Colockum Quality Elk tag

[Rainier10]

What unit did the hunt take place in?

That proprietary information.  I am going to need to see your card.

[huntnfmly]

😆

[RJr]

Hey folks, sorry to keep everyone in suspense.  To answer the primary question, I'm up to my eyebrows in elk meat that I'm cutting up and I'm still dealing with some family stuff.  I promise that I'll give you the full story as soon as I can catch a few moments of free time.  I'm not trying to create any drama here - I'm just incredibly busy with every aspect of life right now.

[Rainier10]

Hey folks, sorry to keep everyone in suspense.  To answer the primary question, I'm up to my eyebrows in elk meat that I'm cutting up and I'm still dealing with some family stuff.  I promise that I'll give you the full story as soon as I can catch a few moments of free time.  I'm not trying to create any drama here - I'm just incredibly busy with every aspect of life right now.

Congrats man.  Handle your family stuff and get back to us when you can.  Family first.

When you do get to the story don't take any advice from @PlateauNDN on how to drag it out.

[elkrack]

Hey folks, sorry to keep everyone in suspense.  To answer the primary question, I'm up to my eyebrows in elk meat that I'm cutting up and I'm still dealing with some family stuff.  I promise that I'll give you the full story as soon as I can catch a few moments of free time.  I'm not trying to create any drama here - I'm just incredibly busy with every aspect of life right now.

Not even a teaser photo 

[PlateauNDN]

Hey folks, sorry to keep everyone in suspense.  To answer the primary question, I'm up to my eyebrows in elk meat that I'm cutting up and I'm still dealing with some family stuff.  I promise that I'll give you the full story as soon as I can catch a few moments of free time.  I'm not trying to create any drama here - I'm just incredibly busy with every aspect of life right now.

Congrats man.  Handle your family stuff and get back to us when you can.  Family first.

When you do get to the story don't take any advice from @PlateauNDN on how to drag it out.

  who doesnt qamr advice from a Pulitzer prize winning, New York times bestseller, multiple #1 novels for consecutive weeks...................wow, just wow..... 

[DOUBLELUNG]

Hey folks, sorry to keep everyone in suspense.  To answer the primary question, I'm up to my eyebrows in elk meat that I'm cutting up and I'm still dealing with some family stuff.  I promise that I'll give you the full story as soon as I can catch a few moments of free time.  I'm not trying to create any drama here - I'm just incredibly busy with every aspect of life right now.

Congrats!  I'll wait politely for the story.

[teanawayslayer]

Takes 10 seconds to post a photo. Thanks for leaving us hanging! in all seriousness looking forward to story and pics. Patiently waiting

[Highhuntin]

Congrats and cant wait to read they story and see the pics! take care of you family stuff first and hope all goes well for you

[RJr]

Where do I even begin?  First and foremost, I want to give all of the thanks in the world to DeerSkin (Ryan) for all of his help before, during and after the hunt.  The assistance he provided was more than anyone could ask for and he was a great guy to hang out with.  Several others on this forum also provided encouragement and info for my hunt.  Thank you all.

I don’t want to bore you with the details, but immediately prior to the hunt here are a few things that I had to deal with. First, my Dad has some significant health issues and was admitted to the hospital a week before I was planning to leave.  The docs gave him 2-3 weeks but thanks to my wife and my siblings I was able to still get away for my hunt.  Next, on September 21st, I was minutes away from pulling out of my driveway to start our grand adventure and my dog wigged out and bit me.  I don’t know if he was all anxious from watching us pack up or what.  He left a puncture wound on the outer edge of my right (shooting) hand and another one next to my fingernail on my ring finger.  I actually had a bit of fat hanging out of my hand that I had to cut off.  So, I get that cleaned up and we’re off!  So, we eventually get to the Colockum.  It’s dark now and I discover that I picked up a nail in one of the tires of my trailer.  Great…  Fortunately, I’m still staying positive and I know that in the grand scheme of things.  I’m not bad off.  This was also a great learning point for my son because just hours earlier he asked, “Why are we taking this floor jack?”  The next day we were able get the tire fixed and I have to give a big shout-out to the Les Schwab in Ellensburg.  Those guys had us in and out in about 40 minutes.
 
So now, Ryan gets to camp later than what he had planned.  I learn that he was running late because he had to put down his wife’s horse.  The horse that she’s had for the past 21 years.  How he was able to get out of the house, I’ll never know. 

Then, fast forward the day after I return from the hunt, my mom fell down, broke her wrist and hit her head.  She spent the night at the hospital for a brain bleed but fortunately she was released the next day. 

