First big game hunt in CO for the HP
Dec 21, 2017 13:44:03 GMT -5
Woody Williams, duff, and 6 more like this
Post by SFC (R) B on Dec 21, 2017 13:44:03 GMT -5
So, as many of you know, this year HP got drawn for her first big game tag here in CO and I had a rifle built for her in anticipation. She drew an RFW tag for a cow on a ranch outside of Craig. I am a little familiar with the area as I had hunted a neighboring ranch a few years ago. This was the ONLY hunt I could get her on that lined up with time off from school for her
Friday we loaded up and headed to Craig. It was a nice smooth drive filled with some good daddy-time. HP is 13 this year and not really my little girl anymore. The conversations are a little different and (I have to admit) not as easy as they were a few years ago. I am lucky that she likes hunting and shooting so we always have some common ground. We rolled into Craig about on time and headed to the pre-hunt briefing location. We got in line to be briefed and assigned an area of the ranch to hunt. The ranch manager and hand were friendly and straight forward about what our main challenge would be......our vehicle. Given the amount of equipment we had to take there was no way to do it in the jeep so we had to take mama's Pilot. It is a good vehicle and 4x4 with electronic lockout but on AS tires with not-so-much ground clearance. Large parts of the ranch would be out of access. There are always limitations to hunts and this was ours. We headed to the hotel, checked in, got a quick dinner then prepped our stuff for the morning before nodding off.
Saturday morning we were up and moving as easily as one can get a 13 yo girl moving Saw deer almost from the moment we got into the vehicle. The drive to our assigned area was about 20 minutes and there were animals the whole way. As shooting light came on we hiked up a hillside to a knob for a vantage point over some terrain that the ranch hand had said he saw a cow on a couple of days prior. There were deer out and about around us for the first hour or 2 before they headed off to bed. It was an overcast and chilly morning but great to be out with HP while she had her rifle in hand in earnest for the first time. Lunchtime came and we walked down to eat in the truck. After lunch and a little relax time, we crossed the small valley we had parked in and hiked to the top of a large ridge that had been opposite us in the morning. Again, deer sign everywhere. As we crested the ridge the back side opened up into a huge bowl area with several smaller ridges and lots of draws emptying into it. Lots of ground to glass. We spent the rest of the day watching country and looking at deer. We headed into town with sundown to grab some Chinese food and work on the plan for the next day. After talking HP told me she liked the big ridge top and wanted to go back in the morning.
Sunday found us climbing the big ridge in a tiny bit of spitting snow and a light wind. There were 5 or 6 deer feeding in the exact spot we were headed to to sit and glass. As we made our way they sauntered over the top. At the top we planted ourselves and got to looking and watching. Quiet all morning led HP to ask if we could scope out some more terrain as we ate lunch. I said sure. So, we got out the map and tried to figure out how we could see into as much country as possible from the roads we could access. I am NOT one to road hunt generally but given the amount of terrain we had to cover and the fact that it was almost all rolling hills with grass and sage there weren't any real "attractive" areas to concentrate on. Our route for the afternoon took us all through the area. We continued to see a bunch of deer and moving a showed us lots of pronghorn as well. Animals for the day numbered in the hundreds.....just none of the right type for us. We headed in to the hotel to clean up and then went to Italian for dinner. HP said that in the morning she wanted to call the ranch hand and see if we could try and entirely different assigned area. I told her it was her hunt and we sure could.
First thing Monday morning we got a hold of the hand and he directed us to where some folks had taken some elk already. Again, much of it we could not access but he gave us some direction for skirting the area that could turn up a wandering cow here and there. The new area turned out to be adjacent to the ranch I had hunted previously and I was a little more familiar with it. On the drive out we continued to see both deer and goats (if ONLY she had either of those tags ). coming around one big sweeping corner of the state road we were on I had the biggest case of deja vu in my entire life. There on an expansive hillside off to our right was a huge herd of something that I KNEW were elk. On my previous hunt I had been to this exact spot and seen elk in the SAME PLACE. On that hunt onX told me that was NOT the ranch I was hunting and led to the cruelty of watching over a thousand elk no more than 400m from my "shooter" line and the sun set on my final day. Could it be happening again? I got out the map and got oriented. Unless I was way off those elk WERE on our ranch and there was a corner of the property where we could get access. I called to ask the hand if the access point I found was good. He said that yes the access point was good BUT (one of the biggest buts of my life ) that section of the ranch was closed to hunting permanently. I will abstain from typing the expletive I let out ...but it was LOUD and it wasn't "frick". He apologized and said the herd numbered around 1500-2000 and stayed out on the fields pretty much all the time. His suggestion was a natural corridor that stragglers would sometimes take onto a "huntable" portion of the ranch. It was kinda a gut punch to HP. We finally found elk but it was just a big tease. We spent the afternoon glassing draws and bottoms throughout the adjacent huntable land seeing nothing but more deer and lopes. As we drove into town for the final time I apologized to HP for not being able to get onto a shootable cow. She smiled and said it was ok, we had spent time out in the wild and she was in no hurry. What a sweet and wise young lady Although I still wish she had been able to harvest a cow there is no way I could call this anything other than a success. Here are some pics I took.....the ones that show open hillsides with a LOT of dark spots on them are the ELK!
