I've been going to Colorado for the last six years with my husband Tom to elk hunt in the San Juan National Forest. 

In 2009, I shot my first cow elk. Then, in 2011, I harvested a beautiful 5x5 bull. This year, it was another successful hunt when I took this awesome 6x6.

We had just walked into the woods, a short distance from camp, when we heard a bull bugle. He was close so Tom bugled back and here he came. I drew back and shot him at 16 yards with my Matthews Monster bow.

I feel extremely fortunate to have a husband who taught me how to shoot and who will share his love for the great outdoors.

In October this year (2012), I went on a long-awaited pronghorn buck hunt with high hopes. I drew a tag in GMU 135, south of La Junta. I had been waiting for quite some time for this tag and when I was selected with my preference points, I was ecstatic.

Prior to my hunt, I scouted the area on the northern section of Comanche National Grassland. I poured over the maps for likely camping, ambush, water spots, etc. I hunted it quite hard for six straight days.

On Thursday morning, I left camp for my eleventh hunt focused on a buck I had seen the night before on private land. I hunted a trail east of where I saw him and his does. As I came down into a wash, there he was – approximately 275 yards ahead of me with a smaller buck and a doe.

I worked my way through a coulee and was able to gain ground on them quickly. On hands and knees, with the wind in my face, I crawled up to the edge of the coulee and they were still there. I couldn’t shoot prone because of a rise between us, so I went into a sitting position and made a perfect heart shot at 167 yards. He never took a step and went down instantly.

I had a great and tough experience out there, and now I have great meat in the freezer and a wonderful mount for the wall. It was well worth the wait for this hunt. 

Oct. 26, 2012, was my first day in the wild as a real hunter and I was a bit nervous. The last time I shot anything was two years ago — it was a can, 50 yards away.

My boyfriend Michael Herrera, a Hunt Planner at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, was determined to share with me what he loves — hunting. I agreed to go on one condition: I was only going to shoot a big buck. I didn’t want to shoot anything that looked like a baby, and the shot had to be good.

We spotted bucks on our first day out, luck was on our side. When we got 300 hundred yards away, we set up. But I didn’t feel comfortable with my gun position and didn’t feel I had a good shot. We moved in, about 150 yards away. It was perfect but it took a good two minutes before I felt the gun and my breathing steady.

I saw my buck, paused for a second, took a breath and shot. I looked at Michael and he was smiling, his cousin was jumping with joy screaming, "You dropped him!"

When I saw my buck I was a little sad. But I thought about how he had lived a good long life, it was the circle of life. I put some grass in his mouth as a blessing to say thank you for his life and said a little prayer for him.

I also named him Fred. I felt Fred was a living creature so he deserved a name, for respect. Hunting is a sacred thing, I would rather eat a deer or elk instead of a cow that has not lived a good life. Michael has shared that aspect of hunting with me, and that trip was one to never be forgotten. 

It was the fifth day of the hunt and I hadn't seen much. I was walking up a draw on the way up to a spot on Mexican Ridge in Unit 16. Timber was on my left and 100 yards in front of me was sagebrush on the ridge to my right. All of a sudden, I heard several elk quickly moving up the draw to my left.

I froze, waited until the elk slowed down in front of me and saw two cows starting to graze in the sage. Guessing they might go to the top of the ridge, I backed out to where they couldn't see me and went over the ridge to my right. Then, I moved parallel up the ridge in the timber until I reached the point where I thought they might intersect me.

Looking up the ridge, I could see the rear of one elk, so I prepared to take the next elk that showed itself. To my surprise, the next elk wasn't a cow; it was this huge bull that scored  304 1/8 gross and 298 3/8 net on Pope and Young.

I've never experienced such a heart-pounding moment in my life. It took me 15 minutes to stop shaking after the 12-yard shot and after I found the bull (texting was impossibleeeeeeee).

Photo by John Field

My husband, Riley Busch, filled his tag on day No. 2 of our hunt. We were hunting in Unit 32 during first season with my mom and my little brother.

On day No. 3, we got up early sent my brother one way while my mom hung out at the truck. We heard shots and moved to the top of a ridge where we could see a herd of elk. We looked down and saw this bull coming out into an opening. I took my shot and brought down this monster. All the days of walking and hard hunting were well worth it.

Photo by Danelle's husband, Riley

My family has been hunting in Colorado for five generations. My brother Jason and I had been planning this hunt in GMU 38 since April 4th; it was finally here. It was a brisk Saturday morning on Nov. 17th during fourth rifle season. We pulled up to the base of the mountain where we had been scouting the entire summer. We had seen some nice size bucks on this mountain on our scouts and our hopes were high.

We began hiking up the hillside, looking over the landscape around us. Right off the bat, we spotted a few does and a small 2x2 buck no more than 50 yards away from the vehicle. But that was about all the excitement we had for the next two hours.

Around 8:30 a.m., Jason spotted two nice size bucks moving out of the brush about 700 yards to the south of us. They were making their way to a water hole that we were set up on. It was a little breezy that morning — lucky for us the wind was blowing into our faces, keeping us down wind of the bucks. 

We both raised our rifles and positioned ourselves for a shot. These bucks were on a mission and were showing no sings of stopping, so my brother and I just waited for them to close the gap between us. I shot my 5x6 buck at 30 yards, and Jason took his 4x4 at 60 yards. This is the biggest buck I’ve ever taken.

Photo by Jason Kailey

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