Following up on Old Carp's thread of just something to talk about. Share success stories for elk. What has worked. What hasn't worked. Share as little or as much as wanted. What range were they killed, stalked, called in, and other details very welcome. I've only been elk hunting once and none of us got an elk. Everyone had a close experience. One of the others I hunted with passed on a spike bull. The one thing we are changing from last time is we are camping off our backs and planning on coming out mid-week one time. First time we set up spike camp a couple miles in. Hiked from there every morning. From what I've been told by others we would be better off camping near elk once we have them located. My friend called a bull into me, but no shot. Too much brush. He was really mad though. He was coming in and got to probably 30 yards. He was in timber. I heard him spin around and spook. Guessing the wind changed. This was after he raked a tree for a couple of minutes at around 50 yards. I spotted him at 100 and he came in at 80 yards broadside, but didn't even think of taking shot based on my comfort. It also seemed further. One other tip we received is to sit on fresh used wallows. If fresh they will return at some point. Especially from 10-2 when things are kind of quiet. That's all I've come up with for now.
I think I may have shared this story before. I wrote this in 2012 on a successful hunt. Anytime I can go on the mountain and bow hunt elk is a successful trip to me. Any elk with a bow is a trophy. I have been around long enough to realize life throws you many twist and turns. At the end of last year I lost a good fishing buddy to cancer. So when me and the boys put in this year for the hunts He kept coming to mind. I thought I had a good chance for a archery elk tag here in Utah. So when May rolled around and they start posting the results of the drawing its like Christmas at my house hold. I drew a archery any bull tag and my youngest son drew a Limited entry deer tag. We were just ecstatic. Two weeks later I borrowed my sons trail cams and I started my scouting. This was my first time using trial cams. So after my boys trying to teach a old man how to use a camera, which by the way was pretty entertaining. I went and set them up. I have to admit It was a lot of fun learning and using the trail cams. Every week I would go up check the trial cams and race home to see what was on the SD cards. Everything was going great then towards the end of July I had a young friend who was quit the pack horseman and hunter take his life. This was a shock to all of us. After that life experience the elk hunt took on a whole new meaning to me. Over the years I have found solace in the mountains. When my Dad passed away I spent a few fishing trips where I knew he was with me. Then when Glenn died my elk hunting mentor, who took a 16 year old boy on his first elk hunt in the mid 1970's. I went and hiked through all the areas we used to elk hunt. Again here the mountains with there rutty roads, steep trails and rugged hill sides opened up to me and took me in like they always have. Well as the opening day arrived I had it all planned out what I was going to do. I went to one of the areas we scouted pretty heavily and seen a good number of elk. That first day i didn't see an elk which really surprised me. I saw 13 deer that had two bucks in with them. But not having a deer tag all I could do is watch and enjoy. When I got back to camp the son of a hunting buddy had shoot his first elk and with a bow. It was a spike that he shoot from a stand that he had watched most the season. I was so excited for him. Remembering my first elk and how bad I was shaking and it was a wonder I even hit the animal let alone get a shot. The next couple days we covered a bit of ground glassing. On the third day we glassed a beautiful bull around a 360ish class. We went after him but I couldn't get no closer then 70 yards to him. Finally he had enough of me and ran off. Again in the process of trying to get to this elk I saw 3 bucks I just had to admire them. I had to go home for a couple days. Family birthday parties and such to take care of. The next week I had four days to hunt. These four days were some hard hunting. We endured some extreme thunder storms and with that came a little bit of mud. In between storms I had a 5 point and a 300ish class bull that again I couldn't get a shoot at. The 5 point I had at 40 yards and pulled back twice thinking I had him. I couldn't get the right angle or there would always be a tree between him and me. My second son Cody was calling for me and kept him interested long enough for me to at least give me a few chances at him. The 6 point had 3 cows with him and I spooked the cows. I would have stayed out but those who are married know you have to go home occasionally to keep a good wife happy. For those wives who married those of us that live for the outdoors we do think