I drew a second season cow tag in area 421 of Colorado out by Grand Junstion. Over the summer one thing or another kept me from going scouting. I did as much map recon as a person could possibly do and browsed all the sites for tips on this area.

Boy was I in for a surprise. I arrived the day before the season started and saw trails like this...
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These were everywhere. All game trails. Elk super highways if you will. The field next to my camp was littered with day old droppings and thousands of tracks.
The morning of my first day began with about 5 four-wheelers driving into my area starting at 4am. I figured the elk were spooked by this and I stayed in bed until the sun came up. After starting off on the trail about 7:20 I ran into a bear and her cubs. Thank goodness for their poor eyesight. I literally walked up on her at about 20 feet and just froze. She smelled me but didn't get alarmed.

I hiked, sat, scouted, scoped, lasered multiple object for the next hour and a half (damn ADD) and then I decided to walk to the top of the mountain. As I was standing on a grassy knoll taking pictures I heard what I thought was an entire troop of boy scouts crashing through the woods. I squatted and held my rifle at the ready. A cow walked into my cross hairs at 25 to 30 yards and froze. She looked right at me and all I could think of was that I was quick scoping her like on Call of Duty as I squeezed the trigger. The other 15 or so cows ran around her in circles then walked about 10 yards behind a tree and did it again before they took off. I walked to the shot site to start looking for blood and her huge mass of a body caught my from behind the tree 10 yards from where she was shot.
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Good thing she dropped. No blood drops in site. No heart or lungs left at all. Guess a 208 AMAX from a .308 at 25 yards was just enough bullet.
My vision for this hunt, if successful, was to not only get my first elk but to pack it out as well. Mission accomplished as this was about 3 miles to camp.
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I cant wait until next year. This was one of the most exciting things I have done outside of a combat zone!

Congratulations. Excellent story and must have been even better to experience!

Congrats! I head out for my first elk hunt next week.

Nice one op!

Nice Remy 700 AAC-SD, it will look even better with a can on it!!!

Congrats

Very Cool OP.

Thanks for your service and Great WORK on this grocery shopping experience.

I seriously think I would be lost if I wasn't a hunter.


How many trips did you make to get the meat out and how much weight was it total on that girl ?

Nice elk. Looks tasty!

After deboning her I did 2 trips at a bit over 70lbs each trip. I would have rather walked uphill than do that trek down twice.

Nice

Good job man!

congrats

Some good eating right there

Congrats...looks like you handled yourself just fine.......

Thanks again guys. Cant wait to get back out with my son for his late season tag. The backstraps are the shit BTW!

Congratulations!

Thanks for sharing and congratulations!

Good work man! Congrats!