4 Outings for Bull Elk; scored on two

StevenA

New member
I came late to elk hunting. Being from Maryland, I did not begin going to the great West until I was 49 years old, in 1991. That year, a friend had planned a trip to the Gillete, WY area with a rancher guide, who really did know the area and where the muley and pronghorn were.

I loved that hunt and ended up doing it every other year since. In 2000, I threw in with three men that I met on a hunting forum. They'd contracted to go on a non-guided hunt near Parachute, CO. The rancher provided the cabin at 8000 ft., along with horses. He took us up the trail to a large park, then he went back down. We snagged the horses at 11,000 feet and spread out to scout and hunt. There were lots of elk sign and deer sign. We also saw coyote.

The next morning we were up and saddled an hour before daylight and heading for different parts of the mountain. I tied off the horse, just as snow began to fall. There were lots of tracks all over the top of the mountain. When the snow got a little deeper, I began running across fresh elk tracks. After taking up various stands and hunting all day, I found my way back to the horse, gave him his head and allowed him to walk/slide, down to the cabin.

Same for the next morning. Up early for a hearty breakfast and to pack a lunch and off again on the trusty mountain raised horse, in 6 inches of snow. I walked or slogged about half a mile from where I tied off the horse and before shooting light, had found a spot over looking a large part of an open park. I took deadfall pieces and constructed a hasty, blind/rifle rest.

Entertaining myself all day, just enjoying the mountain, I could see that only an hour or less of daylight was left, when a cow elk appeared, walking over and down a bare knob, a little over 300 yards down the mountain. Slowly I got into position to bring fire on the knob and watched as five more cows peaked the knob and started down the other side. Just then, a bull appeared and by time I had him in the crosshairs, I was holding on his withers, just behind his head, as he was going down the steep incline and coming my way. On my note pad, I had already registered that knob earlier in the day, at 300 yards. I had the 180gr. hand loaded Grand Slam bullet, zeroed at 250 yards, out of my old Winchester Model 70, 30-06.

When I fired the bull staggered and nearly went down upon impact. I later discovered that the bullet had split the top of his skull and lanced down into his back, just missing the spine.

He had leveled out and was coming up, when the second shot took him in the chest. Again he staggered but soldiered on toward me. The cows had veered to their left and were already into the timber. Forcing myself to settle down, the third shot took him just under his left eye and he collapsed and disappeared behind a fold in the ground. I jacked in the fourth round and waited long seconds to see if he'd try to get up. From where he lay, down in the fold of ground, I saw nothing move.

Of course, I did not know that all three hits were killers. When I traversed the 300 yards, the bull was stone dead. I was rapidly losing daylight and my radio was not getting down to the cabin. I field dressed the bull and dragged the guts 40 yards away, hoping that bears or coyote would be kept busy on the gut pile, until I made it back in the morning. As I had read, I hung my sweaty underwear on the elk's rump and put my t-shirt over his antlers, hoping the man scent would, for a little while, discourage meat thieving coyotes.

Next morning the land owner and I began going back up, with a pack horse in tow. When we got in sight of my bull, the land owner asked; "What's that hanging on the elk?" I told him that the sweaty underwear was to keep coyote away. "Well", he said, "your dirty underwear may keep me away too!!" We made quick work of quartering the bull and loading the meat and head on the pack saddle. The land owner did remark that all three shots would have killed the bull very quickly. However, I will never stop firing until the game is down.

After my three companions took time to glory over my 4x5 bull elk kill, they went hunting. For the next three days, they hunted hard, but got no elk. One of them did take a nice muley buck.

Twice more, I went on hunts. One, self guided near Gunnison. The other a guided hunt near Durango. On both hunts, I saw cows and spike bulls, but did not get a shot at a legal bull. This past Dec. I went on an elk hunt near Craig, CO. It was a hard hunt to me. I had reached the age of 74. We hunted at around 8500 ft. There was 12 inches of snow on the ground, masking rocks, so I fell down a lot. I was very glad at the end of the second day of hunting to come out on an overlook and see a 5x5 bull with five cows. At that point, I knew that I would have to rest up the next day anyhow. I had my Browning Stalker in 280Rem. Again, I was using my hand loads, but had gone to a Barnes 160 gr. solid. It turned out to be a good bullet choice, as the elk went no where.

Don't know if I have another elk hunt in me. I'll be 75 in July. If I do go elk hunting, it will be before the snow flies and for sure, a guided hunt.

Enjoy all of your gunning,
StevenA
 
Great story, hope I can leave the flatland for the mountains as long as you have. I turn 57 this year, in the last 5 years I have drawn 3 WY tags and have shot 2 bulls and 1 cow. All public ground with friends. My basic plan(I bowhunt mostly) is spot elk, sneak in next day playing the wind and wait for them. Only advantage is rifle shots instead of bow, much easier to avoid being smelled.
 
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