Ride that roller-coaster... Last day bull! (pics)

ridgetop · Oct 21, 2003

Finally got my act together to at least post a few pics of my Colorado elk hunt. Just got back Saturday, and am still putting stuff away, and getting caught up on a honey-do list that balooned when I was away. It was a great hunt, and was really glad to be finally be able to get to go on this long awaited hunt with my friend Jeff - AKA DeerKing. As many of you already know, and I already knew too... just confirmed... he is truly a first class guy, and a very knowledgeable and dedicated hunter. I have come to the conclusion that elk hunting is like riding on a roller-coaster... physically, and mentally...full of highs and lows... exept for the screaming and throwing up part. Full story to follow when I get a decent chunk of time to tell it. Thanks Jeff!

The hunt was a tough one with hot and dry weather, just post-rut, full moon, and more than the usual number of hunters. The elk were not in the usual hangouts. This is the fruit of simply toughing it out, and just getting out there and continuing to plug away, that one last day of the season. Anyway... here are a couple pics of my first elk! He isnt the stud of the mountain by any stretch, but you wont find anyone else happier with their bull this season!

Cooter · Oct 21, 2003

LAST EDITED ON Oct-21-03 AT 08:31PM (MST)[p]Nice bull, Bert. Who really cares if it isn't the biggest bull on the mountain? For your first bull and conditions being as tough as they were, I'd say you did a hell of a job. Congratulations on your first of many..............

Cooter

ridgetop · Oct 22, 2003

Thanks Cooter! Pretty sure it wont be my last... at least I got something to build off of...

Cooter · Oct 22, 2003

Hey Ridge:

I went up with TheKnack over the weekend during the 2nd combined season and would have sold my soul to the devil for a bull, no matter how big the rack was, as I could have used the meat. The dry conditions and hellish temps made for some pretty bleak opportunities. Because my leg was so severely jacked up and surgically chopped up and I couldn't get around, I bailed and left for home after only one day. Talk about getting depressed over the whole thing. I'm in a slump right now and haven't connected on elk due to this damned knee. Next year, I'm going at it with a vengence. Persistence is the word......without it, you're not going to get by on luck alone.

Van

GrandpaNasty · Oct 22, 2003

Ridge
First, I won't gush about DK, I know he gets embarrased. I will back up what you say about him to the tee. He was an important key in getting my first elk a couple years ago. Great guy.

Congrads to you on a fine elk. Biggest dont necessarily make it the best and I'm sure you worked hard for it. Any elk is a good elk and under the conditions you hunted I'd be damn proud to. Nice field pictures sure help make a good story and you got them. Nice b&w effect on the up close. Congrads again!

DeerKing · Oct 23, 2003

RidgeBert
Congrats again on a job well done. The hunting conditions were dismal but you hung in there and kept a great positive attitude and it paid off in the end. Tons of fun to hunt and camp with you, you are one helluva a GREAT, GREAT guy... and a great cook. I haven't ate like that since I was living at home. Even then my mama wouldve been jealous. Thanks again for a great time. Enjoy them elk stakes!

OSOK · Oct 23, 2003

Congrats on your first elk. I bet you're hooked now!

YELUM · Oct 23, 2003

Ridge, Congrats on sticking it out and getting the payoff. I have yet to kill my first elk so no matter the size, its still a great accomplishment. And to get to hunt with the King is a dream for many of us. Good job

Yelum

PS Did DK smile? Photo please

ridgetop · Oct 23, 2003

LAST EDITED ON Oct-23-03 AT 04:47PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Oct-23-03 AT 04:44?PM (MST)

LAST EDITED ON Oct-23-03 AT 04:42?PM (MST)

Thanks for the congrats fellas! Yeah, Im hooked big time.

I have been so freakin busy this week, still dont have the time to tell the story properly...heres the ultra condensed Readers Digest version

Woke up in the middle of the night and drove to a new area I had only briefly seen two days before,and arrived shortly after 2 in the morning. Slept in the truck, woke up at 6 and started walking in the dark. I was taking it relatively slow, stopping to stand and glass every 50-100 yards. It was getting well into the morning, and I was heading to a place I had never seen, but looked good on the map to glass. On the way there I spot a nice looking 5-6 point about 600 yards uphill and to my right, followed by a raghorn. I started boogieing uphill after they went into the trees they were skirting. Angling uphill to beat the wind, I gave it all I had to try and catch up with them. What a RUSH to see those two bulls on the last morning of the season, and having to muster up all the umpff I had left in my body after 4 full emotionally draining and energy tapping days of hunting. Making that desperate, long uphill partially blind stalk on that guy and his bigger buddy, and have everything come together in a few charged moments of searching for sight of them again, and be a able to pick a shooting lane and connect on a 50 yard shot through the trees as he walked up the hillside was a dream come true. I have wanted to go on an elk hunt since ever since I was a kid, and to connect on one on my first hunt, alone, after a hunt as frustrating as this one had been...it a feeling I cannot begin to fully describe, but many of you know.

Jeff, everything you said, right back at ya! You are a great guy to be around! It was fun to hunt with someone with as much or more drive to get out there and get after it than me... Im usually the one who has to do the dragging... Thanks again for making it one of my best hunts ever. I too had a very enjoyable hunt and time in camp. Been a long while since either of us had the comforts of truck camping, but it was fun though.

I'm not that great of a cook... just know what grocery stores to hit for the best pre cooked stuff. My strategy for stuffing everyone to the gills with food obviously didnt work though, I dont think it slowed you down a step... LOL.

I didnt get any DK pictures, something about capturing his soul he didnt like... but I think he got some of me, showing the REAL reason I didnt get one the first few days... Jeff, you got one of them pics handy?

DeerKing · Oct 23, 2003

Bert
Hehehe, yeah I got them pictures handy but I thought I'd save em for a time when you really owe me... and you don't want me to show them. Lets just say Bert was mighty relaxed, perhaps dreaming of the biggun. Congrats again on your elk, mighty happy for you.
Jeff

vinihunt · Oct 24, 2003

that's great for ya man! nice bull and ?x? doesn't matter!! still a nice one!

congrats!

DK is a man!

vinihunt

TheKnack · Oct 24, 2003

Bert-
Congratulations on getting your bull!
Especially with the conditions you were hunting in you stayed with it and it paid off.
Awesome.

Vini-
Fairly sure Jeff-DeerKing is a (MAN).LOL
Unless he has a great makeup artist and goes by the alias Shania.LOL
I know you meant to say Jeff is "THE MAN" and yes that is for sure.
Best,
Jerry

Cooter · Oct 24, 2003

Bert....

How much meat did you get off of that bull?

ridgetop · Oct 24, 2003

Sounds like someones been telling stories... lets just say substantially less than I thought I had brought out... Not at all intentionally, mind you. I thought I was doing pretty decent job boning out the quarters and backstraps etc. , til I got to the butcher, and weighed it on a scale. I definately will be more thorough next time... first steaks are gonna gill up this weekend. MMM MMMMMM!

Cooter · Oct 25, 2003

Ridge:

You guessed it! Just couldn't let that one go by without posting to see what kind of nibble I could get. You definitely wouldn't have wanted to see the butchering job I did I my first elk. All in good fun, Bert!

Cooter