Myself and two friends went late season elk hunting for a total of 8 days. It was amazing. One of which is an experienced hunter in Washington and Oregon. The other guy and I are new. The other guy is a Colorado native, and 21 years old. I am from Georgia and 34, but I spent 10 years in the Army and 4 years stationed in Alaska. We all learned a lot from each other. We are all college students, myself and experienced guy are older students. We went six days, then 2 days.
It was amazing. We saw Elk every day. We learned how to spot them pretty proficiently even at over a mile with binos, and then with the spotting scope even further. Once we got that down we were spotting literally everything. Elk, Deer, Moose, coyote, all sorts of birds of prey and raptors. Even bighorn sheep. Im pretty sure I saw a mountain lion but it was moving so fast I don't know, it was long, brown, low, and fast as hell. about 800 yards away, and moved from cover to cover about 600 yards apart in just a few seconds. I have alot of spotting scope pics, but I will have to figure out how to get them up later.
I'll start with observations and things we learned. Even Erik our senior-most hunter doesn't have too much elk experience. The unit we hunted has like a 40% success rate though. I know you guys probably all know this, maybe I have some stuff wrong and you can correct me. But this post is also for me to go over again to get ready for next late season.
We all shot and missed at some point on the trip. We were not prepared for the distances or angles we would have to shoot in this particular terrain. In deep snow, and hard terrain closing to 300 yards was extremely hard or impossible. By either terrain, and us being disadvantaged, or just pure fitness. We were at 10,000 feet. We live at 5,000 feet in Colorado. Aspen blight and beetle kill deadfall also slowed us down a lot in the snow but did provide cover. We were also not prepared for high angle shooting.
Elk like to hang out in the sun in the mornings and evenings, so southeast facing slopes in the morning and southwest in the evening. We saw probably 6 unique herds and that was constant.
When they do poke out of the woodline for the morning and evening jaunts and meals we observed that if it is a travel day, as in they are about to travel across a significant open area or to the next valley they will wake up and move quickly, usually running. They will assemble, then take off running in that direction in a straight line. As you can imagine we had seen them the night before and set up an ambush but were surprised when they ran right past us at full speed. I got a quick 400 yard shot opportunity and missed.
If they plan to stay in the area they will come out slow and cautious. They will push out 2 or 3 senior cows and they will eyes up, then a few more come out then a few more, they will all be eyes up for a while, then the will go to 50% security and take turns eating. Then eventually relax and be more like 20% security 80% eating. Then they will probably lay down and doze but still be eyes up looking around. I did notice that I don't think they are very good at looking up hill, or I may be wrong.
When cow elk herds bed down they will nap for 2-3 hours, then the calves and spikes will start getting agitated and annoy the senior cows. Just like human kids. They then slowly get up and meander. While they are in the aspens the will be dispersed, then as they approach the edge they will collapse into a tighter group then they will do the same as above. Push out some scouts and observe then the rest slowly come out and they keep security a while then switch to feeding, then back to napping.
They don't seem to care if you are in the same valley so long as you are at least 3/4 to 1 mile away, or have one significant terrain feature between you and them.
I don't think camouflage clothing is needed so long as you in earth tones and you mind your silhouette. It might help though. I was wearing army issue desert camo Goretex top and bottom. The hunter among us has kuiu gear, and the other guy has just warm normal hiking gear in earth tones. It didn't seem to matter. Its movement, and silhouette as far as visual signature goes I think.
I had forgotten I bought a cheap bottle of smelly spray that makes you just smell like dirt. We put it on day 4 and then a moose gets withing 40 yards of 21 year old guy. That was nerve-racking. Had the moose seen him that close he may have charged. I have video of the group of 3 bull moose meandering through us. Might be random, or maybe that cheap spray bottle works.
At cold temperatures like 0 or 5 degrees, the elk seem to have a harder time smelling.
Winds will usually be down valley in the morning, and up valley mid day, then downvalley again in the evening. That is on a calm clear day, weather will change that. Elk will take advantage of fog, and low visibility to travel.
The limiting factor for elk at high elevation is water. We has food, shelter, safety, and solitide. But flowing water was super scarce and forces the cows with the yearlings down elevation sooner than the bulls.
Ok here is what we did wrong.
Patience. We saw elk and moved on elk the first few days. This lead to alot of wasted miles and elevation. If you keep an eye on them they may move towards you, or you will at least know what timber they bid in. In the terrain, temperature and snow depth we were in the seek and destroy thing just wasn't happening. We did not let them come out and feed and get complacent and relax at all the first few days. We had much better luck watching and setting up breakfast and dinner ambushes.
