Author Topic: Anybody back from an elk hunt yet? (Read 1100 times)

lewdogg21 · « **on:** September 21, 2004, 06:07:51 AM »

My dad is currently in Northeastern Oregon, just north of the John Day river, west of ukiah hunting elk with a bow. I'm dying here stuck at work b/c I couldn't go. Any good stories of a trip to share?

james · « **Reply #1 on:** September 22, 2004, 05:44:19 AM »

Just got back from Colo. muzz loader hunt. - The bulls were bugling good in the Frying Pan Wilderness. Back packed in and hunted for three days for a certain bull. Called up a couple of small ones but decided to pass. Ran out of food and water so came down and moved to the Uncompahgre where my partner filled a cow tag. Took a running shot at a small bull but made a clean miss. Got completely wore out and came home tired but happy. We had no disasters, got the truck stuck once. got stung by a yellow jacket while boning out the cow, fell off the trail once but landed on my backpack so nothing got broke. All in all, it was a good trip. Been doing this for fifteen years but at age 50 I've decided I may be too old for this.
Good huntin
James

Longcruise · « **Reply #2 on:** September 24, 2004, 09:59:28 AM »

Quote

Been doing this for fifteen years but at age 50 I've decided I may be too old for this.
Good huntin

At 58, I don't like to hear that kinda talk!! :shock:

Just finished up the mls season too. Our group of three got three does (all nice big fat ones :grin:) and on 5X6 elk. The elk came to the cow call and posed for a 35 yard shot.

We all used .54 cals with round balls. Elk fell where shot but then slid down a 50 foot gulley

. One deer hopped 30 yards. One deer was a 150 yard shot double lunger and dropped on the spot. Was a relief from last year when a two hour tracking job was needed to find a doe I hit with my bow. Found her 25 yards from where she was hit, but that's a whole nother story :-)

alsatian · « **Reply #3 on:** October 07, 2004, 10:53:07 AM »

James:

How far do you backpack in? How do you get your elk out when you bag an elk? How long do you go in (you said you ran out of food, how long did it take to run out of food?)? How do you hunt? Do you establish a camp and hunt out of it like spokes out of a wheel or do you move your camp everyday? I'm asking these questions because I want to go backpack hunting for elk in the future myself, maybe 2005. In fact, in two weeks I hope to do a two day backpack trip in the Weminuche Wilderness area NE of Durango, Colorado, in the San Juan mountains, as a scouting trip for a future hunt. A blizzard between now and then could scuttle these plans, but for now I understand snow is patchy and melting off, given lows around 30 degrees overnight and highs during bright sunny days between 45 degrees and upper 50s.

I'm 48 years old. Please take back your cruel talk about being too old at the age of 50 to hunt elk! Please tell me it isn't so! This would be a first elk hunt for me, and I would be 49 years old then, in 2005 at the earliest.

james · « **Reply #4 on:** October 14, 2004, 05:54:20 AM »

Alsatian
Sent you a PM
I'm really not that old - now that I've rested up I feel like a spring chicken.
Guess I'll run my climber up a tree this week end and try to unload my smoke pole on an AR whitetail. I may not even take the 4 wheeler. I'll just drag that big ol buck out and throw em in the truck just fer exercise.
Good luck
James

lewdogg21 · « **Reply #5 on:** October 14, 2004, 06:40:47 AM »

My dad got a cow elk on his bowhunt in the Hepner unit. He is needless to say very happy. Next year I'm going too.

mmwb · « **Reply #6 on:** October 15, 2004, 02:27:00 PM »

Just got back from a hunt today. Friend I was with shot a cow. It took us a few hours to get her out and loaded. Fellow I was hunting with on the first day of the archery hunt put down a 6x6 bull. Seem to be spending some time helping other guys pack their elk out this year! Been into alot of them, but just haven't gotten a chance at a good shot. We'll keep going at it and hopefully get one of my own to pack!! Best of luck to all of you that are still hard at it.

35Whelen · « **Reply #7 on:** October 15, 2004, 07:54:17 PM »

Got back yesterday from a New Mexico elk hunt.
It was probably the hardest hunt I've ever been on. In spite of having a couple of mules to get us back 4.5 -5 miles into the back country, it was an exhausting hunt with each day requiring a 2 hour ride out and a 2 hour ride back in the pitch dark in addition to climbing and walking at 10,000+ feet. It was tough on my 70 year old Dad, be he did very well. Anyhow, I whacked a nice 6x6 with my homebuilt 35 Whelen. After losing a couple of battles with a spoiled horse, we got the bull packed out by about 9:00 p.m. Thursday.

dukkillr · « **Reply #8 on:** October 15, 2004, 08:30:52 PM »

the old man and i just back from opening week in colorado

lewdogg21 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 18, 2004, 08:35:35 AM »

holy $hiat!

Nice bulls........

I'm very envious.

It's snowing in the Sierra's today and instead of deer hunting I'm at work. :cry: heh, cry for me.

Joe44 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 23, 2004, 03:24:57 PM »

Got back from elk hunting in the snowies {Just west of Laramie, Wyoming} last sunday, my friend and I dropped two cows about 10 seconds apart. We were taking a break sitting in the right spot when another hunter drove a herd of about 60 elk our way, the first one that gave me a decent shot was 100yds away across a clearing and about 15yds back into the timber, I had a small window to shoot thru and down she went {gotta love the 338win mag and 250gr sierra's} my friend got his just a few seconds later with a neck shot at 60yds, she was running but must have stopped as the trigger broke as he was leading her also with a 338win mag and hornady 225's. We packed them the three miles out with one horse and our frame packs. Was a fun trip, and while I'm only 26, and my friend is 30, you had better not mention to his dad 58, and his granddad 85, that 50 is too old to elk hunt. If you do, those two guys might just have to whip you for it. My friends Granddad now loads his 308 a little lighter, walks alittle slower, hunts smarter, but still will not pass up an elk season, and my friends dad is probably one of the toughtest men I know at any age and he is almost 60.

Joe

35Whelen · « **Reply #11 on:** October 23, 2004, 09:59:47 PM »

Finally got the pictures! Hope they show up in the post. Here's the bull I spoke of killing a few posts up. Neat thing (to me) is that he was killed on an unguided hunt on public land and it required a lot of tough, tiring hunting and "stick-to-itiveness". That makes it all the more rewarding, don't you guys agree?

DesertRam · « **Reply #12 on:** December 21, 2004, 09:29:06 AM »

Chased cows around the forests of NM last week with a muzzleloader. Three hunters in camp took two elk. We had a great time, even though the unseasonably warm weather and crusted snow made for some tough hunting conditions.

Here's the cow I shot wtih my Encore using 260 grain Dead Centers: