Start My Hunt's Link
I had a little hawk follow me in Utah. At first it was cool but...After about 1/2 hour having a small hawk following me was a pain. The bird stayed just behind me and about 10 to fifteen feet above me. As I was really starting to get annoyed and wondering what the hell it was doing I jumped a rabbit. The hawk swopped down and grabbed it. That was when I realized what my Lab must feel like. I was bird dogging for a hawk.
On another elk hunt in the Uinta mountains of Utah (wilderness area) I was on a hunt with two good friends. I had to leave the hunt and had returned to find out one had killed his elk that morning (first bull with a bow and shot at three yards). I had been into elk a lot before I had to leave. That first evening back I walked my bubbies into the area where I had been into elk. As we walked into the area one of my bubbies asked if I had really been seeing elk in that area. He was not yelling but not being overly quite. I said "Yes" also not yelling but not being overly quite. I looked up and a herd of elk walked out as I was talking. So I actually said "Yes, and there they are". I shot a 5x5 rag horn with 20 seconds of our conversation.
The final weird situation was a couple of years ago on a Wyoming elk hunt. I had been diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year and was still recovering from the surgery. This was my first hunt after my surgery. I was lagging behind my buddy and his son as we walked back to the truck. I was far enough behind that they started back up the trail. My friend had an odd feeling that something bad had happened to me. As they got about 500 yards back up the trail found a bear in the middle of the trail that had just killed something. Keep in mind that they had passed through the area bout 5 minutes before. My buddy was pretty sure that I had had a heart attack and had fallen and the bear was in the process of eating me. He carried a Glock pistol and fired into the air to "salvage my remains". The bear refused to leave it's kill. My buddy started yelling and the bear had had enough. It charged him and his son. He aimed at the bear and fired a shot right in front of the charging bear. About five feet short, the bear veered off the trail a took off. All the while I was walking along the trail wondering what the hell my buddy was yelling and shooting at. As I got close to the area I called back and he about had a heart attack himself. He was still recovering from the bear charge in the dark and was shocked to see me alive and well. It was a strange experience from my stand point but it was a considerable shock to my buddy and his son .
The one that sticks out the most was getting in a fight with a bull that I had shot twice - through the bottom of the heart both times. He about killed me...
I would strongly recommend avoiding the experience!
It is amazing how strong and fast they are. The kicks were worse than the antlers - and the antlers were really bad!
On my first elk hunt in CO I found a nice semi shaded area where I spread out my jacket and layed down for a little nap. I woke up to see a hawk wings spread headed straight for my face. Of course I flinched and the hawk landed above my head and left just as quick.
The best part of that hunt was when my friend and I saw our only elk. It was a decent 5pt that we kind of ran into. We were in some low laying brush and he was just inside a tree line. I immediately hit the ground (assuming my friend did too) and gave a few cow calls. The bull cruised toward us staying in the trees. Of course he stops at 40yds w/ a short fir tree covering his vitals. At this time I look back at my friend and he his standing in the wide open, arrow knocked, release clipped, knees bent kind of a half crouch, eyes fixed on the bull shaking like a dog shitting peach seeds... I could help but laugh to myself as the bull spooked never to be seen again. That was my first encounter of the elk kind and if it were to happen again I think I could easily manage a shot opportunity.
This hunt was odd for me. I was sitting in a treestand about 5' above my dad in a tree next to me. A herd of Elk came in and a raghorn bull. I expected dad to shoot the raghorn, when I look and a big cow is about 10 yards away under me... So I shot her, she went up the hill behind us and tumbled down almost into the pond we were hunting over. Dad did not shoot- thankfully since that canon was hell getting an elk out of it.
Cleaning and quartering her up, I had bees on my bloody hands- so being alergic, dad runs over after I was stung and used the bloody nasty knife to dig out the stinger.
The next morning, we got up about 2 hours before light to head back in- I had a E/S tag still and he had tags also- I look out at the hanging quarters in the game bags and eyes are looking back at me! IT was a bobcat or something eating on the corner of one of the bags. We played cat and mouse and finally left a radio and headed off to hunt elk.
Sitting all moring, nothing really happened- then, I tried to move my arm- It was all swollen up and red and I was going into anaphylactic shock... Nice, So we got our stands down, packed up and I had to go to the ER for Treatment. Turns out it was not the bee sting, rather the nasty knife that caused cellulitus and an infection.
Fortunately we only shot one elk in there, but it was memorable none the less...
Tried to find the electronic pictures of my back and ribs, but don't have them down here on this computer.
Another really wild one was when I had a hunter I was guiding down in NM slip when he was gutting an elk and stuck his knife into his thigh up to the hilt. That was really sickening. Hell of a trip getting him out from 4 miles into a wilderness...
