Sorry for the delay on the write up guys... between the 20hr drive and my work schedule it's been crazy busy ever since.
Anywho my dad has bow hunted ever since he was a kid and it's been a passion of his and one of his dreams has been to go on an archery elk hunt. With him being 64 he wanted to pull the trigger soon due to the physical demands of the hunt... even tho at 64 he's running 3mi a day and biking over 50mi a week.
We decided to go with an outfitter to be able to observe and ask questions to learn how to hunt elk before doing it on our own. With it being his dream(and mine) we wanted to get one in the bag then move on and grind a DIY. If this hunt sounds interesting you can PM me and I'll let you know the outfitters information, it was highly worth the cost.
We left Columbus Wednesday at 5pm and rolled into Cheyenne 10am on thursday (2hour roll back on time zones). We went out to the ranch and did a little shooting, my dad felt good but I left my stabilizer at home and was not feeling it. It's a little different shooting in 20-30mph winds in the open prairie and depth perception is DECEIVING. We first walked up to the target and I was like hm this looks like 20 and i ranged it... 32 yds, whoops! With a back drop of miles and miles of prairie shooting at 20yds looked like we were shooting at 10yds. This'll bite me in the ass later.... Ended up shooting the following day (Friday) cuz our hunt didn't start until saturday and I walked outta there feeling like I'm on cloud nine, hitting a 3" dia circle consistently at 50yds in 20mph winds.
Night before the hunt... called milo for a lil pep talk and work advice lol after that I was ready to hunt saturday AM. Friday night, no sleep, not even a bit. Between my dad snoring and me imagining my pin behind the shoulder of a big ole bull it just wasn't happening.
Saturday Morning
I heard my first bugle ever, it was awesome. We ended up hunting a valley with water and willows in the bottom. He set us up on a herd but nothing came close enough for a shot and he tried to get my dad on a satellite bull as I watched from 100yds away but no dice. Bulls were bugling everywhere that morning and I got to watch a big 6x herd up 20 cows and march them from the meadow up a big valley into the thick pines. The rest of the morning was spent glassing ended up stopping in one spot and he let out a cow call, nothing, then he got his bugle out and hit that. Immediately had 2 respond on the other side of the valley so we get down off that mountain and into the valley. Start working our way up the other side and the bull bugles w/o any calling, and it's CLOSE. The guide drops back, i Go low and my dad goes high and he starts calling (trying to bring the bull thru us) and the bull keeps responding. After a couple minutes of this the guide comes back up and says that they're definitely bedded and just talking. He puts me up front and says take 2 steps and look until we get 60yds across this hill to look into this little gully. We work our way across and I'm about to see into the gully when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I don't turn and he points past me and goes "bull". A 1sq ft of this bulls rump is barely visible 50yds out, I have no idea how he saw it. It's bedded, him and I work to within 40yds but the pines he's bedded under are blocking his antlers. He's quartering away, still a decent shot but can't confirm his size. He ends up looking around and he's a decent 5x5. Just after he moves a HUGE bull 30yds behind him stands up, 300"+ 6x6 and my goodness it was magnificent. He ended up just bedding back down and after that I wasn't really interested in the 5x5 so we pull my dad up from 20yds behind us and while he's stalking up the 5x5 bull pivots and is now facing away from us. We tell my dad it's a 5x and I turn around and tell him he should shoot it, he misinterprets and says yeah get em T. I respond no I want you to shoot em (I wanted him to get the first bull) and he goes no you shoot em and at this point the guide says damn it tom you're shooting it, he doesn't want it. Inside I was cracking up lol! We're watching the bull and all of the sudden the big ole boy in the back stands up and my dad (who's hard of hearing and can't whisper) goes "holy hell look at that one!", which was said in a normal talking voice... the guide "shhhhs" him and says imma smack you if you do that again lmao Anyways the 5x5 split w/o a shot and the big boy starts moving... he's working to our left what would potentially be a 50yd shot for me and right before he steps out I feel the dreaded wind on the back of the neck... WINDED, done-zo... he immediately trots off to about a 100yds and after trying to calm him with some cow calls we decide nothing is gonna happen. The entire hike in I never thought about the straight uphill trek out to the truck we were going to have.... goodness that was miserable.
