Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Father & son cow elk hunt

I enjoy reading all the stories about others' hunting trips so I figure I should contribute something myself.

I've been chasing elk with archery equipment since 2009 and I've had nothing but tag soup to show for it. Anyways... my preferred September archery elk hunt got nixed this year due to my wife's obligation to Uncle Sam. I had told my wife I would make up for it next year when I turn 40. I told her that no matter what I would be hunting elk next year; terrorists, wars, natural disasters, etc. be damned... I'm going elk hunting for my 40th birthday.

As I sat around contemplating how to use my points in Colorado next year, I considered that there were still some elk to chase this year with a rifle in my hand. I drive through Chama, NM every year on my way to my happy hunting grounds in Colorado. I've heard they have a lot of elk there during the migration and plenty of tags available through outfitters. I looked around the web and found an outfitter that appeared to have some leftover cow tags/hunts available for 2014. I have a terrific wife and figured that she wouldn't object to me going on a guided cow elk hunt. The price was reasonable and I considered that I could take my Dad, too. Hmmmm....

...more to come.....
BP

I called my Dad to see if he was interested and if he had time to go. (Dad's first and only elk hunt was in 1976. He shot a spike on that hunt.) Dad said he had time and was eager to go hunting again after all these years.

I exchanged several emails/phone calls with the outfitter and our hunt was booked for December 19-21.

While my archery equipment was good to go, my rifles weren't. I ended up buying two new scopes, eight pounds of gunpowder, and four boxes of Nosler and Barnes bullets. I chose to run Barnes 150 TTSX's over a max load of H4350 in my 300wm. Dad would be carrying the same rifle that he hunted with in 1976. It's a Remington 700 BDL in 30-06. He loaded up some 180 Nosler Partitions over a max load of H4831. We both sighted our rifles for 250 yards and practiced shooting off of our long grass style shooting sticks.

December 17th finally arrived and it was time to head west.

Let's hear the rest of it!

I've been trying unsuccessfully to upload some photos....

So on with the story.......

We got a late start on the 17th so we stayed the night in Amarillo and arrived in Chama on the 18th. We got settled in at the outfitter's lodge and had a nice meal for dinner. Our outfitter for the hunt is Fishtail Ranch.

There were only 3 of us hunting Friday morning so Dad and I each had our own guide. I went out with Lee and Dad went out with Joe. I saw one coyote and 5 cow elk that morning with no shot opportunities. Dad didn't see any cows, but he got to watch the other hunter in camp shoot her bull elk.

We ate lunch at the lodge and then went out for the evening hunt. More hunters had arrived at noon and Dad & I both went out with Lee. We glassed up some elk on a ridge and began our stalk. I had told Dad that he could have the first shot when the time came. We stalked up a ridge to the east of the elk and got pinned down by a spike. After about 15 minutes he finally lost interest in us and went back to feeding. But now I had a cow starring me down. She soon lost interest and I moved left to some cover. I now had Lee to my left and Dad was back a bit to my right. It was difficult to communicate with Dad as he is hard of hearing. It was nearing dark and I was afraid that the elk were going to blow out before either of us got a shot off. I saw that I had a clear shot at a cow at 240 yards. I told Lee that I was going to take the shot. I threw up my shooting sticks, mounted the rifle, and took my shot. I saw that the crosshairs were low and tight to the shoulder when the rifle fired. I watched the cow run a few yards with busted shoulders and disappear into some brush.

Dad moved over to Lee's position where he already had his shooting sticks set up. Dad had a cow at 280 yards and took his shot. Dad missed low and he chambered another round. Dad aimed higher, fired his second shot, and now missed just over the cow. All the remaining elk were now gone.

I stayed at the location of my shot while Dad and Lee went over to look for blood. I directed them to the correct location and they found my cow piled up against a tree. They were able to confirm that Dad had clean missed his cow.

I now had my first elk! It was neat to have my Dad there when it all went down.

We gutted the elk and left her in the field overnight.

We went out Saturday morning to try for Dad's cow, but we had an uneventful hunt. We returned to my cow and removed her from the field. We skinned and quartered her then put all the meat in the meat locker by the barn. We had lunch at the lodge then went out for the evening hunt.

We glassed up a lone cow bedded in the snow up on a ridge. We stalked up on the ridge to the east of her. Unfortunately she was gone when we got up on the ridge.

We moved about 3/4 mile to the west and began to move up another ridge. I looked up and saw a big cow moving through the brush about 150-175 yards out. I threw up Dad's shooting sticks and got him on the cow. Lee stopped the cow and Dad took his shot. The cow bounced back about a foot at the sound of the shot then walked into the brush. Unfortunately Dad had missed again. We moved up to the location of the cow and confirmed the miss. Dad was pretty bummed out by this point and we returned to the lodge for dinner as the sun set.

After dinner Dad and I talked about the hunt. I told him to forget the misses and just have fun. I told him that he would be using my rifle for the remainder of the hunt. He seemed pleased with this.

The next morning we went out and glassed up some elk near where I shot my cow. We stalked up an adjacent ridge and located the elk. We were 300 yards away and Dad was having trouble spotting the elk. We remained patient and he finally saw the elk out in front of him. I think his nerves were getting the best of him as he was putting too much pressure on himself to make it happen. We got him set up to shoot from a sitting position and let him take a few breathes to calm down. The rifle fired and I watched the cow on the far right fall. Dad shot her twice more and she was done. Dad was on cloud 9 at this point.

Here's Dad right after he shot his cow. The smile says it all.

OK, I suck at posting pics. They keep rotating on me. Bear with me while I try to sort this out.

BP

Here we are with Dad's elk.

...

Love it when a plan comes together.

We gutted Dad's elk and took her back to the lodge. We got her skinned, quartered, and into the cooler with my elk. We recovered one of the 150gr TTSX's from Dad's elk.



The next morning we made an uneventful trip back to Oklahoma.

I was very happy with the outfitter and the whole trip. Dad and I hadn't been on a real hunting trip together since 1988. I couldn't have asked for a better trip.

BP

Congrat's sounds like a fun hunt for both of you!

Late season cow hunts are a lot of fun. Sharing it with your father had to make it even more special. Congratulations to you both.

Good deal. Glad you got your elk and got to do some hunting with dad!

Good job

Very nice!

I've been thinking about looking into a similar hunt with my old man if we don't draw a bull tag next year!

And THAT is what it's all about! What a great story about some Okies!

Sounds like a lot of fun.

Good stuff....Congrats.