I really enjoy the geography on the Colorado Western Slope. The mountains fall of fast and the forest transitions from alpine down through ponderosa and scrub oak then pinion forest, sage and finally desert sand all within a few miles.



A cow elk’s final resting place in the pinion forest



Snow the first two days was a welcome event. We hunted the fresh snow but elk had not moved yet. Coyotes, on the other hand, were tracking up the snow and hunting in earnest.

When the snow passed I was a little surprised at the cold. I had hunted in snow in this unit before - but warmer. I am better prepared for the cold hunting places like Gunnison or Creede. One morning I was preparing to serve the crew breakfast and I could not wipe the table clean due to the cold. A damp cloth was like a mini-Zamboni that just added a fresh layer of ice to the table. I used a windshield ice scraper to clean the table in the RV. Worked well.

Over several decades I have seen my role in the hunting party change along with my physical ability. 35 years ago I was the young porter-the mule-the rookie. Later I became the scout, hunter, ramrod, hunt organizer and the recruiter of fresh legs, wrangler, and so on. These days I am mostly the camp cook and bottlewasher. The smaller the hunting party the more hats you have to wear. I drive an ancient RV that we call the chuckwagon and it has a pretty good cabin arrangement for serving meals to the crew. Picture below.



The chuckwagon doesn’t have much for heat but it has seldom needed it. Usually just cooking a meal on the stove will warm the cabin enough to have the hunters shedding their jackets. Not this season. By the end of the week I was making water by thawing frozen water jugs in cookpots on the stove.

I had gotten conditioned to admiring this view from camp. I make sandwiches for the crew each day and use bagels for the bread so they don’t get crushed in their packs. I add a candy bar for desert. One morning at first light I was delivering the bagel sandwiches to the canvas tent where he guys were staging their hunt and I looked up at the clearing above.
A small herd including a bull ran across.
I ran up to the canvas tent to alert the crew.

The chase itself unfolded a strange way. I tracked the herd about 3 miles that day from camp at about 9500ft on up to 11,000ft. Snow really helped. Back in the years before back pain would wake me up every night I would compete in the Pikes Peak Marathon and even now I can still move OK for my age. To my surprise after several hours I caught up to the bull. He briefly showed himself through a gap in the timber. He had a sort of golden tint color and was probably a 5x5. He vanished through the only angle in a line of trees where I did not have a shot. As the chase proceeded he did things to shake me – like sharp turns on the spots free of snow. He was smart. I liked him. By early afternoon it appeared that he had figured out that in the deeper snow and steeper slopes he had the advantage. At timberline he had widened his lead and was heading for the patches of evergreen trees at the higher elevations. I was losing the race and I was too tired, too exposed, and too far from roads or any help.

He had won.



I began following the old logging roads back down the mountain in the direction of camp. I was hoping to hear a shot from one of the other guys. I passed the tracks of a very large bear. Several times I resisted the urge to follow fresh elk tracks heading in the opposite direction. Then a set of bull tracks going in more-or-less the same direction as me got my attention. At least by following these I’d be getting closer to camp. I had barely processed that thought when I heard a grunt and a thump from behind a small stand of spruce ahead. A bull walked into the middle of the logging trail. This bull was the same size as the one I had been chasing all day but his behavior could not be more different. It was evident that the two animals had gotten very different upbringings. The bull stood broadside and stared at me on the logging road. Fatal mistake. My offhand shot landed low on the ribcage. I followed him a short distance and put him down with an additional shot.

I’ve noticed that at the shooting range I am usually the only club member there that will practice offhand shooting. I estimate that with about 75% of the elk I’ve taken that has been the shot option available.



DIY hunt, Over-the-Counter bull tag, public land (Uncompahgre Nat’l Forest), old levergun, factory ammo – Federal Partitions. Probably the only element of the hunt that wasn’t old and ordinary (including me) was this Leupold thermal tracker.



Never needed the Leupold thermal tracker but played with it a little here.

On the previous bull I had killed, a ‘somewhat unreliable’ source told me that according to an Indian legend a bull’s penis should be thrown into the tree branches. If it hangs and does not fall to the ground then you will kill an elk again the following year. It didn’t work last time but this time who knows?



About an hour after dark we were satisfied with the field dressing we had done and asked ourselves how we would find our way down in the dark. A nice turn of events revealed that were only ½ mile from a FS road below, making this one of the easiest pack outs we had ever done.



While hunting on my buck tag a couple of days later I decided to return to the kill site. The snow surrounding the carcass had been packed down hard. The neck and ribs had been picked over, and lungs and liver were gone. Some crows jealously guarded the area and complained about my presence.



I was truly blessed this year. Like so many others here I just hope I can control some physical issues enough so that I can go again next year.

Congrats on a great bull, Alamosa! Very well written and great photos too!

Congrats on a great hunt and story.
Hang in there, getting old ain't for sissies.

Great story! How about a few pics of the "old levergun"?

