Just a Poor Colorado kid!

So 2023, 23rd year of applying plus my extra credit points for 25. No one thought I wouldn’t draw.

I was confident, except for the fact AZ was having it best moisture year in a long time plus the calendar shift, you never know in this Information Age how people will apply.

I threw down, one choice, early archery. When March came it wasn’t too big of a surprise to see a CC charge. It was done, I was going to the big show!
 
Funny how the draws always seem to work and everyone knows, you draw everything when you draw big. I had applied for and drew a Kodiak Brown Bear hunt the prior year, for Spring of 2023. This is also pretty cool because who knew a poor Colorado Kid would ever get to go chase the most infamous bears on the planet?

I spent most of the Spring getting ready for this hunt and not AZ elk. It was an amazing hunt.

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I went in to the hunt declaring I was all in or nothing!! I figured if I was going to have to spend the rest of my life finding places to hang a bear hide, it better be big! I also wanted a nasty old skull with missing teef and age. So this was an easy pass first day.
 
May came and I started calling everyone I ever met through the years that had hunted the unit and their brothers.

By July my ONX had so many waypoints you could hardly see the map when you zoom out a bit.

I decided to take a ride South over the 4th of July weekend. I was warned that the unit does not have very good glassing and that it might be hard to spot elk. Add 95 degree days and a full moon with mouse fart silence and they were 100% correct. We had a good time despite it all and also did some sight seeing. But man it was HOT! 63776119-8C1B-4B48-B1D5-9CFE773A1B07.jpegBB782DC8-5E09-4464-9315-564AB9BE6E5E.jpeg343EB2BA-0AC1-4A60-9D95-1ED5BBFEDB1D.jpegF1CA5670-B729-4BEF-99F9-4A601D2D7293.jpeg
 
Back home and more calls more waypoints plus the ones from the scouting trip.....silly.

The first big problem for the hunt starts rearing its ugly head. With the bow set up I have, that I thought I was reasonably accurate with, I cannot get it tuned and I am pretty much spraying arrows all over the place. I'm trying to paper tune and going to bow techs and it still is not coming together.

I'm shooting so much and removing arrows from tough targets my shoulders are screaming. At times I'm laying on the shop floor in pain because they hurt so bad. I'm actually wondering how I'm going to pull the bow back at the big show. Big sissy I know.

I break down and drive to Denver and drop a mortgage payment on a new set up, it helps considerably but my confidence is pretty much gone.
 
I have been waiting rather impatiently for Dink to post about hunts. You have all night to type sir so get crackin'.
 
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