Well just barely returned from a 6 day elk hunt with 2 buddies out West. Had a great time and going to recap the whole trip here and do a pic dump. Warning gonna be a long one.
So got off work Tuesday the 13th early and had the trailer loaded down with 2 four wheelers coolers basically everything you could think of for a 7 day elk hunt in the mountains. Left around 5 PM headed north to Lubbock to meet with a buddy and spend the night before we started the 16 hr drive up to our buddies house who lives in the area. Slept like a baby until 2 AM when we were up and at em first thing and had the truck pointed north out of Texas. Ended up being a long and miserable drive with a head wind that ate up 2 tanks of gas in a 300 mile span. But finally got to my buddies house around 7 his time. At some food and then made a plan for the season that opened on the Thursday the 15th. Plan was hatched to haul in as deep as we could go on the four wheelers the first day hunt the morning hunt then come down and grab camp to haul in for the rest of the week.
Day 1
So about 4 am on the first morning of the hunt the 15th we are on the road headed to the trail head. We under estimated how long it would take us to unload the four wheelers and get everything settled but by 5:15 we off down the trail. At this point we also under estimated how long it would take us to get to our predesignated glassing points so we settled for the closest to the truck point we had at 6 AM and decided to head up the mountains. We ended up timing it about perfectly and were just about to the crest of our glassing spot at 7:15. On the way up we ran into a bull and cow moose who are rutting right now which was an awesome experience that would be a pattern through out the week. After getting to our glassing spot we found 2 other hunters that were quickly working down the point chasing a group of cows that we spotted. Decided to watch them and see what played out. About 10 minutes later 5 shots ring out and then we can hear them looking and finally find their bull down in the bottom we were gonna hunt. Was pretty neat to get so close but also frustrating. But being first day it gave us hope for the rest of the day and week.
So we ended up sitting there glassing the opposite bowl and ended up spotting 2 more cow moose before deciding to circle around to the other finger to see some new country. So we bail off and side hill around to the other side and get setup. In the new spot we immediately glass up a fawn and doe muley, then about 15 minutes in we here rocks crashing from our left coming our way. Cow elk ends up running right by us at 60-70 yds. 10 minutes later another group of cow moose work up from the bottom of the canyon on same path as the does. Shortly after they move out a group of 3 elk also come out at 550 yds. One ends up being a fork horn which is legal in this unit so we scramble to get setup. By the time we get ready and able they have already moved off to 700 yds which is just to far. So we watch them crest over the other side and make a plan to chase them and try to catch up with them. This doesn't end up working to plan and we hunt till 1:30 without seeing another animal. So we decide to call it the first day to go and get camp drug in and setup to hit it hard the next morning. So after a long hike back to the four wheelers we take off and end the first day of hunting.
