I could not hunt my usual elk area. The access road is still closed to the forest fire that happened in 2002. My hunting buddy got permission to hunt on some private land just outside of town. We were planning on mule deer but when we visited the rancher on Thursday before the season opened & he told us that the Texans who hunted the 1st season had gotten 3 elk. So, I told Larry that I was going to get an elk tag also. I bought it on Friday afternoon---Saturday was the 1st day of the season. Colorado is the only state I know where you can do that. Anyway, I took a stand near a patch of scrub oak that was bordered by an irrigated hay pasture on the bordering ranch. Sunrise was at 7:20 AM--legal shooting would be at 6:50. I saw this bull about 7:05. He was not in 4th gear but definitely 3rd. He was late getting out of the pasture & he knew it. He past my stand & was going almost directly away from me. I tried to angle the bullet along his side & into the front shoulder. It was about 125 yards & I had a rest against a large ponderosa pine. I shot 3 times before he made it into the scrub oaks. A few minutes after he got into the oaks--I thought I saw movement where the scrub oaks necked down. But I could not see anything when I got the binco' s on it. I waited on the stand for about 20 minutes---then I went out to where I had shot. I could not find any sign of at hit. No blood, no tracks---nothing. It has been dry & the ground was hard. I went to where he entered the scrub oaks & looked hard for sign--Nothing. I then went back to my stand & stayed there until about 9:00 AM. It was opening morning. I replayed the shot-- over & over-- in my mind. It looked good when I pulled the trigger, I could not see or remember the bull reacting to the bullet. Usually they don' t--they are big. Anyway, I could not stand it any longer & went back to where the bull entered the scrub oaks. There was a good game trail & I followed it. About 150 yards in, I found 2 oak leaves on the ground that had specks of blood. I mean specks----about the size of the head of a pin. Now, I really went slow--Really Looking. This trail went towards the little neck that I thought I had seen movement from my stand. When I got to the neck, my buddy, Larry was at my stand. I motioned to him to come up. We talked about it & decided to follow the game trail. I put him on the trail & I would take the next game trail about 20 yards away. We would go slow--Looking. No sooner than we started in about 15 steps--- the bull gets up out of it' s bed in front of Larry. He puts one in it' s neck at about 10 yards. My shot had clipped the elk on the outside edge of the rump. If you know elk anatomy--that dark band around the yellow rump patch. It went in & hit the hip. He went about 500-600 yards from where I had hit him . This is IMO a little bit better than average bull for Colorado. There were 288 lbs of meat that Larry & I split. If interested--Rifle is a Model 700 Remington 30/06 topped with a 2.5 X 8 Vari-XIII Leupold. Bullets were 180 grain " Hornady" spire point. The bull was my 16 th elk. IMO the bulls are getting better in Colorado because of point restrictions. They are protecting the spike bull giving them another year.

Sounds like you did everthin' right. Congradulations on bein' a real sportsman. I can' t tell you how many times I' ve seen fellers say " oh well" , an' head off after another bull ' thout lookin' hard for the one they jus' kilt. No offense, but the more I hear ' bout the back country in Colorader an' the elk huntin' there, the glader I am to live where I do.

Congrats on your elk! Glad you stuck with you instincts and kept after him. You gotta wonder how many people would of just left it at that and called it a miss, although that bull might of survived that wound.

Congrats on the freezer full!