Hunting Journal

We got off to an early start today. Brian and I went on a mission, and we had a great day from start to finish. The morning started off good when we got into some good bugling action. We jumped a few elk off the trail on our way in, and shortly after that, we picked out one of the bugling bulls and chased him around for a bit. He was totally unresponsive to all calls, so we abandoned that method and remained quiet. We jumped two cows that were bedded down at 7:15 a.m., which surprised me quite a bit. With all of the bugling, I didn’t figure we would come across any bedded animals that early in the morning.

We took a short break to have our lunch before heading to another area that we thought might bring us some luck. It took us over three hours to get there, but our arrival made it all worth it. As we were poking along, we spotted a really big bull in a wallow. He didn’t have a clue that we were there, so I snuck as close as I could to him, which put me to within 120 yards. After wallowing around for about 15 minutes, he got up and laid down about 10 yards behind the wallow. He faced away and never turned in my direction, but I couldn’t close the gap because there was no cover to hide behind. The rain was coming down in sheets as I stood there at 11,000 feet in a t-shirt. For some unknown reason, I never became cold or even chilled. Finally, the bull stood up and began heading out of the meadow. Brian gave a few soft cow calls. Although they stopped the bull, he never came to investigate.

As he wandered around, his antlers were covered in mud, and his hide was like that of a black bear. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was a black elk.

On our way out, we had a calf come by us at 10 yards, but nothing was with her. She was out of breath from climbing a steep hill. I’ve never seen anything like it. She was panting and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth as she gasped for air. In some weird way, it made me feel good to know that animals also get out of breath on those steep ridges.

On our way back to camp, we spotted a small mule deer doe to call it a day. It was a great day today. We put on about 14 miles in some rugged-ass country. This kind of hunting isn’t for weak-minded people who don’t have drive.

Dad and Dave didn’t see anything today. We’ll be back at it tomorrow if my body recovers enough in the next 7 hours.

Here’s the video of the bull that I watched in the wallow. This is from the Tactacam on my bow. Although the bull doesn’t look very big, there’s no magnification on the camera, and the bull is about 140 yards from me when I’m running the video.

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Today was a relatively slow day. I went down into some of our old stomping grounds with Dad and spent the day hunting with him. You never know how many more complete days in the wild you can spend with a person when he’s in his 70s. We came out of the woods at the end of the day without seeing anything other than a small mule deer and a few coyotes, but it was a damn good day. Any day spent in the field with the person who gave me an opportunity to hunt elk in Colorado is a good day. I’ll be forever thankful for the day he asked me if I would like to try elk hunting in Colorado. Since that day, I’ve been able to do things in the Rocky Mountains that I had never dreamed about doing.

Brian had a pretty good day today. He was in amongst them, but never got a shot. He also got charged by a brown black bear. It made his adrenaline go through the roof for a few seconds, but the bear spooked off in another direction as quickly as it appeared. Brian heard a lot of bugling today. It was pretty hot out. It hung in the mid 70s to low 80s.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Brian and I are headed back into the area where he found the elk. Since we have all been running around Willy Nilly, we are now going to focus not the couple of areas where we have seen elk. Dave didn’t feel that well. He’s pretty sure it was his meal from last night. He got out for the evening hunt, but he didn’t see anything.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

We got off to an early start today. Brian and I went on a mission, and we had a great day from start to finish. The morning started off good when we got into some good bugling action. We jumped a few elk off the trail on our way in, and shortly after that, we picked out one of the bugling bulls and chased him around for a bit. He was totally unresponsive to all calls, so we abandoned that method and remained quiet. We jumped two cows that were bedded down at 7:15 a.m., which surprised me quite a bit. With all of the bugling, I didn’t figure we would come across any bedded animals that early.

We took a short break to have our lunch before heading to another area that we thought might bring us some luck. It took us over three hours to get there, but our arrival made it all worth it. As we were poking along, we spotted a really big bull in a wallow. He didn’t have a clue that we were there, so I snuck as close as I could to him, which put me to within 120 yards. After wallowing around for about 15 minutes, he got up and laid down about 10 yards behind the wallow. He faced away and never turned in my direction, but I couldn’t close the gap because there was no cover whatsoever. The rain was coming down in sheets as I stood there at 11,000 feet in a t-shirt. For some unknown reason, I never became cold or even chilled. Finally, the bull stood up and began heading out. Brian gave a few soft cow calls. Although they stopped the bull, he never came to investigate.

As he wandered around his antlers were covered in mud and his hide was like that of a black bear. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was a black elk.

On our way out, we had a calf come by us at 10 yards, but nothing was with her. She was out of breath from climbing a steep hill. I’ve never seen anything like it. She was panting and her tongue was hanging out as she gasped for air. In some weird way, it made me feel good to know that animals also get out of breath on those steep ridges.

On our way back to camp, we spotted a small mule deer doe to call it a day. It was a great day today. We put on about 14 miles in some rugged ass country. This kind of hunting isn’t for weak-minded people who don’t have drive.

Dad and Dave didn’t see anything today. We’ll be back at it tomorrow if my body recovers enough in the next 7 hours.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

After arriving in Colorado yesterday, today was our first day of hunting. It appears that it’s going to be very difficult to get close to any elk. It was about 80 degrees today, and the forecast is calling for warmer temperatures in the coming days.

This year our group consists of Dave, Brian, Dad and me. Dave saw a mule deer this evening, and dad spotted a big bull with about 10 cows. He said it was the biggest bull he’s ever seen while hunting. Unfortunately, the lead cow smelled Dad from a few hundred yards away, and it didn’t take the herd very long to dissipate. We’ve found a few wallows that the elk have been in recently. One of them appears to be getting a lot of action, while the other one doesn’t look like it’s had any action in about a week.

I’m not sure what to expect for tomorrow. The temperature hasn’t dropped at all the last two nights when the sun went down. In the past, the temperature has dropped anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees. That doesn’t get my hopes up. We’ll stay at it and put the miles on. That’s what you have to do while elk hunting. Hopefully, it pans out for one of the four of us.