4th Season Cow
- Thread starter Slugz
- Start date
2 down at 1045 opening morning followed by 3 days of packing these big girls out. Kifaru saved me again. Can't say enough about this pack.
dirtclod Az.
Veteran member
Now thats a COW!First elk I ever shot was a cow that size.Dad drove down the Mtn. took a look and said NO!...Took all 4 brothers and mangled the bed of Dads Dodge,gottr' done.you guys are blessed with meat for the year...Congrats!
JimP
Administrator
It looks like between your early archery hunt and this one your freezer should be full by now.
Nice looking cow.
I made the mistake of shooting a huge cow once down a very long draw about 3 miles away from a road that I could get to but only 1/2 a mile away from one on private property. Try as we could we couldn't talk that landowner into letting us just drive down that road to pick up the meat so we ended up packing her out the 3 miles. I got finished the next day around noon, my partner had to go back to work but between the two of us we got a lot of her out that first day.
Nice looking cow.
I made the mistake of shooting a huge cow once down a very long draw about 3 miles away from a road that I could get to but only 1/2 a mile away from one on private property. Try as we could we couldn't talk that landowner into letting us just drive down that road to pick up the meat so we ended up packing her out the 3 miles. I got finished the next day around noon, my partner had to go back to work but between the two of us we got a lot of her out that first day.
dirtclod Az.
Veteran member
Seems that Cows are just as heavy as Bulls,Shouldn't the female of the species be somewhat daintier and lighter?
Hooked a comealong inside Dads pickem;up bed and began to winch.Bed of truck moved,Cow did not!
Dad NOT happy.It's always funny when it happened Years ago....right?
Hooked a comealong inside Dads pickem;up bed and began to winch.Bed of truck moved,Cow did not!
Dad NOT happy.It's always funny when it happened Years ago....right?
CODAK
Active Member
mallardsx2
Veteran member
- Jul 8, 2015
- 3,932
- 3,250
Monday before the opener I made my way out west out of Woodland Park to my 4th rifle cow hunt. Got into town late so I couldn't glass that night. My son was gonna get into camp Tues night so I was gonna spend all day Tues glassing . Made my way to my normal spot with a cup of coffee and breakfast in the warmth of the truck. I can see private down below, oak brush drainages in the middle and aspen conifer up high. So from 7500 up to 10500 I can get a good feel what's going ok if I have the time. Snow left amounted to about 4-6 inches in spots about 9000, 1-2 foot on the north facing heavy timber slopes and a mix of both in the open areas where it was wind swept. My primary spot is in the oak brush up at the head of a valley and there I found three bulls putting on the feed bag. Undisturbed or pressured I'm sure they would be there all week or at least till the opener. Need horses or packs to get them out. My second spot a little higher up held 3 cows just milling around. Good to know they are in the area, so maybe some more that I can't see.
I look up high to a ridge that has always intrigued me and low and behold.....lots of em. 20 or so cows feeding. My first reaction was like you got to be sitting me. This is the second light winter year that they were up there. 10300 feet in the middle of November. Then I thought to my self, you dummy, they are right where they should be, south facing and unpressured. Ok, so now how do I get there. I come up with a plan to put them to bed and see how long they stay out and feed, then go get the quad and get up to this Ridgeline trail to evaluate if I can even get there. I'm worried about snow drifts in the shade. They ended up feeding till 1000 before laying down. Tjat was a good sign they were truly unpressured and just hanging out for the long haul.
I look up high to a ridge that has always intrigued me and low and behold.....lots of em. 20 or so cows feeding. My first reaction was like you got to be sitting me. This is the second light winter year that they were up there. 10300 feet in the middle of November. Then I thought to my self, you dummy, they are right where they should be, south facing and unpressured. Ok, so now how do I get there. I come up with a plan to put them to bed and see how long they stay out and feed, then go get the quad and get up to this Ridgeline trail to evaluate if I can even get there. I'm worried about snow drifts in the shade. They ended up feeding till 1000 before laying down. Tjat was a good sign they were truly unpressured and just hanging out for the long haul.
Back to grab the quad, couple cliff bars, trekking poles, water and I leave a note for my buddy of where I'm gonna try and go so some one knows where I'm at.
