Cats, Crashes and More on a Colorado Elk Hunt

Along for the trip was Team Weatherby member and New York Giants tight end Bear Pascoe. Bear, a lifetime hunter who grew up on a ranch in his native California, is an NRA member and a dedicated supporter of the Second Amendment.

Though we saw no elk, we saw ample sign—from fresh tracks to scrapes to dropping, the elk had certainly been through the property we were hunting. They just didn't seem to be there the week we had it. We didn't get any fresh powder during our stay, but we did find some rather large tracks in the snow that was already on the mountain—that's my size-13 boot to the right, for comparison.

Fog became something of an issue on the third morning of our hunt. I spent the better part of an hour climbing up to a vantage point from which I hoped I'd be able to spot some elk... and ultimately found myself face-to-face with a cloud of dense fog. There could have been a hundred elk down there—I'll never know.

One thing we saw plenty of during our stay was cougar sign. Pictured here is one particularly large track that was spotted on our first evening. That's a .270 Wby. Mag. cartridge we placed in it, to put its size into perspective. Two hunters on the trip—myself included—would later see actual cats prowling the area, an uncommon occurrence.

I wasn't kidding when I said there were cougars in the hills around us. These photos were pulled from a trail camera that one of our guides had set up on one of the property's watering holes. The top images shows a massive adult tom, while the bottom shows what looks to be a pair of juveniles.

I alternated between two rifles during my stay. The first, seen here, wasWeatherby's trusted Mark V—the same one that Bear Pascoe used while he was in camp. The second rifle was the slightly more practical (given how much hiking we did) Vanguard Series 2 Back Country, which was decidedly lighter on the shoulder during long days afield.

Of course, an elk hunt typically means lots of hiking—so I wasn't the only one who was occasionally carrying a lighter-than-usual rifle. Weatherby's Justin Moore spent the week hauling this Mark V Ultra Lightweight across Colorado's rough terrain.

There were five hunters in our group, and no shortage of variety when it came to ammunition. I spent about half my trip carrying the Mark V pictured earlier in this gallery, and it was chambered in the elk-slaying.300 Wby. Mag. pictured here. .270 Wby. Mag. and .30-06 Sprg. cartridges were also in camp.

Thanks to our elevation, it wasn't hard to see the bright lights of the nearby city, particularly when the sun began to set at the end of each day. This view is my favorite way to look upon any city—from a distance.

The property we were hunting was quite a ways above sea level, but nowhere more so than the very top of Mt. Tom, which we scaled on two separate occasions. The peak, which stands at 9,741 feet, was home to both elk sign and an airplane crash (check out the next photo for more on that). Reaching it wasn't easy, either—especially for someone that grew up in a region of the country where 25-feet above sea level was considered the "high ground."

Elk aside, Mt. Tom had plenty for us to see. On April 8, 1952 Capt. Hilton B. Wilcox, Jr. and Lt. Col. Merrill E. Smith lost their lives when the B-25 bomber they were piloting crashed into the side of the mountain. The military recovered its pilots' remains, but little more—leaving nearly the entirety of the wreck where it lay. It's still there to this day, and we couldn't resist scaling the mountain a second time, just to do a little sight seeing.

The lodge—which doubled as the home of our hosts, Mike and Cheri Cappello—was as comfortable as it was spacious. Surrounded by trophy mounts and antique ranching equipment, it wasn't difficult to get into a hunting mood. We spent more than a few hours here pouring over a series of maps, trying to figure out where on the property our prey might be holing up.

It was a small camp, but a very friendly one. From left to right: Porter Pearce, Brian Pearce, our host Cheri Cappello, Justin Moore of Weatherby, Bear Pascoe and the author, Shawn Skipper.