Markleo21377

That is incredible! 14 in the natural world is a dinosaur!

Nope, these conversations on the rut are always interesting. The scientific facts, proved by biologists everywhere is peak estrus is always the same give or take a couple days because it is triggered by length of day. The perceived “rut” can vary based on drought, temperature, bull to cow ratios and other factors. If cows aren’t bred in their “window” typical 10-16 hours they will come back in estrus approximately 28 days later. Often, October intensity can be high because available cows left to breed is low and bulls are competing heavily for last breeding rights. They get desperate and seek more, sleep less and bugle more to announce to cows they are available.

Excellent! Hardship and trials are the building blocks of a resilient young man! Congrats!!!

Those look great! Keeping that nasal cavity in tact shows attention to detail!

Super awesome!!

Lots of rain in 5bs this morning so we just drove prime country til we cut tracks. Started out on the tracks and had a bull bugle up a head. We snuck in the herd of 10 cows, spike, and good herd bull. Set him up on BOGG and had this small cow feed to 60 yards offering the perfect shot for a brand new hunter! Such fun seeing how worked up he was but kept it together to make the shot.

Taking a brand new youth hunter up to 5bs/6a for junior elk! Can’t wait to see the emotion in this new experience!

Thx man!

Yessir! Exactly what we planned 👊

Incredible!!! What a beautiful cow and a great cap on the youth hunting experience!

Best hunting day of my life! Thx sir

Thank you so much! I agree, somehow it was just meant to be 👊

I shoot a Christensen Ridge carbon fiber 308 with a dead air nomad suppressor. I know many have love hate for Christensen but mine shoots lights out with Barnes 168 TTSX bullets. About .4 moa.

Our family made plans this year to go bear hunt on my buddies ranch South of Colorado Springs the first week of October. My boy and I were sitting on a couple antelope points so with a little research I found a unit close by we could draw and had decent harvest 50-60%. The kicker was the very limited public access. I talked to the G&F officer and he said the unit does not produce many bucks over 70” and on public we better shoot the first bucks we see over their ears. I decided to go for it. My boy is a Sophomore in high school and I want to experience as much as I can in the field with him before he grows up. Just hunt….reasonable expectations….work hard to capitalize on the opportunity. Oh, we also could only hunt opening day 😬. Fortunately, we were there a couple days before opener so I spent two days putting miles on the tires and boots looking at every piece of available ground, walking to every high nob I could to get every angle I could to not miss anything….this is where it got crazy. I could not believe my eyes as I found not one but three bucks over 75” one of which would go easily over 80”. Was I dreaming?! Nope I filmed all them….watched them over two hours each of the two days before season. I was so anxious the night before opener I could barely sleep. Opening day arrived and we put together a team of 6 of us to try and locate our top two bucks. As it broke light the hunters started rolling in, and they kept coming. Where are the bucks? I could not find them. Guys were now pursuing does, shots fired!!! Were they dead? Wait, we found buck number two…my buddies are watching him from 1300 yards away. I am still 3 miles away desperately glassing and moving trying to find buck 1. I am passing a couple small bucks as I can’t get him out of my mind….i edge around a large bowl to avoid being skylined and catch movement 800 yards away. I throw up the glass…..it’s HIM! I call my buddy who was about to take my boy after buck 2 and get them headed to me. They arrive 10 minutes later and I tell them how to approach. I am watching them belly crawl cactus to cactus. I range them..906…I range the herd 740. They still can’t see them bedded. Another 10 yards on their bellies…they see them. My buddy sets up the Bogg to get him above the 18” grass and he locks the gun in. A doe sees them and stands….he stands!! BOOM! The buck runs 40 yards and stops…I see blood on his side…BOOM!! He’s down!! I can’t believe it! I literally run for almost 750 yards and tackle my son! We are in tears! We stand over him in disbelief! Bucks this big are not supposed to be here said the expert! Hunters were everywhere, yet we out worked them! We take dozens of pictures! My buddy texts us….buck number 2 is still there! Time to go. We quickly gut him and carry him a couple hundred yards to an access road we can drive to. We load him and off to buck number 2. My buddy and I head in. Topography and brush allow us to cut the first 700 yards quickly, then it is 400 yards on our knees. We are almost out of cover…wind is howling 15-20 so we agree that 400 yards is the max I will shoot. We get to 285 and set up the Bogg to clear the brush. I lock my gun in and ease up to shoot. A doe sees us and starts moving. He follows her and they are running. My buddy ranges….370. I dial and tell him I’m taking the running shot. I swing with the buck and when I’m about 4’ in front I squeeze it off and he cartwheels!! Buck 2 is dead. I am in disbelief! We came out for an opportunity hunt in a subpar unit and kill two giant bucks. We get pictures, gut him and haul him to the road. We butcher back at the ranch and hit the road for home early this morning. I still have not taped them. I am quite certain my buck is between 77-80 and Max’s buck is low 80’s. His buck is over 15”, heaviest mass I have ever seen and cutters are 10” up beams. Truly unbelievable!!! I don’t think we could ever top this experience again…but we sure will try!! Sorry for the long read but it was to incredible to leave any details out. Scouting video buck #1 IMG_7420.mov Scouting video buck 2 IMG_7415.mov Max’s buck #1 My buck #2 Our bucks!!

Super awesome!! Congrats