I just got in the door.

I had a great time with my brother in the West Elk Wilderness Area, north of Gunnison, CO.
My plane landed at midnight, I drove until 3 AM then got 3 hours sleep.

My brother John got me up at 0600, with breakfast already cooked. My first two arrows at his practice target stacked into a Robin Hood, which I considered a good omen!



John said that the rut was late and the only bugling reported was way back in the (really) high country.

We left camp at 0700, with my day pack too light. We split up to take two different trails to the top of the ridge. By 1300 we were 2200 feet higher and had covered 6 miles over the ground. We'd never been to this ridge before, but we met up just fine.

After a short rest John had to take off on a direct route back out to the road. His diesel truck had lost the injector pump and he had to go pick up his truck and turn in a rental.

I rested a few minutes longer, then drank the last sip of my water and started back the long way to camp. This side of the ridge was very steep and it was tough to find a way down that did not involve sliding on my ass, but I found a ledge wide enough to have aspens on it that angled down the ridge at about a 15% grade.

After only 20 minutes of still hunting while using a "hoochie mama" cow call I got an elk bugle in response that sounded like a really bad effort on a cheap bugle call. I figured John was playing games with me. Then another bugle sounded in response!

I eased over to the drop off to see what was up and there was a 5x4 elk trotting directly towards me and chuckling! That second bugle must have put him in high gear! He screeched to a halt at 20 yards when he saw me, then craned his neck to see where that cow was behind me.

We had a Mexican standoff for a few seconds, then I edged a half step sideways behind the cover of a twin aspen. As I nocked my arrow I could see by his edges that he was still standing there facing me head on. Then a whirl of wind took him my scent and he whirled to leave. By sheer dumb luck I had the cow call hanging high on my left chest where I could reach it while my release was in the loop. I gave him another cow call and he stopped at 25 yards and looked back over his shoulder as I stepped out from behind the tree and drew.

He was quartering away too much for a good shot, so we were in a Mexican standoff again - and again a whirl of wind gave him a snootful of me and again he started away.

I had a diaphragm call in my mouth that I'm not much good with at the best of times - and right then my mouth was thick and dry from lack of water. But I gave him a muddy "blerp" just as he had to turn left and uphill to follow the trail - and again he paused to look at me.

I shot him in the middle of the heart. I was aiming higher than that, but my brain was stuck at 20 yards from my first estimate and I used the 20 yard pin although he was now at 28 or so.

He took 3-4 steps and fell down with the arrow buried almost to the fletches. When he tried to get up he fell over backwards and tumbled down the cliff.



It took me 2 hours of billy-goating those rocks to find him, even though he'd done nothing but tumble out of my sight 200 feet straight down the hill. He'd come to a precarious rest in some rocks. Just moving a branch off him for a picture caused him to slide further down the hill. By then I was in bad shape for water, and I needed to get him field dressed and cooling very quickly as we were on the western face. So please forgive the lack of traditionally posed trophy pics!

Here's how he looked when I found him. Hard to see!



Here's a view after I trimmed some bushes. A sharp eye will note that he slid another 3 feet down the hill just from the minor disturbance. The ground is steeper than it looks!



My best trophy shot. I know he's just a raghorn 5x4, but I'm proud of him - and I know he'll eat just fine.



Here's a poor attempt at showing the shot location. It went in just behind the near fore, and stopped in the off fore after pinning the heart. The arrow came out somewhere as he bounced down the cliff. I did NOT go looking for it!



I got him field dressed and shaded with some spruce branches and tied his leg to a tree with my only string to keep him from sliding further. Then I had to head back to camp as I was really needing water by now. Turned out we were in a heat wave where it was hitting 80 degrees at that elevation, where normally the highs are about 65 up there this time of year.

[In that heat I should have quartered him and hung the quarters under the spruces, but I had no cord, nor game bags in my day pack, and I was getting seriously dehydrated.]

I made it back to base camp just at dusk, having covered about 9 miles by foot over rugged territory, 180 by car, and 1800 miles by air in the previous 24 hrs.

He was 2 miles and 1800 feet above the camp by the shortest route. It took John and I two days to pack him out, even though the first thing we did was take off his "corners" (head and feet) and send him tumbling another 200 feet down the hill.

I'm beat now, I'll try to add to this later.

Awesome glad you got a nice bull wish I could be out hunting but work is work.

Cant wait to see the pics

Don, congratulations and good hunting! I know what it is like to have one down in the steep rocks, what a bitch! It sounds like you handled it like a true pro, and It sure is great to have someone like your own brother around to help. I know these hunts sure add a lot of memories for one, and I'm sure that elk will be just a tad sweeter when you grill out a bit later on!

Nice Going-Fish

I added the photos, hopefully they'll work for everyone!

(Please let me know if you can see them.)

Don, photo's are great. They really punctuate the ruggedness of the terrain. I think your shot pladcement is great--he's dead and recovered within short order--Great!

Raghorn my ass, that is a trophy period, and it is doubly sweet on a solo gig like you pulled off--KUDOS to you. I can tell you he will eat great, it's hard to top an elk backstrap roasted over the coals!!!!

Good Hunting--Don Davis

Way to go Don!Nice elk!

Wooooohooooooo!!!!!!







Now that's what I am talkin about!

Cheers my good buddy!

Canuck

ps: I hope you had a toast to that fine stag with a glass of good CDN rye whiskey!

WOW!

My hero! That's a great elk and what a hunt!!!! Very good shooting, Don, you should be very proud.

Canuck, I had to make do with Famous Grouse.

I'll try to post some lessons learned later today.

#1 is that I need at least a gallon of water per day up there. 6 quarts if I'm packing meat!

#2 is always be ready to quarter and hang your elk immediately after he's down.