Up to the ridgeline trail was an uneventful 4 mile ride. Now I'm on top and begin to ride to the finger ridge I want to walk out. Low and behold .25 mile from the waypoint I dropped it's drifted over deep. Off the quad and start to stomp a path. I get to the waypoint and note how long it took me to get there so in the am I can arrive at daylight. Seems like I got a good plan figured out when I hear quads coming the other way on the trail. I start walking that direction as I figure it my buddy and son coming up from the other side. Nope, three other dudes. I walk up and intro my self and tell then welcome to Colorado. They have bull tags and are not interested at all in my 3 mile hike down the ridge to the cows I saw. We go our seperate ways and I head back down to check zero on the rifles and get ready for the am.
Up to the ridgeline trail was an uneventful 4 mile ride. Now I'm on top and begin to ride to the finger ridge I want to walk out. Low and behold .25 mile from the waypoint I dropped it's drifted over deep. Off the quad and start to stomp a path. I get to the waypoint and note how long it took me to get there so in the am I can arrive at daylight. Seems like I got a good plan figured out when I hear quads coming the other way on the trail. I start walking that direction as I figure it my buddy and son coming up from the other side. Nope, three other dudes. I walk up and intro my self and tell then welcome to Colorado. They have bull tags and are not interested at all in my 3 mile hike down the ridge to the cows I saw. We go our seperate ways and I head back down to check zero on the rifles and get ready for the am.
My son and I get to the quad parking spot and gear up for the hike in. The plan is to hike down this finger ridge at the top. Relatively level with only a few ups and downs of 300 ft or so. Plan is we will stay on the top and sneak our way in. Based upon how late they were out the day before and distance we need to cover, I think we should get to them before they bed. Down the ridge we go and not 100 yards into the hike my son says 3 cows to the left. Sure enough three are walking in a conga line and will pass behind us. We got good wind so we back track and set up a couple hundred yards apart. Wind is crossing at about 6 kts so I think we are good. Well we sit for 40 min and they never come out. I suspect the downslope was still too strong even with the crosswind and they smelled us. As I'm figuring out our next steps to hike down the ridge, out pops 10 cows feeding low to high about 1000 yards away. We scurry down the ridge only to find out they were one more small up down away from where we thought and we couldn't get in front of them. Quick snack and hydrate and further down the ridge we go. We covered about half of it so far. I figure a little over 1.5 miles before the real area I wanna be in. We get to the peak I planned to glass from at 1000 am. Sun is out and beginning to warm up. I tell my son, let's get to the top top here and stay there and glass though lunch and start to slow hunt our way back out about 2pm. We find the lunch spot but I can't just sit down yet and relax until I glass the immediate area good. I walk 100 yards down the ridge line and start to glass the aspen below. Elk butt. I don't even look for more as I know if there is one bedded there is more. Back up to grab the son, rifles and sticks.
Small sneak down to glass it all over. 15 -20 cows all bedded facing down slope. Full sun on the slope so good up draft thermal. They have no idea we are above em. We sneak to 180 yards and my son sets up ok his bog pod. I have no sticks so I'm gonna sneak closer to 100 yards and offset 45 degrees. I get into postion and give him the thumbs up to shoot and sort left. Single shot from his Enfield 30-06 and a 180gr Accubond being pushed by some 4350 enters the left ear and out the other side. She never gets out of her bed. Nighty night. The rest of the herd gets up and I sort right. Takes me shooting offhand 3 shots and down goes number two.
Both animals are 50 yards apart and we begin to get to work. Meat pole hung, camp robbers starting to gather and we start to quarter and hang. Fire built we bbq a little for a sback.We end up getting back to the quad after dark with two rear quarters boned out. 2.5 days later and 9 miles light and 9 miles loaded we get the two girls out.
So why were they up there. Unpressured, no one wanted to walk 3 miles off the quad trail at 10000ft and the kicker below. Lots of green shoot grass still green in the sun.
LCH
Very Active Member
ElkTrout
Veteran member
Alaskabound2016
Active Member
Winchester
Veteran member
Congrats!! Great story!
If you shot yours at 10:45 that was just about the same time I shot my cow that day ... small world
If you shot yours at 10:45 that was just about the same time I shot my cow that day ... small world
RICMIC
Veteran member
Great stories Slugz. It's perfect when you can have these experiences with your son. Keep on moving or they throw dirt on you.
