back in about 1988 or so mike, frank, ray, Sal ,myself and Ron were the guys to make the trip out to Colorado to hunt elk.
Sal drove in from Idaho, and frank lives in woodland park Colorado , so Ron,Mike, Ray and myself had driven out to Colorado in my Datsun 4x4 truck, and rays 4x4 ford bronco, we made good time until we hit the area near woodland park where we were forced to install snow chains on both trucks and that limited the last 7 hours of travel to about 30 mph
we arrived up in the area north of gypsum near deep creek and grizzly creek, and made camp the day before the season opened but arrived after dark and it was snowing at that elevation, we decided to sleep the first night in the trucks ,Ron and I climbed into the back of the pick up topper , re-arranged the gear in the back bed,as best we could to make room so we could get into sleeping bags and mike slept scrunched up on the front seats
the other two guys slept in rays 4x4 bronco.
the wind up alarm clocks got us up well before dawn on opening day, most of us felt like we would be better off dead as the cold and high altitude, plus the darkness and snow were not making the idea of wandering the woods looking for elk look all that enjoyable at that point.
there was a great deal of discussion about the stupidity of paying big bucks to subject yourself to this environment just to find a really stupid elk , that might be out in this crappy weather ,that we could shoot.
we grabbed snack foods, and canned drinks, and stuffed our day packs , got our individual gear sorted out and by flash light looked over the topo maps we had previously almost memorized, then we broke into 3 two man teams and planed to walk into grizzly creek drainage from three directions.
Frank and I would walk in from camp, the rest of the guys jumped into Ray 4x4 bronco and drove off down the logging road to separate points along that road that were about 3/4 mile apart too begin walking into the canyon, we agreed to meet again on that logging road at dark that night.
that logging rod wanders along the crest of several canyons then gradually wanders back down to the main highway after dozens of sub branches and covers hundreds of miles but the distance from end point to end point as the crow flies is more than likely less than 70 miles .
the more time you spend out in elk country and not in camp the better your odds of connecting on an elk, it helps to be observant and a good shot, but you increase your chances by actively looking over large areas for elk, moving thru and area looking for recent tracks and scouting new areas, not keep going back day after day to the same canyon,simply because elk do not stay in a limited area like white tail deer.
the roads most likely not used much except by loggers and hunters and in the snow the tire tracks showed very few new truck tracks, even though this was opening day as we had parked well up on a side road off the main access road. yet the road did represent a boundary that was very easy to find and travel down, thus if you knew the road was too your north and you walked into some drainage, walking south, you knew you cold walk uphill, locate the road and have a really good idea of where you were and were camp was located.
Frank is always worried we will get lost or stranded, so hes very reluctant to go anywhere with out some partner, Ive repeatedly demonstrated how to use a compass reading to locate the road on the upper canyon slopes but hes still sure he will never see the camp again, so this limits hunting options.
So knowing this I had Frank sit on a rock outcrop, overlooking the canyon floor where he could see anything that moved for hundreds of yards then Id still hunt the surrounding timber, on both slopes over several hours, this usually resulted in deer or elk moving thru the surrounding timber giving one of us a chance of making a shot , at game.
frank is THRILLED with the arrangement simply because hes unlikely to get lost , if he wanders,and he is not a good still hunter and has a very hard time spotting still non-moving or bedded elk.
we hunted all day and while I saw dozens of mule deer and several cow elk I had yet to spot a single legal bull elk by 4 pm, when I knew we needed to start back out to the logging road.
we started out walking slowly out of the canyon , after I collected frank, the trip out was very peaceful as it had stopped snowing at about 11 am, and everything was cased in a coat of snow or ice, and the temp had risen to just about 35F allowing the snow to just start to melt a bit.
we reached the road near our camp and started to walk back, expecting to be picked up by the bronco at some point.
as we walked back we saw dozens of fresh elk and mule deer tracks crossing the road heading down into that canyon.
as we walked it was starting to get darker , shooting light was fast leaving when I spotted a large mule deer, I stopped and pointed it out to frank as he had a license for mule deer and had yet to collect anything larger than a 21" spread 4 point per side example, this deer looked like it was in the 25"-26" range and well proportioned, I should have shot it as it might have been larger and we failed to get a shot as frank can,t spot a deer standing off the road shoulder in a meadow at less than 120 yards, even with me pointing at it ,and describing where its at...while it stands in plain sight!