of you and love you more then you can imagine. Here I am. I have hunted for 8 days and not even got a shot. I have the next 7 days of hunting to see if I can change that. None of the boys can be up for a couple days, so I am solo. The next morning I come across a couple bulls but cant get a shot. I had one at under 20 yards in the brush and in the process of drawing back one of his cows spotted me and they ran. The other bull the wind swirled and he didn't wait to see what was wrong. The next two days the only elk I saw where across the canyon and i could never come across them again. My son Cody came up again with his wife and 4 kids. So the next day I had a caller again with me. We had fun we had 340ish bull that almost committed but the wind was swirling so bad he finally figured out we weren't any good and walked off. The next day i told Cody to see if he could find himself an elk to shoot so I went and sat at a wallow that over the years has produced elk for me. Its funny how when you get set up and hidden that every squirrel seems to taunt you. Its always amazed me how a 600 to 800 pound elk can sneak up on you and a 18 ounce squirrel sounds like a heard of elephants. At my age I had to hike down the draw a few hundred yards to go to the bathroom. Anyway around 7:00pm I heard a sound up the hill side. At first i didn't think much about it. The sound had more of a steady sound. So i looked up saw a bull coming down. But he went 80 yards up the draw to drink. So i cow called and he looked but didn't seem to interested and started walking off. So i bugled at him and he answered back. We bugled back and forth a couple times when he started to come back down he draw. You know I have hunted elk for 35 years and I still get excited. I had to calm myself down two or three times to take a shot. He got to 32 yards I took the shot and hit him. I bugled a couple more times he stopped at 40 yards and walked up the hill. I waited 40 minutes walked over to where I hit him. Saw a good blood trail. I took it real easy so I wouldn't push him and tracked blood for about 15 minutes when I heard him thrashing in the brush about 50 yards ahead of me. He went 90 yards and died. There is nothing like the feeling of harvesting a bull with a bow. And has I stood there thanking God for this beautiful elk I could feel my good friends who have passed on congratulating me and saying Dan you did good. Even though he may not be a trophy in the eyes of the world, This bull will be a trophy to me. I want to thank My Sons and good friends for a great experience. I hope to have many more with them.
You got that right! Here are links to my last two hunts...I'm looking at year 6 coming up and one thing is for sure, I still get every bit as excited to hunt these beautiful elk in such beautiful country...cannot wait to bring the kids along! Elk camp is like the perfect "reset" button in life each year... http://forums.bowhunting.com/showthread.php/53132-CO-Archery-Elk-2013-(word-pic-heavy) http://forums.bowhunting.com/showthread.php/66283-CO-Elk-2014-–-It-doesn’t-get-much-better-than-this
Thanks for sharing Matt. I really enjoyed them. When will your Kids be old enough to hunt with you? I'm lucky to live where I live. I was blessed to take my kids on hunts when they were young. Now they out do there old man. There great for packing out my elk. I have a few pictures but I dont want to bore you guys to much
I don't think I could ever see too many pictures when it comes to hunting. Do you guys do a lot of your hunting from stands? We are thinking about bringing stands to put over wallows. The wallows we are thinking about are 3-4 miles in. Think that would be worth it?
For me its about half in stands and and half spot and stalk. My boys do about 80% spot and stalk. We have 3 stands we put up. The closest stand is about a mile off the main trail and the furthest is about 2 miles off the trail. I would put a stand in. We have had pretty good success with them. I put trail cams up at the stands so I am able to watch the areas for most the summer. My boys help me put the stands in and for us its a family thing. When we put the stands in I even have a couple of my granddaughters hike in with us.
OC, My kids are 11, 9, 7, and 4. The two oldest will both have shotguns deer hunting this fall, my oldest went last year and got 2 deer - I enjoyed that more than any of my harvests - and I'm going to love these coming years helping each of them get their first deer. They all have tagged along bowhunting with me since a young age so I've been lucky there...it's just the 15 hours from elk country that causes the problem right now. As soon as I know they are strong enough to enjoy a week in the mountains, and I can talk mom into missing a week of school, my hopes are to bring them - and actually take advantage of the youth tags for them, I will be happy to just be a guide. You guys that live in the mountains sure are lucky!