I had drawn a really good tag in AZ that year for elk and had decided to focus on getting everything together for the AZ hunt. The day before I was set to leave, I was out watching some elk in CO and noticed a bull that was trailing behind quite a ways. I was able to get between him and the rest of the herd and got right up to him at about 20 yards in some bushy little pines.
Had a basketball-sized hole right over his vitals and let one fly. It was a really pretty shot! It looked on the mark - tight and low behind the shoulder. The bull blew out of the pines and down the hill.
I eased up to where he had been standing and saw my arrow laying just past the spot - completely covered in blood. I saw him go down in some willows just down the hill. Thought that he was already dead. Picked up the bloody arrow and started down the hill.
When I got within about 10 yards, he stood up facing away from me. He was moving really slowly and I could see blood on both sides right where his heart should be. He slowly turned to the right until he was broadside. I nocked up my bloody arrow and sent it thru him again. Actually hit the same hole right over where the heart should be!
He didn't even flinch, but kept slowly turning and dropped his head until his nose was on the ground. I thought that he must be going to tip over dead right in front of me. Boy was I wrong!
He charged!
I was able to get turned a half step so that he wouldn't gut me with his antlers and held my bow out with my left arm toward the charge. He raised his head as he got to me and tossed me into the air. My bow went flying as well and luckily, I didn't land on a broadhead!
As soon as I hit the ground, he was on me with his antlers and kicking with his front feet. Amazingly fast! I was able to get turned so that my feet were toward him and he bulldozed me up the hill kicking and raking with his antlers. He rolled me up against a fallen tree and I was able to get under it. He smacked the tree a couple of times and then started stumbling. He stumbled drunkenly down the hill back about to where he had laid down after the first shot and spraddled out with his legs locked up.
I could see my bow and a broadhead tipped arrow still in the hood of the quiver. I rolled out from under the log and slid to my bow on my side to stay out of his sight. I pulled that arrow out and shot him one more time. At that shot, he simply tipped over and died on the spot.
Not often a guy gets in a fight with a critter that outweighs him by 5 times with pointy horns and big hard kicking feet and wins!!
When I checked his heart, there were two cuts about 1" deep through the bottom muscle. Amazing how tough they can be!
one shot, perfect arrow flight, perfect hit ... bull stumbles and falls and .... poof, disappears from sight
I walk the 40 yards or so to where I shot this bull, blood everywhere from where he stood and right there, a 100' sheer bluff that the bull had fallen off of
took us another hour to wrap around and get to him
helluva deal
BTW I had called in 5 legal shooting bulls with that one IIRC ...all of them were at 20-30 yards bugling and going stupid crazy
Sure 'nuff she headed back my way and when she got to point blank range I drew on her and looking through my peep put my 20 yd pin on her. As I was about to release, all hell broke loose. The hen disappeared from my peep and was making all kinds of noise. After quickly letting my draw down, I looked to see what was happening. To my amazement a golden eagle had swooped down and grabbed the hen by the head and had her about 4 feet off the ground. The eagle was quickly trying to gain altitude and the hen was fighting like crazy to get free, wings flapping and feet flailing.
The hen shook loose and quickly darted under an oak, while the eagle sailed on his way empty handed. I literally started laughing out loud thinking that that turkey had no idea that the eagle just saved her life.
Another year at this same lease just after sunset we saw the space shuttle detach from the space station. Quite a site.
I imagine someone has had this very experience when they glassed me up while I was taking my backcountry bath on my elk trips. Haha
RIP Jerry and Griz.
While packing in on horseback in Idaho's "Frank Church Wilderness" We were following a stream-side trail with a steep vertical wall on our right and a 200' shear drop on our left. As we approached a switch-back in the trail the horses became tense and we had a weird feeling of something not being quite right. In the bottom of the creek was the skeleton of a dead horse high and dry on a gravel bar. Obviously the horse had died from a fall from the narrow trail some time ago and his bones were bleached white. The horses all reacted as if we were in a "sacred burial ground" and they knew the victim! It was church quite and spooky as we passed the seen of deadly wreck. Later my brother and I commented that we expected to hear the theme music for the "twilight Zone" at any minute!
LaGriz
Midday storm rolls in so we get off the ridge and take up shelter under a pine tree. It looks like it is going to be a while so I decide to take a nap (With my back to the trunk)
I awoke in somewhat of dream state and foggy. My buddy is laughing out loud. (Not internet LOL!). Apparently a squirrel wanted to climb the tree I was leaned up against. The squirrel scurried across the ground and bounced off of my chest as he ascended the tree. (I remember the feeling of someone hitting me in the chest)
Camo Space Rain fools squirrels. (Maybe it was the lack of movement!)
Here's where I made my mistake. Figuring he'd see the movement and high-tail it out of there, I decide to let down. Sure enough, his head shoots up and sees me. He turns and bolts away about 15yds, then stops and stands up on his hind legs and gives me a hiss, then charges on a dead sprint right for me. I'm now defenseless, and all I could do was hold my bow over my head and start yelling expletives and the top of my lungs. He eventually stops at about 10ft and gives me the arched back like he's ready to fight. At this point I'm measuring him up thinking we're about to get it on. Still screaming every curse word I could think of, he slowly works his way around me, gets back on the trail and moves off.
