Another first season story. One I'm undecided whether or not I'm proud to write, but if someone learns anything from it it will be worth it.

I was not with my son for the first time. As I had said earlier, I was helping my wife in another unit. My son is 18, and pretty capable of hunting on his own, but I'll admit, sometimes when he kills something right at dark, my want to go to bed takes president over teaching.

I've otherwise taught him the laws and the ethics of hunting well.

Tuesday night, when all the other first season hunters have left, he sees elk in a meadow. Makes a good stalk. Gets within his comfortable range, 250 or less, finds a cow through the brush, broadside. Then she turns. Sees another through another hole broadside, and makes a great shot. Stoned it. Walk up on it to find a spike, not legal. He called me, freaked out almost in tears.

There was a lot of back and forth about how long the horns were, because he was so distraught he couldn't give a real answer. He had an either sex tag, which means he can kill an elk with horns less than 5 inches, a cow without horns, or a bull with a 5 inch brow tine or 4 points. I'd had a spike on camera that had horns short enough to qualify as antlerless. Praying that was the one he shot. Wasn't. Sent him the game warden's number. Told him to call it in.

He did. He had to gut and skin it. She came and took the elk the next morning. Gave him a ticket and a fine, but I'm pretty sure it was the smallest fine she could give.

He's got 5 points on his license. $139 fine he has to pay. I'm proud of him for doing the right thing and admitting he screwed up. Taking responsibility for his actions.

Young people taking responsibility for their actions is rare these days. Even though he messed up. Pretty proud of my son.

Mistakes happen… teaching him how to deal with them the right way and how to avoid this situation again in the future is a valuable lesson. Thanks for sharing and glad it was just a minor fine!

Got it done in Colorado, 2nd rifle. Weather was miserable the first 2 days. A low of -23 and over 2 feet of snow. It did push the elk down out of the mountains to their wintering range, but this unit is almost entirely above 10k with everything lower almost exclusively public. Took a lot of research and work but were able to find some really tricky public/private boundaries where they were moving. He isn't the biggest bull but earned him the hard way.











Whole thing on video:

Congrats man! Elk hunting is hard. You'll be happy every time you look at that rack and elk make the best tacos.

Congratulations….That's kick ass! Not every meaningful hunt ends with a 350" bull. Thanks for sharing.

Week 2 Elk Hunting with my 15yo daughter was one of those you wish could make different.
First it was a difficult week, major snow storm and cold front hit our area about 4 days early of our arrival, following a mild fall, coupled with a full moon, nobody was seeing much all week.
On our last day we find two bulls and my daughter sets up on a tripod with a very difficult 90 yard shot, in which a suspended 12" diameter log is blocking the majority of the body (vitals). He steps up hill quartering away and she pulls the trigger dropping the bull like a rock and the guide (owner) with 31 years of Elk guiding immediately goes to high fiving my daughter for the second year in row for what he thought was another DRT. At this point the bull is mostly out of sight and I move up the slope to take a better look and see him struggling to get up calling for her to shoot again but at this point its too late he moves off. We get a second look at him, observing that he has a blown out left front shoulder (her shot was to right side), and she attempts a standing unsupported shot and misses. The guide says no problem he ain't going a hundred yards further and he can't go up hill. Wrong again, we track him to dark and decide to come back in the early am hoping to find him dead. Wrong again. This tough SOB was still going strong uphill after 4 miles and through some of the nastiest deadfall, at one point crisscrossing me through a 100' patch of misery 4X, when I heard on the radio from one of the other guides wrangling up the free grazers, for pack out; "Gary I have bad news Pancho has a broken leg". I half heartedly continued on his track knowing that not only are were we losing this very nice bull but now we just lost a horse. The other 4 first time Elk hunters in our camp were able to get a real nasty taste of free range Elk hunting, meanwhile my daughter took away, some valuable lessons, while we had a great time together. Two of those guys didn't even hunt the last two days they were so tired. My daughter felt bad, but accepted the realities of the situation, and can't wait to get back and I am Blessed for it, as I feel so much at home hunting Elk in such difficult conditions. While reflecting on it, I have come to realize how much Elk hunting resembles a whole series of very challenging problems mimicking life. I am going to start a new thread on this coupled as dads hunting with their kids.
1st pick is my kid "brumby" in whom I am well pleased. It is not the shot set up on the bull but similar sans the slope.
2nd pic is blood trail about 400 yards from where shot.
3rd pic is about 1 mile.
4th pic is about 3.5 miles, 24 hours, and the last bedded spot we came across.
5th pic is Pancho the paint and this was the last pic taken of him. He is now bear and wolf feed.
6th pic partial misery he took me through 4X crisscrossing back and forth.
Till next season

Hunted New Mexico unit 16 for 5 days. Weather was really nice minus 2 days that were windy keeping the deer bedded. Tough hunt for a flat lander. I saw tons of elk and mule deer doe. Had a 320 class bull at 36 yards one windy morning. Did not see many respectable bucks. On the morning of day 5 we glassed 3 bucks on a hillside below us. Two 4x4s and a fork horn. I was able to kill the larger 4x4 at 450 yards. Not the biggest deer on the mountain but hard earned.

I have the shot on video. I bet Iv'e watched it 50 times. Don't know if I'm able to post it and probably shouldn't anyhow. This hunting thing is a disease! Never gets old.

If you look closely, his left front fork is broken. Right as I shot he dropped his head and I hit it with the bullet. I found a few pieces of it around him. I've done some antler restoration and found I'm ok at it. I'm gonna fix it.

I had fun the last 5 days.