I left camp bright and early the morning of Oct. 28 during second rifle season last year. I saw a heard of elk moving to a bedding area. Later that afternoon, I went back to the area where they went into the woods. Before I got to where I wanted to be, the elk came moving back out of the timber to feed. I harvested this great bull elk at 200 yards.

The photo above is of my son Taylor with his first buck antelope that he shot opening morning at 100 yards. We found this 15-plus inch big guy feeding in the morning sun all by himself.

I set up my Montana decoy and my brother helped Taylor get into position for the shot since the buck was coming in to see the decoy. He came into about 100 yards and stopped broadside to us. Taylor settled on his shoulder and pulled the trigger, dropping the buck.

The other photo was taken by my brother of me and my father. He has taken me and my brother hunting since we were old enough to go with him.

I shot this bull early Tuesday morning in the first season on public ground; he was running with five cows when they crested the ridge above us, silhouetted by the sky. He came down off the top and passed behind a small hill below us, coming out on the other side and climbing up the far hill.

I shot one time, loaded another round and got ready to shoot again but saw him start rolling down the hill. We found him at the bottom and celebrated, took lots of pictures and then went to work getting him back to camp.

I love hunting with family and friends and there is no better place than Colorado.

This year I was excited, and intimidated, to draw two of Colorado’s most coveted big-game hunting tags — a second season rifle mountain goat and a rifle bighorn sheep ram for the same unit, S66. 

After three weeks in the field (and two weeks into the hunting season), I hadn’t seen one legal ram. I spotted a nice nanny to fill my goat tag the next day; she was accessible without the assistance of rock climbing gear – about 285 yards up hill.  With a single trigger squeeze at 4:07 p.m., I stumbled back to camp with the first load of meat out just after 9 p.m. I was past my limit of exhaustion without one day of rest, questioning my sanity after being in this country for 38 days. 

The next day, my first quick glass results came up with multiple fresh tracks in the snow across the valley.  I determined they could only be fresh sheep tracks – and those tracks lead to three rams! 

I started glassing each rock to make sure it was really a rock.  Within a few minutes two rocks turned out to be two more bedded rams hidden in the shadows, and one had massively heavy horns. I decided to wait for a standing shot.  Within a few seconds, the ram stood.  I squeezed the trigger. 

A flood of emotions raced through me as complete shock set in that I had got a ram. I knew this moment would never come again. With an official B&C score of 177 7/8, it was possibly the largest ram ever killed in that unit. 

My 40 days in the field hunting changed me.  It was the hardest thing I had ever done, and I had survived and succeeded. 

While hunting in Kansas a couple of years ago with a life-long friend, Jeff Denton, from the Kanorado area, I had the pleasure to meet an eastern Colorado farmer named Lance, who later became a great friend as well.

I met Lance at our hunting camp in 2009. Like me, he has a passion for the great sport of hunting and the outdoors. After getting to know Lance, I invited him and his family to come down to Texas in 2010 to hunt Axis deer. Axis hunting is usually pretty tough, but Lance was able to take a couple pretty nice bucks.

Fast forward to early 2011, Lance called me and asked if I would be interested in coming to hunt on his farm with a landowner tag for archery? Of course I was interested, so eastern Colorado, here I come! 

After a couple days of many busted stalks I was able to harvest my first archery mule deer buck. That was some hard hunting, but I loved every minute of it.

Thanks to Lance for being a great guide and for giving me the opportunity to hunt in the great state of Colorado!

I took this whitetail deer on a cold and windy December morning in 2011 near Snyder, Colo.

I first saw him with 10 other whitetails approximately 600 yards away. Even from that distance, I knew he was the buck I was after, having passed on several smaller bucks earlier in the season. Some sandhills provided the cover I needed to intersect his path and he crested a small ridge only 100 yards in front of me. 

The buck was officially measured by Boone and Crockett with a gross score of 175 and final score of 163 3/8. I can't wait to get him back from the taxidermy shop later this year.

Most people think of Colorado as elk and mule deer country, and for good reason. But we have some impressive whitetail as well.

When I woke up on the second day of Colorado’s first-rifle elk season and started hiking up the hill in the dark, I knew something exciting was about to happen.

As my dad and I hiked up a ridge in Unit 14, by Steamboat Springs, we heard a calf call. My dad signaled me to move forward. He said there were elk ahead of us. We followed their tracks up the hill but lost them in the thick brush. When we walked into a stand of lodgepole pines, my dad pointed in front of us and said, “bull.” I followed his finger with my eyes and watched a bull stand up and walk calmly away.

After a few calls I got a little discouraged, but that’s when the bull walked back in. Thankfully, my dad was watching. The bull walked down and then up the hill, giving me time to get into a better shooting position. 

As the bull walked behind some trees, my dad lost sight of him. He was startled when I pulled the trigger.  After I took the shot, I could not see an antler; I thought I had shot it off. My dad and I watched him run off.  After a few seconds I heard a gigantic crashing sound as he ran into two dead saplings and knocked them over. We waited for a few minutes; I could feel adrenalin taking over my body.  Then I realized I had gotten my first elk!

Story by Taylor, age 14. Photo by Mark Elliot

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