My nephew & I drew first season elk tags in Western CO, it was a 5 day season(Saturday-Wednesday). We backpack hunted the Maroon Bells/Snowmass Wilderness area. It's fairly rugged area & this year we had an early snow that left up to 3' depending on how high you were hunting. We didn't see any elk or sign up high & everyone we talked to said the same thing. The general consensus was because of the drought conditions this past spring & summer & the elk had moved lower on to private land that was irrigated & had good feed. I started hunting this area back in 1982, so I'm fairly familiar with it. So we hunted areas that were lower where I'd killed elk previously. We didn't see any elk until Tuesday late morning & we could never get a shot at the bulls we saw. We only saw 2, one 6 point with probably a half dozen cows & one 5 point with a few cows & 2 spikes. We were able to watch them for an hour or so & then they disappeared into the dark timber. We waited & the 6 point & his cows came back out an hour or so before sundown & we still couldn't get a shot. We backed out of the area trying not to spook them & went back to camp. Wednesday morning, the last day, we went back up there & didn't see anything in the morning. Around 1 PM or so a few cows started showing up a little closer than they were the day before, around 400 yds. Then to our surprise, the 6 point bull walked out of the dark timber into the oak brush & started feeding along & presented me with a shot. He was at 382 yds. broadside. I was shooting uphill at a pretty good angle, laying prone & used my pack as my rest. My nephew was going to shoot one of the cows if I hit the bull & he went down. I settled in on him & fired & he humped up & staggered & fell straight over backwards. A couple of seconds later I heard my nephew shoot & then he hollered, "cow down." I hit him where I was hoping, behind the shoulder in the lungs. I am shooting a Weatherby Mark V in 30-378 Wby. Mag. with a custom 28.5" barrel topped with a Leupold Mark 4, 8.5-25x50 with a BDC turret from Leupold. My reloads are Berger 210 VLD hunting bullets & H50BMG powder at 3200 fps.
CO elk hunt
- Thread starter COmtnman1
- Start date
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Congratulations. I had similar hunting conditions in northern Colorado for 1st rifle. Seen elk everyday, just couldn't ever get within range on the legal bulls I found.
Goal for next year is extending my effective shooting range.
Goal for next year is extending my effective shooting range.
claybreaker
Well-Known Member
Congrats, That sir is a very nice CO bull.
dok7mm
Well-Known Member
Danged nice bull and good write-up. Congrats!
vinson
Well-Known Member
I'm headed that way next week as well for 3rd rifle. What part of the state are you going to?
dmj
Well-Known Member
Very nice bull, nice story, great shot. Congratulations. Thank you for sharing your story and the great pictures.
CONGRADS IN ORDER,great job !!
