Colorado Wilderness 6x6 Bull Elk

Incredible pictures! Weminuche is one of my favorite parts of CO. Major props sir for packing out all of that weight in such rugged terrain.

Can you post some details about your rifle/optics? Is it custom?
 
Congrats! You really earned that bull! I returned to hunting too late in life to risk both knees and back on the solo pack out you did, so am envious. Without writing about it, your story also speaks volumes about your dedication to physical fitness and marksmanship preparation. The hours you put in on both earned big rewards!
 
A few years ago I started scouting in the Weminuche, Colorado's biggest Wilderness area, with plans for a bull elk hunt. I was hesitant to hunt this huge country alone but could never find anybody willing to backpack hunt so deep into the Wilderness with me. So this year I finally decided to just go for it, and hunt it solo with a 1st season rifle bull tag I was lucky enough to draw.

I packed in Thursday before opening day, and the 11 mile hike through snow took a full 5 hours. I set up camp around 9000 feet in the valley floor, and the heavy snow in the big mountains above my camp had pushed a lot of elk down. Bulls were bugling all around me on Friday night. Opening morning I pushed a little too quickly at first light and bumped a bull and his herd. I got him to bugle back and forth with me a few times, but his cows just moved off and he followed. So I gained 900 feet of elevation and climbed out to a rock outcropping that gave me a fantastic vantage point to hopefully find some bulls moving in the valley floor below me.

Turns out that bull I bumped had climbed up the steep mountains exactly on the opposite side of the valley from me. I glassed the herd moving up around 7:45 am, and could tell one of the elk was a bull from body size and color, but my small 8x binocs couldn't see any antlers. So I set up my 15x56 Swaro's on my tripod, and could see antlers right as the herd bedded down around 8am. The bull bedded down with several trees completely covering his body. I ranged those trees at 1120 yards, got my rifle set up, and had plenty of time to open the AB app on my phone and input every variable and check everything over several times for accuracy.

After 5 long hours, the cows all started to feed up the hill and out of sight. The bull had to stand up and take a couple of steps to give me a clear shot. And that's exactly what he did. I let the first shot fly, and then quickly another. The shade from the trees on the steep hillside made the bullet trace disappear before it reached the bull, so I couldn't see the impact. He took a step quartered towards me, so I fired a 3rd shot holding hard on his shoulder. He took another few steps and now his body was totally covered by trees again, with only his neck visible and nearly facing directly towards me. I could now see the snow stained bright red where the bull was standing for the first two shots. with my crosshairs only inches from the tree covering his body, I touched off the 4th shot aiming directly at the neck where the dark hair transitions to light tan. Upon impact, the bull stumbled to the ground, and never stood back up.

Took me a while to get over to the bull, but he was dead only a handful of yards from where he was bedded for 5 hours. All 4 shots were perfect for windage and maybe 3-4 inches low. The bull was deeper under the trees that I could range, so the shot was closer to 1130 yards than the 1120 yards I had dialed for. My guess was 1127 yards, which would account for the slightly low impact. First two shots hit right behind the shoulder where I was aiming, the first shot exited, the 2nd shot stopped at the hide on the far side.

It took me the rest of the day Saturday to quarter and cape the bull, and all day Sunday to debone all of the meat and get it packed about a mile down the hillside to the trail near my camp. Then Monday through wedensday I took 4 full trips back to the truck with my gear, all of the meat and the head and hide. Just packing out took 85 miles of hiking, and for the entire hunt I was very close to 100 miles.

I started a thread about the bullet performance here:
https://longrangehunting.com/threads/338-270gr-eld-x.210267/

Here's some pics from the hunt.

The shot setup looking across the valley
View attachment 110714

The bull was a nice little 6x6
View attachment 110715

Looking back where I shot from
View attachment 110716

Deboned quarters
View attachment 110717

My rifle, Kifaru Mountain Warrior and head
View attachment 110718

Everything hanging for the night
View attachment 110719

The final load... head, hide and some meat
View attachment 110720

Creek running through the valley
View attachment 110722
Great job buddy. That will be a hunt you remember for a lifetime. What a beautiful place.
 
Super impressive hunt with a happy ending! As many others have already commented, you have accomplished something that a very small fraction of the hunting population could ever do. Congratulations!
 
Congratulations!

Is that the Los Pinos River? That's a crazy pack-out and what a beautiful area. I've fished up there in the summer and always thought about a backcountry hunt there. How many years did it take for you to draw that area? I've always been intimated taking long range shots across valley's like that due to the varying wind conditions/thermals etc. I'm not at the skill level of folks on this form and am in awe about folks who can take these types of shots. I took my AZ Bull at 10,000' 487 yds 11 deg up across a steep valley. I passed on a huge AZ bull 800' below me from 11,400' at 519 yds with my .300WM. Any good guidance or references you would recommend on taking steep shots? Thanks in advance and Congratulations again!
 
Incredible pictures! Weminuche is one of my favorite parts of CO. Major props sir for packing out all of that weight in such rugged terrain.

Can you post some details about your rifle/optics? Is it custom?

Yes, the San Juans's are incredible mountains, and played a role in choosing to hunt down there.

Here's the specs on my 338 RUM.

The barreled action was built by Jim Borden using his Borden Timberine Magnum action.
27" #4 contour Hart barrel
Terminator T3 brake
McM Game Scout w/ Edge fill
(14.125" LOP)
Jewel trigger @ 2.5#
Borden aluminum scope rail
NF ultralight rings
Leupold VX6HD 3-18x50 Impact-29
Vortex bubble level

Also have a small 2 inch picatiny rail mounted to dual studs in the front/forearm of the stock, and use a Harris bipod with a quick release picatiny adapter. I carry the rifle in a Kifaru Gun Bearer while I hunt and the bipod stored inside the pack.