At 10,000 feet elevation, everything is cardio. I got winded putting my goertex pants and snowshoes on next to the truck.
We also broke down our ambush too early once and a herd came out of the woodline 20 minutes after we started moving to someplace else.
Fitness. We went straight from eating crap and staying up all night for finals, into eating Christmas food, into high elevation, late season elk hunting. Don't do that, its really bad. I lost like 20 pounds. Do Cardio, and ruck march before you go. Fitness killed us.
More range time at the known distance range. I was a rifleman, drill sergeant, and marksmanship instructor. Not a sniper though. We were confident to 400 yards, and we needed 600. Drive to some public lands and practice high elevation shooting. I need to get a scope with elevation turret or learn to use mildot reticle. Build some real dope. I shoot a 7mm Rem Mag Model 70 with an old leopold vari-x 2 in 3-9, experience guy Savage 10 .270 with 3-9 vx 2, inexperience guy 1965 Savage model 110 in 30-06 with some random 3-9. Me and inexperienced guy get our stuff from swap meets and pawn shops. Starting to hunt while in college is tough. The experienced guy is family hand me downs and just saving forever. He's been hunting since he was 12.
Snowshoes, and fancy ski resort town goodwills and thrift stores. I had snowshoe experience from Alaska so I got a pair on craigslist. But we hit a thrift store at a ski town nearby and some lady just gave us 3 pairs. Nice pairs too, like 200 bucks a pop brand new. She saw us all looking at them inside and decided to just give them to us instead of donating. Snowshoes make getting through that waist-high snow easier. As the other two learned, snowshoes have a learning curve. Especially getting them on and off in the dark and again beetle kill and aspen blight deadfall. It's still hard but it's not as hard. Definitely hit goodwills and thrift stores in ski towns. I bet by march they have Moreno wool just on the racks. Buy it and dye it.
Confirm target's sex at high magnification. We almost shot a bull when we all had cow tags. The bull only had one antler on the right side. Cows are rarely alone, bulls are usually alone in the late season. It was about 5 minutes into legal shooting hours, and hardly even nautical twilight yet. we were spread out in all different cover stretching about 600-700 yards and this bull gave us all 200 yard broadside shots that morning.
Game Wardens can teleport. Didn't see any people, or sign of people, or heard any trucks. Suddenly there's a Game warden. Nice guy, checked our paper and gave us some tips.
Thats all right now. I'll have to figure out how to get some pics up. They are still on my phone.
It was amazing. We saw Elk every day. We learned how to spot them pretty proficiently even at over a mile with binos, and then with the spotting scope even further. Once we got that down we were spotting literally everything. Elk, Deer, Moose, coyote, all sorts of birds of prey and raptors. Even bighorn sheep. Im pretty sure I saw a mountain lion but it was moving so fast I don't know, it was long, brown, low, and fast as hell. about 800 yards away, and moved from cover to cover about 600 yards apart in just a few seconds. I have alot of spotting scope pics, but I will have to figure out how to get them up later.
I'll start with observations and things we learned. Even Erik our senior-most hunter doesn't have too much elk experience. The unit we hunted has like a 40% success rate though. I know you guys probably all know this, maybe I have some stuff wrong and you can correct me. But this post is also for me to go over again to get ready for next late season.
We all shot and missed at some point on the trip. We were not prepared for the distances or angles we would have to shoot in this particular terrain. In deep snow, and hard terrain closing to 300 yards was extremely hard or impossible. By either terrain, and us being disadvantaged, or just pure fitness. We were at 10,000 feet. We live at 5,000 feet in Colorado. Aspen blight and beetle kill deadfall also slowed us down a lot in the snow but did provide cover. We were also not prepared for high angle shooting.
Elk like to hang out in the sun in the mornings and evenings, so southeast facing slopes in the morning and southwest in the evening. We saw probably 6 unique herds and that was constant.
When they do poke out of the woodline for the morning and evening jaunts and meals we observed that if it is a travel day, as in they are about to travel across a significant open area or to the next valley they will wake up and move quickly, usually running. They will assemble, then take off running in that direction in a straight line. As you can imagine we had seen them the night before and set up an ambush but were surprised when they ran right past us at full speed. I got a quick 400 yard shot opportunity and missed.
If they plan to stay in the area they will come out slow and cautious. They will push out 2 or 3 senior cows and they will eyes up, then a few more come out then a few more, they will all be eyes up for a while, then the will go to 50% security and take turns eating. Then eventually relax and be more like 20% security 80% eating. Then they will probably lay down and doze but still be eyes up looking around. I did notice that I don't think they are very good at looking up hill, or I may be wrong.
