Cow Elk Hunting Success Oct 2014

Posted by Chris:

I regret to inform you all that I have been diagnosed with a debilitating disease. It is hereditary (from my dad of course). It is called I-can't-focus-during-hunting-season disease. It's actually pretty common... a lot of people have it. They say there is no cure either... In fact, it's like my addiction to flaming hot cheetos (the more I eat the more I can't stop), the more I enjoy nature the more I want to be out there in nature. 

No, but seriously, this time of the year is crazy. It's like, I sit down to work and I'll be going along doing just great and all of the sudden, BAM! Into my mind comes this flood of ideas and scenarios for the upcoming hunt. I have dreams about hunting. I can't sleep the night before a hunt (just ask my wife). Like a werewolf when the moon comes out; the colors change on the leaves and I just have to get into the mountains. Don't get me wrong. It's not the killing that excites me about the hunting season. Fishing and hunting are some of my favorite hobbies. But ask Kareena, she will be the first to tell you how much I dislike gutting fish and field dressing and butchering animals. 

No, I don't like to kill animals. The fun stops as soon as an Elk or deer is down (I've got a few crazy stories about that too). Or as soon as I get the fish into shore. It's the PURSUIT of them that just takes over. It's being out to see an incredible sunrise (which I've seen several amazing sunrises this fall by the way). It's the adrenaline that pumps into you at the sound of a nearby bull elk bugling. It's the rush of sneaking up within shooting distance of a full elk herd. Just watching those magnificent animals in the wild is amazing. Seriously though, how many people in the world get to see elk in the wild? 

How many people get to see this type of beauty each year? Within 30 minutes we get up close and personal with some incredible country?

I love Utah for the unique opportunities that abound for getting me out into big open country with huge steep mountains and lots of wildlife. I've always enjoyed watching wildlife. I think that is my dad's fault too. He used to pay us "a buck for a buck" and I made a few bucks finding deer during our drives through the mountains of Utah and the rolling hills of Northern California. 

Okay, I'm done with my intro to this years' hunting story now. Here is how it went...

The Wednesday before the elk hunt season began my friend Steve Brown and I went up onto the face of Timp to scout for elk. We went up early in the morning before sunrise. Not 5 minutes after sunrise we saw our first small herd of elk. One bull and 4 cows out in the meadow. Then we look some more and see a heard of 18 elk over a mile away up on the face of Timp. An hour later we see another small herd of a bull and 4 cows on another point on the mountain. Then we see a few bulls on Mt. Mohagany across the meadow. They were everywhere up there. We saw what we needed to see and were out of there by mid morning. 

Saturday morning comes around (Oct 4th) and we've got my Dad, Morgan (brother-in-law), Ben (brother-in-law), and Steve in the truck with me. We're headed up there 2 hours before sunrise. The plan is the hike back into the area where we saw the herd of 18 elk way off in the distance. The thought being that the other hunters would pressure the herd into us if we get above them up on Timp. When we get there we are surprised that nobody else is at the main lookout area and decide to stay there at the same lookout we saw a total of 40 elk from the previous Wednesday. As it gets light we put each guy glassing a different section of the mountain so that we spot the elk herd first and are the first ones on the attack. We saw no elk. So we go back to plan A and decide to hike up the mountain in search of the big herd we had seen before. Two other hunters already had the same idea and were headed up the mountain. So we went around to the other side of the ridge to catch the elk coming out the back of the pine forest the other hunters were targeting. The other two hunters pushed a big bull elk out of the forest (I don't even think they saw the big guy sneak out the back). 

If we had a tag for the big bull he would have gone down. No other elk were in that forest so we planned our next strategy. As we were planning we saw a herd of about 10 elk WAY UP on the mountain about 1/2 mile up the mountain. What they were doing up there I have no idea. I have never seen them that high. However, we watched 4 of them break off and head down right towards the pine forest our hunting friends had just left. Steve was in the middle of the forest and they were headed right towards him. I could've taken a long 500 yard shot as they were coming down but they were way up high on the mountain and didn't want to have to drag the elk down from there if we did get one. And besides, they were heading right towards Steve in the forest. We told Steve through the walkie talkies we had that they were headed right to him. We waited for a shot. 30 minutes passed and no shot... 1 hour passed and no shot... 

By then we were discouraged that they must have escaped somehow when all of the sudden we hear Steve say that he missed the chance to take shot by 3 seconds (they topped a hill). Apparently, they had run out through the thick oak brush in between Steve and I right down the mountain to the road below us. Bad luck. That was the closest we came opening day to getting a shot. It sure was an adventure though!

The following Monday my brother in law Ben was still in town for his vacation and we decided to go out for a quick morning hunt. We went out to a place up Hobble Creek that I knew had elk. We arrived a few minutes before sunrise and were the first people there. We jumped out of the car and spent the next few minutes getting ready. As we were getting our packs on, hunter orange on, loading the gun, etc... we heard something big galloping off very near where we were parked. Dang! we spooked them and we barely just got out of the car! Well we quickly walked the 50 yards or so to the lookout and glassed around for the elk. There they were. They were out in an open meadow a ways down the trail from us. Right at the point when we saw them we hear another hunter pull up behind us on the road. As we're checking out the elk they hear the other truck pull up and get a little nervous. 

