sale last March. Then in September I filled my freezers with Canadian moose meat. Ever since I shot my first mule deer back in 1965 and my first elk the following year, I've looked forward every year to hunting them on opening day.

I have shoulder mounts on my Trophy Room walls of my 2 best mule deer bucks, my 2 best whitetail bucks, and my 2 best 6x6 bull elk. I have at least a couple dozen elk racks hanging in the rafters of my garage, and I no longer have horses to pack me into the back country and to pack my elk meat out. Most of the deer and elk that I've shot, many of my pronghorn antelopr, along with my 3 bighorn rams, my mountain goat, and one of my Shiras moose, I shot (and packed out) on DIY, solo hunts.

I still enjoy hunting, but now my age, loss of horses and hunting partners has made hunting more work than fun, so this year I'm going to just have to settle with deer and elk tag soup flavored with a lot of moose meat.

You’re selecting the wrong button icon from postimage. Use the icon that is 2nd from the bottom. It says “Hotlink for forum”.

Nice bull. Congrats!

Opening day.




🦫

Takes allot of grit to do what you did. Nice bull and I bet you'll never forget any of it.

Hasn’t happened yet !!!!!

Great pics Taco of the bull and bullet!!!


Thanks!

Sounds like a good hunt. Pretty area!

Got my THIRD day bull in NE Oregon. The first two days of the season were fugly, sideways rain, snow and wind. Just about impossible to shoot, even if they would have come out where we could get a shot. Third day we were in a little over 3 miles in and had gained 2,000 feet elevation which put us slightly above the herd we had spotted a few days before. I was about two 5 minutes late getting to my shooting spot and the two cows in front of a herd of about thirty in the opening saw me. They got nervous and milled around a bit and decided to head back in the deep dark. A small bull made the mistake of stopping, and gave me a shot. Bullet went in behind front shoulder and came out in front of the offside rear hip. He ran about 50 yards and collapsed. My partner and I go him cleaned out, strapped some pieces on our day packs and headed back to camp . Back to camp at 2100 after a thrilling hike "straight" down the mountain to the "trail that never ends", (truck parking location). Next day we got the rest out . Rifle was Kimber Alpine light, 280 AI, 160 AB, shot was a slam dunk at about 125 yards.

Good going buddy!