Back from CO

[FLS]

Just got back from an awesome hunt. I drew a muzzleloader tag in CO this year for a unit I’ve hunted a couple of times in the past. I decided I would use a packer to haul me and my gear in and hopefully haul and elk out. Drop me off and come get me a week later. A Good decision that made for a much more comfortable week of hunting than living out of a backpack eating dehydrated meals. The unit we hunted only has two access pointsand neither is close to where the game actually lives.
We got camp set up the afternoon before season opened and glassed a couple bears the first evening near camp. About midnight we had a bull blowing it up right outside of camp and we were stoked for the next day. Long story short, I called in a 4 x 5 bull the first morning but switching thermals got me busted just feet before he stepped into my shooting lane. My cousin stumbled into a bugle fest and had 3 bulls chasing a hot cow in some thick stuff and never got a shot. Not a bad first day of hunting.
Next morning we headed back to the scene of the bugle fest and caught up with a stud of a bull pushing his cows down a drain to a little hill covered with a tangle of junipers. That was by far the biggest elk I’ve ever seen in person alive or dead. A Big 6x6 that I would guess was 350 +. I made the decision that was elk I wanted.
Long story short I hunted that elk all week, passing up opportunities at another smaller bull. The pattern was the same leave camp before dark and haul ass down the mountain trying to get in front of him on the way to bed in the juniper and oak brush jungle, find a shady spot downwind and wait all day till dark when he headed back up the mountain to water and feed. As the week pressed on and the weather warmed he was heading down earlier, and heading up later. I was watching him pass in the dark, but CO rules mean iron sights on your muzzy and I never had a shot I was comfortable with. In hindsight, I might should have given up on the big bull and tried to get on a lesser bull and not eat tag soup. Coulda shoulda.
It was still a great trip. I saw bears every day, grouse, mule deer, caught cutthroats till I was tired of catching them in a little alpine lake, and enjoyed a week in some of gods finest creation. Drank some good whiskey, ate some good food, enjoyed some cool weather and never had a single gnat or mosquito buzz around my head for a week in September. Heaven. All DIY on our public lands. Can’t wait to go back.