I was approved to go along on the RecreationTherapy and Butch Lowery Disabled Veteran Hunt the last weekend of October. I was super stoked because I've not been hunting since I left Liberal, KS oh so many years ago. I was also a little nervous because there were supposed to be a bunch of people there and I only knew Matt Lucas. I quickly calmed my fears with the help of Glenn White who helped me sight in my brand new 1 year old 30-06. It only took about 12 rounds to get me sighted in at 100 yards. So Friday the 29th of October I headed to the Stop-N-Save in Clifton which is where we were meeting everyone since no weapons can be brought onto VA property. I was transporting Darryl's weapon as he was riding with Matt in the government vehicle.
We got up to the ranch which is 10 miles north of Rifle and waited while D came down to unlock the gate. Then we parked the cars and some of the guys rode up in vehicles while Matt, Vance, and I walked the 1 1/2 miles up to the camp. Nothing like getting the heart pumping. Once we got there we (Matt, Vance, and I) began setting up camp. Matt didn't want any of the other vets to help for fear of getting hurt (lots of paperwork). Matt then headed back down to Junction because he had a funeral to attend and the guides took the vets out around 1530 hours. My guide was Ryan. We walked to our blind which was set up over looking a ravine and two ridges. We sat and talked for several hours before getting restless. We snuck out of the blind (which I didn't realize was that difficult but they are noisy) and walked further up onto one of the ridges so we could see better down in the ravine.
After walking for about 5 minutes Ryan stopped and lifted his binoculars then handed them to me. He pointed to a group of trees where a doe was laying down. I saw the doe and then looked over to the right and there was a 3x3 buck just standing there looking at me. Ryan told me I needed to take the shot even though it was downhill and about 175 yards away and I was unsupported. He handed me this monopod which I put my rifle on. I'm sure someone looking at this spectacle would have thought I was drunk the way my rifle was waving around on that monopod. Thank gosh when I chambered a round into the rifle it didn't load because I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to hit the broad side of a barn using that dang thing. So when I pulled the trigger it just went click. So I reloaded and told Ryan I didn't think I could take the shot from here. All the while my buck just stood there watching this whole thing play out. Ryan and I maneuvered around so that I would have a better vantage point while sitting on a bucket. Needless to say the buck was still there when I got settled. This time I was sitting and unsupported from about 160 yards with the sun setting fast. I locked in the buck in my sights right behind the shoulder and pulled the trigger. I immediately chambered another round but lost the buck in my sights. Ryan said he jumped up and initially thought I hit him so we waited then went to investigate. By the time we got down to where the buck had been standing it was dark and Ryan and D looked around a bit but didn't see a blood trail.
I was disappointed but one of the other veterans got a buck so I went with the guys to learn how to field dress. We picked up the buck and took it out to clean it and brought it back and hung it so it could cool down over night. We then ate and I headed to bed as I was exhausted.
The next morning I got up and Ryan and I headed out to our blind. All morning long we watched three does dance around the area but never saw my buck. However, as the morning progressed we watched a gaggle of magpie's scavenge at something over in the oakbrush about 50 yards away from where I shot at the buck. Soon a coyote joined them and I noted that it was odd that a coyote would come out in the middle of the morning to eat on something. I got a sinking feeling in my gut and we decided to go over and investigate. Sure enough there was the buck which I shot. I started crying but quickly sucked it up because all of this was very anti climatic. It wasn't until D came down and told me it was a hell of a shot to make and that we could save some of the meat that I felt better about the whole situation. So I helped field dress my animal and we took it up to camp to hang. The rest of the day was pretty much just hanging out. The next morning the other two veterans went out. Around 0730 we heard a couple of shots but apparently everyone who went out forgot to take radio's. So at 0930 we went to pick up Darryl and Vance (Darryl is blind) and Darryl was sitting there by himself. He had shot a deer at 0730 and Vance was out tracking it. So we called for reinforcements and D, Matt, and Vance went to track it and they were soon joined by Randy. Thankfully within a couple of hours they located the animal and were able to bring it down from the mountain it decided to climb. Darryl was pretty happy as this was the first time that he had been hunting since he lost his sight 5 years ago.
I got back and picked up Renae and we headed to Old World Meats to get my deer processed. I turned in 55 lbs and have gotten back hamburger and steaks. Still waiting for my sausage and sticks.
Renae got pretty stoked and asked if I wanted to go elk hunting with her during the next weekend. I was pretty game for it so we went to the DOW and pulled some left over tags for the Collbran side of the Mesa. I looked on-line to see where the migration trends were for that area and we decided to hunt near Atkinson lake were we have previously camped. We headed up on Nov 6th after the Veterans Parade and got there around 5pm and so sat underneath a clump of trees where there were lots of tracks. We never saw anything. The next morning we got up and headed to a place that was down from that first evening and sat and watched. Renae went off down the road to see if she could scare anything up but never did. She got back and said she found fresh poop and lots of tracks. We decided that we would sit there that evening to see if we saw anything. So we picked our firing positions and went back to the motel.
We returned later that afternoon and heard lots of things moving around us but never saw anything. We came back the next morning to watch a more open field and never saw anything. I was a little disappointed but since I didn't know how to hunt elk felt pretty successful in just being out in the snow and not getting frostbite.
We went out the next weekend as well and saw a herd of elk down on private property but never saw any up in the elevation in which we were hunting. But I took some nice pictures of the sunrise.
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