Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Son's first elk

Well, after paying his dues for a few years, my son got his first elk. He drew an RFW cow tag for a private ranch here in Colorado. We rolled in before first light, and met our guide at the appointed place last Friday. We were paired with another 16 year-old young man, and his dad was along too, nice guys.

The first morning, about a half hour into the hunt we could tell that this would be unlike other hunts. For my son, past hunts had been late season (4th rifle) in Colorado, on public land that gets a good amount of hunting pressure. I usually hunt the early seasons but those are right at the beginning of the school year and soccer season so he hasn't wanted to take time off to go with me on those. But I'd go along on the late season hunts as his "guide" (some guide, if it were me I'd have fired the guide already). In the areas we'd hunted the elk are pretty wary and also herded up by 4th season so it's hit or miss as far as finding them, depending on snowfall and hunting pressure. We'd come close once or twice but not connected. Throughout all of it though, backpacking in weather down to zero at night and miles of slogging through knee-deep snow, he never gave up.

But this hunt was on private land and we were expecting it to be different and we weren't diappointed. We were into elk right off the bat; we could hear three or four bulls bugling and cows mewing in the still-dark meadow about 150 yards in front of us. We hunkered down and waited for first light and a small herd materialized. We played cat and mouse with them for most of the morning but couldn't get close enough for a shot, so we walked back to the truck about 10:00 AM and took a break until the evening hunt. I remarked to the guide that I thought it was unusual to hear so much bugling this late in the season (it is on public land in my experience), and he explained that the bugling wasn't big mature bulls, just the young ones. The rut was over and the elk had bunched up, and young bulls were the only ones left with the cows; the mature bulls were off by themselves or with small bachelor herds. The guide remarked that the young bulls weren't savvy enough to know the fun was over, and thought they might still be able to "pull something off." He compared the young bulls to "young drunk rowdy teenagers" whereupon I felt it necessary to tell my son not to get any ideas.

We met at 3:00 for the evening hunt, and noticed that there were two young ladies (with rifles) there about the same age as the boys, and they were paired up with another guide. Always good to see more youngsters, especially women, get involved with hunting.

Anyway, we went to a different spot, and hiked in a couple miles without seeing much except two cows and a young bull that moved out about 500 yards ahead of us. We topped a ridge and could hear some distant bugles, and spotted over a hundred head on another ridge but they were over a mile off and it was getting dark so we decided to loop back toward the truck. It was just about dark when we spotted a lone cow on the next ridge, about 700 yards away. The guide took Hunter and the other young man and made a dash through the draw below and then they started working their way up the side of the ridge, slowly. The cover was low oak and serviceberry, with snow on the ground so we could follow their progress pretty easily. We lost sight of the cow in the brush, but we saw them stop about 3/4 of the way to the top, and the guide had Hunter set up on the shooting sticks. We could hear him trying to call her out into view, but no dice. We watched it all unfold from our high vantage point, it was very cool. They took down the sticks and kept on with their sneak up the ridge. Then we saw what looked like (and turned out to be) Hunter using the guide's shoulder for a rest, followed by the crack of the .308.

We saw them jog forward a short distance and stop, and we weren't sure if Hunter connected or not, so we hurried on over to see what was up. We got closer and saw them standing in a relaxed semi-circle, so things looked good. We got closer still and I saw a big grin on Hunter's face, so I asked what happened, and the guide said "45 yards-one shot and he dropped her like a dirty shirt." Hunter had hit her high on the shoulder, and the 168 grain TSX dropped her on the spot and made a clean pass through. The rifle had a 2.5 X 8 variable scope on it, and earlier in the day I'd reminded Hunter to either keep it on low power or turn it all the way down if he got in close. I was proud to hear that when the guide was preparing him for the shot and told him to turn down the power, he'd already done it. The guide remarked that Hunter had been "cool as a cucumber" the whole time.

She was a big cow, biggest I've had the pleasure of carrying out on my back. We skinned her out, using the gutless method, slung the quarters over our shoulders, and walked the mile back to the truck:



Here's one with a very proud dad, although you can't tell in the photo:



Hunter with a pile of meat:

Congrats to you guys!

Congrats to you both! Job well done. Now to have 17yr old stepson get his first elk this week - looking forward to spending the time in the hills with him!!

No doubt Colorado....... last pix with meat on table in backyard, several inches of snow, and boy wearing short sleeves. I LOVE it!!

Great story! Congratulations to both of you!

Good going! From the photo of the meat pile, it looks like she was putting away some good groceries. Any idea how the rest of the parties faired? 1Minute

Awesome deal! I was just fortunate enough to see my 16 yr old son get his first bull OCT 25th. Most memorable hunt of my life. Hard to beat that experience!. Congratulations to both of you!

I know the other young man in our party killed a cow the next day, no information on the others although the guides have a reputation for a high percentage there.

Great story and photos. Congrats to Hunter.

Very cool! Congrats to both of you...

Excellent be sure to give him my congratulations.

You are a rich man!