Sorry for the delay on the story. Deerking thanks for posting. Well finally after 10 years of points my good friends David in the black carhart and Gilbert in the blue sweetshirt and my ugly a** isn't in the picture finally drew co unit 61 early rifle elk. We had never hunted 61 before so we were new to the area. We hunted the northern part of the unit. The terrain and fuels were different than we were used to. We usually hunt OTC in 43 & 54. We split up opening day with myself going 1 way and David and Gilbert going another. I got into 1 5x5 right out of the gates and passed on him, then 12 cows by themselves. The bulls were in full rut with bugeling and chasing cows. It was exciting. Shortly after that I dropped down a small canyon and heard a bull bugle and cow called back he came charging up the opposite slope at about 200 yards, a nice bull 5x6 but again let him go. I figured 10 years and I am not shooting anything smaller than a 300 bull. There went my morning hunt. In the mean time David and Gilbert were in another canyon and they were having the same excitment with elk everywhere. They saw more raghorns and passes on several of those. They sat down and bugled and cow called for a bit and and this bull came hard charging out of the bottom of the canyon through that wonderful oat brush to within 30 yards, due to the thickness of that crap Gilbert had to wait for a small opening to appear. When the bull showed he was a definate shooter. Gilbert shot him at 30 yards he piled up 30 yards from were he shot him. He is a 8 x 6 with a broken 2 point and a broken point on the right main beam. He grossed 346 with about 10-12in broken off. He has great mass with 50 & 48 in main beams. This was Gilberts first Bull. Gilberts other first buck was a 30in 4 x 4 shot in wy unit 128. Some guys have all the luck. It couldn't happen to a better guy. As for David and I after Sunday the Elk stopped bugeling and dove into those deep dark canyons. We chased them in there for the rest of the season with no luck. 1 for 3 and 2 tag soup. I keep asking myself if it was worth 10 points and I have to say no. I think in just about any unit you can get away from people and have a shot a a good bull. If I were to ever put in for the hunt again I'll probably be 50 before I could draw again. Thanks for letting me share this story and pictures.
Gary