imgur.com/0dySU2F
imgur.com/r9oCyg4
imgur.com/MrCejsz
imgur.com/wthOjkU
imgur.com/e2UBc5q
imgur.com/2TPQRPS
imgur.com/ocRmyT3
imgur.com/bPcQTij
imgur.com/zpZFRzi
imgur.com/ByCfidp
imgur.com/7Q4PRke
imgur.com/qpd92Dp
imgur.com/dZJo7ql
imgur.com/nh4K7Hv
Friday we loaded up and headed to Craig. It was a nice smooth drive filled with some good daddy-time. HP is 13 this year and not really my little girl anymore. The conversations are a little different and (I have to admit) not as easy as they were a few years ago. I am lucky that she likes hunting and shooting so we always have some common ground. We rolled into Craig about on time and headed to the pre-hunt briefing location. We got in line to be briefed and assigned an area of the ranch to hunt. The ranch manager and hand were friendly and straight forward about what our main challenge would be......our vehicle. Given the amount of equipment we had to take there was no way to do it in the jeep so we had to take mama's Pilot. It is a good vehicle and 4x4 with electronic lockout but on AS tires with not-so-much ground clearance. Large parts of the ranch would be out of access. There are always limitations to hunts and this was ours. We headed to the hotel, checked in, got a quick dinner then prepped our stuff for the morning before nodding off.
Saturday morning we were up and moving as easily as one can get a 13 yo girl moving Saw deer almost from the moment we got into the vehicle. The drive to our assigned area was about 20 minutes and there were animals the whole way. As shooting light came on we hiked up a hillside to a knob for a vantage point over some terrain that the ranch hand had said he saw a cow on a couple of days prior. There were deer out and about around us for the first hour or 2 before they headed off to bed. It was an overcast and chilly morning but great to be out with HP while she had her rifle in hand in earnest for the first time. Lunchtime came and we walked down to eat in the truck. After lunch and a little relax time, we crossed the small valley we had parked in and hiked to the top of a large ridge that had been opposite us in the morning. Again, deer sign everywhere. As we crested the ridge the back side opened up into a huge bowl area with several smaller ridges and lots of draws emptying into it. Lots of ground to glass. We spent the rest of the day watching country and looking at deer. We headed into town with sundown to grab some Chinese food and work on the plan for the next day. After talking HP told me she liked the big ridge top and wanted to go back in the morning.
Sunday found us climbing the big ridge in a tiny bit of spitting snow and a light wind. There were 5 or 6 deer feeding in the exact spot we were headed to to sit and glass. As we made our way they sauntered over the top. At the top we planted ourselves and got to looking and watching. Quiet all morning led HP to ask if we could scope out some more terrain as we ate lunch. I said sure. So, we got out the map and tried to figure out how we could see into as much country as possible from the roads we could access. I am NOT one to road hunt generally but given the amount of terrain we had to cover and the fact that it was almost all rolling hills with grass and sage there weren't any real "attractive" areas to concentrate on. Our route for the afternoon took us all through the area. We continued to see a bunch of deer and moving a showed us lots of pronghorn as well. Animals for the day numbered in the hundreds.....just none of the right type for us. We headed in to the hotel to clean up and then went to Italian for dinner. HP said that in the morning she wanted to call the ranch hand and see if we could try and entirely different assigned area. I told her it was her hunt and we sure could.
First thing Monday morning we got a hold of the hand and he directed us to where some folks had taken some elk already. Again, much of it we could not access but he gave us some direction for skirting the area that could turn up a wandering cow here and there. The new area turned out to be adjacent to the ranch I had hunted previously and I was a little more familiar with it. On the drive out we continued to see both deer and goats (if ONLY she had either of those tags ). coming around one big sweeping corner of the state road we were on I had the biggest case of deja vu in my entire life. There on an expansive hillside off to our right was a huge herd of something that I KNEW were elk. On my previous hunt I had been to this exact spot and seen elk in the SAME PLACE. On that hunt onX told me that was NOT the ranch I was hunting and led to the cruelty of watching over a thousand elk no more than 400m from my "shooter" line and the sun set on my final day. Could it be happening again? I got out the map and got oriented. Unless I was way off those elk WERE on our ranch and there was a corner of the property where we could get access. I called to ask the hand if the access point I found was good. He said that yes the access point was good BUT (one of the biggest buts of my life ) that section of the ranch was closed to hunting permanently. I will abstain from typing the expletive I let out ...but it was LOUD and it wasn't "frick". He apologized and said the herd numbered around 1500-2000 and stayed out on the fields pretty much all the time. His suggestion was a natural corridor that stragglers would sometimes take onto a "huntable" portion of the ranch. It was kinda a gut punch to HP. We finally found elk but it was just a big tease. We spent the afternoon glassing draws and bottoms throughout the adjacent huntable land seeing nothing but more deer and lopes. As we drove into town for the final time I apologized to HP for not being able to get onto a shootable cow. She smiled and said it was ok, we had spent time out in the wild and she was in no hurry. What a sweet and wise young lady Although I still wish she had been able to harvest a cow there is no way I could call this anything other than a success. Here are some pics I took.....the ones that show open hillsides with a LOT of dark spots on them are the ELK!
imgur.com/0dySU2F
imgur.com/r9oCyg4
imgur.com/MrCejsz
imgur.com/wthOjkU
imgur.com/e2UBc5q
imgur.com/2TPQRPS
imgur.com/ocRmyT3
imgur.com/bPcQTij
imgur.com/zpZFRzi
imgur.com/ByCfidp
imgur.com/7Q4PRke
imgur.com/qpd92Dp
imgur.com/dZJo7ql
imgur.com/nh4K7Hv
