Another September has come and gone...

​I had a lot of anticipation built into this September. With an antelope tag in my pocket and of course archery elk hunting and due to COVID more time to hunt excitement was at an all-time high. The year started out with a bang. Opening weekend my dad Aaron and Logan came down to the area I hunt around Laramie and we were off and running. Day one I was full draw on a bull sadly he had seen me draw and didn’t give me a shot. The evening of day one we got on another bull and I had a shot at 60 yards and my arrow fell off the string not once but twice. Knocks were changed out and shot to ensure nothing would happen.
 
Our last day there it almost all came together. My dad called in a nice six point and I got a shot at the bull at 40 yards. My string hit my jacket and arrow and ruined my arrow flight, and I missed. First thing that came into my head was hoping that this wasn’t going to be how the year is going to go. It was looking like things were going to change.
 
After a nasty snowstorm that dumped about 8 inches, we were on elk right away. Tracking bulls through the snow and we got so close. Tanner and I walked into a pocket with screaming bulls and were inside 100 yards of three bulls with not shot opportunities provided. After a crazy weekend of elk hunting, I had a couple of days to antelope hunt until I left for a week to meet up with my dad, Aaron and my cousin Matt for an archery elk hunt.
 
The antelope hunt was going well until the very last day. We found a spot that had a bunch of antelope and multiple shooter bucks just to have other hunters mess it up for us. Which is fine it is a Hunter Management permit I drew so I knew other hunters were going to be around. The last night I missed one of our target bucks, with my confidence shot I headed home hoping for a good night sleep and another shot the next day. I got to my apartment to realize my tailgate on my pickup had fallen down. And my brand-new pack gone. 
 
Turns out my tailgate came down sometime before I got on I-80 and my pack had fallen out on the interstate and got hit by a vehicle. Luckily no one was injured and there was minimal damage done to the vehicle that is, my new pack that I had for three months destroyed. The silver lining is no one was injured, and I was able to get almost all of my gear back. I was able to still attend my weeklong archery elk hunt hoping once again fortunes would change.
 
It was sure a fun week with average elk hunting. We had to deal with a lot of people, hot weather and bulls that were not very vocal and willing to come into the calls. We were able to get close to a couple of good bulls but unable to get any shots. We tried jumping areas with not much changing. The last full day we switched it up and went deer hunting. We hiked into a spot that we have seen a lot of bucks and I shot my biggest buck and self-filmed it (it is on our YouTube channel). We saw one good buck, but I decided to pass thinking I had October to deer hunt around Laramie. The Mullen fire ruined that plan and I was soon kicking myself for not shooting this buck. Just like that though September is over, and we are on to October with antelope tags in the pocket and rifle elk season looming. Hopefully October is our month!