Day 2
So we end up getting camp set up the night before have good meals and crash hard till 4 AM, we get up eat some food and are on the trail from camp on foot by 4:45 headed towards our morning spot. This ended up being a rough hike up and into a big set of bowls about 7:30-7:45 by the time we get to a decent spot. Well I am glassing after pushing up in front and not seeing anything when my buddy rolls up about the time a bull pops up out of the drainage about 800 yds away and he is MASSIVE. Was for sure a typical 6X6 and may have been more than that and was easily a 300-325 class bull or bigger. At this point we are ecstatic to have a bull that quality spotted. So we watch him go over the hill and about the time my other buddy walk up another small rag horn 4x4 comes out of the same drainage and up and over. So we are now pumped dreaming of filling both of our elk tags on the second morning before 8:30, so we make a plan to haul it around the 2 drainages in front of us and try to catch up with them. Well it takes us about 10 minutes to wrap around the first drainage all is well, start working around the second where the bulls had come out of when a group of 4 cows pegs us at 60 yds. Well we are thinking and hoping they will go up and to the right and not follow the same trail as the bulls to keep from pushing them out. Well as luck would have it our hearts start sinking when they jump on the exact same trail. Well we are sitting their moping cursing our luck when out of nowhere on the same trail they are on out of the bottom another elk pops out with them. We instantly get super excited as it is a bull and a super nice one at that. So we all instantly react, luckily I had my 7 mag slung up on my shoulder and not strapped to my pack so I whipped it off quickly and hot footed it to my buddy 15 ft in front of me. His pack has this perfect shooting rest that sticks up above his head 6 inches or so when he is sitting on the ground so I tell him to cover his ears I am using him for a rest. Buddy behind me starts calling yardage out. 220 yds. I fire my first shot at him and in the heat of the moment and bull fever I miss him broadside at 220. At the time I wasn't sure if it was a hit or a miss so he turns up the hill and starts working his way up so I fire another one at him. This one for sure connects right up his rear, slowing him down by breaking his pelvis. Shoot at him a 3rd time also going up hill, also a miss. He finally turns broadside again at 300 yds and stops, I nail him with a good lung shot with my 4th and final shot. Rifle is empty at his point, and he makes it into some aspens and my buddies watch him work his way up the hill and go behind a pine tree and never see him again. So we all decide it is best to wait 45 minutes to let him die and then go looking for him. Shots were fired at 8:07 in the morning on the second morning. So at 8:35 we decide to slowly work around and try to glass him up as we go in the draw. Will at 8:45 my buddy spots him, he is DOWN. Can clearly see his antlers sticking up from behind the last spot we seen him. We lose it at this point and get pumped. Walk up to him and it is the best case of ground growing I have ever experienced he ended up being a fantastic 275" 6x6 when we measure him later that day at his house. We knew he was a good branch antler bull but didn't expect that to be laying there waiting for us. So at this point we take tons of pics and then get to work cutting him down at 9 AM. Takes us 2 hrs between breaks enjoying the scenery lunch and deboning him to get everything completed and ready for the pack out. We ended up with 5 bags full of meat and the head. So we each grab a bag with one buddy deciding to grab the 2 smallest bags and getting them in one all, with me and the other buddy grabbing the 2 rear quarters. Hour long hike down the mountain we off load everything next to the ATV trail and then me and the buddy that carried the double load head back up for the head and last bag of meat while the other goes to grab the four wheelers from camp. By the time we finally get everything out and back to his house it made for a full day with us rolling in to his house at 7 PM that night with us all exhausted. But head is safe in the garage and all the meat is in coolers on ice ready for the trip home.
Day 3
We had high aspirations going into day 3 but they were quickly squashed when all 3 of us can barely walk around the house, so we decide for the morning hunt to take it a little easier and go to one of our little easier glassing spots for the morning. And then the local buddy that evening has to go to work the next day so he has to leave at 1. So we do the "easy" hike to get our legs stretched out and loosened up for the day and it ends up being a 7.5 miles round trip hike. End up seeing several moose but no elk this day. Get back to camp around 11 eat lunch and then buddy 1 takes off while we decide to head up for a evening hunt glassing and end up walking an additional 5 miles that evening with no elk sightings other than a bull moose and 2 cows one of which was being chased by the bull who put on quite the show of tearing up a small aspen. Wish I knew how to add video as I would but that is above my skill set on here. We make a game plan for the next day and hit the sack at 7 with a 4 am wake up waiting for us.
Day 4
Well morning of day 4 we are up at 4 am with goal of hitting the trail by 5 and being at our glassing spot by 7:30 ish. We meet this goal and are up in the high country right at 7:15. We decided to go to the same bowl where I shot mine to see if a bear had found the carcass and see if we could locate the big 6x6 that was also in this drainage. Well the morning started out gorgeous but by 9 AM the wind was howling and sleet was coming down which put a major damper on the hunt. We are both freezing by 10:30 so we decide to hole up behind a big pine in a depression where the wind isn't blowing and make a small fire to warm us up and heat up our lunches. We end up staying holed up till 1:30-2 ish then wind finally lets up and we get to a location to glass again for the rest of the evening. Nothing turns out so we decide to call it and head into to town to rest in a warm bed again and take an actual rest day to let our legs and feet catch up.
