Where’s the 1st Season elk thread excitement?

Focoelkman · Oct 9, 2023

T minus a couple days. I’m buggin out goin home. Home away from home.

Who is going and where are you coming from? Regardless. Good luck! And take some damn pictures!

Thill · Oct 10, 2023

NW winterkill sucked some of mine out. I'm usually bouncing off the walls right now- the weather blowing in tomorrow and Thursday should give the NW hunters a pretty good idea if there are any or many animals around. Actually I am still kinda bouncing off the walls even though I won't have a tag and I am mentoring a biggame newby.
Good luck everyone!!

CornDoggy · Oct 10, 2023

Curious if you guys that hunt the 1st hunt often typically catch some rut action the beginning of the hunt?

Thill · Oct 10, 2023

CornDoggy said:
Curious if you guys that hunt the 1st hunt often typically catch some rut action the beginning of the hunt?

We usually do, but the bugling stops with the 1st volley of gun shots which is usually 5-20minutes before legal shooting light and anything you hear after legal shooting time is human generated. Then you might hear a few in the middle of night. I would never use a bugle in 1st season and only use my cow call sparingly - But that is me in the flattops.

Deercy · Oct 10, 2023

Im looking forward to it. My boys asked me the other day "are we going to spend some miserable nights out?" Probably!

The_Coloradoboy · Oct 11, 2023

Think it could be a barn burner with how late things have been this year with the rut. Spent the the last couple days on the mountain guiding a moose hunt and the bulls were absolutely going nuts..

HntHrdr · Oct 11, 2023

The_Coloradoboy said:
Think it could be a barn burner with how late things have been this year with the rut. Spent the the last couple days on the mountain guiding a moose hunt and the bulls were absolutely going nuts..

I completely agree, could be an absolute massacre. Supposed to have a little weather this weekend with snow in the high country. Lining up to be great for the 1st rifle crowd

jhibbs · Oct 12, 2023

I’m getting ready to pack into a drop camp in a unit that took me 7 points to draw tomorrow morning. Hopefully they’ll still be bugling. It’s been chilly and snowing all day here in Leadville and the weather for the hunt looks good for the hunt dates. Hopefully I’ll have a good update with photos by the 20th.

HntHrdr · Oct 12, 2023

jhibbs said:
I’m getting ready to pack into a drop camp in a unit that took me 7 points to draw tomorrow morning. Hopefully they’ll still be bugling. It’s been chilly and snowing all day here in Leadville and the weather for the hunt looks good for the hunt dates. Hopefully I’ll have a good update with photos by the 20th.

Good luck man!

1989Cohunter · Oct 13, 2023

One of my buddies is in 76 this weekend. I think it’s going to be awesome!

coloradoman · Oct 13, 2023

1989Cohunter said:
One of my buddies is in 76 this weekend. I think it’s going to be awesome!

I know someone there also

1989Cohunter · Oct 13, 2023

I bet it’s going to be good. My buddy hasn’t reported a whole lot. But any day out in that country is worth it.

MrDoe · Oct 13, 2023

I’m in a no-name unit with my daughter but the bulls are still bugling. Should be a fun weekend.

Deercy · Oct 13, 2023

We were out all day. Didn't even see a track in the snow. My buddy, on the other hand, found plenty.

Focoelkman · Oct 16, 2023

Hope you all had fun!

Danny_Ocean · Oct 17, 2023

Not on my returning neighbors face that's for sure.

Thill · Oct 17, 2023

You would never know the flattops had decreased the tags. Thousands of disappointed hunters as usual. We did just fine, but I hate seeing herds of cows with only 1 or 2 calves. The road to recover is several years ahead.

The_Coloradoboy · Oct 20, 2023

We ended killing 5 bulls out of 7 clients. Wasn’t as good as I anticipated but we dug them up.

jhibbs · Oct 23, 2023

Got home from my first season elk hunt late Friday night, so I figured it was time for an update.

Packed into our drop camp on the Friday before the opener with limited scouting time, so we spent that afternoon trying to glass the tree line area for elk and listening bugles with no luck.

