Hunting Elk for the Meat & Adventure (2024 Expanded Hunt)

This was a 2024 elk hunt. I edited this a year ago, so if there's anything timesensitive, it's a year old. If you wait to watch this video, as if it's like a show or a movie, you'll probably enjoy it more. My goal is to show you the reality of an elk hunting adventure rather than just a kill. Lastly, my personal goal was not to film a hunt. It was to enjoy the hunt. So, forgive me for the less than perfect footage. This is the original reason I didn't post this video is because it felt too Jason Bourneesque, if you know what I mean. With that said, no more excuses. I hope you enjoy this 2024 four season Colorado elk rifle meet hunt. Enjoy the adventure. [Music] When the date is solidified of when the adventure is, start a list of things that you may want to take. That way, when it's time to actually pack, your list is fully created. Start packing early enough that you're fully ready 2 days in advance. This level of preparation doesn't mean to bring a ton of crap. As a matter of fact, you should use every single thing you brought. That'd be the perfect definition of being prepared. The only things I hope not to use are safety things, contingencies for safety, emergency blankets, communication satellite devices, and medical kits. But everything else, if you're not going to use it, don't bring it. And you can actually replace a lot of gear by learning a new skill. In a backpacking scenario, if you could sleep directly on the ground comfortably, then you don't need an air mattress. If you can sleep comfortably with a stuff sack with your extra clothes in it, you don't need a pillow. Not saying you should learn these skills, but if you have them and have done them before, then you can go without things and be just as comfortable as somebody who has them. This can give you a competitive advantage when going far back in the woods. And that's exactly what I do for archery hunting. But this is a car rifle hunt, not a backcountry backpacking archery hunt. On top of that, with snow, there's a lot more gear I may need to bring, including snowshoes, a sled to potentially hike out game, and even an electric chainsaw to have around camp so that we can process firewood. I'm even bringing an electric mountain bike because a lot of these roads get closed off for winter, so you can't drive on them, but you can still take this down one of the roads and get further in than other people. Plus, it's silent, unlike a dirt bike. With all this, the purpose of this adventure is to get some meat for the year. I've got a cow elk tag and my brother Cass has got a cow elk tag as well. I built a archery business for the past 5 years and Cass has been working for me the entire time. He actually just purchased that business from me. But today is not about business, it's about adventure. >> Yeah, you can definitely do that. That that works to get your string link. >> And our younger brother Creed's going to come join us. So, he will be our guide, so to speak. Sherpa, pack horse. Even though Creed is eight years younger than me, there's a decent chance he spent more time hunting in the woods than me. So, his advice on this trip will not be dismissed. The goal is twofold. Number one is to adventure. Have a good time. Number two is to get some meat. Don't need that one. You see, too much gear can slow you down, but not enough gear can make it so uncomfortable that you don't even enjoy the trip. This is an interesting dance to discover. But most of us definitely overpack. And most of the time we overpack is because we didn't take the time to plan. So last minute we think, "Oh, we might want this, we might need that without thinking through the full process of the actual likelihood to use it as well as what is the consequence if you don't have it?" And that's the question I ask myself. What am I missing out on if I don't have this thing? And sometimes not having that necessary thing actually makes the adventure more enjoyable. I see you watching me when we're with our friends. It's definitely something. [Music] >> So, are you ready? >> He just rip. What about this move? [Music] the car behind us. So maybe don't >> don't check. Yeah. Okay. Heated steering wheel. That's nice. My hands are freezing. If >> anybody needs any protein bites, got some protein balls. >> Nice. >> We divided responsibilities as any good brothers do. I brought dinner, Cass brought lunch, and Creed brought toaster strudles. And we all brought our own snacks to fill in the gaps. slip the bike cuz you can't see nothing. I hope it's doing it again. Hey, I didn't ask you to do