WHAT’S THE
SCORE?
Having perspective and knowledge helps alleviate
some of the pressure of shooting an animal that
scores high. By Chad Dotson
I
T HAD BEEN A VERY difficult hunt, to say the least. Myself and
my hunting buddies were on an elk hunt in New Mexico and
things were not going as planned. Not only were we not find-
ing any bulls, we were having a very difficult time finding
elk at all. We had hiked hard, glassed hard and even moved
camp a few times, all to no avail. We listened to other groups of
hunters with similar frustrations exclaim they had never seen the
hunting in this area this tough.
After a week of both mental and physical fatigue, I was able to
connect on a 6-point on the final day of the hunt. It was the only
bull seen the entire trip and I was extremely proud to place my
tag on him. With packs fully loaded, we reached the bottom of the
canyon and crossed the river just as darkness closed in. It was still
several miles back to camp. I counted each step as we followed the
dimly lit bobbing of our headlamps, hoping it would distract me
from the arduous climb up the other side of the drainage. Finally
around midnight, I staggered into the tent on wobbling legs. It was
the hardest I have ever worked for an elk, or any animal for that
matter.
Sometime after the hunt an individual saw the bull hanging
proudly in my shop and made note to ask me about him. “Where
did that bull come from?” he asked first. “That bull came from New
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