Ducks, Deer, and a Poacher

This might be a little drawn out. I am going to try my best to keep it simple with a few words, and lots of pictures. I make no promises. After killing my elk we hustled home to relax. Those that know me, know that I can not relax. I went up to South Park to hit the duck season opener. I was not disappointed, but at the same time, I was. I fired about a box of ammo at the air but I did happen to score just a few small Teal

I said I was a little disappointed. It was not the fact that I missed almost everything that flew in front of me, including a slow-moving goose, it was in the fact that one of the Game Wardens was hot on the heels of a poacher. A buck antelope was poached from the road and the Game Warden gave it to me. He DID catch the poacher and threw down the hammer on him, which I am glad about. I got the goat quartered and then de-boned and gave the meat to some folks up near Spinney Reservoir

I kept the antlers but cut them off of the skull. I can not Euro mount something I did not take. What seemed like five months was only 4 days and I was off back to Utah to try my hand at buck mule deer hunting. Before I got to Utah I stopped in Wyoming to pick up my elk. My buddy Jeff does taxidermy as a side gig and I believe he should quit his day job, he is AMAZiNG!! Jeff runs Wyoming Wild Things Taxidermy

Here is a before picture

Here is the after

You HAVE to check out Jeffs taxidermy business, you can find him on FaceBook right here

It looks great in the office and my buck is going to go in between his antlers

Once I got to Utah, Nathan (my nephew) and my brother in law's Garrett and James said I need to start looking right away for deer, so I followed their advice and started scouting the best I could. For the record, I am as quiet as a drunk elephant in a china shop but, I think I did fairly well

After being as silent as I could, a few hours later, some deer started to show up

I had thought I found the odd-ball guy I wanted and watched him for a few days

Thing is, the season was still a few days away. So, I did what any red-blooded American would do. I went into town with Steve (pop's in-law) and had some In and Out

Once that settled my fat boy urges I went hunting. I found deer almost everywhere

The start of the season was cold and full of snow, which is a good thing. I was able to walk upon a couple of smaller deer fighting each other

That was insane to see. Nathan had spotted a few deer a mile or two away and we snuck over to them. He saw a nice three-pointer and we had crossed two separate draws and a large knoll. Once we had hustled across all of that he lazed it at 177 yards. He told me I would have to take a standing shot and to take my time. I popped up, aimed, and fired. The first shot we know hit the deer because it jumped like it had been hit with a perfect shot. It just stood there for a moment. I took a second shot and it fell down a very steep mountainside. What we think had happened was, since we were so high above it, I hit it in the leg and the bullet ricocheted upwards and glanced off its front shoulder right into its vital area and it died instantly. Once we got down to it we realized it was a dandy little buck for someone who had never shot a buck deer before

The easiest way to get it down was to...well... drag it down! I was pouring sweat but we got him down

We got him quartered and packed away and I went to the house to clean clothes and head out to Colorado to meet my dad to try and find some elk. On the way out I found this cute little guy

Once I got to GMU 62 in Colorado I was astounded by the views

I was able to see a total of four elk several miles away across a canyon but we did manage to run into the LARGEST mule deer buck I have ever seen in the wild. He was a tank and stared at us for close to ten minutes. I am a little upset I did not get a picture but oh well, dad saw it.

I have two more Colorado deer tags to fill and am thinking about an antelope tag but will likely sit antelope out since I have a freezer almost full of meat

A huge thanks to Nathan, Dad, pop's in-law Steve and Garrett for the opportunities they allowed me to have. Pheasant hunting starts soon!

Utah Bull Elk Hunt

My first hunt of 2019 was a big one! Utah bull elk, high up in the mountains on a family piece of land. I was fortunate enough to get a tag from my father in law. Before we even began our drive up we stopped and admired the beauty.

It's stunning from the bottom to the top

There is just something about getting up to the top that makes you want to stop and enjoy the views and silence for a few moments

Even the big guy was enjoying the ride, barking at every little critter he saw, and just running around like a maniac

So, this was supposed to be a week-long hunt, and I was really looking forward to it, especially when I would look out into the distance 

I took a ton of pictures of all the great view's

The cabin was in pristine condition and is always a blast just to hang out in

Just sitting on the couch in the living room and looking outside is enough to relax anyone

My brother in law, James and nephew, Nathan were my guides. It had been a long number of years since I was last up here and Nathan knows the place like the back of his hand. Once we got settled and everything packed into the cabin Monday afternoon they had me hit the ground running. If you look back on my blog a few years ago James guided me on my first ever elk hunt in central Utah.

They cow called a decent sized 6 point elk within 19 yards of me. It was incredible to see one that close. That was not the only one. We all called another decent little bull to within 15 feet of us!

This guy came out of nowhere and he was dead silent

It sure was cool having one come that close again and just stare at the three of us. Here is a quick little video of it

Like I said before, we got up there Monday afternoon. After we called the first 6 pointer to us, we hiked back up the mountain and heard a bull below us bugling in a draw, and a bull above and behind us

Nathan had me high tail it down the hill a little and started cow calling. All of a sudden we heard another bull quite a distance away bugle back towards us. Little did we know Brianna and Steve (pop's in-law) were watching this bull for almost an hour work his way around the pond in front of the cabin.

This bull had been around the property for some time. My other brother in law, Garrett, got him on his game cam last year

Here he is a few moments before he dropped from my rifle

This guy came screaming in and bugling the entire way to us. I first saw him several hundred yards out and kept hitting him with the range finder until Nathan had called him into 119 yards. I took the shot and he dropped. Here is a video of Nathan calling him in and me shooting, but you do not actually see him drop. Listen close enough and you can hear him buggling at us like a pissed off teenager!

James was also able to get another angle, but he was a long-distance from us. You can see it below *****WARNING, THIS SHOWS THE ANIMAL DIEING AND IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART*****

When Nathan saw it, he told me it was a shooter for sure, and there was no way I was going to doubt him. I took the shot and he dropped right there where he was standing. Just listen to the video, I was super pumped. I knew he was big, but until I walked up on I had no idea how big he was

I could not contain myself. Steve heard that I had dropped a big elk and started to head over. While we were waiting we were able to snag a few more pics

Of course, they had me take a picture with it as well

Since Nathan and James helped so much I absolutely wanted them in on this picture as well

I also wanted Steve to get in on the action since it is through his generosity that he has the family hunt up there every year

Once I settled down, we gutted the elk out and decided to let it cool overnight as it was. It got into the low teens every night so mother nature acted as our freezer. It did snow on us, so we made a good choice

Even after trying to sleep through the night, I was still too excited. The next morning we went back out to start cleaning him out, and I still could not get over his size and mass

For reference, I am 6 feet tall and weigh 240. I snapped what I thought was a cool picture of this guy in the back of the side by side

After we got all packed up Nathan taught me how to debone quarters. While we were doing that James worked his magic and did a quick measurement of the rack. To be honest, just being up there was reward enough and I was only hoping for something in the 280-inch range. 

I had told James and Nathan earlier that if I shot something over 300 I would be over the moon. As James was doing his measurements he was asking us what we thought it would come out to. I believe Nathan guessed 320, I guessed 300. James came back and told us and I was blown away... 333 and 1/4 inches!!!!!! 

The hunt lasted all of a few hours on the first day. My only regret was that we did not spend more time up there. The drive down was just as awesome. 

I can not thank Steve, James, Nathan, and the rest of the family enough. It was something I will never forget and more than likely the largest elk I will ever shoot in my life! I can't wait until next year when I can go up and help someone else from the family take their bull. Next up, Utah Deer hunting!!