7.75 lbs bare rifle

9.5-9.6 lbs fully outfitted w/ scope, rail and rings.

Load:
Hornady 270gr ELD-X, seated with .010 jump to lands
2855 FPS MV with 95gr RL-33
GM215M primers
Nosler brass, FL resized with Redding bushing dies to get .002" interference.
Redding Competition Shellholders to control shoulder bump.
Necks annealed after every firing, prior to FL resize.
Redding sizing wax applied to inside of necks just prior to seating bullet.
 
Congratulations!

Is that the Los Pinos River? That's a crazy pack-out and what a beautiful area. I've fished up there in the summer and always thought about a backcountry hunt there. How many years did it take for you to draw that area? I've always been intimated taking long range shots across valley's like that due to the varying wind conditions/thermals etc. I'm not at the skill level of folks on this form and am in awe about folks who can take these types of shots. I took my AZ Bull at 10,000' 487 yds 11 deg up across a steep valley. I passed on a huge AZ bull 800' below me from 11,400' at 519 yds with my .300WM. Any good guidance or references you would recommend on taking steep shots? Thanks in advance and Congratulations again!

All the stars aligned for the cross-canyon Shot to give me relatively calm conditions. The biggest wildcard is the wind, not the shooting angle, as the hillside you are standing on is blocking the wind to some degree so you can't determine full wind speed. For this shot I was on a rock outcropping that really pushed me out from the face of the hillside, and I had a perfect crosswind shooting directly across the canyon. I also was shooting to nearly the same elevation on the other side of the canyon. I was hoping for a closer shot that would have had a very steep downhill angle, and I would have just input the angle into my AB app.

My logic is I carry a trajectory card with distances out to 800 yards. And I'll only use it if the variables of the shot are all very similar to how I printed the card (flat shot, relatively similar absolute pressure, latitude, azimuth, etc). Once things get complicated, I always open up my AB app to input each variable. It's slower, but if I don't have the time to open the app and input the variables, then I shouldn't be taking the shot anyways.
 
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A few years ago I started scouting in the Weminuche, Colorado's biggest Wilderness area, with plans for a bull elk hunt. I was hesitant to hunt this huge country alone but could never find anybody willing to backpack hunt so deep into the Wilderness with me. So this year I finally decided to just go for it, and hunt it solo with a 1st season rifle bull tag I was lucky enough to draw.

I packed in Thursday before opening day, and the 11 mile hike through snow took a full 5 hours. I set up camp around 9000 feet in the valley floor, and the heavy snow in the big mountains above my camp had pushed a lot of elk down. Bulls were bugling all around me on Friday night. Opening morning I pushed a little too quickly at first light and bumped a bull and his herd. I got him to bugle back and forth with me a few times, but his cows just moved off and he followed. So I gained 900 feet of elevation and climbed out to a rock outcropping that gave me a fantastic vantage point to hopefully find some bulls moving in the valley floor below me.

Turns out that bull I bumped had climbed up the steep mountains exactly on the opposite side of the valley from me. I glassed the herd moving up around 7:45 am, and could tell one of the elk was a bull from body size and color, but my small 8x binocs couldn't see any antlers. So I set up my 15x56 Swaro's on my tripod, and could see antlers right as the herd bedded down around 8am. The bull bedded down with several trees completely covering his body. I ranged those trees at 1120 yards, got my rifle set up, and had plenty of time to open the AB app on my phone and input every variable and check everything over several times for accuracy.

After 5 long hours, the cows all started to feed up the hill and out of sight. The bull had to stand up and take a couple of steps to give me a clear shot. And that's exactly what he did. I let the first shot fly, and then quickly another. The shade from the trees on the steep hillside made the bullet trace disappear before it reached the bull, so I couldn't see the impact. He took a step quartered towards me, so I fired a 3rd shot holding hard on his shoulder. He took another few steps and now his body was totally covered by trees again, with only his neck visible and nearly facing directly towards me. I could now see the snow stained bright red where the bull was standing for the first two shots. with my crosshairs only inches from the tree covering his body, I touched off the 4th shot aiming directly at the neck where the dark hair transitions to light tan. Upon impact, the bull stumbled to the ground, and never stood back up.

Took me a while to get over to the bull, but he was dead only a handful of yards from where he was bedded for 5 hours. All 4 shots were perfect for windage and maybe 3-4 inches low. The bull was deeper under the trees that I could range, so the shot was closer to 1130 yards than the 1120 yards I had dialed for. My guess was 1127 yards, which would account for the slightly low impact. First two shots hit right behind the shoulder where I was aiming, the first shot exited, the 2nd shot stopped at the hide on the far side.

It took me the rest of the day Saturday to quarter and cape the bull, and all day Sunday to debone all of the meat and get it packed about a mile down the hillside to the trail near my camp. Then Monday through wedensday I took 4 full trips back to the truck with my gear, all of the meat and the head and hide. Just packing out took 85 miles of hiking, and for the entire hunt I was very close to 100 miles.

I started a thread about the bullet performance here:
https://longrangehunting.com/threads/338-270gr-eld-x.210267/

Here's some pics from the hunt.

The shot setup looking across the valley
View attachment 110714

The bull was a nice little 6x6
View attachment 110715

Looking back where I shot from
View attachment 110716

Deboned quarters
View attachment 110717

My rifle, Kifaru Mountain Warrior and head
View attachment 110718

Everything hanging for the night
View attachment 110719

The final load... head, hide and some meat
View attachment 110720

Creek running through the valley
View attachment 110722
Wow! Beautiful country and nice bull! Congratulations!
 
Great hunt with memories for a lifetime!
Were there many scavenger tracks around? Did you have much worry of having the kill stolen, or is the country devoid of scavengers?
 
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