Day 5
We sleep in till 10 AM then make our way out to the trail head again to do some ATV scouting looking for future camp sites and seeing what the rest of the trail looks like further up in the dark. The country is absolutely beautiful up there and we ended up making a 4 hr round trip scouting trip which helped us out tremendously to get ready for the next days hunt which will end up being out last day.
Day 6
We hike up to a new glassing spot we had not hit before to try and get lucky again leaving at 4 AM. We get to the spot around 7:30 and end up only seeing a cow moose. We decide to sit till noon ish then go elsewhere for our evening hunt. So we leave out around 1 and decide to check out the dead elk carcass for a bear again, break down camp, and I would haul everything back to the truck while they head up the mountain to get the last evening hunt in. So we get camp broke down around 3 pm they head up the mountain to hunt and I start the 2 trip cycle to get everything in the truck on the old 250 bayou. By the time I finally catch up is right at 5:30. We sit and hunt till dark this day and end up seeing one beat up and broke up bull moose who looked like he had freshly had his *** kicked thoroughly. Right at last light we see the last 2 elk of the trip a cow and calf. We have to call it a day and with a winter storm coming and snow in the forecast for the pass we decide this was our last day and to head home early the next morning. We leave at 4 AM the morning of the 21st and roll into Lubbock at 11 PM, I end up rolling into my house right at 2 AM.
All and all it was a fantastic trip and I can not wait to do it again in the future. We ended up seeing 23 moose, 16 elk, and 6 mule deer for the trip. We shot and killed a bull far bigger than anything I could have ever expected for my first bull after 2 failed attempts previously. We learned alot about the country, got to hang out with good friends, and eat some grade A backstrap to boot. Sorry for being long winded but this needed documented somewhere for me to reflect on later. Will be dumping pics in the comments in no particular order.
So got off work Tuesday the 13th early and had the trailer loaded down with 2 four wheelers coolers basically everything you could think of for a 7 day elk hunt in the mountains. Left around 5 PM headed north to Lubbock to meet with a buddy and spend the night before we started the 16 hr drive up to our buddies house who lives in the area. Slept like a baby until 2 AM when we were up and at em first thing and had the truck pointed north out of Texas. Ended up being a long and miserable drive with a head wind that ate up 2 tanks of gas in a 300 mile span. But finally got to my buddies house around 7 his time. At some food and then made a plan for the season that opened on the Thursday the 15th. Plan was hatched to haul in as deep as we could go on the four wheelers the first day hunt the morning hunt then come down and grab camp to haul in for the rest of the week.
Day 1
So about 4 am on the first morning of the hunt the 15th we are on the road headed to the trail head. We under estimated how long it would take us to unload the four wheelers and get everything settled but by 5:15 we off down the trail. At this point we also under estimated how long it would take us to get to our predesignated glassing points so we settled for the closest to the truck point we had at 6 AM and decided to head up the mountains. We ended up timing it about perfectly and were just about to the crest of our glassing spot at 7:15. On the way up we ran into a bull and cow moose who are rutting right now which was an awesome experience that would be a pattern through out the week. After getting to our glassing spot we found 2 other hunters that were quickly working down the point chasing a group of cows that we spotted. Decided to watch them and see what played out. About 10 minutes later 5 shots ring out and then we can hear them looking and finally find their bull down in the bottom we were gonna hunt. Was pretty neat to get so close but also frustrating. But being first day it gave us hope for the rest of the day and week.