Day 1 of the hunt we both made wide loop to the east and west of camp and found no fresh sign above camp, which was at 11,200’, with about 6” of fresh snow. When looping back below camp level we started to find some fresh sign, but neither one of us saw any elk.

Day 2, we each headed out to check on and sit on so meadows we had located the day before. Neither of us had any sightings of elk that morning, but I found some decent sign on my side of camp. That afternoon about 5 pm I had two cow elk enter the opposite end of the meadow at 300 yards ( ranged ). While watching them, I noticed another cow entering the meadow at about 150 yards. When I first saw her, she appeared to be looking right at me. I held tight and after a few moments she relaxed and started feeding. Then 7 additional cows and calf’s slowly entered the meadow. At about 6 pm, I caught a glimpse of antlers coming through the trees from where the cows had entered the meadow. As the bull entered the meadow he lowered his head and let out a nice long bugle. He turned to his right to approach the nearest cow and I wasted no time placing a 150 grain nosler partition behind his shoulder. He wheeled back to his left, so I hit him again. I chambered my third round, but it wasn’t needed and down he went. I watched him for a couple of minutes to make sure he wasn’t going to get up and then walked over to my bull. He’s a 6 X 6, with a very small 6 th point on his left side, but I was delighted with him to say the least.

From that day on neither of us saw any more elk the rest of the hunt, so my buddy never got any opportunities. Overall, I would say it was a tough hunt, being a first season hunt. We were unable to turn up any more elk even though we are both experienced elk hunters, however the wind seemed to be blowing heavily both day and night which might have contributed to the lack of game movement. Hope everyone else did well, enjoy the photos, not a huge bull, but good enough for me. The dark spot next to the gun barrel was the entry wound from the first shot and the blood stain to the right is the exit wound from the second shot.

Focoelkman · Oct 23, 2023

Great bull!

Mallardsx2 · Oct 23, 2023

50% success rate is better than most groups. Congrats.

HntHrdr · Oct 23, 2023

jhibbs said:
Got home from my first season elk hunt late Friday night, so I figured it was time for an update.

Packed into our drop camp on the Friday before the opener with limited scouting time, so we spent that afternoon trying to glass the tree line area for elk and listening bugles with no luck.

Day 1 of the hunt we both made wide loop to the east and west of camp and found no fresh sign above camp, which was at 11,200’, with about 6” of fresh snow. When looping back below camp level we started to find some fresh sign, but neither one of us saw any elk.

Day 2, we each headed out to check on and sit on so meadows we had located the day before. Neither of us had any sightings of elk that morning, but I found some decent sign on my side of camp. That afternoon about 5 pm I had two cow elk enter the opposite end of the meadow at 300 yards ( ranged ). While watching them, I noticed another cow entering the meadow at about 150 yards. When I first saw her, she appeared to be looking right at me. I held tight and after a few moments she relaxed and started feeding. Then 7 additional cows and calf’s slowly entered the meadow. At about 6 pm, I caught a glimpse of antlers coming through the trees from where the cows had entered the meadow. As the bull entered the meadow he lowered his head and let out a nice long bugle. He turned to his right to approach the nearest cow and I wasted no time placing a 150 grain nosler partition behind his shoulder. He wheeled back to his left, so I hit him again. I chambered my third round, but it wasn’t needed and down he went. I watched him for a couple of minutes to make sure he wasn’t going to get up and then walked over to my bull. He’s a 6 X 6, with a very small 6 th point on his left side, but I was delighted with him to say the least.

From that day on neither of us saw any more elk the rest of the hunt, so my buddy never got any opportunities. Overall, I would say it was a tough hunt, being a first season hunt. We were unable to turn up any more elk even though we are both experienced elk hunters, however the wind seemed to be blowing heavily both day and night which might have contributed to the lack of game movement. Hope everyone else did well, enjoy the photos, not a huge bull, but good enough for me. The dark spot next to the gun barrel was the entry wound from the first shot and the blood stain to the right is the exit wound from the second shot.

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Nice bull and good write up!