Hunting season anyone?

[gretch6364]

Ahhh...it is that time of year again. Elk archery season in Colorado starts the 25th (also, the Carp slam in Denver...come check it out!). Anyone besides me, stoked to go out and chase some big game?

We drive to camp this Sunday to hike in our drop camp for the season, about 4 miles back...not many places left out there in CO where you can hunt and not be within 6 miles of a road in any direction! Excited to be hunting way back this year.

A little action from last season to get things started (pic is from a different camp then we are hunting this year, we drove to that one). Here's to a successful and safe season for everyone!

[Diamond Joe]

I'll be in my tree stand in few weeks..

I usually only bow hunt though, occasionally black powder .50 cal

[Flounder]

Anyone besides me, stoked to go out and chase some big game?

Not really into big game but it is only a few weeks away from taking a walk in the woods with my shotgun while scouting some potential ski lines. Never know when a grouse is going to pop up and I get to see how the old reflexes are working. Love it when a couple pop at once and I see how fast I can cycle the 870. Chasing yes, hitting maybe!

[gretch6364]

Grouse always scare the shit out of me! I have small game tips on a couple arrows with me during elk season and shoot a couple each season in the afternoon on the way back to camp. Obviously, I have not tried to hit one in flight.

[Yanos]

Just dropped my caribou for the season. Halfway through processing it.

Nice looking elk.

[gretch6364]

Congrats! Any pics?

[OldLarry]

Sold my 20 ga last fall after thinking I didn't use it enough anymore and most of the guys in hunted with have nicer guns they will lend me anyway. Kinda regret it, exactly as my brother said I would.

<braces for onslaught of insults>

[gatorboy]

^^OL guns are like dogs. Replace ASAP.

I am very much looking forward to the whitetail season starting in Oct. I'm going to a hunters safety class with my 9yr. old son soon (against mom's wishes). But that's why I picked up the sport 3 years ago...pass it on to my boys.

[Jer]

Wish we had more elk here in WI. I like deer, but elk gotsa lotsa meat and I'm all about the meat.

[Yanos]

Unfortunately the one thing I didn't haul back with us was a camera... I'm a dumbass.

[bigsugar]

Doing my first Elk hunt in OcTober. Pretty stoked, but also kind of lost, and therefor expecting more of a "learning experience" than any actual meat in the freezer. Should be fun anyways.

[The Reverend Floater]

Archery starts in two weeks for us. I've been watching my herd but the bulls haven't shown up yet...just a bunch of cows and a few rag horns. I have seen an unprecedented amount of muley bucks, though. I bumped into three the other night while scouting elk and saw an absolute monster on our ranch about a week ago.

On the bird front, Steve (my dog) is at the trainer, getting tuned up for the season. Grouse starts the same day as archery but Steve will be at training until around the 10th. So as soon as he gets back, it's elk/grouse/elk/grouse/elk repeat until archery ends.

Got a killer trip planned, too: Going white tail and bird hunting in MT with a buddy who's a BLM manager there and has access to all sorts of private land. Then driving to northern North Dakota to go waterfowl and upland hunting. Stoked.

Also, Steve just sired a litter of pups--he'll be humpin' again this winter if anyone is interested: http://www.glacierkennels.com/cards.html

[DasBlunt]

My buddy is a bow guide. I want to get out for sure one year.

[RoanMtnMan]

My group of friends that pass their time hunting, while waiting for enough snow to ski, are planning to hunt archery/loader and 2nd rifle if
needed, in the Sangres. We have taken 2 nice bulls and a cow in the past 3 seasons. Do any other mags hunt down there? I offer additional elk stoke. Which this thread needs!

[Happy Fun Ball]

Been scouting for whitetail all summer up here in the UP. So far I like what I'm seeing, but we've still got another month and a half to go before the bow opener. This is my favorite time to be in the big woods with the bugs pretty much all done (I fucking hate ticks!). As an added bonus the 20 acres we cut on our property about five years back seems to now be a woodcock heaven as me and the lab are flushing a ton of birds out of there on a regular basis. Back up to Ontario for our annual houseboat hunt the last week of October as well.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

Drew an early season rifle tag for muleys and the in-laws are coming up for closing weekend for the balloon festival so I've got the green light for a solo pack-in for the last 3-4 days of the season. I'd rather go in opening weekend but with the kiddo ruling the roost these days I'll take what I can get.