So we ended up sitting there glassing the opposite bowl and ended up spotting 2 more cow moose before deciding to circle around to the other finger to see some new country. So we bail off and side hill around to the other side and get setup. In the new spot we immediately glass up a fawn and doe muley, then about 15 minutes in we here rocks crashing from our left coming our way. Cow elk ends up running right by us at 60-70 yds. 10 minutes later another group of cow moose work up from the bottom of the canyon on same path as the does. Shortly after they move out a group of 3 elk also come out at 550 yds. One ends up being a fork horn which is legal in this unit so we scramble to get setup. By the time we get ready and able they have already moved off to 700 yds which is just to far. So we watch them crest over the other side and make a plan to chase them and try to catch up with them. This doesn't end up working to plan and we hunt till 1:30 without seeing another animal. So we decide to call it the first day to go and get camp drug in and setup to hit it hard the next morning. So after a long hike back to the four wheelers we take off and end the first day of hunting.
Day 2
So we end up getting camp set up the night before have good meals and crash hard till 4 AM, we get up eat some food and are on the trail from camp on foot by 4:45 headed towards our morning spot. This ended up being a rough hike up and into a big set of bowls about 7:30-7:45 by the time we get to a decent spot. Well I am glassing after pushing up in front and not seeing anything when my buddy rolls up about the time a bull pops up out of the drainage about 800 yds away and he is MASSIVE. Was for sure a typical 6X6 and may have been more than that and was easily a 300-325 class bull or bigger. At this point we are ecstatic to have a bull that quality spotted. So we watch him go over the hill and about the time my other buddy walk up another small rag horn 4x4 comes out of the same drainage and up and over. So we are now pumped dreaming of filling both of our elk tags on the second morning before 8:30, so we make a plan to haul it around the 2 drainages in front of us and try to catch up with them. Well it takes us about 10 minutes to wrap around the first drainage all is well, start working around the second where the bulls had come out of when a group of 4 cows pegs us at 60 yds. Well we are thinking and hoping they will go up and to the right and not follow the same trail as the bulls to keep from pushing them out. Well as luck would have it our hearts start sinking when they jump on the exact same trail. Well we are sitting their moping cursing our luck when out of nowhere on the same trail they are on out of the bottom another elk pops out with them. We instantly get super excited as it is a bull and a super nice one at that. So we all instantly react, luckily I had my 7 mag slung up on my shoulder and not strapped to my pack so I whipped it off quickly and hot footed it to my buddy 15 ft in front of me. His pack has this perfect shooting rest that sticks up above his head 6 inches or so when he is sitting on the ground so I tell him to cover his ears I am using him for a rest. Buddy behind me starts calling yardage out. 220 yds. I fire my first shot at him and in the heat of the moment and bull fever I miss him broadside at 220. At the time I wasn't sure if it was a hit or a miss so he turns up the hill and starts working his way up so I fire another one at him. This one for sure connects right up his rear, slowing him down by breaking his pelvis. Shoot at him a 3rd time also going up hill, also a miss. He finally turns broadside again at 300 yds and stops, I nail him with a good lung shot with my 4th and final shot. Rifle is empty at his point, and he makes it into some aspens and my buddies watch him work his way up the hill and go behind a pine tree and never see him again. So we all decide it is best to wait 45 minutes to let him die and then go looking for him. Shots were fired at 8:07 in the morning on the second morning. So at 8:35 we decide to slowly work around and try to glass him up as we go in the draw. Will at 8:45 my buddy spots him, he is DOWN. Can clearly see his antlers sticking up from behind the last spot we seen him. We lose it at this point and get pumped. Walk up to him and it is the best case of ground growing I have ever experienced he ended up being a fantastic 275" 6x6 when we measure him later that day at his house. We knew he was a good branch antler bull but didn't expect that to be laying there waiting for us. So at this point we take tons of pics and then get to work cutting him down at 9 AM. Takes us 2 hrs between breaks enjoying the scenery lunch and deboning him to get everything completed and ready for the pack out. We ended up with 5 bags full of meat and the head. So we each grab a bag with one buddy deciding to grab the 2 smallest bags and getting them in one all, with me and the other buddy grabbing the 2 rear quarters. Hour long hike down the mountain we off load everything next to the ATV trail and then me and the buddy that carried the double load head back up for the head and last bag of meat while the other goes to grab the four wheelers from camp. By the time we finally get everything out and back to his house it made for a full day with us rolling in to his house at 7 PM that night with us all exhausted. But head is safe in the garage and all the meat is in coolers on ice ready for the trip home.
