Nice Antler- that’s a good story with your son
I first got a brief look at him in the winter, he was a long ways off but those big extras really stood out. That fall I found the antlers while archery hunting with a friend, we never saw the bull and later found out he was rutting on a large private ranch miles away.
With a few days of archery left he was back, but I elected to not go after him as my son had a rifle tag and and rifle season was just over a week away. By opening day I had him kind of figured out, but when opening day arrived we ran into a bunch of elk in the dark and they ran back into where I figured the bulls should be. For the next week or so I could not find him and then one morning I spotted him. It was late and I knew he would not go far.
The next day was a PIR day at my sons school so we had that day to hunt, but the more I thought about it I decided that we needed to go after him that evening so I called him up and told him not to ride the bus, I would pick him up at school to save the time we would need to get into the right spot.
We had just got into position and the bulls showed up, I was hoping that they would go down the bottom of the draw, but they fallowed the far ridge. It was going to be a 350 yard shot or nothing. The first shot hit him but not real good. The next two were just what you would expect for an excited 16 year old. Both missed and a good scope eye. I got him calmed down for the fourth and the bull dropped in his tracks.