Great story and hunt... thanks for taking the time to share it

Congrats on the bull! Great hunt!

Good job, Alamosa. Nice to see the older guys getting it done still! Nice bull, too.

Great story and pics. Good job!

Congratulations Alamosa! Great story telling! Fate twisting and turning around irony brought smiles to my face.

My 1st elk was an OTC tag...on public land...using an old levergun (Win 32 Spl) and factory ammo.

I love it!

Good on you Alamosa.

Great write-up.....

I'd try to find someone to half the cooking with you. You pack their lunches? Want a job? Grin....

that is motivating!!

Great story! And a dang nice bull!!!!

love the pics, thanks and congrats.

That is a great story - great job. Nice bull, nice country, nice partners. You are a lucky man.

Thanks for sharing. Nice pictures and great story. Nice bull to boot.

Congrats! Bet that was a lot more fun than cooking. A new camp cook will be needed next year, I imagine. 😎

Great story and pics congrats...

Nicely done. You look to young to be stuck in the kitchen!

Great stuff, thanks for sharing

fantastic story and congrats! well done, sir.

Congratulations on your bull.

What old lever gun did you use? Pics?

It's good to be able to take an easy one every once in awhile. They make up for the hard ones.

Enjoyed your story and photos, congrats .

Great story and outcome.

VERY NICE!

This is fantastic - congrats. And thanks for sharing.

Great pics and narrative. Really enjoyed it and thanks, Alamosa.

Great write up and pictures. Congratulations on the bull.

Well done, Alamosa.

Great Job. Great Story. I love the Western Slope of Colorado. Spent 10 years muzzleloader and Archery hunting near Paonia/Hotchkiss area.

Well done.

Nice job and great looking part of the country.

Congratulations. nice bull and great country.

Nice bull Alamosa, excellent story and pictures. Do tell us about the rifle and ammunition combination!

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately the rifle is not one of the cool relics of the West. It is a 30 year old BLR model '81.
Bought it not long after '81 and I believe it is the vintage with the Japanese barrel and still had the metal lever gear.
I'm not anywhere near the gun and bullet guy that some of the rest of you are and my stuff is old, ordinary, and very vanilla.
Much of the bluing is worn away from the rifle, and it wears some deep gouges from spooked horses or falls taken above treeline. I no longer hunt with it in wet weather because it has no rust protection anymore and it blooms rust like crazy. I worry that I may have put too many rounds through the barrel.

I like the rifle because it comes on target fast (because it has a fixed 4x scope) and it hits fairly hard (7mag). I've got a half-dozen 7 mags and the 160 grain weight seems to be the common denominator or starting point with most of them. I shoot the Federal Partitions because they are commonly available, premium bullet, and shoot pretty good in everything.



I shoot regularly but my approach to it is different from most people. I am less about chronometers, ballistics, and long ranges, and more about feeling comfortable and confident and giving myself a chance in difficult conditions.
Really though - I'm just worried about being able to get out there again and manage my physical challenges. Success has to be a secondary consideration.



2 holes (but not the kind most bullet experts seek).



In the days when I would carry that rifle 15 miles my non-shooting sling shoulder and collarbone would ache a little. These days my hunts are more like 3 or 4 miles and the shoulder pain is unbearable. I suspect it is arthritis but I don't really know and I have some issues to fix before I attempt another alpine hunt.

Mu uncle had a vast gun collection, he was particularly soft for Ruger #1s, but every time we went hunting he took the same rifle as you albeit in .308. A gun aficionado before the advent of the campfire and yet he loved probably the least expensive rifle in his gun cabinet for deer hunting.

the best wizz bang godzilla killer in the gun cabinet will never kill an elk with out a man like you behind it! fine bull, fine rifle, and fine man.

Ain’t nothing wrong with them “vintage" Browning leverguns! Love it!!!! Well done!!!

That’s some pretty serious badassery there sir. Very good story well written. Congratulations on an unbelievable experience!

Congrats Alamosa. Its nice to read the "camp cook" got one! Goes to show you never know where these elk will show up. Had a small herd run thru camp one afternoon while we scattered for our rifles.

Nice story. Good to see someone hunting the old fashioned way.

I had one of those BLRs. Mine was Belgian made in .308. Not very accurate but I killed a mulie with it.

Keep on going!

Congrads! Great story, Pics and Bull! My Hats off to the Camp Cook!

great story, great rifle. I had to get up and put wood on the fire when I saw the ice on the inside of your rig! your buddies are probably too soft to sleep in the RV, I bet it's warmer in the tent!

Good job, thanks for the story!

That is hunting the way I was brought up! My first elk was a cow I snuck up on and took with an open sighted 6,5 x 55 Military Swedish Mauser. Dead is dead is all I can say and yours died just like they are supposed to. Get those health issues fixed and get back out there next year!

Great story, thanks for sharing. You sir are a fine elk hunter, way to get it done!