Saturday Evening
We decided to hunt the same spot as the morning hoping to catch the herd coming back to the water since it's been 80+ degrees all day and where they went was no water. Got set up at 3:30 and sunset at 7:30... sat and sat and sat and then at 6:30 a faint bugle and a couple more way off in the distance... at this point it was just me and the one guide and my dad was with another. My guide and I were telling stories, laughing our asses off all evening to the point I forgot we were hunting lol anywho we knew these bulls were gonna work right past us. We're perched in a U shaped bush (the round part of the U facing where the elk are coming from) in the middle of the prairie, no other cover in hopes of them coming right past us and I get a shot out the back of our "blind". There's a small opening in the front of our blind and I decided to step out and get in front of the blind. Now i'm in front of the blind directly facing where the elk are coming from. All of the sudden I see a head 60yds out on top of the hill, then another then another, before I know it I have 15 cows and 2 satellite bulls within 40yds, holy crap! I knew the herd bull was in there so I didn't shoot the satellites. It's gotta be 7:45 at this time because I can barely see thru my range finder ranging these elk. All of the sudden a LOUD bugle lets out on the hill but I can't see anything yet. Then the satellites take off, run past me at about 30yds and on the top of the hill pops out the herd bull a decent 6x. He's right by a rock I ranged as 50 yds earlier, and he's about 50ft above me... I wait until the cows clear and he gets broadside and draw my bow... Nothing, can't see a single pin it's so dark and the backdrop is pines. I let down, gain some composure and draw again, into the sky to locate my pin then come down on the bull and again, nothing, blackness. After two attempts I deem it wash and slide back into our "blind" and we let the elk pass and head home.
Sunday Morning
That was a wash for me, the guide and I still hunted the pines, no bugles but had 2 encounters with 2 5x5s (smaller) within 30yds that I passed on both of them. At 10am we are glassing and I get a text from my dad that says Done and a picture of a bloody arrow. Man I was PUMPED. We were too far away to go meet em to get pictures, over an hour away so we kept glassing with no luck. Here's my dads 5x4 that he got, 45yds with 60# PSE and 125 grain NAP broadheads, only ran 40yds.
Anywho my dad has bow hunted ever since he was a kid and it's been a passion of his and one of his dreams has been to go on an archery elk hunt. With him being 64 he wanted to pull the trigger soon due to the physical demands of the hunt... even tho at 64 he's running 3mi a day and biking over 50mi a week.
We decided to go with an outfitter to be able to observe and ask questions to learn how to hunt elk before doing it on our own. With it being his dream(and mine) we wanted to get one in the bag then move on and grind a DIY. If this hunt sounds interesting you can PM me and I'll let you know the outfitters information, it was highly worth the cost.
We left Columbus Wednesday at 5pm and rolled into Cheyenne 10am on thursday (2hour roll back on time zones). We went out to the ranch and did a little shooting, my dad felt good but I left my stabilizer at home and was not feeling it. It's a little different shooting in 20-30mph winds in the open prairie and depth perception is DECEIVING. We first walked up to the target and I was like hm this looks like 20 and i ranged it... 32 yds, whoops! With a back drop of miles and miles of prairie shooting at 20yds looked like we were shooting at 10yds. This'll bite me in the ass later.... Ended up shooting the following day (Friday) cuz our hunt didn't start until saturday and I walked outta there feeling like I'm on cloud nine, hitting a 3" dia circle consistently at 50yds in 20mph winds.
Night before the hunt... called milo for a lil pep talk and work advice lol after that I was ready to hunt saturday AM. Friday night, no sleep, not even a bit. Between my dad snoring and me imagining my pin behind the shoulder of a big ole bull it just wasn't happening.