After that it's an either sex elk tag for first rifle and throwing streamers for some big brown trout until the snow flies. The longer I live here the more and more I think fall is becoming my favorite season.

[gretch6364]

Nice elk Roan....5x6??? or is his other whale's tail hiding on lookers left?

Nice to see a hunting thread up and going. I will post through out the season as things progress.

My dad always told me...NEVER sell a gun. I had one stolen, but other then that, I have every gun I have ever bought or he ever bought for me. I sold bows though.

The best advice I could give a new elk hunter...shoot the first legal elk you see...at least if you are in a state like CO with a super large herd, and trophy potential is low. I assume you did not accumulate pts and draw? Getting your first one down does wonders for the confidence....you don't get as many chances as you think on these animals!

I grew up hunting whitetail in Western PA. Stereotypical farm boy hunting. Archery hunted from the time I was 12 till I moved to CO...after school, go sit in my stand, etc. Then go up to the mountains to hunting camp with all the guys for the first couple days of rifle season. I still go back and do that with my dad...who came out for archery last year and missed a really nice 6X6 at 40 yards with his bow. Can't wait to put him on another one next year.

Anyhow, I loved whitetail hunting and understand not everyone has the chance to hunt elk every year...but archery hunting for elk has pretty much ruined any other kind of big game hunting for me. It is like hunting 800 pound turkeys.

You call and stalk, and work the animal...deer we always scouted, got in a stand and waited. I think we average about 4 to 8 miles a day hiking when we hunt elk. There is something indescribably awesome about sitting in a stand of yellow aspens or dark thick timber at 9000 ft in the Rockies with a 800 lbs bull screaming his lungs out at you....so much louder then you can ever imagine....so much adrenaline...makes all the hairs on your body stand up. I have never felt anything like it.

The elk picture from above from last year...we called him in...he ran right past my buddy and almost ran over his dad...shot him at like 9 yards, part hunting, part self preservation (mostly self imagined, obviously), all reaction. That bull was HOT.

Oh man...this gets me excited...7 more days and we will be driving and packing for the Friday night hike in. Went scouting two weeks ago, mid afternoon, and walked up on a bull, then a cow, then two cows out in a field with 4 calfs. The mild winter was good for the heard...the dryness...well, hopefully you can find somewhere with lots of water. The place we hunt was almost a swamp two weeks ago from all the natural springs in the two valleys we hunt.

Oh man.....STOKED.

[bigsugar]

HFB.....What's the deal with the Ontario hunt?

[Buke]

Two of the guys in my party drew cow tags for this falls modern elk season. I'm pretty stoked because it means we'll definitely have lots of meat in the freezer. I'm going scouting in a few weeks with my buddy who recently got a german shor hair and he's turning into quite a bird dog. Hoping we can get a few grouse during the scout.

[RoanMtnMan]

5x6. He was on the backside of his prime. An old guy indeed, but was still running a few cows. Your rack is nicer gretch, a weird thing to say to a guy. Looks like a very healthy animal.

The only things I planned on inheriting from my dad were a 12g, 30-30, .22, .410 and .50 muzzle. All were stolen shortly before he died. I replaced them all with my own funds and would never consider selling them. Even if you are dead broke and hungry, a gun will feed you. Turns out that I did inherit a very old recurve bow, when I take an elk with it I will declare badass status on TGR.

[irul&ublo]

<braces for onslaught of insults>

Like, "You're a pussy for shooting a girl's gun?"

[flyandski365]

Like, "You're a pussy for shooting a girl's gun?"

Got myself a bird for the early season. She's a female Red-tailed Hawk that came in to our facility after falling out of her nest and breaking a leg. Planning on killing a few bunnies with her and cutting her loose. Thinking of trapping a female Merlin for some dove hunting a little later.

Here she is, her personality has suggested the name "Animal", we'll see if she lives up to it in the field.

[Bunion 2020]

Got my Cow Tag,

FWP changed regs this year and made it a PITA to hunt cows but that's the plan.

Been seeing lot of animals around the property I work on and that's where I am hunting so I get to combine scouting and work.

[Jer]

Got myself a bird for the early season. She's a female Red-tailed Hawk that came in to our facility after falling out of her nest and breaking a leg. Planning on killing a few bunnies with her and cutting her loose. Thinking of trapping a female Merlin for some dove hunting a little later.

Here she is, her personality has suggested the name "Animal", we'll see if she lives up to it in the field.

Damn! That is rad as hell!

[P_McPoser]

I'm with Jer, that is fucking awesome.