that. I thought I turned you off. >> Was trying to turn around on a road when we were hunting once and it was like he had to do like a tinpoint turn and he was likeep beep. He slams on the brakes. Beep beep. Slams on the brakes and he like couldn't move. >> That's from Charlie Brown. >> It's like a robot. It is similar to the adults from Charlie Brown. We're down to 87 now. >> 87. Told you we were going to go back down here. Power left until our first dirt road until we start. I think it's more uh this is like the mountain highway now. So, we're off the main stuff. We are fairly new to elk hunting, all three of us, but we've primarily archery hunted and been within hundreds of yards dozens of times of elk. So, I'm hopeful for a rifle hunt that we'll be able to get some meat, but going in blindly to a brand new unit after the season has already started is a slight disadvantage. >> Yeah, it's a little faster, isn't it? >> Could we if the car was off? >> Not legally. >> But the these ones are a little bit different. Um I think maybe they made him a little stronger. >> And he's sewing really fast. And I was like, if I had to teach someone like on the sewing machine, >> that would have been months. >> Yeah. Months. And it's like the end of the road. This is my first time hunting this unit. As a matter of fact, most the tags in this unit are over the counter. We drove in on opening day of the fourth rifle season. The idea was to spend three hours scouting the roads for a camping site and for elk sign before we hunted the evening, but things didn't go as planned. Just camp right here. >> Yeah. >> I don't think I want to. >> Should we go check him? >> Stay right here, though. >> Wow. This is packed. >> Holy cow. Let's go. Let's pull that out. So, could El walking this or not? >> I don't know. I mean, I'm not leaving any tracks. >> I don't think they're leaving tracks. >> Okay. Do you guys think we get out of here? >> Yeah. Did you look at backing up where you can back up? >> No. >> Yeah. There's that road goes back to the right. You see it >> or >> Oh, yeah. So, you want to go back like 20 yards and then >> Okay. >> All right. I think I feel better about going out to go back in the same tracks so we don't slide as much. >> All right. Start turning. Keep turning a little more. Awesome. All righty. Let's get out of here. That means all these elk are herded up down low. >> Yep. That's uh >> goodness gracious. Might have 5 minutes of stress still. So, same page. Go down, find those tracks, and then go lower elevations than that, probably. >> Yeah, we can do that and we can go scout some other places. If we don't see anything better, then >> come back to them >> and go back and track them. >> Oh, what? >> That's what I'm thinking. It's like >> it's just like if you crash, you'll crash slower going uphill. >> I came here to relieve stuff, guys. Not to add it. >> It'll be fine. I'm not worried about crashing. I just don't want to get stuck. >> This is not a good place to get stuck. TripleA probably won't make it back here. >> It's a good Oh gosh. Hey All right. Well, we ran into someone. >> Say what? >> Anyway, he had to pull off throat so he didn't hit us. And now he's stuck. So, we're trying to help him out. And we're way back here. >> All right, we're going for it. Let's [Music] dig out. >> All right, time to dig out. I literally've been thinking about getting a winch for my truck. I think this experience pushes me over the edge. Thankfully, our new friend had tow straps, shovels, a comealong. Do we need to dig out more? >> We used the comealong connected to a tree to prevent it from sliding deeper into the covert. This is absolute nuts. Almost went in a ditch. This road isn't necessarily good. Lots of digging, lots of polling. It's high centered on the middle left. We even had to climb under his truck to cut off some trees he slid over. But eventually and slowly we made progress. >> Oh, one more. Here we go. Cass, the right side's pretty rough. >> Yeah. I had to go back. >> Do you think the truck's in four-wheel drive? >> His? >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> Let's go, baby. Oh, come on. Come on. >> Oh, no. >> Some more digging. [Applause] We're good. I think I think we're good forward. >> Yeah. Yeah. It should be enough time to turn now. >> So, if you back up >> Yeah, I can get some slack. >> So, he's coming around the corner here. I was coming up. He swerved off that way. Check this out on trying to pull him out. He couldn't get turned quick enough and got stuck down six feet down here. Look at this. Can't even see the road. But let's go shoot an