THE HUNTER

One of the reasons why hunting is one of Americas greatest heritages is that no matter how many times we go hunting and no matter how many years we go hunting. There is no guarantee we will take or even see the animal we are hunting and then again we may see the trophy of lifetime. This is what drives us as hunters. The uncertainty.

After 10 years of hunting elk, and taking numerous trophy elk, on August 25^th, 2001 when Mike Mathes of Cape Girardeau, Missouri stepped foot onto 5,000 acres in Colorado, he had no ideal that this would be the ultimate hunt of a lifetime.

While Mike had taken 380 typical and 396 typical SCI class trophy bull elk on Mark Levalley’s North Rim Trophy Hunts land and his outfitter and guide Rocky Camp had been scouting a nice size bull elk in this one area. Neither the owner nor guide thought Mike could find and harvest a bull elk that could outclass the two he had already taken.

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

This hunt started early morning of August 25^th. When Mike, his wife Nancy Video taping the hunt, and with guide Rocky, they all headed a few miles in a location that had a watering hole, and that previous scouting by Rocky had produce one nice trophy bull elk through binoculars.

With temperatures around 40 degrees and the clear skies, this made the early morning hunting, stalking and glassing the area a great and peaceful start to the hunt. The peace to this hunt ended suddenly when they walked into a heavier Oak Brush area and then 4 to 5 bull elk that had bedded down for the morning at around 40 yards in front of them broke cover and ran out of site.

After the excitement of seeing elk first thing into the hunt had passed. The guide Rocky, Mike and Nancy continued for miles up and down these 8,000 to 9,500 feet rolling hills of Colorado stalking and glassing the area as Mike tried to pierce the Oak Brush with his Zeiss binoculars and even seeing several elk over ½ mile away. The day final came to a close as night fell.

THE ULTIMATE HUNT

With the excitement of yesterday morning still in the air all three were up and hunting at 6:00 a.m., but with a few hours passing by without seeing one elk. Things started looking up around 9:30 a.m. after spotting several elk through his binoculars about 1000 yards away. But by this time it had started to get hot. With temperature’s headed to 85 degrees it was decided to come back around 3:00 p.m. and try again.

Finally 3:00 p.m. had made it back around but with the heat still hanging on they decided to make a ground blind in the brush close to the water hole from the first day. The elk sign around the water hole was great and with the heat it was a sure bet that they would have to come and drink before dark.

But three hours had passed and not one elk had made itself known that it was in the area. Rocky decided to stretch and glass the surrounding territory with his binoculars. When Rocky spotted two elk on the ridge across from us. Mike got up to take a look and that’s when he saw a huge elk about 1000 yards away on the ridge.

With only hours left until dark Rocky said they would they have a slim chance at this monster elk. Mike decided this is the one he wanted to try for. After stalking part of the way the elusive monster elk some how either smelled or saw them moving closer and took off running over the top of the mountain and into the thick Oak brush and Aspen Trees.

Mike, Nancy, and their guide Rocky took off hiking as fast as they could, up and over the mountain in the direction the elusive elk had taken.

With guide Rocky Camp being half elk and able to take the thin air at this allitude. Mike and Nancy, decided that they had to take a break to catch their breath, other wise he would not be able to shoot if or when the found the king of the mountains.

Rocky decided to try to get a birds eye view. So he climbed 10 foot into an Aspen tree and when he got to the perch he spotted three bull elk still, 1000 yards off, but was not sure if the mammoth was one of the three.

With some calls from Primo’s game calls bugle to get a bearing on the elk. They stalked in until they had narrowed the gap to 100 yards. With only 10 minutes of daylight left Mike could only see the mammoth elk antlers above the brush line.

With Rocky guiding the way they slowly stalked bent over until they had closed the gap to only 60 yards. Mike took his Knight muzzleloader with Zeiss 2.5 x 10 and zero in on the mammoth elk. But it was just not a good shot with elk facing him.

This elusive bull elk, could tell things weren’t quite right and started trotting off, but like every hunt, some times things go for you and some times don’t. But this time the mammoth elk and its towering rack was angle towards them until it had closed the gap to about 50 yards but this time it stopped in and opening and broadside.

With this being the last and only chance they would have at this king, Mike with out hesitation shoulder his 50 caliber Knight disc muzzleloader and made a perfect broadside shot just behind the shoulder.

With 220 grains of lead powered by 3 pyrodex pellets the King of the Mountain only ran 50 yards before he dropped in the oak brush.

TIME TO RE-WRITE THE RECORD BOOKS

This story does not end in Colorado. After the Elk has was green scored by Safari Club International rules. It preliminary score is 409 6/8 Typical SCI which would potentially make number 10 overall in their books.

But that is just the cake lets put the icing on top of this record book elk. With a green score by Safari Club International rules and taken with a muzzleloader. This bull elk measure 409 6/8” Typical SCI. That potentially would make it the NO. 1 in the record books with a muzzleloader.

I talked with Safari Club International and the current record with muzzleloader stands at 393. With a 60 day drying time to be officially scored. There is a huge chance that Mike Mathes has a No. 1 Safari Club International Bull Elk taken with a Muzzleloader in the World.

Congratulations to Mike for taking such a great trophy, along with a congratulations for Nancy catching it all on film. Without knowing for sure this could also be on of the very few if not the only record book elk taken on film with a muzzleloader.