My 2012 first colorado elk hunt

[smo]

My first Colorado elk hunt was a roller coaster ride. We hunted otc 2nd season in unit 551. First thing i noticed was my bleeding nose and how fat my nose felt in the high altitude, but I'm a fat tough country boy and just ignored that problem. I had gotten myself into pretty decent shape so the high altitude walking wasn't all that bad. First thing we noticed was how far back in the mtns the other hunters we're traveling, so we decided to hunt about 1.5 miles from camp. Bingo, we we're into elk the first day. My son and I spotted a decent 6x6 at 1000 plus yards, but my brother and my buddy was on the same ridge as the bull but couldn't see it. So I holler on the radio and start directing them to the bull. They ran as fast as they could quietly run, but the bull disappeared 5 min before they got there. No meat, but a good start. Day 2 my brother and buddy decide to go back to the same place and that a.m. see 4 cow elk. The same evening my buddy goes to pick up one of the other hunters in the vehicle and spots a cow, a spike, and the 6x6 pretty close to where we had been seeing the elk. He jumps out of the vehicle and finds a tree to rest his gun on and takes the shot @ 346 yds. We spent the rest of the evening looking for a hit, but finally find the bullet hole in a log. That night my buddy that shot at the elk starts complaining with his leg hurting badly ( he's 300 lbs., but athletic for a big boy and we think this is what gets him in trouble). We start picking on him thinking he's trying to cover up for the miss. Day 3 we wake up to 2" of snow and my hurting buddy being taken to Gunnison ER for his leg. We get a late start due to our hurting buddy. We notice that the other hunters are not hunting any more so we decide to go way back in the mtn. With the fresh snow we quickly find the fresh elk sign, but so does someone else that we didn't know was around. With the shot we decide to go further into the mtn. hoping the other guy will scare elk to us. No such luck. We sit till about 1 hr before dark and start coming out. We notice something out of place at about 1000 yds and sure enough it is a cow elk. When we get back to camp we learn our buddy has compartment syndrome ( you have 4 compartments in your calf muscle. 1 of the compartments takes on fluid because of over exhertion and if that compartment bursts it busts major blood vessels and you lose your leg or bleed to death) and the doctor told us that he was 2 hours from the fluid bursting his leg. We also learn that one of the other hunters had turned off the heat to the camper and frozen and burst the water lines ( I learned that lesson years ago, if you don't know what your doing don't screw with it). Also they are calling for 2 feet of snow ( which never happened. Think it was about 7") so we decide to hook up and move out. So I paid over $1500 to hunt for 3 days, but on the bright side we were in the elk every day. Just couldn't close the deal. Oh well maybe next year. And by the way we're not taking our big buddy.

[colorado bob]

smo----Sounds like you were doing things the right way. My one piece of advice is to continue to hunt the same unit & same area. Learn it like the back of your hand. You'll learn were the elk go, where they feed, hide, drainages, trials, open parks etc. You'll find that you will kill elk in roughly the same area year after year.

Also, I think the 1st rifle season is the one to hunt. It's 5 days but usually that's enough & the elk have not been shot at. They have had pressure from archery & black powder hunters---but there is a week or 2 for them to breed & have no pressure.

[smo]

Thanks for the advise. We had 6 hunters in camp and 3 saw nothing, so I feel fortunate to have seen elk.

[texastrophies]

Thanks for the story, sounds like an adventure with a lot of ups and downs. Your roller coaster ride is a pretty good description. Better luck next year.