elk, baby. Feels good to help people. Uh, stupidity level test. N out of 10. Running tennis shoes. Um, oh, I knew that it was only going to be like two hours, so I know my feet are numb now, but they'll be fine later. And the real boss >> took five minutes to prepare. >> I know like doing some snow boots. No, I'm good. >> Creed knew it was going to be 3 hours of digging. What was it? >> It was 2 hours. >> Time flies when you dig. Time flies. You're having fun. >> I'm still nervous cuz we're not clear yet. >> And the snow maybe a little bit more. And now we don't have a shovel. >> Well, >> we know where to find one. >> We know where to find them. >> I think we'll be okay. Just take it easy for like what, the next half mile and then it clears up. >> Yeah, about half a mile. Do we want to make sure they get out or see they're fine? Well, he said they're going to go to town and relax. Don't blame them after that. Oh, this is one of the worst parts here. Come on. At least we know he'll be coming back to help us. >> Come back. >> Yeah. Thumbs up on Santa. [Music] >> Once we got out of the deep snow, we parked to put on our gear and wait for the other truck to pass us. Once we knew they were in the clear, we decided to go to lower elevations to look for elk. There was a little bit of sign up high, but it was primarily lone bulls. And for this hunt, we have cow tags [Music] at spot number one. I can see a long ways, so I'm using the spotting scope. I didn't see like hardly any sign in here. Climbed up a big hill. The goal is just to get eyes on something. So, I can see a long ways and hopefully we will morning number one. We decided to continue our plan from yesterday. So, instead of going into a field and hunting this morning, we're going to scout as many locations as we can to try to find elk signed and get some eyes on some elk to be able to make a play this evening. Creed's going to the top to glass. I'm going to put the spotting scope here. Glass this as well as down here. Most of that's private, but we want to confirm that they're at lower elevations. [Music] Seriously. [Music] [Music] Nothing. Definitely. There was like I think if someone was to sit there all morning, you'd definitely see something. >> You think you would? You can see a good bunch of trails on the other side just on the private though. >> Okay. >> Going back up. >> Do you think you can see back to the public or no? >> I don't think you I have a map so I can't tell. So, it'd be a committed hunt for sure. Maybe an evening or something. How how many how far is it to the Cuz I I can see pretty far. I just didn't know. >> Oh, isn't that private? >> Half a mile. Half >> Oh, and then I could see too >> or just over half a mile. >> I can see really far. It was just a drop down. So, if there was any oak down there, I couldn't see them cuz >> Oh, yeah. >> could have been tucked in there out of the wind. So that could be a good kind of evening set for one of us to go back in there maybe. So >> okay. Should I stop and we should peek over on foot? You think just in case? >> Might be a great idea. >> Let's do that. >> Okay, let's go peek over the top here. You take the bike. We can false. Eyes on one. We're making a play. >> I just need my range finder. Do you have mine? Okay, I got mine now, too. I'm afraid there's going to be more back in this finger. So, we can't get hyperfocused on that one cow. >> I think one of you should go up and the other person should wrap around. >> Yeah. You want to do what? >> One person should go up to the top and shoot straight down. Other person should go this way just in case they cuz maybe they're gone by the time we get there. That person will be able to see where they went. All right. The faster we go, I think if we don't spook anything, we're totally going to get it. We're not going to spook anything. We can go fast for this first part and then when we get over there, we'll slow down. I'm busting over the mountain. It's really steep as I get over top up here. I think I might just cut him off. Wish me luck. >> Okay, let's keep going with caution. I'm at the top 835 yards away. Couple cows. So, I need to get a eye on where feeding cows are. Make sure I don't mess them up. I'm going to kind of flank them. All right, Cass. We're going to be really silhouetted with the with the sun shining right on us. We should just go slow. Let's try to stay behind that bush. Is that it right there? >> Yeah, that's it. Okay. Get get a range on it. I think this is a very good opportunity. >> You're not going to be able to. It's too tall. Just use this. >> I can try. >> Yeah. Just if you're not steady, if you're not comfortable, don't take the shot. Take off your backpack. He'll help you. >> Cass was just outside of his comfortable range. I could shoot, but it be risky. >> And with no more good cover between them and elk, they needed to back out slightly to get some brush between them and the elk so they could move closer. Okay, our wind's coming this way. Kramer's going to be up at the top soon. Um, ideally, we want to stay above it. And cats, you could be prone from the top also. So we can tell. Oh, he just shot. Go, go, go. Hustle, hustle. Right there. 