A few minutes have passed, and I haven't moved an inch. I hear movement coming up behind me and it's my buddy. We'd been separated a good 15-20 minutes, but he said he could hear the expletives flying clear over in his drainage and figured I was in some kind of trouble. He came a running. Of course he couldn't stop laughing once he heard the story, then he asked if there was a mother bear with him? Oh $hit... Hadn't thought of that! Good thing there wasn't.
Ballsiest little bear I ever came across!
2. One of my hunting partners had a guy shoot his montana decoy after he drove up on an ATV in a walk in area only.
I was hunting a ridge and right before dark a small heard of elk showed themselves. I setup and took a shot at a cow, at the shot I heard the report of the bullet impact but by the time that I had recovered from the recoil of the rifle I had lost sight of which cow I had shot at. Not knowing which cow I had shot at and knowing it was going to be very cold I decided to back out and come back in the morning to get my elk. I figured she would bed down and die very close to where I had shot her. The next morning my son and I were in to the valley at first light. My hunting partners worked up to the top of the ridges in the dark hoping they may get a chance at the bull that was with the herd. As soon as we topped over the ridge we could hear a bunch of coyotes making a ruckus. I thought for sure the coyotes where on my elk. We worked are way to where the elk had been the night before. We did not find her or any blood, but we did find fresh elk tracks heading down to where the coyotes making all the noise. We decided to follow the tracks to see if I could recover anything. I was working slowly down this small ridge finger when I heard the growl yelp and then out of the corner of my eye I see this flash. It took only a fraction of second to realize that the flash I had seen was a mountain lion running up the ridge line of a small ridge finger; in my direction. Then I noticed the cat was not alone. From what I could see there where 20 or so coyotes on the cats’ tail. I say what I could see as my hunting partners could see the whole thing unfold said they saw way more than 20. About 20 or so yards in front of me on the top to ridge finger that I was on the mountain lion climbed a pretty good size juniper tree. At this time a smart man would have pull the camera from his backpack and start taken picture. I’m not a smart man. With my gun at my shoulder I yell at the dogs and cat to get out of here. When I yelled all the coyotes stop yapping at the cat and focused on my son and I. At that time my sons says hey that big coyotes walking this way. Will my son did not get the full sentence out as I had saw the same thing. Let’s just say that, that big coyote is no longer chasing mountain lions. At my shot the rest of the coyotes took off in all direction. The lion remained in the tree still. At this point I yelled up to one of my partners asking if they had just seen what had happen. My partner answered that they had seen the whole thing and he had the cat in his cross-hairs. At this time I told my son who was standing behind me to throw rocks at the tree. After a couple of rocks the lion jumped down and ran out of the valley. I am so glad that my partners had witness this as I don’t think they would have ever believed the story. Later that week when ran into a local outfitter that was high on the ridge and had witness the whole thing through his spotting scope. I never did recover that elk.
I'd say treeline wins this contest hands down! That is some wild $h!t... Well done on keeping it together brother. Glad your ok. Both my legs would have been bruised and poopy. ;)
There is a place in Colorado that when I go there my compass goes haywire and I had one actually become demagnetized when passing through there. Don't know what is buried there, but it does it every time I have been there...I avoid that area when I hunt that unit.
Found a squirrel gut pile once on the forest floor that looked like it had been laid out for a biology class. Everything was very neatly arranged, but I think the liver was missing...
There may be a deposit of magnetite in that area where your compass goes haywire.
Similar story to MT in MO. There's an area where we hunt in NW CO that we affectionately call the canyon o' death. The first year there my buddy shot a bull late in the day that made a beeline down the steep slope into the COD. We waited a couple of hours and then tracked him until dark and decided to come back in the morning. This was our first year in the area, and we were in very unfamiliar country, so we all took bearings, confirmed them and figured we were about 2 hours from camp. About an hour into it, we're confronted with a pretty significant rockslide, and we check compasses to navigate around, and all four gave different readings. Our best bet was to stay on that elevation line, cross slopes of boulders the size of volkswagons, and keep going. We made it back to camp about 3 hours later.
After several years, we have developed an elaborate system of waypoints to navigate out, and yet every year, one of us gets sucked down into the abyss after dark. I'm just thankful COD has always given up its quarry, minus the elk we never found.
There's a rock called magnetite? Learn something new every day...
I pointed out a quick moving satellite and we noticed that it appeared to be getting brighter and bigger. It kept growing brighter and bigger until there was a flash of light that lit up the meadow we were in as though it were midday.
Then it was dark again and the satellite was just a pinprick of light moving along.