The Cow and calf I saw on the trail stood up from their bedding area and started heading into the thick oak brush. I didn't know how far they were away but it was really far. I had no choice but to guess the distance and take a shot. I steadied my rifle, took in a deep breath, and put the cross hairs 6 inches above it's back. Bang! My first shot went off. The cow I was aiming for didn't even react. Bang! I shot again... and same result, the cow didn't even react. I've hunted them enough to know they are big animals that sometimes don't show any signs they are hit. So we quickly walk down to where we shot and don't find any sign of blood anywhere. We spend the next hour checking everywhere for blood and see nothing. I must have missed. We continue our hunt a few more hours seeing only one big bull a mile away across the valley. On our way back I decided to count the paces from where the cow elk was that I shot at and the location where I took the shoot. 600 paces later I realized that the elk was over 500 yards away and my aim was about 3 feet off! I shot way under it (would've been nice to have a rangefinder - apparently I'm not good judging distance. Oh well, another adventure!

I took another trip out for a quick evening hunt during the week with a friend from the ward and didn't see any elk. 

I forgot to mention, my wife doesn't like me going hunting alone. But it's really hard to find people available and willing to go on a hunt. (note: If you are reading this and are available and willing to go on a hunt with me LET ME KNOW) Anyways, the next Saturday after opening day I couldn't find anyone available to come hunt with me so I planned carefully and as safely as possible a solo hunt. I decided, given the circumstances, that I would go hunt the same area I hunted the Monday before. I knew the area very well, I knew a few other people have gone to it with me in the past, and that it was close to the road and civilization. So off I went Saturday morning (Oct. 11) to the same spot I took that 500+ yard shot Monday. I arrived 2 minutes before the legal time to shot. I got ready as fast as I could and hopped out of the truck. No other hunters were there at that point. I got out to the main lookout and spent 3 minutes glassing the area for elk and saw nothing. 

Then I heard it... was it a bear? a beef cow? I wasn't sure...It sounded like a mix between the two actually. So I decided to head down the direction of the noise I had heard. The noise was coming from the same meadow that I took my shot Monday. As I was heading down I noticed two other hunters had come in behind me and were making their way down the same direction. Looked like one of them was a boy. Maybe a boy and his dad? I decided to just go along with it and hopefully their position would work in my favor. After about 5 minutes creeping down the trail I stop in my tracks to see a bull elk staring me down about 250 yards away. I hear a bugle come from his direction. I hear another somewhere near scraping against the branches. 

By this time I had two bull elk in my sites and a cow in between them. I decided I would try and get a little closer. I also knew that the other hunters would be coming close to the same herd shortly and would most likely take a shot as soon as they saw the herd. So I slowly crept toward them. Then BANG! The other hunters took the first shot. I scrambled to find the nearest cow in the heard and aim. There, found the cow elk. This time I aimed a foot and a half above the cows back. Bang! first shot went off. Right after the shot I heard the sound I wanted to hear, a thud of sorts, indicating the bullet had hit the target. I reload and take one more shot as the cow breaks into the oak brush. The elk herd gallops into the thick oak brush and I reload and begin my walk towards the place where the cow had stood. 

Early signs were not good. I couldn't find any blood at the site of what I thought was the sound of "impact". I set down my backpack to mark the spot where I shot, then begin searching around the oak brush. THERE! I see a tiny bean size spot of blood on a leaf! I had hit it. How good? I didn't know and couldn't tell. I couldn't see any more blood nearby. 

I spent the next 3 hours searching the oak brush and found one other tiny spot of blood. I had kicked around a cow (size unknown) in the oak brush and assumed that it was the cow I had shot. I assumed I made a poor shot and the cow was hobbling around injured and unable to hop the fence where the herd had gone. I further assumed that I had pressured the cow into the private land beyond the fence and that it had crossed over onto private property never to be seen by me again. So I decided to make a final big loop in search of any more traces of blood and then head back up to the truck. I planned on recruiting a ward friend with his bird dogs to track it down later that afternoon. 

As I made the loop I came across something in the forest that looked like a... a cow! It was a cow down. It was much further over than where I thought it would have gone. I stood there looking down at the animal playing out the scenario in my mind. Was it the other hunters elk down that they had shot? The stomach looks big and bloated... could it be an elk that had been dead for a few days. Upon further inspection I realized that it had recently died probably an hour ago. The location of the entry and exit proved it was the cow I shot! 

Here is the picture i took after my 5 minute stare down with the dead cow

Wait... I'm all alone! I'm all alone ("What About Bob" anyone?). That is where the fun stopped. I realized I was all by myself... I had forgotten that. Luckily, I was only about 1/4 mile from my truck and it wasn't too steep. I decided to quarter the animal, throw the pieces in separate bags and haul it out one piece at a time if I had to. It was still only about 11am at the time when I found it. I spent the next hour quartering it and bagging it. Then the next hour and a half taking it out in trips. By 1:30pm I was out of there. 

I did it. I hunted, downed, and packed out an elk all by myself. It really wasn't that bad either. The whole time carrying the elk out I was smiling thinking, "Is this really happening?!". Here is a video I took on my way out with the last quarter on my back. You can probably hear the happiness in my voice (and the lack of oxygen). 

Here is a link to the video: https://drive.google.com/a/kcwholdings.com/file/d/0B5Tg537Z-qA0cGhOOWdibDlVbFU/view?usp=sharing