425. Yeah. You still see it? I think so. I think Kramer got one though. That's awesome. There were so many. There's Kramer. He's up there right where that other one was. Check this out. Elk's down 50 yards behind me. I got within 220 yards. I uh hit it and it stunned it. So, it just sat there, but didn't fall over after a few seconds. So, took another shot. Then it walked over the hill so I couldn't see it. Thought I hit it again, but I wasn't sure. I've been wanting some meat for a long time. All righty, let's go. We were over there. I went up the back side of this through the trees. Pop out. Elk was right out here. Game over. They were It was the last two. The rest were in the trees. So, if I were 3 minutes later on my 20-minute stock, would have been game over. Not an easy hill. >> No. Did you get one? >> Yeah. >> It's only like 75 yards. >> Nice. >> I stunned it on the first shot and I thought it was going to be done for, but it mosied over the hill, so I took another shot. I did see it lay down, so I thought we were good to go. But then the unexpected happened. Better be there. Got to stop. >> I hear it in there. >> It's there. All right. >> Let's go back. How's that thing live? [Music] It didn't run. So, it's just barely moving. I go up on it, but it's so thick. I don't want to bump into thicker stuff. I mean, it's probably looking straight up the hill at us. The elk ran into thick stuff and I thought I saw it lay down. We thought we heard something moving in there. We don't know if it's the elk or not. So, we're just going to go back, get the game bags and the knives and stuff and then come back and go in there just in case something weird happened. Since I was pretty confident my elk was down, we let Cass stay at the location just in case he saw a different elk so that he could shoot as me and Creed went back to camp to get more gear. West. >> Got the sled. Got Creed. We're going to carry the sled through the valley and then leave it there. And then we can hike the elk down to the sled and then walk the main distance with the sled on snow, which will be nice. [Music] [Music] All right, go get our stuff. [Music] Let's go find this guy. >> Wait, you shot a bull? >> Uh, no. I hope not. What? Don't worry, I kind of leggings. >> He's been wearing underwear half the day. >> I wear underwear all day. Every time prediction for I don't think we think it's good. You see it? flood here. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good job, Kramer. >> It's not a small one. All right, Fletch. I got you some meat as requested. Let's take care of this bad boy. So, here's my next bow. Your next bow? >> Yeah. I'm going to keep this in you. >> All right. Sweet. Got one of the rock. >> Two, three, and that's full of meat, too. And it's only 12:30, so we got time for a new hunt. 1:00 p.m. Just got a pretty heavy pack on. I don't know, probably not super heavy. 80 lbs. Mind your life. >> Well, thankfully you pull the sled with this on. >> Yeah, I dropped my tag in the slide and you >> you just the sled. >> Well, then maybe you go without a trekking pole. >> Is the gun good? >> Yeah, it looks good. Yeah, >> it's kind of my shoulder a little bit, but as long as it's stable, not going that far. >> I think it might be easier if we drop down straight on backwards. >> Kind of go sidehill over here. Yeah, >> all right. >> Thank you for the life you've given us elk. >> Yeah, thank you. >> You will feed my family for a month. We cleaned the elk with the gutless method, but I still get as much meat as I possibly can, including brisket, neck meat, even the belly meat. Of course, tenderloins, backstraps, all the quarters, shank, all we can get. I like to make a lot of ground meat for jerky, sausages, hamburgers, things like that. >> All right, now we transfer all the meat to the sled. I'm pulling the whole log by myself right now. Makes it a lot easier. You just go and you have to run back to the truck and warm up again. >> You ever feel like you're being watched? Saw a group of 200. Oh, you can hold steady. But they