Here's a picture of my brother and his friend that just completed a hunt with one of our outfitters in S.W. Colorado. My brother (1st picture) took this beauty the first morning of his hunt. His friend (2nd pic.) took his bull today.......3rd day of the hunt.

I couldn't be happier for my brother and wish I could have been there for the celebration!! The tackle he would have received from me would have rivaled an NFL linebacker....

You see, he, along with my late brother were the ones who got me into hunting as my father passed away when I was 9. They would drag me and my twin brother with all over the county with their friends. Whether it was hunting grouse, ducks, geese, etc., they always seemed to find time to include us.

Also, we have always did our big game hunts together (12 or 13 total.....lost count) usually every other year. This is the 1st time where we haven't hunted together. I hunted Quebec without him and now Colorado without me. Just worked out that way this year.

Have to admit it's a little hard not being there.....really sucks too that I can't even talk to him as reception at the camp is not very good as they are down in a valley. Texting just isn't the same on something like this!!

Congrats big brother!!!








Oh, and would't you know it, the day after he left, I managed to take this out on our hunting land south of town.
We both missed the celebrations!

Very Nice!

Can you post some specifics of the hunt? Cost,lodgings etc. Real nice looking bulls

Here are the details on the hunt.

Hunts are offered two ways with this outfitter. First and most common is with preference points. Since this is considered a trophy unit by the state, it usually takes a minimum of 17-18 points to draw for this hunt. Depends on the season hunted and year. The second option is with a landowner tag.....no drawing required.

This outfitter runs a 95% chance at a 300 or better bull. 2013's average was 324 out of 10 bulls. Size of the bulls on the pref. point hunt and landowner hunts will be similar.

Hunts are 5 days in length and sold as a 2x1 but the outfitter does try make it a 1x1....depends on the number of hunters in camp. Even if 2x1, it is usually for a day or two as a lot of hunters tag our early.

Lodging is in very comfortable bunkhouses

Average age of his hunters are 60-70 years old

Hunts are done typically by driving to a location and then hunting on foot. May hunt multiple locations per day depending on the elk movement. Terrain can vary from desert type terrain to moderate hills. You may walk your butt off to get your elk, or......be driving around and bail out of the truck and get one. It's out west hunting!!

Meals are cooked by the owners wife and or mother....and let me tell you, they are great!

Horses are used some, but just for game retrieval....nothing else.

Costs on the hunt are: $5,000 for the pref. point hunt ($5,500 starting in 2016) and the landowner tag hunts run about $10,000. $5,000 for the hunt and $5,000 for the landowner tag. I say "about" due to the fact that most ranchers in the area are asking/getting $5,000 for each bull tag. Of course that can all change, but that's what the costs have been the last few years.

The outfitter also offers great mule deer and cougar hunts. Mule deer hunts run the same as elk. Pref. point or landowner tag. But, the costs on the landowner tag hunt for deer run close to $11,000 due to the ranchers getting $6,000 for the tags. 2013's average was 176" out of 11 bucks.

Cougar.....$5,000 and his average cat is about 130-140 lbs. and 14 4/8 – 15 3/16 for skull size. Done with hounds. Hunts are on a quota, but in the past years, it is never reached.....not an issue. Success: 15 out of 18 the past three years. 7 out of 8 in 2011, 5 out 5 in 2012 and 3 out 5 last year. The hunters that did not harvest were hunting on pre-determined dates that they (hunters) chose and snow was not present....for tracking.

This is a small family run operation. It is the father, son, uncle, son's best friend and then one or two other friends (if needed) that do all of the guiding.......been this way for many years. The mother and son's wife do all of the cooking.


Feel free to call me if interested.

Thanks,
Brett

Here's a picture of the group of hunters this last week. 4 out of the 6 hunters took their bulls on the first day of the hunt and the last hunter filled his on day 3.

Nice job! Congrats!