Bowsite.com

Good luck this year.

50 yards...

Good luck closing the deal on a good one!

Following...

Really cool trail cam pics!

When I hunted that NW CO country, I had 2 spares and would take 4 to 6 five gallon gas cans, just in case!

Coelker (wyelker now!) is already having a hunt of a lifetime! And making memories enough for several lifetimes!

Get out there and kill a whopper!

JD

In hindsight it is my own fault, but I truly figured that others who have invested 25+ years would want to hunt themselves and not ride someones coat tails... I will let everyone know after the season is over how it shakes out.

Just as heads up, I am taking my son with me this weekend for a 3 day weekend... Just he and I. Then I have 2 days next week, then the entire last week off...

Kill a big one

Guys, turn off your location in your phone settings.

It could all be coincidence, but they killed the oh daddy bull.

Again as far as the phone settings, I always used screen shots of the photo to post and not the original. So they should not have had the data. And I alway took and posted those screen shots from home or at least well away from the unit.

I have 9 days left, here is hoping I find a big one...

The bull taped out at 375 3/8

Like I said I can not say for sure, but I have direct connections to only 2 other hunters on the hunt right now.

So out of the 20 tags... I am hunting/sharing a camp with one other guy who has an archery tag. I know 2 of the muzzy hunters personally, so from those numbers alone... 20 hunters turned into 16 elk hunters. I know that the voucher guys were definitely hunting on the ranches and private so there are 4 more gone, which brings us down to 12.... I felt pretty confident that I would not have an issue given the small number of hunters...

Saturday morning I made an epic stalk into 43 yards on the bull above (which ended up scoring 375 3/8) I missed my opportunity and now regret not trying for him sooner, instead I had hoped to let him be and find him monday. I found his gut pile instead.

Saturday night I set up on my point to glass. The week before from this spot I had seen over 100 elk and like 38 bulls. Many elk fed right past my location into the flats in the evening. Saturday the place was dead. I saw 8 elk total and only 2 bulls. One is a 340ish 6x6. Sunday we get up early and make a big loop in the open sage. We find many elk, but the herd bulls are all 340ish 6x6. I am happy to still have elk to hunt in a place where no one else has jacked up. My son and I had a day visit from a very good friend whom we call uncle Pat. It was great day having one of my best friends and my sons favorite "uncle" with us.

Sunday at lunch I ran my son to meet his mom and go back to school for the week. Sunday night I hit an area where I had many huge bulls, but the water is all gone and the elk are gone. I did call in 6 different bulls the last 30 minutes of light. They were all 6 points on at least one side, but not a shooter....

Monday morning I get up early and go look for my kicker bull, I find a gut pile and no elk anywhere.... Sadly I found out last night that a muzzy hunter killed him. A huge long walk for nothing...

Monday night I hit the big tree ridge again hoping that sunday was a fluke. Instead I find it even worse. At 3:00 in the afternoon I watch as 2 muzzy hunters drive the 2 tracks that bisect the area. this sends the few elk remaining way far out. Then they guys get off the atvs and proceed to walk into the bedding with the wind blowing up their back or at best case 90 degrees to their approach. This sends even more elk scattering. Seeing this I notice a small corner that has neither a road or an easy way to hike into. So I decide to drop off and sure enough find another 330-340 bull calling with 6 cows and 3 satelite bulls. I passed on a shot at him.

Tuesday morning I am up a little late, but glass near camp (we had over 200 elk by our camp until muzzy started) Then in 2 days the guys had all but a few blown out. So I decide to try dancing around private and hitting a near by spot. I find elk and what I beleive are 2 really good bulls (over 350) in the trees. However there are storm clouds wind blowing 10-20 in every direction, lightning etc. I bumped both bulls in the trees before I got a good look at them, but seemed to have huge frames and good points. Since the wind was crazy I backed out before I pushed all the country and will go back if the wind is right.

Tuesday night I sat a random water hole way out and did not see or hear a thing.

I return tonight and will have the last 9 days straight to hunt.

If I had to do it over, I would not bother to hunt at all during the muzzy week. The 3 days before or during the week. I should have taken my extra days off and hunted more earlier in the season....

I still have a huge 7x7 out there someplace that I have not seen since he rubbed off.... My other biug bull was 5.2 miles from where he was summering and watering so I am drawing a 7 mile circle on the map and going to kick every single bush to try and find him... He has to be someplace...

Would certainly love to hear the conclusion. Win or lose, those are still exceptional experiences.

NW CO hunts are special, but definitely not a walk in the park. Low overall elk density and huge expanses that they can hide in with enough private land and National Monument lands that are off limits add to the difficulty. Not to mention, elk are just naturally tough critters to get on the ground, especially with a bow in hand.

It is certainly a huge downer that someone decided to abuse someone else’s hard work, time and effort to kill an animal that he was focused on. Low doesn’t begin to describe that kind of person.