were a mile on private, but they've been heading towards public. So, we drove around and now we're hiking through this steep snow trying to cut them off in case they make it to public to bed. Maybe they'll just stop early, but it's worth a shot. We bump three elk in the dark timber. Then about an hour later, three elk ran off of public onto private land because they got our wind. What was interesting this day is that our OnX maps did not match up with the actual land. So, right as we approached the elk at 250 yards, we ran into a fence with no trespassing signs. This was disappointing cuz we thought we could shoot these elk, but they were actually on private land. [Music] [Music] It's nice having a teenager come along. They remind you how to have fun. [Music] I see you watching me when we're with our friends. It's definitely something in the air. So, let's take it from there. Cuz I know you wanted it. Afraid to let it show. And I know you need it. When I let it grow, grow. [Music] la. [Music] [Music] I see you. I see you. I see you. Something in the air. I think it's time we stop tpping on our toes. Was only about sugar cuz I don't know. I don't know you want it. I'm afraid to let it show and I know you need it. Why don't we let it grow? Why don't we let it? Why don't we let it grow grow? It grows stronger for every day. We just can't give it away. [Music] I see you watching without [Music] I see I see I see something [Music] I see something in the air. It is [Music] [Music] I think it's time to [Music] know where it grow [Music] shoulder. Let's go. We got him. [Music] So, we got steaks and roast there. Bunch of ground here. There's also more meat in the freezer at home. I think it's time to debrief. Still finishing up on packing, but the first goal was to adventure and we accomplished that. The second goal was to get some meat and we accomplished that as well. Unfortunately, Cass wasn't able to get an elk, but we got close. very close. I found it quite interesting because there was a lot of elk that we could see on private land, but they wouldn't come all the way over to the public land. So, we had eyes on two or 300 elk in these big herds. And it's it's like they knew they would just sit there at 500, 300, 800 yards from public land and live. But it did make me think like how different everyone's hunting experience is cuz we were hunting public land, but there was quite a bit of private around. As a matter of fact, there was like a 4,000 acre ranch right next to the public land. And the public land form like a U-shape around this ranch. And on one of the hunts, we're sitting there watching a herd of elk on public land. And we see this guy well after sunrise drive up park, walk a couple hundred yards up to hill, sit down, shoot an elk on his land, go grab it. It was like this guy has been doing this for 40 years. And there's a good likelihood he does. He goes out one day every year, maybe two, and shoots an elk because they all gather up right on his land. Now, contrast that with some of the hunters who are around us. In 4 days, we saw at least 50 hunters in a six square mile area where we were hunting, which is about the same acreage that this one guy was hunting. So, all 50 of us are pushing these elk around and they're starting to gather on the private and then he just walks out there and has a jolly good day. But I recognize location matters so much. So for me, I think like what part of that public land are hunters not going, are those 50 not going that those elk are also still gathering up on that is kind of treated like the private land. And I think that's where people who are successful elk hunting end up going on public land. There was a lot of elk in this area, but there was also a lot of hunters. I guess what I'm saying is the experience can be so different. One person can say, "Oh, elk hunting is easy." Someone else can say it's extremely hard. But it depends how you're doing it, where you're doing it, what access you have, what weapons you're using, etc. It's like I grew up hunting this piece of public land for whitetail. And I would see a deer every four hunts. I'd get skunked, see nothing for four hunts in a row. And when I saw one, it was unbelievably amazing. Now, Creed has access to a bunch of private land places now. And if he doesn't see 10 deer, it's probably a bad hunt for him. So, same area, but in one scenario is competing with 30 other hunters in the small little area. In another scenario, private farms, big difference. I think that's something we should get better at as far as judging other people because with the internet, you'll see