I made it back! What a fun time. I experienced all 4 seasons in the 8 days I was in Colorado. Of our party of 6 I was the lucky one to pull the trigger on a fine 5x5 bull. I wish some of the pictures were better, but it's tough getting a good picture by yourself. Saw plenty of animals and soem beautiful country. This might be my favorite picture.
We got to camp Wednesday before the season opened and got camp set-up. We spent time Thursday and Friday doing a little scouting in our primary spot and a couple back up spots. Never saw an elk while scouting but plenty of sign and lots of mule deer. Opening morning found me on an West facing slope overlooking a drainage that I knew the elk traversed to head North to private land. As daylight broke I found myself staring at a cow elk slowly moving North on the opposite face of the drainage. Fun to watch but I had a bull tag. About 20 minutes later another cow elk moved by pretty much doing the same as the first. About an hour later, shortly after 8:00 am, I notice not 1 but 3 bulls 700-800 yds to my North moving South on the opposite face. After realizing that I was looking at 3 bulls and they were out of my range I quickly used the oak brush to cover my movement and as they walked towards me I walked towards them. Finally, I got straight across from them, ranged them at 291 yds, picked out the biggest bull of the bunch and let my Remington 280 go. BOOM!!! There was my elk lying right where he stood with his two buddies looking at him like...."get up, let's go". I guess after about 20 seconds or so they realized something was up and they both took off. After calming down and watching him for about a half hour I gathered my gear and made the 1 hour trek to where he was.
We got to camp Wednesday before the season opened and got camp set-up. We spent time Thursday and Friday doing a little scouting in our primary spot and a couple back up spots. Never saw an elk while scouting but plenty of sign and lots of mule deer. Opening morning found me on an West facing slope overlooking a drainage that I knew the elk traversed to head North to private land. As daylight broke I found myself staring at a cow elk slowly moving North on the opposite face of the drainage. Fun to watch but I had a bull tag. About 20 minutes later another cow elk moved by pretty much doing the same as the first. About an hour later, shortly after 8:00 am, I notice not 1 but 3 bulls 700-800 yds to my North moving South on the opposite face. After realizing that I was looking at 3 bulls and they were out of my range I quickly used the oak brush to cover my movement and as they walked towards me I walked towards them. Finally, I got straight across from them, ranged them at 291 yds, picked out the biggest bull of the bunch and let my Remington 280 go. BOOM!!! There was my elk lying right where he stood with his two buddies looking at him like...."get up, let's go". I guess after about 20 seconds or so they realized something was up and they both took off. After calming down and watching him for about a half hour I gathered my gear and made the 1 hour trek to where he was.