Day 3
We had high aspirations going into day 3 but they were quickly squashed when all 3 of us can barely walk around the house, so we decide for the morning hunt to take it a little easier and go to one of our little easier glassing spots for the morning. And then the local buddy that evening has to go to work the next day so he has to leave at 1. So we do the "easy" hike to get our legs stretched out and loosened up for the day and it ends up being a 7.5 miles round trip hike. End up seeing several moose but no elk this day. Get back to camp around 11 eat lunch and then buddy 1 takes off while we decide to head up for a evening hunt glassing and end up walking an additional 5 miles that evening with no elk sightings other than a bull moose and 2 cows one of which was being chased by the bull who put on quite the show of tearing up a small aspen. Wish I knew how to add video as I would but that is above my skill set on here. We make a game plan for the next day and hit the sack at 7 with a 4 am wake up waiting for us.
Day 4
Well morning of day 4 we are up at 4 am with goal of hitting the trail by 5 and being at our glassing spot by 7:30 ish. We meet this goal and are up in the high country right at 7:15. We decided to go to the same bowl where I shot mine to see if a bear had found the carcass and see if we could locate the big 6x6 that was also in this drainage. Well the morning started out gorgeous but by 9 AM the wind was howling and sleet was coming down which put a major damper on the hunt. We are both freezing by 10:30 so we decide to hole up behind a big pine in a depression where the wind isn't blowing and make a small fire to warm us up and heat up our lunches. We end up staying holed up till 1:30-2 ish then wind finally lets up and we get to a location to glass again for the rest of the evening. Nothing turns out so we decide to call it and head into to town to rest in a warm bed again and take an actual rest day to let our legs and feet catch up.
Day 5
We sleep in till 10 AM then make our way out to the trail head again to do some ATV scouting looking for future camp sites and seeing what the rest of the trail looks like further up in the dark. The country is absolutely beautiful up there and we ended up making a 4 hr round trip scouting trip which helped us out tremendously to get ready for the next days hunt which will end up being out last day.
Day 6
We hike up to a new glassing spot we had not hit before to try and get lucky again leaving at 4 AM. We get to the spot around 7:30 and end up only seeing a cow moose. We decide to sit till noon ish then go elsewhere for our evening hunt. So we leave out around 1 and decide to check out the dead elk carcass for a bear again, break down camp, and I would haul everything back to the truck while they head up the mountain to get the last evening hunt in. So we get camp broke down around 3 pm they head up the mountain to hunt and I start the 2 trip cycle to get everything in the truck on the old 250 bayou. By the time I finally catch up is right at 5:30. We sit and hunt till dark this day and end up seeing one beat up and broke up bull moose who looked like he had freshly had his *** kicked thoroughly. Right at last light we see the last 2 elk of the trip a cow and calf. We have to call it a day and with a winter storm coming and snow in the forecast for the pass we decide this was our last day and to head home early the next morning. We leave at 4 AM the morning of the 21st and roll into Lubbock at 11 PM, I end up rolling into my house right at 2 AM.
All and all it was a fantastic trip and I can not wait to do it again in the future. We ended up seeing 23 moose, 16 elk, and 6 mule deer for the trip. We shot and killed a bull far bigger than anything I could have ever expected for my first bull after 2 failed attempts previously. We learned alot about the country, got to hang out with good friends, and eat some grade A backstrap to boot. Sorry for being long winded but this needed documented somewhere for me to reflect on later. Will be dumping pics in the comments in no particular order.
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