This year we had a slightly different camp. The Old Goat I usually hunt and camp with didn’t draw a tag for our normal unit so I had to go it without the old man. As luck would have it my old Detachment One buddy was able to come out and hunt with me. Huge thank you to Hunts for Heroes and Fotis for lining up the tags for us. They do a helluva job for Vets. Anyhow, as luck would have it, my son was able to take two weeks of leave and my little brother also roger’ed up to go with us, even though neither drew a tag.

The boys and I left from the east coast to get camp set up and get some elk scouted.







The boys doing some amphib Ops to get into the hunt area.

We got up on the mountain as soon as we could and started trying to get some elk spotted up. The Colonel has never been elk hunting so I wanted to show him those awesome Rocky’s and what it looks like to do it yourself.







The evening my buddy was coming in we got onto a small herd Im pretty sure we could've put a stalk on, but we were nice guys and decided to put them to bed till Craig (the Colonel) was in camp.



The next morning found us all up on the mountain, with elk everywhere. It was awesome. Even a bit of bugling too. We waited till the elk were in the timber by 0900, then moved over to get within rifle range of them.

Good story so far. I'm in.

We set up with our backs against some old pines and started to glass. Well, I might have taken a snooze till 1500 or so..






The Colonel and I talked a bit to pass the time. We were Marines who served together a few times throughout our careers and know a lot of the same folks so it was great to catch up and tell fishing sorta war stories to the young lads. Who knows, they mighta slept through most of them!

Anyhow around 1600, the Colonel glassed up a bull coming outta the timber. I held him for a second to make sure we couldn’t get a two’fer then said fire when ready. The bull was at 325 yards by our RFs and he pounded him a few times before he gave up.

On the rifle side, one of our mutual friends found him a P64 30-06, topped it with a Trijicon with the Mildot reticle. Once he had the rifle in hand the only ammo he could get ahold of was 180 Remington CLRN’s.. He spent a few hours with Todd Hodnett zeroing and shooting dope out to 600.

Anyhow, back to the bull. Once he was down we ran/walked up to the beast.







To say I was walking on air was an understatement!

First bull, 325 yards, P64 M70, hunting with some of my favorite people on planet earth and some old Round Nosed Green Boxed Remingtons brought it all together.

Did a quick class on skinning and quartering.







Then started to load some packs.

We got the MR packs out and started dividing up our loads. Didn’t take much with 4 strong back, hard footed fellas.







We got the meat back to camp at dark, probably 2000-2100 and had a few drinks! It was cool enough that night we unbundled them from the packs and let them chill in the night air.

Next day we arranged them on a nice log over the creek, tarped them and let them start aging.



My old buddy hunted a few more days with us. Had a couple more close encounters with small bulls but like a dummy I resisted since I’d seen a dinger on the mountain.

Anyhow he headed out back to home and the boys and I hunted a few more days but the heat was keeping them in the timber till late, almost till legal shooting light so they were pretty tough to make a play on. Didn’t matter, we’d had a goal of getting Craig on an elk and got him an excellent public land bull.

We did muck around a bit and found some sheep herder carvings.





Picture of the ol Roundnoses that could!



Anyhow, it was a great hunt. Wished it was a little cooler but you just never know what you’ll run into in the mountains.





A couple pictures of him and I 6 years younger. I retired on Friday and he retired the following Monday. It was a helluva party that weekend.

And my boy who was just about to go into the service.



Anyhow, anytime you old vets get a chance to hunt with one another, go do it. If you aren’t a vet, take one with you. It’s almost comical to hear all the bones cracking and insane snoring at night in camp

Great report - Thanks for sharing and congrats on getting your bud a bull!

Great story and pics, thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

Excellent.

👍

First, thank you guys for your service. I'm glad you guys had a good hunt. Those old round noses work. What part of Wyoming were you in?

Good deal.

The closest town was Afton to our unit. Bridger NF.

Thanks fellas. Can't say what a nice hunt it was. A little suffering with a pack always makes folks smile back at camp.

Hell yeah!

Great hunt, congrats on the Bull. Thanks for taking the time to post the story and pic's.

I really enjoyed reading about the hunt with your great pictures. Thanks for taking the time to share them!

Great story and memories to last forever.

I’ll throw a shameless plug in here for Hunts for Heroes and the Combat Veterans Hunting programs Our tags were donated by housewives, non hunters, and other family that aren’t hunters. The resident tags can either be donated to the organization for whomever the vet that wants to hunt or in a vets name for transfer. Just something to think about if you or your family ever want to donate.