...And you cannot possibly post enough pictures of elk hunting, or any hunting pics for that matter...especially with family involved!
They all have tagged along bowhunting with me since a young age so I've been lucky there...it's just the 15 hours from elk country that causes the problem right now. As soon as I know they are strong enough to enjoy a week in the mountains, and I can talk mom into missing a week of school, my hopes are to bring them - and actually take advantage of the youth tags for them, I will be happy to just be a guide. You guys that live in the mountains sure are lucky![/QUOTE] That is so cool. Your doing a great job with them. My wife is a school teacher so we had to really sweet talk her into missing any school. I always tried to include my kids in my hunting and fishing. Its times they will always remember and I will remember. I have four boys and one daughter who is right in the middle of the boys. I will never forget our first hunt together. She was 14 and passed hunters safety with flying colors. I had an old 243 that she would practice with and got to be a pretty good shot. I felt good that she could hit a deer out to 150 yards Fairly easy. So That year when the hunt rolled around We hiked about half a mile of the trail when I spotted a handful of deer across the canyon about a mile away. A found the best path and we started our sneak across. According to my daughter you would have thought we scaled Mount Everest. We stalked to about 90 yards of the deer and there was a small 3 point (western count)feeding broadside to us. She got all set up to shoot and I kept waiting for her to pull the trigger. I was really excited for her to shoot her first deer. After a few minutes I looked over and saw tears in her eyes and of course I thought she was hurt. I said whats wrong. She said "Daddy I don't want you to be mad at me I cant shoot the deer." I got a little choked up and hugged her and told her I would never get mad at you for not shooting. We watched the deer feed up over the ridge and hiked back to the truck. She was worried about what her brothers would say. I told her it would be are special moment and I wouldn't say anything unless she did. Then I said even if they do find out I have seen your brothers miss some pretty easy shots. I can always bring them up. My daughter has seen many deer and elk shot and even helps in cutting them up. She still comes up to elk camp and likes to hear all the stories no matter how far fetched they may be. She even helps in taking care of the animals. That was 15 years ago and she still loves to tell that story when we are all story telling.
Oldcarp, I'm sure I asked this before but I can't remember the answer. Do you buy the OTC archery elk tag? General spike/bull tag?
I don't have any pics of dead bulls, I've only hunted cows. Here's a nice bull that was only 40ish yards away. Of course, I only had a cow tag.
I just do the OTC archery tag. About every third year or so somebody will draw a anybull tag. Then I usually focus on them.
[/QUOTE] Great Story! My wife is also a teacher - and actually teaches my 7yr old Daughter's 1st grade class this year. Other 3 are boys. As of now, my daughter likes to go with me and says she'll hunt one day...but also wouldn't bother me one bit if we have a similar experience to yours one day. Getting outdoors together is really the important part...if only we had Elk and mountains in IL
I love reading reading other peoples Elk success stories, gets me fired up........ even if I ain't hunting till 2016!... Doh!. You realise it is achievable and that all these miles we put in are great preparation for the moment you do punch the card and take your Elk, it would be so boring if you just wandered off the road 100yds and hit your Elk and the hunt was over, I may not have scored yet, but I know my time is coming and when it does, there will be a lot of emotion and relief draining from me as I stand over my Trophy. I respect all of you Guys that have gotten your Elk, as I know from personal experience that you must have earned it with sweat, tears and blisters..... alongside great memories. I'll see you in Elk Camp 2016 Matt, its a pleasure having you as my friend and has been great seeing you evolve into the Elk Hunter you now are ..... Stay Positive!
Here's a little article I wrote a few years ago about a hunt I had in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. http://www.elkhunting.com/pages/elk-hunting/stories/a-bugling-wyoming-bull
Thank you for sharing. Really enjoyed the article I'm excited this year one of the boys drew a big bull tag