We experienced a satellite flare. The panels on a satellite will act as a mirror and reflect the sun down onto the Earth like a giant flashlight sweeping across the planet.
So, I wasn't elk hunting. It wasn't that weird. But I thought it was a cool experience and I doubt that I'll ever experience it again. It sticks out in both in my oldest's memories and mine.
As the sun was going down and it was getting dark, we saw a bright light to our east and coming towards us very fast. I thought it might be a jet or something, but it got brighter and brighter as it came towards us. Looked like it was coming right at us. Lit up the area like it was broad daylight! It continued down until it hit the ground about 2 1/2 miles away. When it hit, there was a glow coming up from the ground and it actually started some trees on fire.
Guess it was a meteorite.
I walked up on a Great Pyrenees once in the dark. It was bedded down on the out skirts of a sheep herd. I didn't know either were there. I was walking up the game trail in the dark, humping to get to a meadow I had found two days earlier. It contained no sheep then. But, lots of elk. I was within 5-6 feet of the dog before it noticed me I assume. I didn't notice it until it lunged for me. I will never forget the deep guttural growl milliseconds before the dog lunged out of it's bed. I guess that was more scary than weird but, the way that dog shined in the moon light standing there growing as I screamed at it sure looked menacing and, made me wander how I didn't see it before then. I have never seen a wolf in the wild but, this animal was a good contender best I can assume.
As I stood there talking to the dog trying to get it to calm down and quit growling and coming a step closer for every backward step I took, I will never forget how that dog shined in the moonlight. It was tense 10-15 second. Finally it just wagged it's tail a bit and turned around and walked off back up the trail. I watched it go and set down watching me. Than it just laid back down and disappeared in the low spot I awoke it from. I decided not to press my luck and went back down instead of trying to get it to move off the trail to let me by. :^)
The first ever sheep dog incident happened about 6 miles from the above dog encounter. Except this was my first ever elk hunt and, my first time in Colorado. Got to our predetermined area about 2 am, set up a quick camp, looked at topo's to determine the areas we would start and, hit the sack for an hour or so to get my shut eye. I figured no need to get way in before light not knowing where we were going.
Took my time climbing the trail that morning. Got about a mile in and 600 feet higher at a steady but, controlled clip up the trial. Understand, I had Never made a bugle in the elk woods. I awaited daylight, listening, anticipating, excited as heck. As it lightened enough to see 40-50 yards, I couldn't hold out any longer. I got my tube and blew the best bugle I was capable of doing and waited for a minute or so just listening. No response. I did it again with a few chuckles at the end and bingo!
Brush starts cracking!! Branches breaking!!!! It is getting closer!!! At a very fast pace! I get an arrow nocked and prepare to draw as whatever it is is coming hard and fast right to me!!! Out of the brush bust a pack of freakin' Great Pyrenees looking for that elk. Had to be 5-6 of them. They were on the hunt.
I spoke up and waved my arms and and about half tucked tail and ran. Three of them just set down watching me. They followed me for the better part of the morning, just shadowing me. Bugling afterward brought no excited reaction. They'd stop when I did and set if I stood long enough. But, would follow suit as I'd start hiking again. They'd wag their tails when I approach them and talked gentle to them but, would never let me touch them. Cool but, weird not knowing their intent. I never will know what they were doing out there. It wasn't deep in but, in my 3 to 4 mile circle I never came upon the herd of sheep they were guarding.
Same day as when the dogs followed me but, later in the day. Getting near sunset, I started off the mountain. I had to lose about 3500 feet before hitting the forest service road. I had come a long way off, bugling as I came. At one stop well into this routine, I bugled my best and heard brush breaking, indicating something headed my way. I was frantically getting ready nocking an arrow and such when the dog behavior from earlier reminded me it was probably not an elk. This eased my tension which led to me half halfheartedly getting ready when up over the crest of this little bench came a very respectable 4 by 5 bull.
I froze. He kept coming and got up within about 12-13 yards when he spotted me. It was decently thick so, I just froze as he starred at me. His nostrils flared trying to get my scent during the 20 second or so stare down. He finally swapped ends and bolted when my diaphragm mouth call bugle froze him up. It was like he lost me in he brush and finally started to my right parallel to my position. I ended up nailing him at 28 yards.
So, on the first day of my first ever elk hunt, in an OTC unit on Public land, I had made friends with a pack of dogs that followed me for a long hike and, called in and shot my first elk. From weird to surreal. I'll take it. God Bless
If it landed on public ground and you think you could find the spot, you should take a walk and see if you can stumble across any pieces. A metal detector could help.
My middle one is really into geology. We have a few small meteorites. We have to collect some unique piece on any trip and take trips to seek out specific rocks or fossils of interest.
Sorry for rolling off on a tangent.
