Last Day Bull — The Shot That Changed Everything

Two years ago, I made a bad shot on a bull elk in the Colorado high country.

I hit him — not well — and after three days of searching, I had to make the hardest call of my hunting life. I walked out without that bull. No tag punched. No mount to hang on the wall. Just a long walk out of the mountains with a weight I couldn’t put down.

I’ve never talked about it publicly. On camera, in this business, you show the kills. The punched tags. The grip-and-grins. Nobody wants to film the walk of shame out of the mountains.

But that walk changed something in me.

Watch the full film above — then enter the giveaway for a chance to win a $720+ Initial Ascent IA3K Pack + Mathews Arrow Vault Case. Comment on YouTube where you think the arrow hit to enter.

The Weight of a Wounded Bull

I kept hunting after that. Booked trips, guided hunts, filmed content. But that unit stayed in my head. That bull stayed in my head.

My wife knew. My business partner knew. But every time someone asked me about Colorado archery elk hunting, I’d answer them and think: I left one there.

Two years of that is a long time to carry something.

Going Back

Last fall, I made the decision to go back to the same mountain. Same unit. Same drainage I’d thought about every day since that walk out.

Part of me wanted closure. Part of me thought there might still be a bull in that country — older, mature, maybe the same animal. That’s probably wishful thinking. But elk can be homebodies in the right terrain, and that mountain held something I hadn’t finished yet.

We packed in two days before the opener. Same wall tent camp. Same spike camp location. Everything familiar and everything completely different in my head this time around.

Eight Days In

Colorado high country archery elk doesn’t give up easy. You earn every encounter. We had bulls in range, we had close calls, we had mornings where the elk were right there and the wind wasn’t.

By the last day, I’d made peace with the possibility of going home empty. Not quitting — just accepting that some hunts end that way, and that coming back at all was the point.

Then the mountain did what mountains do when you’ve put in the work.

I’m not going to give it away here. Watch the film.

What This Hunt Was Actually About

This film isn’t really about the bull. It’s about what happens when you’re willing to go back to the place that broke you and try again. That’s what hunting has always been for me — not just the shot, but the whole story. The failure and the return. The obsession that keeps pulling you back into the high country even when it costs you.

That’s what Western Obsession TV has always been about. Not highlight reels. The real thing.

Book a Guided Archery Elk Hunt

If this film made you want to get into the mountains this fall, we book guided archery elk hunts in Colorado — and across the West — through Hunt Adventures.

Our consultants are real hunters. Most of them have chased bulls in exactly this kind of country. They’ll match you with the right outfitter, the right unit, and help you put together a hunt you’ll be talking about for years.

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Hunting is not a hobby. It’s an obsession.