So with that defeat I set out to find another good bull. On Friday night (second weekend muzzy) I found a very decent 6x6 out in the sage flats that was over the 350” mark. I was on him several times the next couple of days but never got into range. Tuesday night I was heading back to camp when I cut a tire. Wednesday morning I hunted from camp until 11ish and went into Craig to get my tire fixed. Wednesday night I went back out to where the new bull was running and could not find him or his cows. Thursday morning find his cows and a new bull (not big enough) in the same relative area. I spend Thursday night and Friday morning searching… No luck on relocating him. Friday at Noon I get a call from the CPW, they ask me about a vehicle. I had seen this vehicle on 2 different occasions. Come to find out the vehicle was suspected of poaching a bull on Wednesday. The location of the gut pile they found was less than 700 yards from where I left the bull on Tuesday night… I cannot say for certain but I am convinced the poached bull was the one I was after as he completely disappeared… So now I needed a new bull. I worked hard and found a good bull over 360 in a new little area. Problem was the bull was bedding and watering on private, but during the night he and his cows were feeding out into public. So Friday night Saturday and Sunday I hunted this bull hard. On Friday night I had the perfect set up, the elk went to water, they were heading off the private onto the public and I was in perfect position. I had the lead cow feed in front of me at 36 yards, then the next 7-8 cows fed out. I could see the bulls antlers over the junipers and he was going to step out at 38 yards. Perfect. I was only needing him to come out 8 yards when the only truck I had seen for 4 days pulls up and spooks the elk back onto the private. I mean all I need was seconds not even 5 minutes.

On Sunday I had my wife calling for me and my son. We got super aggressive with the same big bull and after 3 hours of dogging him he made a mistake, I had him so dead to rights. 18 yards walking in the trees. Walks into a little opening and a perfect chance, I draw settle in on my pin he steps a little and I release the shot. This truly was the first time in my life I have ever had a limb deflect my arrow. The arrow hit way low and cut a nice chunk from his brisket. We spent 6 hours dogging the bull but he never gave us another chance.

It is hard to explain the emotions. On Sunday night we made one last desperate play. I had a 330 6x6 in range but never got a good shot angle. It was really defeating how it ended up. Things I learned, I will never “wait” for the rut again. I am not sure if we had a bad year of what but it was simply not that great. I had better luck calling and a lot more action on the first weekend than I had the last 2 weeks combined. They were calling some, but nothing special. I can also say I had more people blow up hunts and areas on this hunt than I typically do on my OTC hunts. I had ATVs driving into bedding areas, I had horse people driving into stalks, I had muzzy hunters doing stupid stuff like sitting water holes with the wind backwards. I also had 3 different surveying crews on ATV driving all over. I mean all over. I had a bull poached, had a friend sell out my information etc. If I had it to do over, I would have been super aggressive with calls, stalk, etc.

Despite all of that it was one of the best damn times I have ever had. I spent days in the field with my son. He called in his first bull ever, he caught horny toads and salamanders, he learned how to follow a blood trail(even a poor brisket hit trail) I looked back at my journal and passed shots on 24 different 6x6. These were shot shots. I had over 48 bulls in bow range. I had a 375 bull under 40 yards twice. I shot a 365 bull in the brisket on the last day. As I look back I would have given anything to get the plate from the truck that poached. I have since spent 2 days looking for the truck in nearby towns hoping to find the poachers.

Lastly, I would not hunt it Solo. I would try a lot harder to recruit a caller. My wife who has always been my hunting partner simply did not hunt with me except for the first day and last day. Without her I was lost. There is simply so many ways a good caller can make a difference.

Some other things, the later start date screwed me. I had a trail camera on a water hole where several monster bulls were hitting. The last week before season that pond turned into a wallow. The bulls were wallowing in it hard. Sadly on the Thursday before season started the hole was dry and there was not another bull at it. The next closest water hole was not far away, but none of the big bulls were at it. Those bulls disappeared. Had we had a normal start date I would have had 2 days of heaving wallowing.

Also the other thing was all the traffic. Opening weekend was the holiday weekend so there lots of vehicles and atvs. Then second weekend we started seeing muzzy hunters showing up. Muzzy season there were a ton more people around. We had a few groups of 7-8 guys helping one with a tag. We also had more guys with the outfitters on muzzy as well. Then once muzzy ended the Rifle hunters showed up. Since the end of archery was only 3 days from the start of rifle there was no real break as muzzy ended. Instead it got a lot more crowded.

I will work on a nice epic picture thread of video to share… I am happy I had the chance and I would do many things different, but unless I can find that pick up truck, I will never draw the unit again… Oh by the way if a person had a muzzy tag or a rifle tag, you should be able to kill a 360+ bull any day of the week…

I was hoping for a rabbit out of the hat. It can happen in those top units. Been there, got a t-shirt.

Obviously, you had one hell of an experience. With your family. That, that, is totally worth it!

Thank you for sharing your experience here. Amazing, once in a lifetime! Thank you!