Start My Hunt's Link
Now for another---
I was out hunting in an area that I was very familiar with and it started to snow with a heavy fog starting to move in. I had been chasing a herd of elk the entire morning, but all I could ever find were their prints in the quickly deepening snow. My mind was glued to their trail, and I was not paying attention to where I was located. I was pretty sure that I was about two miles away from our camp.
After following the tracks for most of the afternoon and kicking the herd up a few times in front of me, I looked around and had no idea where I was in an area that I have hunted for close to 35 years. With the snow starting to intensify and the fog making it hard to see more than 30 yards, I took out my compass to try to get some bearings. Guess what? It was frozen solid from a spill I took in a creek the day earlier.
Then, the snow really started to come down and the fog got even thicker. If I was lucky, I could see about for maybe 50 feet in front of me. I started to get a little bit worried because nothing looked familiar in this place that I had grown up hunting. It felt like someone had dropped me off into the woods, put a blindfold on me that only allowed you to see a certain distance, and said good luck.
It was at his time I decided to break off of the tracks and try to figure out where the hell I was. I decided to walk to my left for some reason and ended up walking through an aspen stand where all the trees were maybe 5-6 feet tall and very dense. I could barely see over the top of the stand.
Now I was getting nervous, because it was starting to get dark and I had no idea where I was or what direction I should be heading. As I was fighting my way through the aspen, I suddenly smelled something familiar--a campfire. As I came out of the aspen stand and saw a road, and then a camp, I was relieved. As luck would have it, it was our camp, and the herd that I had been chasing all day ran by about 100 yards away through the fog and the snow. Nobody in camp heard or saw them.
Elk are ghosts.
I punched my tag in 1 hour on day one. Is that the weirdest thing that could happen to an elk hunter or what!!!!!!!
Yeah. It's always last day in the last hour of the hunt for me. Lol
The next night I decided to go in deep in complete darkness and not make a sound, instead I would listen.
I went in around 10 PM, navigating around cedars and junipers in the dark. I just wanted to rely on my hunter instinct so I wasn't thinking a specific plan where to go. After a half hour, I could make out a small clearing before me. I sat down on a log and waited. And waited. Not a sound. Well, this is a waster of time! I figured. Why the heck did I leave my bugle back at the truck?! So much for my hunters instinct!
Before leaving, I decided to turn on my million lumen (or whatever) flashlight.
Click. And there clearly illuminated 40 yds. in front of me broadside was one of the biggest bulls I have ever seen. Probably a 400 class bull. He stared back at me and then slowly walked behind some trees and disappeared from view. Never made a sound although I went back and tried to entice him with bugles and cow calls.
I never saw him again although I hunted the area several times subsequently.
got to our spot for the morning and started walking. I remember my feet were freezing and I was miserable, but we heard a bugle and that pepped me up. we snuck in and came to a park we know pretty well. there as a decent herd in the middle of it, maybe 15-20 cows, a couple spikes, and a smallish 6 point herd bull. he bugled a couple more times. we ended up trying to sneak up on the elk through the trees, and I remember popping out once and seeing a cow (the two adults could see much more but I was in back), and another time we popped out and a spike. finally we were far enough that they figured a shot was about to happen and we slowly snuck out to the opening. even with three of us, the snow made it fairly quiet, and now that we were off the top where we parked the breeze had sure settled. anyway, we snuck out but the elk were gone.
that's pretty common actually, but heres where it gets weird.
since the two experienced adults figured the elk had just fed in, we went out to look for tracks in the fresh snow and follow em. and that was the problem. there were no tracks in the park. anywhere. just virgin snow. we walked all around and looked for where they went in. same thing. now, it was snowing lightly, and there was a gentle breeze, but our tracks were plainly visable everywhere. there hadn't been anything in that damn park. I was pretty freaked out and I remember dad and our buddy acting really weird. we ended up splitting up and hunting the rest of the morning with no more action to report.
this event really bugged me, but honestly when your a kid lots of things bug you. the boogie man is very real! however, many years later I remember we were talking elk hunting at a family function and I brought that day up, and dad shut me up right away. apparently it freaked him and our family friend out pretty bad, as there was simply no explaination, and they didn't want to talk about it. dad and I have since as im 40 now and it was long ago (the family friend isn't close with dad anymore). no explanation.
elk leave tracks. these didn't. we all saw and heard em. it certainly wasn't snowing and blowing enough to cover a herd of elk tracks, as it wasn't doing a dang thing to our own tracks.
I do think that event did set the tone for me on how mystical elk hunting can be, and while I haven't really had many more encounters like that (one pretty close), theres nothing id rather do.
I was traveling with my buddy. He's a much better looking guy than me. I was really pumped up for the trip and enjoying the ride, anticipating the hunt and having fun.
Each time I went in to pay for gas or get some coffee, I told the clerk, "My buddy's kind of shy, but finds you attractive. He doesn't want to be too forward though. If you might like him to give you a call, just slip him your number. If not, we'll just be on our way and won't bother you on the way back."