Saturday Morning
I heard my first bugle ever, it was awesome. We ended up hunting a valley with water and willows in the bottom. He set us up on a herd but nothing came close enough for a shot and he tried to get my dad on a satellite bull as I watched from 100yds away but no dice. Bulls were bugling everywhere that morning and I got to watch a big 6x herd up 20 cows and march them from the meadow up a big valley into the thick pines. The rest of the morning was spent glassing ended up stopping in one spot and he let out a cow call, nothing, then he got his bugle out and hit that. Immediately had 2 respond on the other side of the valley so we get down off that mountain and into the valley. Start working our way up the other side and the bull bugles w/o any calling, and it's CLOSE. The guide drops back, i Go low and my dad goes high and he starts calling (trying to bring the bull thru us) and the bull keeps responding. After a couple minutes of this the guide comes back up and says that they're definitely bedded and just talking. He puts me up front and says take 2 steps and look until we get 60yds across this hill to look into this little gully. We work our way across and I'm about to see into the gully when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I don't turn and he points past me and goes "bull". A 1sq ft of this bulls rump is barely visible 50yds out, I have no idea how he saw it. It's bedded, him and I work to within 40yds but the pines he's bedded under are blocking his antlers. He's quartering away, still a decent shot but can't confirm his size. He ends up looking around and he's a decent 5x5. Just after he moves a HUGE bull 30yds behind him stands up, 300"+ 6x6 and my goodness it was magnificent. He ended up just bedding back down and after that I wasn't really interested in the 5x5 so we pull my dad up from 20yds behind us and while he's stalking up the 5x5 bull pivots and is now facing away from us. We tell my dad it's a 5x and I turn around and tell him he should shoot it, he misinterprets and says yeah get em T. I respond no I want you to shoot em (I wanted him to get the first bull) and he goes no you shoot em and at this point the guide says damn it tom you're shooting it, he doesn't want it. Inside I was cracking up lol! We're watching the bull and all of the sudden the big ole boy in the back stands up and my dad (who's hard of hearing and can't whisper) goes "holy hell look at that one!", which was said in a normal talking voice... the guide "shhhhs" him and says imma smack you if you do that again lmao Anyways the 5x5 split w/o a shot and the big boy starts moving... he's working to our left what would potentially be a 50yd shot for me and right before he steps out I feel the dreaded wind on the back of the neck... WINDED, done-zo... he immediately trots off to about a 100yds and after trying to calm him with some cow calls we decide nothing is gonna happen. The entire hike in I never thought about the straight uphill trek out to the truck we were going to have.... goodness that was miserable.
Saturday Evening
We decided to hunt the same spot as the morning hoping to catch the herd coming back to the water since it's been 80+ degrees all day and where they went was no water. Got set up at 3:30 and sunset at 7:30... sat and sat and sat and then at 6:30 a faint bugle and a couple more way off in the distance... at this point it was just me and the one guide and my dad was with another. My guide and I were telling stories, laughing our asses off all evening to the point I forgot we were hunting lol anywho we knew these bulls were gonna work right past us. We're perched in a U shaped bush (the round part of the U facing where the elk are coming from) in the middle of the prairie, no other cover in hopes of them coming right past us and I get a shot out the back of our "blind". There's a small opening in the front of our blind and I decided to step out and get in front of the blind. Now i'm in front of the blind directly facing where the elk are coming from. All of the sudden I see a head 60yds out on top of the hill, then another then another, before I know it I have 15 cows and 2 satellite bulls within 40yds, holy crap! I knew the herd bull was in there so I didn't shoot the satellites. It's gotta be 7:45 at this time because I can barely see thru my range finder ranging these elk. All of the sudden a LOUD bugle lets out on the hill but I can't see anything yet. Then the satellites take off, run past me at about 30yds and on the top of the hill pops out the herd bull a decent 6x. He's right by a rock I ranged as 50 yds earlier, and he's about 50ft above me... I wait until the cows clear and he gets broadside and draw my bow... Nothing, can't see a single pin it's so dark and the backdrop is pines. I let down, gain some composure and draw again, into the sky to locate my pin then come down on the bull and again, nothing, blackness. After two attempts I deem it wash and slide back into our "blind" and we let the elk pass and head home.
Sunday Morning
That was a wash for me, the guide and I still hunted the pines, no bugles but had 2 encounters with 2 5x5s (smaller) within 30yds that I passed on both of them. At 10am we are glassing and I get a text from my dad that says Done and a picture of a bloody arrow. Man I was PUMPED. We were too far away to go meet em to get pictures, over an hour away so we kept glassing with no luck. Here's my dads 5x4 that he got, 45yds with 60# PSE and 125 grain NAP broadheads, only ran 40yds.