.after about a full minute the deer decided the two guys above on the road probably did not have his best interests in mind so he bounced with that mule deer pogo gait off the ridge , only as he bounced off the meadow into the aspens,did frank see him and even then he failed to make an easy shot.
we got back to camp to find the other four guys dead tired, having packed out an elk that ray had shot at about 9am, that required 4 guys to make two trips out of a canyon, we found that Ray had shot his elk , with his 270 win loaded with 150 grain speer bullets over 54 grains of IMR 4831, at only about 540 yards off the logging road, but down a very steep slope, that took a great deal of effort to transport a heavy back pack out over.
the elk seasons normally 7-9 days so the next day those four guys decided to lounge around as they were exhausted, while frank and I decided to go back and hunt near the same area.
that day Frank was seated on the rock ledge that ran for about 3/4 of a mile along one side slope and I still hunted the surrounding areas, I heard a single shot quickly followed by several rapid shots and came out of some aspens to see frank waving his orange vest , i walked over and together we walked to the area frank indicated he had shot a nice mule deer, there was blood and after a short trail we found a nice mule deer with a high thin 4 point rack, frank was absolutely amazed because he had finely shot a mule deer without help.
I helped butcher and pack most of the meat, the other guys and frank got the rest packed out later that day.
three or four days passed during which I saw lots of mule deer but no legal bull elk. the other guys had also seen lots of deer but few elk.
it was the 5th or 6th day and I was sitting on a darn hard wet rock near the logging road with my back against a stump, waiting for the guys in the bronco to pick me up when I noticed movement on the slope above the road,at about 200 yards, out of the aspen stepped several elk and a legal 4 point bull with about typical average horns was in the rear of the four elk walking out, I popped the legs on my weatherby 340,s bi-pod out and lay down to get a prone shot only to find the brush and angle of the slope, prevented that option, a quick change too seated and the bi-pod , rested on the rock Id been seated on allowed the shot, angle ,at the shot, the cows instantly stopped and reversed course , back into the aspens and then they looked back at the bull, he staggered drunkenly than fell and slid down the slope 20 yards on the snow, the 250 grain hornady soft point punched thru the lungs and exited.
As I walked over to inspect the bull , the bronco showed up,slowly driving up the snow covered logging road, and mike who was driving, asked me if Id heard that shot!,
I grinned and pointed to the elk on the slope about 120 yards up hill from the truck,
he looked at me and said
"well your improving, its not the last day, of the season,
its uphill from the truck, so we don,t need to pack it uphill,
and its less than two miles from the trucks and road.....
are you sure YOU SHOT THAT ELK....
is WAY OUT OF CHARACTER"
Sal drove in from Idaho, and frank lives in woodland park Colorado , so Ron,Mike, Ray and myself had driven out to Colorado in my Datsun 4x4 truck, and rays 4x4 ford bronco, we made good time until we hit the area near woodland park where we were forced to install snow chains on both trucks and that limited the last 7 hours of travel to about 30 mph
we arrived up in the area north of gypsum near deep creek and grizzly creek, and made camp the day before the season opened but arrived after dark and it was snowing at that elevation, we decided to sleep the first night in the trucks ,Ron and I climbed into the back of the pick up topper , re-arranged the gear in the back bed,as best we could to make room so we could get into sleeping bags and mike slept scrunched up on the front seats
the other two guys slept in rays 4x4 bronco.
the wind up alarm clocks got us up well before dawn on opening day, most of us felt like we would be better off dead as the cold and high altitude, plus the darkness and snow were not making the idea of wandering the woods looking for elk look all that enjoyable at that point.
there was a great deal of discussion about the stupidity of paying big bucks to subject yourself to this environment just to find a really stupid elk , that might be out in this crappy weather ,that we could shoot.
we grabbed snack foods, and canned drinks, and stuffed our day packs , got our individual gear sorted out and by flash light looked over the topo maps we had previously almost memorized, then we broke into 3 two man teams and planed to walk into grizzly creek drainage from three directions.
Frank and I would walk in from camp, the rest of the guys jumped into Ray 4x4 bronco and drove off down the logging road to separate points along that road that were about 3/4 mile apart too begin walking into the canyon, we agreed to meet again on that logging road at dark that night.
that logging rod wanders along the crest of several canyons then gradually wanders back down to the main highway after dozens of sub branches and covers hundreds of miles but the distance from end point to end point as the crow flies is more than likely less than 70 miles .
the more time you spend out in elk country and not in camp the better your odds of connecting on an elk, it helps to be observant and a good shot, but you increase your chances by actively looking over large areas for elk, moving thru and area looking for recent tracks and scouting new areas, not keep going back day after day to the same canyon,simply because elk do not stay in a limited area like white tail deer.
the roads most likely not used much except by loggers and hunters and in the snow the tire tracks showed very few new truck tracks, even though this was opening day as we had parked well up on a side road off the main access road. yet the road did represent a boundary that was very easy to find and travel down, thus if you knew the road was too your north and you walked into some drainage, walking south, you knew you cold walk uphill, locate the road and have a really good idea of where you were and were camp was located.
