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The cliche hunt

"You can't kill one from camp." "You don't need to pack in for miles to find an elk." "You can't eat the antlers." "Don't pass a shot the first day that you'd take on the last day." "Any elk with a bow is a trophy." We've all heard these cliches, and when I started thinking about my hunt this year I realized they all applied to my recent experience.

"Never say never"

"You can't kill one from camp.".....I work full time as a guide so I have very little time to hunt for myself most years. This year was no exception, but I was determined to find a way to get a hunt or two in this season. We run 5 day hunts, the sixth day is for clean up, rest, and reorganizing gear, etc. The seventh day we have new hunters arriving for the next hunt. I had a good first week and called a bull in that my client shot at about 25 yards. Even though I was worn out I vowed to leave camp the next morning and get a half day hunt in.

"You don't need to pack in for miles to find elk." This phrase is especially accurate for me as I would need to find, kill, and pack an elk out in one day to make this work. I decided that 1 mile from a road would be my limit. I managed to drag my ass out of bed and head for a nearby forest service road. I had never hunted this area, but it's near the property I work on so I had some idea where I would head. Like all Colorado OTC units this area is pretty heavily hunted. I parked at a tiny pull out bordering some very steep and nasty looking dark timber that is full of deadfall. It's not a very inviting looking spot, which is what I was looking for so I took the plunge and headed down.

Awesome....thx for sharing Jim!!!

Elk are where you find them

Should have been here last week.

"Don't pass a shot the first day that you'd take the last day." Given the limited time I would have to hunt this season I wasn't about to pass any shot at a legal animal. I made my way through the tangled dark timber for about a quarter mile before it started to thin out a bit. There were now a few small clearings and it also flattened out a bit. It seemed I had picked a pretty good looking area so I started moving really slowly and calling once in a while. I made a pretty big loop and tried to stay in my self prescribed 1 mile distance from the truck. After about an hour of this I got a response from one of my bugles. It was pretty faint, but in the general direction I needed to go, so I hoofed it pretty fast for a couple hundred yards and tried another bugle. I got an immediate response and it seemed we had both moved towards each other. One more call and he was clearly coming my way. I moved a few feet to a couple of decent shooting lanes and called again. He answered quickly and I guessed he was under 150 yards now. I nocked an arrow and went silent as he seemed to be coming fast. Wind seemed good if he kept his direction. I waited several minutes scanning every direction I could see when suddenly he barked about 20 yards behind me and took off. He had circled to get down wind and had somehow snuck by me without me hearing or seeing a thing. As long as I have done this I'm still amazed how silent and crafty they can be. It was disappointing, but a great encounter and I felt I had stumbled on a pretty good spot. I had seen no human sign and while I was done for that morning, I hoped to come back the next week between hunts. I am about to go out for an evening hunt so I'll continue this when I get back tonight or tomorrow if I'm too tired tonight.

Shoot em in the face. Keep it coming.

"I missed a 350"

Shoulda used a Hootchie Mama.

Very nice. That spot looks great.

Also for cliche, Non Residents screwed up my hunt.

Tag Soup.

Brun that still sounds pretty darn fun!

Only takes one

OOoooooh. This started off real good.

Just having fun waiting for the next chapter. Looking forward to it.

Let ‘em go so they can grow!

Thanks for all the additional cliches guys. If this story was a little longer I could probably use them all!

One more scenic shot.

“I hit him a little back”

"You can't eat the antlers." The next week of guiding went well, but one of hunters killed on the last evening, which meant a late pack out for everyone. I knew I had to go home the following weekend so I figured the next day was going to be my only remaining chance. Despite my good intentions I just didn't have the energy to get going the next morning. I was a little disappointed in myself, but I knew deep down that I really needed the rest. This left me with an afternoon hunt as my only option, which raised the very real issue of getting the meat out if I was lucky enough to get an elk. We had a new group of hunters arriving the next day at noon, so common sense dictated that I skip the hunt. Not possessing much sense of any kind and figuring I had a very small chance of killing an elk that afternoon I decided to hunt.

