I had a guy email me and say I should post up the photo of the bull elk I took last week down on the San Juan Muzzleloader hunt.
Two buddies and myself went down on my muzzleloader hunt for bull elk and had a great time. One of those buddies, Outfitter and Guide Shawn Labrum, was generous enough to share his knowledge, labor and time which made for a great hunt. Lots of thanks to him and my other partner for all the help, support and company over this once-in-a-lifetime bull elk hunt. I'd also like to thank Mike (another hounddogger who visits this board) for sharing his equipment, time, labor and company for this hunt.
We saw alot of bulls over the first day of scouting and the following three days of the hunt. I did turn down a better bull than this one on the opening evening, mainly because of the limited amount of time to evaluate the bull. And I'll say a guy should always go with his gut feelings on those things cause he'd scored twenty to thirty points higher than this one will. Nevertheless, we put the bull to bed on Friday morning around 11:00 AM and went back to camp to eat and take a nap. It rained while we were sleeping and the stalk in on this herd bull went very well, as we got some great video and a really nice trophy.
I did get the flu on the eve of the hunt and am still recovering from that ordeal as I post this. I telephoned my wife around Thursday and she told me my oldest daughter was coming for a visit on Saturday, one of my buddies was leaving because of prior commitments, and since the camera was rolling Friday evening I got caught up in the moment... I didn't believe a stinky old elk would get my heart pumping after all these years but it did, whether it was having the two buddies there, the video camera going or just getting caught up n the moment, but killing that elk was about as much fun as running down a super tom lion or bear.........
I don't know if I'll ever hunt elk again but hunting this bull brought back old memories of a different time and a younger man......and it was GREAT!
ike