Not for the "pats on the back" am I posting this little story, I'm hoping to get others to realize that there is something we can do to help our young men returning from war zones.
It started off in Dallas last January when I met a young Marine at the Wounded Warriors booth. Matt had lost both legs to an IED above the knees while deployed in Afghanistan. After talking to him for a little bit, I asked him if he liked to hunt, to which he replied "that was one of his passions". I got his contact information and came back to Southern Colorado and began patching together all of the contacts I had locally to try and put together an elk hunt for this young Marine and another of his cohorts that were currently undergoing rehab in California. Since Matt, or his friend Ammon, didn't have legs from right above the knees, I knew it was going to have to be a hunt on private property so we could use a UTV to get him and his buddy from one place to another. With very little effort on my part, I was able to secure permission to bring 2 Wounded Warriors out and take them on a "guided" elk hunt for the handicapped on a nice piece of gorgeous elk habitat. It seemed to work out because the owners of the ranch are big time into hunting and had been thinking about trying to do something on similar lines. Anyway, it was a start and now we just had to get everything else to fall in place. Numerous emails and phone calls back and forth on rifles, calibers and ammunition, clothing and such brought us to the Second combined rifle season in Colorado. Twice, Matt's chosen hunting partners had to drop out, leaving him with very little time to find a second hunter that enjoyed hunting as much and wanted to go on a once in a lifetime elk hunt.
I made arrangements for the licenses, the motels and meals, transportation and the place, now all we had to do was find suitable elk for the two of them to shoot.
All of the preparation they had put in showed on the range when it was time to check their rifles zero before the hunt.
Opening day gave Matt a chance at a big bull but it was out of his range and all he did was make the bull walk off of the ridge he was occupying for the time being.
Just before last shooting light, the other Marine that Matt had invited, Ammon, got his chance at a nice 6 x 6 at around 420 yards. We were hunting separate areas but heard 4 shots from Ammons direction and his .308. The 4th shot was the lucky number and Ammon had his bull down. Sorry about the pic but it was dark.
The next few days, hunting during a full moon, the set up and the waiting about drove the guys crazy. This is one of the setups overlooking a couple of meadows and a creek.
With the hunt on it's 5th day, lady luck was finally on Matt's side and he connected with this heavy 6 x 6. Nice old bull will score in the 320 range.
Two of the local taxidermists are now in charge of the mounts and have volunteered to do them at zero cost for the vets and the meat is safely in their freezers at home.
Hopefully they had as much fun as I did hosting them and I can get ready for next year to see if I can put another hunt for our Wounded heroes together.

There is a lot more to you than some would ever figger!

Way to go, wonderfull thing you did there!

Exceptional Elk too!

Thanks JTEX. Don't you have a private little preserve????

Yep. And you have set me to thinkin'.

(It don't hurt that bad after all!)


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AWESOME brother!
I want to support this...
Incoming PM

Roland

Well done, wingnut, very well done.

PAGOSA,
You are the MAN, thanks so much or your effort, as we all know these hero's, are the very best we have to offer. So glad they had a trip of a lifetime, and so glad we have folks like you, to help with just one little dream, they deserve everything we have got! So well done...

Best Regards,
Butch

Damn Fine thing to do for a couple of our finest.
Hats off to ALL involved.

Thanks for all that you did and thank you to all those that helped out. I do appreciate the efforts of people like you giving back to veterans like myself.