When cow elk herds bed down they will nap for 2-3 hours, then the calves and spikes will start getting agitated and annoy the senior cows. Just like human kids. They then slowly get up and meander. While they are in the aspens the will be dispersed, then as they approach the edge they will collapse into a tighter group then they will do the same as above. Push out some scouts and observe then the rest slowly come out and they keep security a while then switch to feeding, then back to napping.
They don't seem to care if you are in the same valley so long as you are at least 3/4 to 1 mile away, or have one significant terrain feature between you and them.
I don't think camouflage clothing is needed so long as you in earth tones and you mind your silhouette. It might help though. I was wearing army issue desert camo Goretex top and bottom. The hunter among us has kuiu gear, and the other guy has just warm normal hiking gear in earth tones. It didn't seem to matter. Its movement, and silhouette as far as visual signature goes I think.
I had forgotten I bought a cheap bottle of smelly spray that makes you just smell like dirt. We put it on day 4 and then a moose gets withing 40 yards of 21 year old guy. That was nerve-racking. Had the moose seen him that close he may have charged. I have video of the group of 3 bull moose meandering through us. Might be random, or maybe that cheap spray bottle works.
At cold temperatures like 0 or 5 degrees, the elk seem to have a harder time smelling.
Winds will usually be down valley in the morning, and up valley mid day, then downvalley again in the evening. That is on a calm clear day, weather will change that. Elk will take advantage of fog, and low visibility to travel.
The limiting factor for elk at high elevation is water. We has food, shelter, safety, and solitide. But flowing water was super scarce and forces the cows with the yearlings down elevation sooner than the bulls.
Ok here is what we did wrong.
Patience. We saw elk and moved on elk the first few days. This lead to alot of wasted miles and elevation. If you keep an eye on them they may move towards you, or you will at least know what timber they bid in. In the terrain, temperature and snow depth we were in the seek and destroy thing just wasn't happening. We did not let them come out and feed and get complacent and relax at all the first few days. We had much better luck watching and setting up breakfast and dinner ambushes.
At 10,000 feet elevation, everything is cardio. I got winded putting my goertex pants and snowshoes on next to the truck.
We also broke down our ambush too early once and a herd came out of the woodline 20 minutes after we started moving to someplace else.
Fitness. We went straight from eating crap and staying up all night for finals, into eating Christmas food, into high elevation, late season elk hunting. Don't do that, its really bad. I lost like 20 pounds. Do Cardio, and ruck march before you go. Fitness killed us.
More range time at the known distance range. I was a rifleman, drill sergeant, and marksmanship instructor. Not a sniper though. We were confident to 400 yards, and we needed 600. Drive to some public lands and practice high elevation shooting. I need to get a scope with elevation turret or learn to use mildot reticle. Build some real dope. I shoot a 7mm Rem Mag Model 70 with an old leopold vari-x 2 in 3-9, experience guy Savage 10 .270 with 3-9 vx 2, inexperience guy 1965 Savage model 110 in 30-06 with some random 3-9. Me and inexperienced guy get our stuff from swap meets and pawn shops. Starting to hunt while in college is tough. The experienced guy is family hand me downs and just saving forever. He's been hunting since he was 12.
Snowshoes, and fancy ski resort town goodwills and thrift stores. I had snowshoe experience from Alaska so I got a pair on craigslist. But we hit a thrift store at a ski town nearby and some lady just gave us 3 pairs. Nice pairs too, like 200 bucks a pop brand new. She saw us all looking at them inside and decided to just give them to us instead of donating. Snowshoes make getting through that waist-high snow easier. As the other two learned, snowshoes have a learning curve. Especially getting them on and off in the dark and again beetle kill and aspen blight deadfall. It's still hard but it's not as hard. Definitely hit goodwills and thrift stores in ski towns. I bet by march they have Moreno wool just on the racks. Buy it and dye it.
Confirm target's sex at high magnification. We almost shot a bull when we all had cow tags. The bull only had one antler on the right side. Cows are rarely alone, bulls are usually alone in the late season. It was about 5 minutes into legal shooting hours, and hardly even nautical twilight yet. we were spread out in all different cover stretching about 600-700 yards and this bull gave us all 200 yard broadside shots that morning.
Game Wardens can teleport. Didn't see any people, or sign of people, or heard any trucks. Suddenly there's a Game warden. Nice guy, checked our paper and gave us some tips.
Thats all right now. I'll have to figure out how to get some pics up. They are still on my phone.
