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DAY 1 |
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Saturday Morning (opening day) - Live from Colorado! It was really hot when we left at 5:30AM. Probably 65 degrees. So Wes and I knew we were in for a tough day with the forecast predicting temps in the 90's. When we had enough light to glass we saw no elk in the alfalfa. Another thirty minutes later Wes spotted several elk in different areas of the hills. They were feeding their way up the mountain and taking their sweet time. We identified at least ten shooters with about five of them pushing 300 inches or better. This was a great find and start to opening day. As the morning went on we waited for them to bed down but they kept feeding leisurely until 9:30AM. We drove halfway up the mountain and checked the wind. The sun came out of the clouds and it was extremely hot and that meant dead air and very little chance of calling these bulls. So we played it safe and left. We are coming back in the afternoon. We know right where they are and Wes has a good idea where they are going to head. Saturday Afternoon There is another bowhunter hunting with us so we paired up with him and headed out after the bulls. They were on the move and heading into a drainage that presented us with a fantastic ambush. Wes, and his other guide Rob were very optimistic. The bulls don't normally get into this position and the wind was perfect. We headed up the mountain which took us about an hour of climbing. We watched the elk for a while before splitting up. Wes, my son Matthew and I stayed high while John, his wife Jules and Rob went low. This was a great setup. The bulls could have gone either direction.
They were feeding down the funnel right to us when the first of three bulls bedded, followed by the other two. The big bulls were behind them and we only caught a glimpse of them. Unfortunately, the small bulls bedded facing us at 200 yards. We were exposed on the hillside and pinned down. Rob's hunter was in a better position and moved to within 200 yards of the elk. We parked on those bulls for hours. As it started to get dark Wes and Rob tried some soft cow calling. The young bulls responded and cautiously headed into the setup. The wind had been strong from the west all day, then in an instant it did a complete 180 degrees and blew from the east. This took all the elk with them. We had a great setup with a perfect wind for hours. Bad luck for sure. We are hoping we didn't blow them out too bad, but they were hauling ass over the top of the hill and stopped. As it got dark we could still see elk up there but by then we couldn't tell if they were the trophy bulls or not. This weather is not helping us.
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| Our elk hunt takes place in Northern Colorado with Atkinson Expeditions. |
