Carson’s first elk hunt…
The day I left for my elk hunt all I can remember is staring at the clock during school hoping it would go faster. It seemed like forever for the bell to ring but when it did I raced outside where Nicole was picking me up from school and we met up with dad and Bryan and rushed to the airport. We didn’t think we would have time for dinner as we were running as fast as we could through the airport. We grabbed a quick a bite to eat at Arbys and I ordered the biggest sandwich they had because I was starving! We rushed to the gate to find out our plane was delayed. We were scared we weren’t going to make our connecting flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We landed in Salt Lake City and sprinted through the airport to get to the gate just in the time as they were closing the gates when we got there. A short flight later we landed in Albuquerque where Andre Galenda from Royal Trophy Outfitters was there to pick us up and guide us for the week.
We got to camp at 3:30 in the morning and Andre told me I had to be awake in an hour by 5. That morning I was tired but excited to get out on my first ever day of elk hunting. That morning I fell asleep in the truck on the way to our hunting spot. We had to walk until we heard a bugle and it almost made me pee my pants! It was really loud! That morning we stalked up on a big bull that we could hear bugling and knew he was close we just couldn’t see him. He followed the cows off into the forest the opposite way. Then we went to a different spot and could hear bulls bugling and we set up by a pine tree and we couldn’t see the bulls because they jumped the fence in the woods. We decided to back out and not spook the bulls and go back to the lodge and eat eggs and bacon.
That afternoon I met a dog named Red. He is a puppy and really nice. I liked to play with him when we weren’t hunting and even taught him how to sit.
We sat by a fence jump hoping we may catch elk coming our way. We didn’t see anything so we moved and heard a bugle close by. We were standing there and heard something running and hurried and got our stuff ready to go only to find out that we spooked a bull elk.
After that we headed back to the truck and to the lodge to have dinner and go to bed, we were all very tired.
Day 2 we got up early again and had to walk a long way. We were walking to the spot that our guide Andre wanted us to go to and when were on the trail we heard a loud bugle that was close to us and Andre told me we couldn’t get any closer that we had to set up.
Right away we saw the bull rounding up his cows. He had a lot of cows for a bull. He was bugling and chasing them back and forth. Finally the cows jumped the fence right at us and then worked off and then the bull came behind him but wouldn’t give me a good shot. I had a good shooting lane that Dad and I picked out and he chased a cow right through it and they all took off. After that we walked a long ways and set up in a different spot where we heard a lot of bugles but nothing would come in. We moved and tried to get closer and set up by a big fallen tree but nothing came in. We left them along because we wanted to come back in the evening and hunt them. We went back to the lodge for breakfast, a nap and I played with my new buddy Red.
That afternoon we parked at Pink Tank and walked a long way. Right away we heard a bull bugling to our right and tried to get close. We set up on him in a couple different places but he wasn’t responding to our calls. Andre and my dad said he was probably with cows so he wouldn’t break away from them to come to our call. We snuck and snuck to try and get closer but he just wouldn’t come out. We walked down in a gully so it would cover up our walking noise and snuck out of there for the night. Back to the lodge and had pork loin, stuffing and green beans then went to bed.
The next day on our third day of the hunt I woke up and Red wasn’t outside. I was sad I ddin’t get to see him before I left for hunting but we left really early to get there before the elk did. As we were walking down the path we stopped dead in our tracks when we heard through the dark the sounds of elk running off. I was bummed because I thought we had spooked all the elk off. We kept walking and all of a sudden we heard another bull crashing his antlers in the bushes up above us. We snuck up as quietly and close as we could and set up under a bush. Andre starting cow calling and the bull responded immediately with a couple loud bugles. Dad helped me pick out my shooting lane while we were watching him through the thick brush walking our way. He was bugling all the way in and stopped to bugle in my shooting lane. While he was bugling I made a perfect shot right with the TC right behind the shoulder.
Then we had to track him and he ended up gong a very long ways before we found him. I never realized how tough elk were until we searched and searched for him!
When I walked up on my bull he looked ginormous. I couldn’t even fit my hand around his base because he had so much mass. We counted up the points and he was a big mature 5×5.
After we found my elk he was in such a steep, rocky place we couldn’t get our truck or Polaris close enough to him to get him off the mountain. Instead, Andre and Pat caped him and quartered him and had to figure out how to get all the meat, cape and antlers down the mountain.
After the Andre, Pat and Bryan got all of the stuff off the mountain we were all starving. It was now 4:00pm and we hadn’t eaten since 5 in the morning. We fried up some back straps, bacon, mac and cheese and cheesy hash brown casserole and had a feast! Red loved me because I gave him meat scraps we were getting rid of and he chowed down on them. After we ate we all took much needed showers and relaxed the rest of the night knowing I had a big bull on the ground and fresh elk meat in the freezer!
We had one more day before we had to leave so we got to go see some really cool stuff.
We got to checkout where the Continental Divide goes through and also got to see some of the indian reservations that were in the area.
This was the trip of a lifetime. Thanks Dad, Nicole, and Andre for a memory that will last my whole life and one that I will never forget!
-Carson
Royal Trophy Outfitters
Andre Galenda
www.rtohunts.com
andre@rtohunts.com
716-866-9795