So, back to the hunt...The two days before the season were just amazing.  We covered a lot of ground while scouting and found a handful of bulls, a couple of which were what I considered to be a shooter.  It was so cool listening to the bulls bugling.  The afternoon before my season started, Ryan told me that he had jumped a bull as he hiked through an area.  He said that he didn’t get a good look at it but, “It looked like a really good bull.”  We decided to go see if we could find it again and check him out.  As luck would have it, we heard him screaming his head off and we eventually found him across from us on a hillside.  We watched him for a couple of hours until the sun went down.  During that time, I could see that he was everything that I wanted in a bull.  He appeared to be a 7x7, and as we hiked out of the area, I had already decided that I would shoot that bull if I saw him the next morning.  When I thought about this later, I recalled that not once did I ever think about what he would score.  I just thought that it was a great bull and it would be an honor to put my tag on him. 

So, the next day, opening morning, we go back to the same area in hopes of finding the same bull.  I note that it’s not exactly prime hunting conditions because the stars are out and the moon is so big and bright that on our drive to the drainage, we came around a corner and for a second, we thought the moon was a headlight coming our way!    We get to our spot and hike our way in as quietly as we can.   The woods are silent and there is a feeling of concern that maybe the elk headed out somewhere else during the night.  After the sun was up, we start hearing the sweet sound of at least two bulls bugling nearby.   Game on!

We can hear what sounds like the big boy bugling and we eventually find him on the hillside across from us.  AWESOME!  He’s moving around in the trees, staying mostly out of sight.  During this time, I’m working on getting set up for a shot and the most stable shooting position I can come up with is sitting on a hillside, and using my pack frame as a rifle rest.  I’m scanning the hillside and suddenly I see movement.  I see antlers.  The bull!  I find him in my scope and at that second, Ryan turns and says as loud as he’s able “Don’t shoot! That’s a different bull!!!”  I get a good look at him and see that I had seen a small 5 or 6 point.  Whew!  Disaster averted!

So, I go back to scanning the hillside and I find the bull.  The correct bull!  The 7x7!  We range him at 315 yards and I dial my Leupold CDS turret to 300 yards.  So now, I find the big bull in my scope, and I see that I have a clear shot through the trees and brush.  I put the crosshairs on the sweet spot, take the safety off, and put my finger in contact with the trigger.  Ryan now says, “Wait, wait wait.”  I take my finger out of the trigger guard and give him the look of, “What’s up?”  He tells me that he wants to get video the shot.  Well, in those few seconds the bull steps behind some brush and now I don’t have a shot.  So, now it’s back to the game of hide and seek.  In hindsight, this was probably a blessing because at the time, my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest as I was thinking, “I can’t believe I’m going to shoot this bull!”

So, we watch and we wait for the bull to give me a clear shot.  During this time, I get composed and now I’m cool like Fonzie.  I’m not sure how much time goes by, but I see the bull step out from the brush.  I look and see that I have a clear, unobstructed shot, and he’s standing broadside to me, facing to my right.  I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder, safety off, exhale, and I press the trigger on my .300 Win Mag.  Kaboom!  The shot felt good!  I’ve got a good feeling about this until I hear Ryan say, “I think you missed!  Shoot again!”  What the @#$!?  I cycle the bolt and I can see the bull walking to the right.  I find him in my scope and I can see him go behind some brush and he kind of lays down. Then I hear the glorious words of, “No, wait.  You got him.  He’s down!”  WOOOHOOOO!!!!  We can see him in the spotting scope and his head is laying sideways so one antler is sticking up.  As I’m looking at the antler, I’m counting antler points and I only see five points.  WAIT! WHAT?!  Did I shoot the wrong bull?  Oh, wait a second…a couple of antler points are blending in with the brush in the background.  Now I’m back to the WOOOHOOOO!!!

It takes us about 20 minutes to get to him and he was finished.  I hit him behind the near shoulder and the Hornady 212 grain ELD-X punched through the vitals and the far shoulder.  We found the bullet jacket and fragments just inside of the hide.

So, the pack out.  Packing that thing out, I learned several things.  First of all, I am much more out of shape than I thought!  OK, that’s really pretty much all I learned.  It was uphill both ways and it took the three of us 8 ½ hours to quarter it and get it packed out of there.  That was the most physically strenuous thing that I can ever recall doing.  Actually, I also learned that if I had to do it again, I would cape out the entire head and saw through the skull to pack the antlers and the cape out separately.  Carrying out the whole thing was something that I would prefer to not do again. 

Once we got back to camp, Ryan did a rough score on it and it came out to 364.  No complaints here.  Sure, there are bigger ones up there, but this bull is everything I could ask for.  There was a ton of pressure with this tag but overall, it was an incredible experience and I wouldn’t change a thing.
 
Once again, I can’t thank Ryan enough for all of his help on this adventure.  It was also such a great thing to have my son along for the ride.  He was a great help on the hunt and he was able to pack out as much as any man out there. 
Maybe someday I’ll get to do this again and I also hope that the rest of you elk hunters can someday enjoy this same type of exhilarating experience.  Thank you all for being a part of this!

[mfswallace]

 

[cbond3318]

Yep ! That bull has it all! Great job and congrats! 

[Mfowl]

Congrats! Total stud! Thanks for sharing!

[Jeepinp]

That right there is a dandy!   Congratulations!

[RockChuck]

Awsome bull Congrats!