HUNT: Colorado Cow Elk Hunt
CONSULTANT: Outdoors International
December 2017
The hunt was great. Our guide’s name was Randy. He was a native and had grown up hunting. His father was also a guide. We were hunting on private property in Colorado on a Twenty Thousand Acre Ranch.
It was everything and more than I expected the lodging was great the food was good the guide was an experienced elk hunter who had lived in the area all his life and had hunted all his life in Colorado. He knew the area and he knew how to get the elk to respond never have I ever seen anything like that. Unbelievable we also saw beautiful landscape plenty of mule deer plenty of antelope saw a few mule deer that would go over 200 in saw some big bull elk. I took my father with me he is 87 years old he is always wanted to go out west to go elk hunting. He had the time of his life! Thanks Outdoors International for a great experience will be doing that again.
The first day we rode around and spotted with binoculars
and spotting scope.
and spotting scope
.The landscape was beautiful. It looked like something out of the western movies back when I was a kid. I was thinking at any moment the Indians would come riding out of those hills. We didn’t see any elk the first day, but we saw some mule deer and some antelope. Some of the mule deer that we saw were over 200 inch mule deer. We sat and watched them for awhile. They were chasing some does. A smaller buck would try to come in and steal them, but he would have nothing to do with that.
On the second morning we saw three big bulls.
We had a cow tagged, but the big bulls were magnificent animals. They had long white tips on the end of their antlers. That afternoon we spotted two bulls and about eight cows up on a mountain so we climbed up on a mountain adjacent to where they were. There was a canyon in between us. We were about 12 to fifteen hundred yards from where the cows were. It was dead still with no wind. Randy my guide unbuttoned his shirt and pulled out a little call that looked like a duck call
. He blew the call two or three times and then looked with his binoculars to see the reaction of the cows. I was looking through the scope and saw a cow starting to come down the side of the mountain and then there were three more following behind her. This was about 4:15 in the afternoon. They didn’t seem to be in any hurry. They would walk down a few yards, stop and eat a little bit. Randy would blow the call again, then they would come down a little bit more. Finally they reached a rock face cliff, which was about 300 yards straight down to the bottom of the canyon, I looked at Randy and whispered maybe tomorrow morning they’ll be down here in this Canyon and we can get a shot at them, about that time one of them jumped off the side of that cliff into the brush and the other three followed her.
I looked at Randy and said they’re coming Randy.
Move me over to a rock where I can get a good shot when they come out down in the bottom of the canyon. He had a rangefinder
he range down in a clearing where we thought they would come out. He said it’s 488 yards. I looked at him like he was crazy. I said I ain’t never shot anything that far. I was shooting a 270 Remington pump 150 grain Remington core lock. I had a dial on my scope so I dialed it into 500 yards. I guess it took another 10 minutes before they got down to the bottom and when they come out of that bottom they were all running. Randy blew his call and they stopped. He said shoot! I fired and they all took off running. Randy said you hit low. I jacked another bullet in her and all of a sudden they turned around and started running back the way they had come. I swear she stopped at about the same place I shot at her the first time. This time I aimed a little bit higher and squeezed her off this time. The elk staggered to the right about 5 feet and fell over. I looked at Randy, he looked at me and said good shot. I said the only reason we got that elk is because God wanted me to have her.
We went down the mountain, back to his truck, got in his truck and drove down the side of that mountain, down to where the elk was laying. Upon examining the elk I discovered I had hit her, right in the heart. I want to thank everybody who had a hand in putting this elk hunt together and especially to Randy the guide. Thank you!
I was very happy with the elk hunt.
- My Outdoors International consultant’s communication before, during and after the trip was perfect, I couldn’t have asked for more.
- My consultant was very knowledgeable, and a pleasure to talk to.
- Overall, my trip was amazing, I couldn’t have asked for more. Everything was good really enjoyed everything thank you for treating my father and I so well.
- My outfitter’s communication before, during and after the trip was good.
- My guide was amazing.
- Physically, the trip was moderate.
- The accommodations were good.
- Would you book another trip with us in the future? Yes.
- Can we use your stories and/or photos on our website? Yes.
- Can we use this in social media? Yes.
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My hunt was absolutely top notch.
The outfitter is a fantastic man and incredibly hard working and knowledgeable, there is no doubt he will do everything within his power to make peoples hunts successful and enjoyable. I plan to do it again with him next year for sure.
Wade Zuver
Our hunt was excellent.
We saw bucks every day along with all other sorts of wildlife. Mountain goats, bears, and foxes were common sights. Fishing and crabbing was special bonus. The food was excellent, the crew was amazing. Outdoors International did a great job of finding exactly what we were looking for.
Jesse Neveau
What an amazing experience!
The hunting lodge was out of this world!, Rooms, food and the scenery were all A+. Our guide was exceptional and had us on Shiras moose all five days. We saw over 30 total with at least 10 bulls. They had a plan for everything including taxidermy and game processing.
Kayla Redmon