Not a single one of those guys gave my buddy his phone number. But my buddy kept telling me that he didn't think they get a lot of black guys traveling through.
Kinda weird.
Same trip, after I shot mine it was getting dark and starting to snow I got it gutted and went back across the canyon to meet up with my wife and Marty who were spotting for me it was almost dark and starting to snow so we decided to come back in the morning. We were on horses heading into the blowing snow and I glanced to the left and saw a big doe grizzly with a cub standing upright with 1 paw on the sows back end about 30 yds away. I hollowed ahead to warn my wife and Marty. We all stopped to look at them. We didn't know what to do but as I remember we were all trying to slide our rifles out of the scabord they turned and run. It was a beautiful sight to see but I'm glad it turned out that way.
Earlier that year he drew a bighorn ram tag in Montana's 270 unit and killed a nice full curl sheep.
Is that some weird stuff or WHAT!
But as far as that first hour kill for me. Bittersweet really. I love last day kills.
Couple of years ago, I finally killed a wild sheep - took me 3 tags and about 50 days to finally close the deal. Loved every brutal minute of every hunt.
Sure enough with an hour left of light, we heard the cow calls and here they came. Probably 30 cows and calves, one small bull and really nice 340ish herd bull. The milled around getting ready to use the game trails to enter the river and cross it to the ag field where we were waiting. Right as the lead cow was about to step down the game trail, the giant bull bolted from the back of the herd and hooked her with his antlers and shoved her and the other cows about 50 yards to the east still along the river bank. This area had no trails cut into it and the cut banks were steep! The bull nudged the cow, and basically pushed her over the cut bank and into the river. Keep in mind this is happening 75 yards and in clear view of us both. Once the cow got to the middle of the river on a shallow sandy spot, she shook like a black lab and let out one of the most high pitched, yet perfect bugles I have ever heard. I physically watched her mouth open and bugle, complete with a very soft chuckle. It was bizarre, but it didn't end there.
The entire herd, waited at the cut bank until the lead cow made it across to the ag field and began eating. At that time, the rest of the herd begin jumping into the water at the same time like a bunch of people doing the polar plunge or something it was chaos, with splashing, running, kicking, mewing etc. At last the bull decided it was safe and it was his turn. As he went to jump off the cut bank, it was like he hesitated like me at the diving board when I was 6. The hesitation caused him to go into the water head first, he hit the water directly on his antlers and it flipped him over completely forward like a forward somersault of sorts. He thrashed to get to his feet, and sprinted full speed across the remaining river and into the center of the ag field at full speed, and went from 75 yards, to 250 yards in a matter of seconds.
That night the hunt was over, but we couldn't stop talking about the crazy things we witnessed that night.
I love hunting, but I really love archery hunting. Being so close and intimate with the animals and getting to see things like this that 90% of the world will never get to see. Pretty cool stuff, sorry for being long winded.
My buddy thinks its got to be another hunter following us to see where we are hunting but with our old anemic mini maglights we can just make out its a bear. After about 1/2 hr of this cat and mouse a mangy brown phase black bear walks right up to us. Bears always look bigger than they actually are and in reality this one was probably 80#. My buddy has a pistol but we don't want to shoot it as its still a hour before light and we don't want to spook the elk.
We keep trying to shoo it away but the bear would walk right up behind us close enough to touch. "Thats it," my buddy says he is going to shoot it. I turned and gave a swift kick right to that bears snout....he just kind of stood there....and then slowly wandered off.
Weirdest elk hunting experience I ever had.
Solo hunting Colorado one evening I was calling back a herd I had busted with a nice bull in it. I closed in, got on my knees and decided to use a lost calf call to get the closest cows to come back since there were calves around. After a few calls I looked over my shoulder and had this bear charging at me. I shot him in all 7 times with 6 arrows... picking up and re-using a pass thru arrow while dancing around into the black timber. I had to keep trees between him and I until he died at my feet where he took his last breathes.
I've always called my bear tag just my insurance policy.. that day it came in handy after 12 years of bear tag soup. I now carry a side arm.
I have had over 20 bear tags in CO and have yet to see one when and where I can hunt them - even when using your technique! Have gotten bears in New Mexico, Alaska and Saskatchewan but never in CO. Hopefully, I will get lucky this year and finally tag one in CO.
2013 - My buddy and I were sitting on a steep hillside above a small bench. We sat until 10:00, then I went over to him and we decided to head down the hill since we had heard several bulls bugling down below. While he was packing up I headed down to the bench where the sun was hitting, to warm up. As I was standing there I could hear him packing up above and to my right (I was facing away from him). All of a sudden I realized I was hearing noise above and to the left. I looked up and silhouetted on the hill was the biggest bull I'd ever seen while hunting, just 40 yards away. He sprinted down the hill right at me and I had to dive behind an aspen tree. When I did that, he stopped and looked at me from 10 feet, very confused. He headed off to my right, and I was fortunate enough to get a shot off when he was at about 75 yards. 280-ish 6x6 that is now on the wall!