Great story, told well. A good hunting tale is getting hard to come by.
Better, way better, than 99.999% of all the other online stuff.
Believe the man has his priorities in the right order.
Congratulations are in order!

Congrats Al'! Usually, the camp cook is the wisest and most experienced, right?

... and the best looking.

He is like me.
I've got better quality rifles, shoot tighter groups, etc, but none are as comfortable or handle as well as that old model '81.
I've got that same gun you mentioned - the BLR in a .308. That might save me some weight and keep me in the game next year.

Great story, write up and pics! Thanks for sharing!

Alamosa the .308 will surely do the trick!

Really enjoyable write up, very nice.

You made me feel like I was doing the hunt. Excellent story! Thank you.

The craziest part about this story is doing the pikes peak marathon. I do the incline every time I'm out there and have hiked the peak three times. Y'all marathoners are a different breed!

Nice bull!

-Jake

Ain't nothing like a successful hunt! Colorado is fantastic for hunting elk.

I really enjoyed your write up ! Congrats and thanks for sharing 🦌

Damn, just fantastic. Good on you and thanks for the great write up!

Great story and pictures. Don’t denigrate yourself or your rifle. Sometimes, especially here, l think the joy of the hunt is lost and it becomes all about the gear and gackery. And, at least for me, the older I get, the sweeter the success tastes!

A few days ago I killed an elk with my dad's old Rem 721 30-06 with a 4x Weaver scope. He bought it in '52 when I was 4 years old. The '06 is one of the most classic hunting calibers of all time and the accuracy of this one puts many of them to shame.

Lets see. You tracked the herd for three miles. At 10,000 feet. For 3 hours. An hour after dark youre packing meat. Are you crazy? What did they pay you?

Well, good job on the hunt, story and pics. Better luck next year, Al.

I know it's hard to turn off the tv and crawl out of that heated deer stand with the built in wine cooler and vibrating seat but in some states you just can't see for 500 miles like you're used to. Plus, porters in mountain country charge more than flatlanders do so we sometimes have to pack our own.

A most wonderful story!

The stalking in snow is my favorite style of hunting.

Do you think the thermal imagery could be incorporated into detecting game earlier in the stalk?

That was a relatively easy one.

I have skidded them down steep icy slopes above treeline, quartered one in a running creek, followed bear tracks to retrieve quarters that were stolen hanging from trees, quartered one hanging off a steep cliff, dropped loaded pack horses 4ft into an icy creek because that was the 'easy' creek crossing.

... and those are just the recovery and pack outs.
I would be embarrassed to admit some of the crazy stuff I've done to get a shot opportunity.

Nice!

It can.
Personally I don't think I'd go too far down that road.
I wouldn't feel good about having an animal on the ground that I had located with a thermal device.
I know rattlesnakes use thermal targeting but it feels like cheating to me.

I think the Leupold tracker is great for it's intended purpose. Worth the price many times over if it leads to a recovered animal.
I used to keep a pair of blue heelers in camp for the same purpose (recovery). They were sharp, totally understood the game, and would have been eager to help hunt. I know that in some places they hunt deer with dogs but not my style.
My favorite horse would alert me to elk. She would stop, then start rotating her ears in all directions, and then stare in the direction of unseen elk ahead.

One thing to remember about the thermal tracker is that it works best when you don't really need it.
If it is 70 degrees the thermal differential is going to be minimal and tough to get any image. The cold and snow conditions that I had were perfect for tracking. The elk tracks were obvious and the elk themselves would be very visible against the snow, so in either circumstance the imager is of limited usefulness. Even with those great snow conditions I only got one glimpse of that bull I was tracking and none of those smart cows never showed themselves. I happened upon a different bull whose tracks snitched on him but he made a dumb mistake that I don't think the first bull would have made.

Great report - Congrats on the bull!

Thank you for the reply.

Happy Holidays!

John

Hunting elk is on my "Bucket List".
I'm 71 and you look way younger than me.
If you'd like an assistant cook next year give me a holler !
I'd like to get some lessons from a man like you.

Nice job.

What a wonderful story with pics to match. I really enjoyed that.

Kind thanks for sharing, and congratulations!

I have always been a fan of your photos as well. Some great sportsmen's opportunities in your area.

Here are a couple more photos that didn't make the first cut.

A bull wallow





An empty outfitter camp.



Down on the desert lichens grows on a deer bone

Bear's playground

Congratulations I love the story and the great pictures. It was all better than most gun rags.. Sorry to hear about your health issues. Get them checked out. Look into platelet or stem cell injections. As a 42 yr old guy who just had his knee replaced I wish I could have done injections but mine was too far gone. Good luck to you sir

Great story, pictures and meat in the freezer.
All's well that ends well!

Takes quite a bit of time to compose a story and post pics to a thread like this. Very enjoyable read. Pic were icing on the cake. Congrats and thanks for the way you brought it to.life to share.