Good Job!!!! very nice bull, congrats
What area were you hunting?

Congrats on a nice bull!!

Outside of Estes Park. Between Loveland and Estes but closer to Estes.

very cool, good stuff my friend

Lab, Nice bull. I'd love to hear the story of your hunt.

Met a friend at an acess point for NF around 3pm. We hiked off trial up to a ridge for about an hour. We spotted a group of bach bulls coming out of the timber on top the ridge. We stocked them for about 45 minutes in and out of rocks and tress hoping they would not spot us or wind us. The bulls wer fighting each other and milling around and just eating. They never got wise to us. What a blessing! Right before the end of shooting light I got a great shot at the biggest bull. He went down around 4:45pm. The next hour we cleaned him and took the head and hiked out. Man-hiking out in the dark in an area without a trail was a hard adventure!!! I was able to get the same friend and his brother in law to help me hike out the whole elk the next day. It was about 3 miles back and we were all exhusted but the whole expierince was amazing.

Huge rack
Congrats

Hey Lab,

That's a nice bull. One piece of advice. I would not recommend bringing the head out first. If the DOW sees you doing this you could be mistaken for a poacher just taking the heads. You could get ticketed for a number of things including waste of game meat. Chances are good your explanation will fall on deaf ears. They're not interested in explanations. We always bring out the tenderloins first, then quarters with backpacks or frames and the head comes out last. Obviously you guys are ethical hunters and brought the rest of the elk out. Sounds like you had a great hunt and made your shot count. Good goin'!

Thanks for the story Lab! NH is right, sometimes you'll will get hassled by wardens but in your case, having a friend there as a eye witness should have helped your situation. I try to bring out some of the meat, like a front quarter with the antlers, unless I was going to bring out the cape and head too. Then I would bring the lighter weight, backstraps and tenderloins along.
Congrats again on getting your bull.

I'm taken back that CO DOW would start with the stance of you being a poacher for bringing out the antlers first. Tell that to the guys up here who go back to get the antlers on the next trip and find that some else came and ripped them off. Both scenarios suck.

Nice bull!