Right corner right time

"Any elk with a bow is a trophy." "If it's brown its down," or add cliche of choice here. I drove to the same spot I had hunted the previous week and made my way through the deadfall into the more friendly country below. It had rained a little the night before, the ground was soft , walking was quiet and the air was cool. I was only about 15 minutes into the hunt when I saw movement to my left. There was an elk feeding about 50 yards away in pretty thick cover. While I was considering my options a cow stepped out between the first elk and I. I quickly ranged a bush I felt was next to the cow. She was definitely nervous, so I drew and quickly released an arrow. The shot looked good until it went right under her chest! I had blown my chance! The arrow went right where I aimed, but the bush I had ranged was actually about 8 yards closer than the cow. I was pretty disgusted with myself, but I knew they were going to bolt so I had to act quickly. I had hunted a total of about 2 hours on my 2 hunts and had two close calls. I was resigned to the fact that it was highly unlikely I'd get another opportunity and considered hiking back to the truck, but decided to stay after it.

"You should have been here last week.."

And_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ ?

"It's better to be lucky than good." I retrieved my arrow and after confirming no blood I continued with my hunt. I walked about a half mile through pretty thick timber, eventually coming to a small clearing near where I had called in the bull the week before. I found a spot at the edge of the clearing and gave a few soft cow sounds. Several minutes later I saw movement and a spike stepped into view about 40 yards away. I was in the "any legal animal" frame of mind, but spikes aren't legal. He worked across in front of me looked confused and went back the way he had come a few minutes later. I stood for a couple more minutes when another elk appeared from the same direction the spike had. Though the trees I got a glimpse of antler. Was it the same spike coming back to the cow calls. As he came closer I could see he was a small bull, but not a spike. He had a split on top and brow tines, so I knew he was legal. He came to about 25 yards, but I had no shot through the trees. He slowly moved the same way the spike had and went out to around 50 yards. I thought he would head back into the woods, but he continued in the same direction. I continued with soft and hopefully enticing cow sounds. He wandered further away from me and then started circling back behind me. Barely believing he hadn't spooked I quickly ranged a tree behind a small gap at 40 yards, and a tree in front of the gap at 30. He kept walking and very obligingly stepped right into the gap. I drew and released. The shot felt and looked good. He whirled and ran out into the clearing. I edged out of cover and saw him standing about 75 yards away. He didn't look good, but turned and disappeared into some cover and I heard thrashing for a few seconds and then silence. Darkness was coming quickly, so I waited a few minutes, went to where I had last seen him, looked towards where I had seen him run and saw him dead where he fell...... SOMETIMES IT TRULY IS BETTER TO BE LUCKY THAN GOOD.

He's a dink, but I couldn't be happier. I had 3 opportunities in about 3 hours of hunting, finally came through, but "I still wasn't out of the woods yet." Another cliche, but certainly true in a very literal sense. I went to work as fast as I could, got him quartered, backstrap and tenders out, and got the quarters off the ground. It was pitch black when I started out with all my gear and the backstraps and tenderloin. I ended up being just over a mile out. I did ok until I got to the last quarter mile of deadfall, then things went south. I lost my direction about 20 times while climbing over fallen trees and added an hour and nearly an extra mile of truly nasty scrambling.

I was completely spent when I got to the truck. I went back to camp and my fellow guide and friend Craig agreed to come back with me early the next day for another load. We got both hind quarters out and were back in camp by noon to meet the new batch of hunters. This was pretty high elevation and very cool. Everything cooled beautifully and after we got the hunters settled in I made another lap with our camp cook Anna, a very strong young woman.

It was a short, frantic, and rewarding hunt that proved that most of the cliches we throw around are actually valid. Thanks for coming along and I hope everyone had, or is still having a great season.

Congrats Brun

Good stuff and a freezer full of meat!!

Sweet! That's awesome.

Nice!

Congrats. Thanks for sharing.

“You can’t kill a bull if you always shoot cows”, “you can’t kill a mature bull if you always shoot the small ones” These are my favorite two but I never follow them! LOL

Just keep walking

Good stuff man! Congrats

“You can’t kill a 200 if you shoot em when they’re”….. wait, that’s whitetails.

Congrats on your short, but very successful hunt!

I love it!!!! Congrats. Packers like that makes following easier too!!

You didn't say where the arrow hit. You must have "hit him where he lived" This is a great thread and apparently a satisfying hunt. Thank you for sharing.

Good job, and congrats, thanks for sharing.

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

" Somebody should put a ring on her finger"

Congrats on a beautiful elk!

Thanks for sharing with us.

Good stuff Jim!!!! Congrats!!

The elk certainly are where they are. It sure helps to have a good idea on that. Very few I would say are simply lucky; most set themselves up to be successful when things go within reason. Hopefully, you enjoyed the hunt and it didn't seem like another day at the office. Congrats.

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