Sometimes its better to be lucky than good. Bron certainly had some good fortune this year on his second season rifle hunt in Colorado. We decided to run out there the second weekend of his hunt for a quick three day trip. We took the Chevy Tracker and I rented a hotel room for us in Eagle.
Before we got to Eagle, I pulled into Gypsum for fuel and noticed some locals coming out of the canyon dressed in orange. With an hour left of good light, I decided to drive up the canyon and see what the country looked like before we checked into our hotel room. It climbed up through the cedar covered benches and opened up into some good looking rolling sage with views of aspen pockets higher up.
We had yet to see a deer, nor another hunting vehicle on this dirt road, when all the sudden I caught movement coming off the sage knob to our right. It was a lone buck. He was on the move trolling for does. Bron got out and let him cross the dirt road in front of us at 150 yards. As he was working his way up the other side, Bron let him have it putting him down with his favorite 6.5 CM. We couldn't believe what just happened! It was Bron's best buck to date.
When we met up with Jared at the hotel. He had been out there all week hunting. He couldn't believe we had a dead buck already at the hotel. He thought we were just getting in from the long drive from Utah.
We ate a celebratory dinner at a local diner and hit the hot tub. It was decided we would help glass for Jared the next morning. He woke up at 5:00am and we slept in a little leaving around 7:00. We took the road out of Dotzero that follows the Colorado River. As it was getting light, I spotted a lone bull out in a hay field heading out for the hills. We could see he had a limp on his front left. We watched him work up a hillside onto the BLM. Problem was, Bron didn't an elk tag like he did the previous year on this unit.
We hustled back to town and purchased a valid tag at the local drug store. We raced back and were getting our gear ready to track this bull up. I was throwing on my daypack and while Bron was waiting for me he decided to throw up his binos and glass in the direction where we saw him top the ridge last. I couldn't believe it when Bron said, "Dad I see him bedded under a big juniper tree on the next ridge over." Game on!
We made a perfect stalk using the terrain for cover. Bron got prone on his day pack. We decided to shot him in his bed. The first bullet hit him in the base of the neck. The bull got to his feet jolted from the hit. While standing there, Bron got three more bullets in his front shoulder. The bull kept absorbing them, remaining on his feet. He finally laid back down but had his head up. We hiked over and finished him off in his bed. I think these 6.5 Hornady's at close range on elk kind of come apart. They don't seem to penetrate shoulder bone all that well.
We couldn't believe it, in less than 12 hours we had another animal down. This is Bron's first branch antlered bull. It was fun sitting on the hill quartering this bull with him. It was a great father and son moment for us. While breaking him down we noticed he had taken a bullet to part of his knee cap probably from another hunter opening weekend. Elk are tough!
We got the quarters loaded in the tracker and tied the rack on top and went and glassed for Jared with no luck that night turning up a big buck. He jumped a buck but couldn't get back on him. We got all the meat prepared in the hotel parking lot for travel and headed for home with a pile of antlers and meat in the Tracker the next morning. Fun times with Scrawny!
