Well To start this I appreciate reading all the stories on here and particularly love reading about getting kids involved as my 7 year old is really starting to show interest in everything outdoors.
I bought one elk raffle ticket and told my good buddy that if it’s meant to be it’s meant to be. Low and behold I get a call saying I won. Holy crap is an understatement. There’s a lot of pressure with a tag like this as there are a lot of options. The beauty of this tag is you have the flexibility to shoot what you want how you want where you want. I can’t score bulls very well, and honestly after calling in a couple bulls to only feet away I was more confused on score than I was to begin with.

Plan was apparent I will know what I want to shoot when I see it. 300 inches was a general number I threw out there but I am not really a trophy hunter by any means and am fully content with other factors. I do not have a big circle of hunting buddies and knew it would Likely be me and my brother in law, we were very capable of hunting hard and deep.
The difficult part is you don’t have a lot of time to plan but you have a lot of time to hunt, you find out well into sumner and most of my time off is already arranged. I got one scouting trip with my 7 year old, very valuable time with my son that I will remember forever.
The hunt came extremely quick, my mind was racing from the day I got the call and it didn’t seem real till I got my tag. the fires complicated things quite a bit but we made the best of it. We had a lot fun camping, we had several bulls called in to just feet away that are what you dream of in special hunts that I’ll never forget those. In the end I got to hunt an amazing place, with an amazing hunting partner and shot an amazing bull in an exact spot I scouted with my son. I couldn’t be happier, I wanted memories, a respectable bull I would be willing to pay for a shoulder mount and I think I crossed everything off my list!