2014 - It was very warm out, and at noon I decided to lay back and close my eyes for a couple minutes. I was on an open hillside watching a nice drainage full of aspens and pines. Hadn't seen anything all morning. I had just laid back when I thought I heard hooves but disregarded it as my mind playing tricks on me. A couple seconds later the sound was back and getting louder, very quickly. I grabbed my gun, spun around, and a decent 5x5 was sprinting straight down the hill at me. He hit the brakes, spun around and ran the other direction. Unfortunately for me, this bull was quicker then the previous one and I never got a shot. His prints were 11 yards from me, and I swear if I'd been asleep he would have stepped on me. That will wake you up in a hurry!
If this happens again I will have to figure out which one of my buddies is spraying cow in heat scent on my pack! :)
Mule- Yeah that's dumb luck for sure. I've definitely been into elk and deer on the first day but never sealed the deal til later.
Well strung- hell of a story. I'm sure that day won't soon be forgotten.
I'll have to remember that one :)
Bake - I was smiling and chuckling to myself the whole way out and trying to hit the same stops on the way back.
As I was just about to my desired height in my tree I hear my buddy yelling and screaming. I thought he fell or something. I look down and saw a bear under neath him. Then the whole thing came to light. We were using parachute chord to tie out bows and fanny packs to our legs. Then once we were up we would hoist up our stuff. Well my buddy had a sandwhich and snack in his pack. The bear had ran in and grabbed his pack when he was almost 3/4 of the way up. As i looked down I see the bear pull the pack, my buddy stretched out holding on for life... The bear let loose for a bit and my buddy got a good hold on the tree but then the bear came back and grabbed the bag again. By this time my bow was up and I was aiming with my grouse blunt at the bear. I let it fly and hit the bear. The bear finally let loose of the bag, then went to a small pine tree and shredded it while popping it jaw.
I still see my buddy stretched out holdong on for life and the bear 20 yards below shaking and holding his fanny pack.
I was having a hard time deciding which or whether to shoot when the bull on the left flipped the other bull flat on his back. That One! Even after being shot the big bull just stood for about the count of 4 like Ali over Louis with blood pulsing 5' out each side of him.
Start My Hunt's Link
We had just finished hunting with my Dad during the 3rd rifle season about 20 years ago (yes, I hunted with a 308 Winchester and not a bow). It was very cold out, the kind of cold that you cannot shake off by walking into a big sheep tent with the stove going full blast. We had pulled three cows off the mountain that day that were now hanging outside our tent.
It was now dark after a successful hunt.
We were hanging out inside the tent and trying to get warm and make some dinner. We had one pre-cooked meal that we brought from home out n the cooler. It was frozen solid.
It was at his time that we decided to try some of freeze-dried crap that my brother brought up since we had a pot with hot water. My brother walked out of the tent to get the dinner and all hell broke loose. Somebody was shooting at us with a 22 caliber rifle. We could hear the POP, POP, POP coming at us from all directions. My brother dove back into the tent and was crawling on the ground trying to get to the back of the tent and wedge himself between the cots in the back. The rest of us were already there.
We just laid there for about 30 minutes and nobody said a thing (did I mention how cold out it was)? After some thought and whispering, it was decided that one of us should try to take a look under the side of the tent. My Dad drew the short straw.
He inched his way over to the side of the tent, pulled up the canvas, and another POP went off. Now we were really freaked out. Nobody moved for about an hour, even though the heat from the stove was starting to fade and we were all freezing.
After laying there and trying to figure out why somebody would be shooting at us, my Dad said a few expletives, grabbed his pistol, and went outside the tent to confront the shooter.
Nobody was there, and a fresh snow that had started about an hour before this dilemma showed no tracks around the campsite. After searching around our campsite and heavily armed, nobody found any tracks in the new snow.
This was perplexing because the shots were coming from right outside the tent. We whispered a few words back and forth about what we should do next? It was at this time that one of the guys that came up with us opened up a cooler to get something out to eat. He looked inside, felt around, and pulled out a can of something. He turned on his flashlight to see that the cans of soda and beer that we had brought up were all split open.
As it turned out, it was so cold that night that our canned sodas and beer were freezing and popping inside the coolers. Sounded just like someone shooting a 22 outside the tent. We all had a good laugh, some dinner, and went to sleep.
Now this is where it really gets weird for me. Remember, it was cold enough to freeze our cans in the cooler. The next morning as we were packing up and leaving, I walked over to the hanging cows. They were frozen solid because we had taken the entire hide off with the exception of the cape around the neck. I slid my bare fingers up under the cape, and it was still warm. Everything else in camp was frozen solid.
Elk are ghosts.
Found it right away then next morning and it was laying there white, covered with frost.