#3 is always be ready to start packing out the meat. Going out empty the first time is a wasted trip! From now on my day pack is a freighter's pack [suggestions welcome.]

#4 is get all four brothers to go hunting/packing, or get a mule! I'm too old for this stuff! (Canuck could have helped, he's young and tough and mule-headed!)

Don

Thas is a great moment, something to be remembered a life long.
This country is really trying you might have lost your quary.
What a fantastic bull, sure it'll fulfill my wildest dreams.
Last year I postponed a Elk bowhunting in Alberta and ever since I crave to dot it.

You are a lucky man, You can be proud.

My congratulations again.

jean

quote:

Canuck could have helped, he's young and tough and mule-headed!

There's always demand for a guy with a strong back and a weak mind! Unfortunately, this desk job is making softer by the day.

WRT your point number three, my usual routine is to strap my daypack to a packframe. I can't remember if thats what I did for our trip in the Kootenays in '02...I know I got lazy last year and didn't bring the packframe with me.

Anyway, most guys like the nostalgia of the Trapper Nelson (me too actually), but I usually just use the frame from my Freighter pack. That way one of the hinds come out on the first trip.

RE: #1, I agree. I try to carry 2 litres minimum, when significant climbing is involved, but I'll often drink twice that much (I am glad there's usually lots of water here!).

On #2 you are also absolutely correct. A good knife and about 20 ft of parachute chord are staples in your day pack. The meat is priority number one once all the fun has ended! Hope you didn't lose any....I am sure you are looking forward to mixing up your protien intake this year!

Cheers,
Canuck

quote:

Canuck, I had to make do with Famous Grouse.

ps: thats a poor substitute. I am disappointed! Do you usually take this long to train??

Canuck,
You shoulkd know by now that you can't teach this old dog new tricks. I only drink that expensive Canadian whisky when it's free! (It's nice to have rich friends!)

Who made your Freighter? What model? I need to get a good pack, and I can't afford to do it twice!

The Freighter II frame I use is made by Camp Trails.

A real durable freighter frame is also made by Wilderness wanderer pack frames

Its a little on the heavy side, but extremely durable.

Also, check out .. Kifaru Longhunter pack

Bull pacs are good sturdy frames too.

Cheers,
Canuck

Maybe next year with a recurve.....
Great pics and narrative.

Congratulations Awesome Elk. I have been planning an elk hunt for some time I was undecided whether to take bow or gun. I think I'll take the bow now. Great hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by Don_G:
I need to get a good pack, and I can't afford to do it twice!

If I may be so blunt as to propose a European product. I was looking high and low for a good packframe and found this to be the most sturdy and versatile one: http://intranet.tatonka.com/infosys/infocgi/artinfoe.dll?1130

Here is the strap-on pack that you can buy for it:
http://intranet.tatonka.com/infosys/infocgi/artinfoe.dll?1132

I have handled some packframes when I was hunting in Canada and they were all rather wobbly and had very insufficient carrier systems and straps which made packing out moose hindquarters a real PITA!

Just take a look at it, you might like it, it sure is a beautiful piece of equipment and I can't speak highly enough of it!

By the way congratulations to your bow-elk!!!

Thanks, Guys for all the kind words. I wil definitely remember this horny young teenager all my life!

My brothers and I are planning to make this an annual event - so I should have more help to pack mine out next year!

The weather was so hot this year that even the professional horseback outfits with base camps at 10,000 feet were only getting one bull elk for seven hunters this year, and they were shooting black powder instead of bows. The big bulls were apparently staying extremely high on the rugged slopes. I hope they haven't died out or something, because nobody was seeing or hearing them in normal numbers.

I saw two archery bulls besides mine in ten days. Both were taken by hunters with horses and mules and both were from MANY miles further into the wilderness than I was capable of hauling an elk out.

I did not see any really nice racks taken at all.

Don,

Thanks for providing the link to this post, I must have missed it somehow. Congratulations on a great elk! I came across one of those, a raghorn 6x6 (missing beam length throughout) ON A SUNDAY! That means no hunting in Southern Alberta. And he was coming my way with a vengeance. I was too active with the camera so he finally spooked...

As to your lessons learned:

When I'm early season sheep hunting I try to take at least 2 litres, usually 2.5 or 3. For those metrically challenged, a gallon is about 3.75 liters. Water is usually hard to come by high-up in the rocks. I've been the proverbial dessert wanderer reaching an oasis, coming back down to the creek after a long hot day of scouting the peaks. I just went "head-first" into the shallow water.

I always carry a few bundles of parachute cord-type rope to hang things. Once I didn't... you don't want to leave stuff on the ground in grizz/wolf country.

I struggle with the pack. If I take the packframe I feel obstructed in my movements, and I certainly can't sneak through the trees. If I take my day pack I fear the empty run back to the truck or camp. So I alternate. After I've taken the big pack I'm so fed up that I take the small pack next time, and vice versa.

I refuse to think of what happens after the shot, if I start doing that I'll never get to the good grounds. I hope I'll be able to reach an aquintance with some horses if I shoot an elk e.g. To where I bowhunt is about a 4 hour round trip. I'll be needing at least 5 trips, and I doubt if I'd be able to do more than two per day...

quote:

Originally posted by Don_G:
Canuck, I had to make do with Famous Grouse.

I'll try to post some lessons learned later today.

#1 is that I need at least a gallon of water per day up there. 6 quarts if I'm packing meat!

#2 is always be ready to quarter and hang your elk immediately after he's down.

#3 is always be ready to start packing out the meat. Going out empty the first time is a wasted trip! From now on my day pack is a freighter's pack [suggestions welcome.]

#4 is get all four brothers to go hunting/packing, or get a mule! I'm too old for this stuff! (Canuck could have helped, he's young and tough and mule-headed!)