people who um maybe get really excited like me about getting a cow elk. But that's my second one ever. I'm new to it and that's very, very exciting for me. where someone like that private land guy, he might have a uh bull tag and he doesn't take anything small at all. He only takes massive bulls because he's so easy in that specific opportunity that he has. And online, you get one person showing up saying, "Oh, elk hunting's easy." And then somebody else sharing their experience and like, "Hey, I ran into 40 hunters and saw two elk on a 10-day hunt." That's very real. But from my perspective, one doesn't have to be extremely more enjoyable than the other. It's more about your your mindset around the adventure when you start. I always find more elk when I go to learn about the elk. In the years that I've tried to shoot an elk, which is primarily with a traditional bow, and that's been the big focus. There's so much pressure on getting so close that I set up in many locations where I never even see elk. I know if one comes close, I can probably get a shot, but I'm not gathering any information. But with this rifle hunt, we were able to gather so much information because I knew if I saw one a mile away, there's a good chance I could stock up and shoot it. And I felt like I learned a lot more about how the elk behave because I wasn't committing so much to a single wallow or something. It was a really good learning experience for me. And when I go to learn, I end up having more fun because I have proper expectations. That's where I'm at right now. So, this video as a personal journal from the perspective of what I'm trying to learn is I' I've learned a couple of things. First thing is when I have the mindset to go adventure, I'm not let down when things don't go as planned. when we need to stop and help somebody who's stuck in the snow for a few hours, which keeps us from scouting, which means we run out for a quick 1-hour hunt in the evening, come down to the car, have to find a campsite in 10° weather at nighttime in the dark, wake up the next morning, have no clue where to hunt, completely blind in a brand new area. So, we start scouting in the morning. So, we're already set back a day basically because of what was unexpected. Is not a disaster if you have the right mindset. It's an adventure. And what do you know? It turned out great that exact morning going in blind. We found out from a four-wheel drive trail. We spotted them at like 800 or 1,000 yards from the parking spot. They were kind of moving away from us. It took 20 minutes to get there on the stock when hunting, but when we walked out from where we shot the elk, it was about a 45minute walk. So, that's lesson one, adventure. Lesson two for me and three potentially is some elk lessons. I've learned that when you get eyes on elk, you need to ask yourself, what are they doing? In which direction are they going doing that? Are they about to bed down? Are they feeding? Are they walking to their beds? It's generally one of those three, unless you're in the rut. So on this hunt, they were walking towards their beds while feeding. When we saw them, that's what they were doing. And they were doing the exact same thing 20 minutes later. So with this in mind, I think it's the reason I got a shot instead of Cass is because I went to where they were going and Cass went to where they were. This was Creed's idea and it was a good one. The next thing I learned is that it seems like the elk held up in a specific elevation range. In this area, it was 8 to 9,000 feet of elevation. We went down to like a 7,000 foot area and it was just a lot more mu deer, not near as much elk sign. And when we got above 9,000 ft, it started getting to a foot, 2 foot of snow. We looked at some stuff up at about 10 three and it was just too much snow. There's hardly any tracks in there. Probably just some lone bulls who haven't come down yet. Once we knew that, it was easier to locate elk because we knew where to look. I tend to overwork when I hunt, so I'll just go super far in to a remote location thinking it's going to be good. That's not necessarily the case. It can be good, but then you're fully committed for like an entire day. What we did on this trip that was beneficial is take the time to scout and look around, drive around, get to know the area since we were going in blind, and this helped us to gather as much context and information as possible before starting to hunt. It would have just been a matter of time before we shot an elk with Cass if we had more time. So there you go. That's 2024 fourth rifle season elk hunt adventure.