Man, this threads taking off already! So what's your thoughts on this guy's? I pegged him around 125-130 last year when I had him on cam and saw him on the hoof. (Pulled back on him 3 times and let him go) What's your guesses on score this year? Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk
Man that's hard to gauge Some angles make him look really wide but not much mass or height. Maybe 130s?
We have been seeing elk pretty high...and we parked at a hair pin at that particular altitude. We starry our pass across the mountain, but we were a bit early to time the thermal change with the prime spots we expected to encounter elk. It didn't matter, we only saw 4 mule deer in the morning. We milled about at the far end, where friends had previously gotten into elk, and my hunting buddy (Matt) thought he heard a bugle. But, again, nothing. We took a break and thought about where we might hunt the afternoon. We decided we'd drop elevation a bit and hunt back to the car. On the way back, things got exciting. My buddy spotted something moving over the hill. We slowly approached and I caught ear flickering about 80yds ahead. A bedded elk, but facing in my direction. My buddy about 35yds up hill was still slowing moving forward and didn't see I was pinned down, nor the elk, till he was 15-20yds ahead of me. Through cryptic hand gestures, I conveyed the details and started calling in the elk. Two spikes eventually worked there way toward the middle of us. About 30 yds from me I drew, pin on the lead spike. And my buddy fired. In the chaos, I quickly pivoted and shoot for the second at about 50 yds...great penetration on a pine tree. We have it a minute and quickly recapped. Matt felt his shot was good, and I started pointlessly trying to chiseled my broadhead from the tree as we waited. About 15 minutes, we noticed another elk milling around and Matt started calling as I quickly tried to setup. Again a spike came in, just about into my accent stream, I quickly took another shot, neglecting to see a branch. The arrow flew wildly awry. But spikes are dumb. Matt was able to call him in again, unfortunately this arrow was just a crappy shot. Low on the quartering elk, under the belly and hit the back leg. I forgot to mention, earlier in the week, I lost my rangefinder. We found and processed Matt's elk and packed 2/3 of it the 1.5 miles to the car...(Pretty much blowdown, Aspen, swamp x2). On the way, we found the blood trail of my elk and marked it. We returned to get the rest of the meat, gear we left and to resume the blood trail. After following for 600yds, the Colorado weather arrived with wind and rain. Since we were down to so little blood to trail, the amount of blood we found and distance, we reasoned my spike would live, and we got the last of the meat back to the car At dark. Matt decided he'd split the meat with me since I called in his elk and helped pack it back to the car. So there you have it. I'm spent, had my opportunity, blew it and will hit the road tomorrow morning. I got a great hunting partner. We worked our butts off. And I'll have some elk meat to process this weekend. Bittersweet.
Congrats on your pine tree! Actually that hunt looked amazing, glad you enjoyed it! Just being out there in that environment makes for half the fun.
The highs and lows of bow hunting, got to love it Bill. Awesome adventure Let's see the branch and or the tree.
I've have my back pack loaded and ready to go. Knives sharpened , drag roped packed. Grunt tube, can call, ever calm packed. Rattling horns strapped on to the backpack. BH are attached to my arrows. Practicing with them. No adjustments needed. 9 days away. Can't wait
What an amazing trip and hunt, full of the highs and lows that drive us mad when it is happening, yet these moments/memories carry us through the offseason. I've thoroughly enjoyed following along on your adventure Bill, and have found it very inspiring. Safe travels on your way home.
Sounds like a great trip Bill. You put a ton of time and effort into the hunt. I hope you consider it successful. Thank you for all of the updates and the pictures.
