Washington- This a hunt I’ll never forget and a story that will go around for the rest of my life. I cannot thank Dave Sandana and Luke Wagner enough for making this whole thing happen. Dave and Luke spotted this herd when I was back at camp resting (I was under the weather all week) and they came back to camp to get me. Immediately we came up with a plan to go after them and headed out. Luckily, the elk hadn't really moved much from where the guys saw them last. Luke and I c

Arizona- I stalked all morning into this spot where the bulls were on FIRE! Just an all out bugle war. As I closed in on an area of Aspen dead-falls, multiple bulls were firing off like crazy but none responded to our few select cow calls, they just wanted a battle. I stalked closer with each bugle until I finally heard the clash of antlers. I look to my far right and see two bulls just brawling, pushing each other back and forth between the trees. Then I hear deep, gnarly, a

Idaho- This year’s Idaho elk hunt was full of emotions. I’ve hunted this bull for years and had always came up empty handed. This year, after hiking nearly 50 miles in just a few days trying to get within archery range, it all came together on September 5th. As we played the wind and climbed to 8400 feet, I gave a cow call and he immediately bugled within 120 yards. I called again and he bugled back a second time. I had a friend stay behind and cow call every so often to dis

Colorado- My cold, stiff body ached as ELK:30 rattled in my pocket, jolting my mind to the current situation; getting up for the final day of my 2018 elk hunting trip. I fumbled through my Sitka Gear pants to shut my “nuclear alarm” off on my phone and lied in my sleeping bag for a few more minutes waking myself up. I tried to mentally prepare myself for most likely being unsuccessful yet again on this final morning and leaving for Michigan with empty coolers and tag soup. I

Colorado - On Friday, August 25, 2017 my twin brother Jonny and I finally arrived at the elk hunting grounds the afternoon before opening day of the Colorado archery elk season. Thanks to our handheld GPS, we had maneuvered through many winding dirt roads until at last we found the desired destination: Public land in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness. To our dismay, there were already a great number of other vehicles strewn across the expanse of the parking area. It looked as if w

Wyoming- The morning began chilly and somewhat disappointing when my dad and I got to our parking spot. There was a truck already parked there but we got out and headed out anyway. Almost immediately, we could hear bugles in the direction we were headed, and about a half mile down the trail later we had 3 or 4 bulls bugling down in a drainage. My dad decided he would stay high and try cow calling as I dropped into the drainage in pursuit. After slowly working my way towards t

Idaho, September 2nd, 2017 - I wasn't planning on elk hunting this weekend until literally last Wednesday. I was going to hunt deer closer to home, but I figured this weekend would be a good scouting trip for later this month. Thursday night I threw my pack together and got everything I needed set aside so I could grab and go after work. I skipped out of the office early, and was able to make it to the mountain with enough time to setup my shelter and do some glassing before

Oregon - After checking our trail cameras on a few different wallows the night before the season opener, we saw that we had good bulls showing up on all 3. So we decided to set up a make shift ground blind with some branches and had a perfect, giant ponderosa as a backdrop. We hiked in at 3:30 a.m. then next morning and set up. As soon as daylight arose, two of the bulls that we had on camera came right in. The first, a 5x5, came in at a dead sprint, with a big 6x6 about 20 y