As a guy that did 13 deployments in a little over 20 years in the MC there isn’t many places in the world that make me happier than being with other Vets and like minded folks and hunting and guns, while not very cool to our dipshit society today is what a lot of us really enjoy while not able to hunt [bleep] who threatened our nation.

I think programs like this are more helpful than Wounded Warriors and other groups where your dollar donated barely puts a quarter towards helping a veteran.

Off my box.. carry on.

Excellent hunt and story!

Oh Yeh! Great hunt and story.

BADASS!

Congratulations beretzs!!!!

Superb hunt report! Thanks for sharing.

Luv’n it…
First (and only) time I saw that memorial was when attending a funeral at Arlington right after my first tour.

Great story, great hunt.
Thank you for sharing.

Wow!!!!! Very awesome!!!

Congrats all around and thanks for the awesome report.

Todd

Thanks for taking us along beretzs. Looked like a great time

Doesn’t get any better! Time with family and friends in the woods is priceless. A heavy pack tops it off 🍻.

Great story! Thank y’all for your service! Good job!

Very well done and well told. Thank you!

Great read and pics. Congrats to all.

Thanks to everyone that served.

Hellz yes!

Fantastic chronicle - thanks for sharing. And for your service.

Great trip, pics, and story Scotty, thanks for all ya’s service. 👊🏻

It is an awesome piece of ground.

And thanks fellas!

Nice---Real Nice. One of the best threads I've read in a long time. Bob

Beretz: Congratulations to you and your crew on the beautiful Hunt!
Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Congrats on the harvest and next time show them the gutless method on processing in the field. You can get that bull down to quarters ready to pack in 45 minutes, with straps and tenders.

Hunting with Heroes is a great program and is available in other states too.
Wyoming also has a great program for any handicapped hunter.

Thank you for your service as well.

out-freaking-standing. thanks for taking us along in story.

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.

And thanks to you and the Colonel for your service.

Congrats on a successful hunt Scotty, glad you got the colonel on a bull !

Thanks for the write up and great pictures !

So awesome beretzs, and with 180 gr scallop jacketed RNs no less!

Wow congratulations! What an awesome hunt!

Awesome! Best thread I’ve read in a long time. Congrats, and thanks for your service!

Bravo Zulu!
Great story with a bunch of good pics. Nice bull BTW 😁

Crazy good post, congrats

Pretty tough to beat a classic rifle and ammo combo on a cool hunt.

Great write up on an awesome hunt!

Wamsutter? At the Love's Station?

Nailed it!

Awesome hunt and write up, b!

Congrats all around on doing it right and getting your ol war buddy a nice bull.

🦫

Congratulations

Thanks for the comments fellas. Still floating a bit, even though I am back at work and would much rather be chasin bucks!

great story! What could be better R&R for a Retired Marine with 13 deployments behind him do than Wy. Elk hunt with buds!!!

I am relatively new here, best thread I have had the pleasure of reading so far!

Great story and pictures beretz, outstanding and thank you for your service!

Cheers ~

Thanks for posting MSgt and congratulations on your retirement!

Me and my two best devils will be in Montana next week. This thread will motivate them like it did me, I’m sure.

Semper fi.

Awesome! Get after it Jeffrey! Hope you guys get all over them!

Thank you fellas. Totally appreciate the well wishes!

Well done Beretzs and Fotis too it takes team work and you guys made it happen. According to my old rem catalog with a 200 yd zero the rn drops about 7.5" more at 300yds regardless it looks like he put it in the right place and it did what they allways do. Congrats to all and very well done. ..mb

Thanks MB..

The CoreLokt's worked just fine. I thought it was kinda cool once I realized the ammo he was feeding that old P64.

7.5" seems like a lot, so.I rechecked that table and found it was, that's the 400 yard difference with 2" difference at 300 with both loads using a 200 yard zero.sorry about that. 325 and right where it was supposed to go is all that counts...mb

Thanks for the wonderful write up, looks like you guys had a great time and got what you came for.
Nice to see an old classic rifle at work!

Exactly right Bob. He spent some time on the range and figured out his drops with the Trijicon with the mil dot reticle. I have seen him shoot in other places so I didn't worry too much about that. He's a squared away SOB, for an officer

Thanks Handwerk. It was a blast.

Great reading. Congrats on a successful hunt.

That’s the way to do it!! Great story, and many thanks for your career of service.