Meat soured near the hip socket on the side to the ground. Elk hide/hair is pretty awesome WRT thermal capabilities.
Bruce.... that ol boy went down thinking he was the big winner.... and that one whipped on the ground thought he was the loser, once he got up he found himself the winner.
Goes to show.... even if your whipped and on the ground.... all can still be good if you can get back up.....ya just never know.... always get back up and find out....
-------------------- Years ago, the first year we had a GPS along for the ride, I shot a bull right at last light only a mile from the truck. We had a spot marked on the GPS of where the truck was and I marked a spot where I shot the bull. There was no map or bearing or anything else on the gps that I can recall. Just a spot that told you what direction to go to get back to it.
The Bull came in with two cows, screaming, and gave me a great shot. I made what we thought was a textbook broadside hit. While waiting the mandatory time, we heard him go down, cough a bit and get quiet. We still waited another half hour, to be sure. Getting up to track, we found big pools of blood, all over the place in a ten yard radius...but no elk.
Puzzled, it took us another half hour to find the little trail of blood that led away from that spot, it just wasn't obvious where he had went, like he'd just disappeared. All of the blood looked very airy like lung blood. By now it'd been well over an hour since I had made the shot.
Now pitch black and then some, we were tracking by headlamps and flashlights. We had good blood most of the way, with only a couple slow sections, going on for what seemed like an eternity. It was incredibly dark and by the time we were giving up for the night, we were tired and weren't thinking too straight and were quite unsure where exactly we were. Looking at our watches at about 3:30 am, having followed the bull steadily the entire time, we finally gave up and said we'd come back later.
So as not to lose the spot upon returning to the gps mark, knowing that we wouldn't recognize any of the terrain in the daylight, we made a tipi looking pile of logs, leaned up on top of each other, and wrapped some orange tape around it that we had pulled off of some other trees during the daytime.
It was a steady three mile blood trail back to that point, following our little breadcrumb trail on the gps in the pitch black, with only a vague idea of where we were. Then another mile to the truck! The bull had lost a phenomenal amount of blood.
Finally to the truck, we drove another couple of miles around to the trailer. we staggered into camp not long before daylight to get a little sleep before heading back out.
About 7:30am, sun was up and I couldn't turn my brain off and just had to go back looking. After eating a little breakfast and getting dressed I stepped out of the trailer prepared for a serious hike to get back on the trail.
Looking up I couldnt believe my eyes. Just across the two track from me, that tipi with the orange tape was less than 40 yards away.
My mind raced with how this could be possible? Apparently, after our drive around and hike in, we had then shot the bull and he wondered around and completed the several mile circle, all the way back to camp!! The night before when we gave up and were so dog tired, we could have walked to the east a few yards, instead of back to the west and just went to sleep.
Picking the trail back up, The bull literally crossed the two track and went right past our camper. If we would have followed the trail at night just another 40 yards, we couldn't have missed the road and then the camper, and known right where we were.
He was dead not 50 yards beyond that!
I probably should expand and finish the story...as I was a bit of a loser myself on this one.
I had been dogging a 350ish heavy, wide herd bull for about 3 miles....ahead of me I heard him going into a canyon with 4-5 screaming bulls and knew I had to close the 200yd distance quick. SMACK I heard them lock up and started running for all I was worth. ....right up to the bulls as I previously described.
Right after I shot "Ali" I heard pounding footsteps coming down the hill and turned to see the bull I had been dogging coming at us in full gallup closing fast. A bit too fast...and getting close. At 30yds I started waving my arms and yelling "Hey, hey"...as that bull was going to run me over.
He comes to a screaching stop- massive bull......right then I'm thinking, I thought you were the bull I just shot? I turned to see the bull I shot just staring at me ( with blood just squirting out each side- 5' min) and sure he was pretty heavy....but also very narrow- 29"wide- a totally different bull. WTF? Dang, right when I figured out I shot the wrong bull all hell broke loose and elk were scattering everywhere! My bull did one of those sideways runs for about 20' and just plowed.
This whole episode took way less time than it took to type it. My buddy rough taped my bull at 320....but I can tell you when you see him from the side..... he looks bigger- grin
Three seasons ago, three of us were about 3 miles in hunting out of Ridgway, CO in the Wilderness Area. Buddy got a bull opening day. We packed meat out on Sunday to the truck and hiked back in to the tents. The plan was for him to pack the head out and then come back and meet us. Sunday evening I got a cow. Me and buddy quartered him and hiked to the tents to get the third buddy to help.....no buddy there. We said "oh well, he'll be back Monday morning". We packed all the meat and gear out and he was waiting at the truck "drunk".
His story was "Ya'll would have done the same thing". He found that "clothing optional" hot springs in town (Orvis Hot Springs---they even got a website) and stayed there and got drunk; then drove to the trail head and passed out.
We weren't really mad. It just added another story for the trip.