Frank is always worried we will get lost or stranded, so hes very reluctant to go anywhere with out some partner, Ive repeatedly demonstrated how to use a compass reading to locate the road on the upper canyon slopes but hes still sure he will never see the camp again, so this limits hunting options.
So knowing this I had Frank sit on a rock outcrop, overlooking the canyon floor where he could see anything that moved for hundreds of yards then Id still hunt the surrounding timber, on both slopes over several hours, this usually resulted in deer or elk moving thru the surrounding timber giving one of us a chance of making a shot , at game.
frank is THRILLED with the arrangement simply because hes unlikely to get lost , if he wanders,and he is not a good still hunter and has a very hard time spotting still non-moving or bedded elk.
we hunted all day and while I saw dozens of mule deer and several cow elk I had yet to spot a single legal bull elk by 4 pm, when I knew we needed to start back out to the logging road.
we started out walking slowly out of the canyon , after I collected frank, the trip out was very peaceful as it had stopped snowing at about 11 am, and everything was cased in a coat of snow or ice, and the temp had risen to just about 35F allowing the snow to just start to melt a bit.
we reached the road near our camp and started to walk back, expecting to be picked up by the bronco at some point.
as we walked back we saw dozens of fresh elk and mule deer tracks crossing the road heading down into that canyon.
as we walked it was starting to get darker , shooting light was fast leaving when I spotted a large mule deer, I stopped and pointed it out to frank as he had a license for mule deer and had yet to collect anything larger than a 21" spread 4 point per side example, this deer looked like it was in the 25"-26" range and well proportioned, I should have shot it as it might have been larger and we failed to get a shot as frank can,t spot a deer standing off the road shoulder in a meadow at less than 120 yards, even with me pointing at it ,and describing where its at...while it stands in plain sight!
.after about a full minute the deer decided the two guys above on the road probably did not have his best interests in mind so he bounced with that mule deer pogo gait off the ridge , only as he bounced off the meadow into the aspens,did frank see him and even then he failed to make an easy shot.
we got back to camp to find the other four guys dead tired, having packed out an elk that ray had shot at about 9am, that required 4 guys to make two trips out of a canyon, we found that Ray had shot his elk , with his 270 win loaded with 150 grain speer bullets over 54 grains of IMR 4831, at only about 540 yards off the logging road, but down a very steep slope, that took a great deal of effort to transport a heavy back pack out over.
the elk seasons normally 7-9 days so the next day those four guys decided to lounge around as they were exhausted, while frank and I decided to go back and hunt near the same area.
that day Frank was seated on the rock ledge that ran for about 3/4 of a mile along one side slope and I still hunted the surrounding areas, I heard a single shot quickly followed by several rapid shots and came out of some aspens to see frank waving his orange vest , i walked over and together we walked to the area frank indicated he had shot a nice mule deer, there was blood and after a short trail we found a nice mule deer with a high thin 4 point rack, frank was absolutely amazed because he had finely shot a mule deer without help.
I helped butcher and pack most of the meat, the other guys and frank got the rest packed out later that day.
three or four days passed during which I saw lots of mule deer but no legal bull elk. the other guys had also seen lots of deer but few elk.
it was the 5th or 6th day and I was sitting on a darn hard wet rock near the logging road with my back against a stump, waiting for the guys in the bronco to pick me up when I noticed movement on the slope above the road,at about 200 yards, out of the aspen stepped several elk and a legal 4 point bull with about typical average horns was in the rear of the four elk walking out, I popped the legs on my weatherby 340,s bi-pod out and lay down to get a prone shot only to find the brush and angle of the slope, prevented that option, a quick change too seated and the bi-pod , rested on the rock Id been seated on allowed the shot, angle ,at the shot, the cows instantly stopped and reversed course , back into the aspens and then they looked back at the bull, he staggered drunkenly than fell and slid down the slope 20 yards on the snow, the 250 grain hornady soft point punched thru the lungs and exited.
As I walked over to inspect the bull , the bronco showed up,slowly driving up the snow covered logging road, and mike who was driving, asked me if Id heard that shot!,
I grinned and pointed to the elk on the slope about 120 yards up hill from the truck,
he looked at me and said
"well your improving, its not the last day, of the season,
its uphill from the truck, so we don,t need to pack it uphill,
and its less than two miles from the trucks and road.....
are you sure YOU SHOT THAT ELK....
is WAY OUT OF CHARACTER"
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