Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 7 months to go...

..until Colorado's 3rd Rifle season. Everyone in my group has their apps in for a Pref Point first choice and a cow tag second. Given where we put in for the cow tags (Units 12/23/24) we expect everyone will end up with a cow tag and an OTC bull tag. I'm getting itchy.

After the 2014 elk season I thought I might be done elk hunting due to a bad hip that was rapidly getting worse. In March of 2015 it was so bad that compensating for it screwed up my back as well and I was limping along like an old man, bent over at 45 degrees and supporting myself with a cane. A hip replacement followed in April and last fall I was able to guide Daughter #1 on her first elk hunt (albeit a short weekend event) followed by a week long hunt in which I got a 6x5 raghorn bull. A week back I turned 65 and have my one-year follow-up visit with my hip surgeon later this morning. These days I walk like normal and rarely think about my hip except to marvel at how the hip that used to dominate every waking moment now rarely enters my consciousness. I'm riding a bike, something I hadn't done in 30+ years and last Sunday my wife and I fast-hiked 4 miles. No pain. Now I'm thinking I might have another 10 years of elk hunting, although I don't expect I'll ever put in the miles that we did even a few years ago. Modern medicine is AWESOME.

My family has their apps in for Wyoming antelope as well, only 6 months away. While I only put in for one, I may put in for a second. This will be a first-time big game hunt for Daughter #3 and her boyfriend and I'm looking forward to helping them fill their tags. 6 months seems like a long time but the older I get the faster it goes.

Three aren't any new rifles in the safe but I need to work up a TTSX replacement for the .300WM/180g MRX, some SST practice loads for a couple different rifles and work up a load for my son-in-law's .30-06. With everything else that is coming up this summer I doubt I'll even get all that done.

Spring has just arrived and while I'm not wishing fall was here already I can't help thinking about it. If I was retired (probably a couple years out) I'd be heading to NM and WY to check out good hunting grounds...