********Ok! Here's the story!!!!!************

Dakota

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Dakota Monster Buck

Dakota

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A Hunt of a Lifetime

By: Dakota W. Case

Recently, I had the privilege of going on a bull elk hunt in Wyoming courtesy of Hunt of a Lifetime; an organization that grants hunting and fishing wishes to children with life threatening injuries or diseases. I thought you all might enjoy getting in on the action with me, so here are my journal entries of the hunt. May they excite you as much as they did me!

Friday, September 15th, 2006, 6 p.m.

It is opening evening of the Wyoming elk season here in unit 123. My guides had bedded seven good bulls at last light yesterday evening, but, as was made apparent this morning, they failed to show up feeding out on the sagebrush flats. I’m starting to get a bit worried. This is some of the best elk hunting territory in the world and I haven’t even seen an elk yet. Of course, this is hunting, not shopping.

I am sitting in one of the trucks with my parents, one of my guides’ sons-in-law, Jeff and his son Kaeden, and Dave Maas, managing editor of the North American Hunter Magazine. Due to a wise decision from Dave, we are down in a low spot on the plains, waiting out a storm rolling across the prairie. Moisture comes in a swift, impenetrable sheet of rain issuing forth from dark, low, threatening clouds. The guides pooh-poohed our decision. How is a little rain going to hurt anybody, especially this dry sagebrush flatland? The brilliant flash of a lightning bolt lights up the dark sky ahead of us and the truck cab is filled with the oh-so-anticipated “oohs” and “ahs”.

6:15 p.m.

The rain has passed and the prairie flats lie glistening with fresh fallen moisture from heaven. As we drive back to the rest of the “caravan”, we spot Justin, one of the guides, walking around a spot of ground about a hundred yards away from the trucks. The lightning bolt had struck close to the trucks, almost starting a fire. The guides aren’t talking so big at the moment.

6:20 p.m.

Bull spotted! Matt, the landowner, and Jeremy, also known as “Bear”, are zeroed in on him through their spotting scopes. The big boy is feeding in the pines, gradually making his way down from the bedding area to feed out on the sagebrush flats. Matt drops us off within stalking distance of the bull, not wanting to get too close and spook him. After sneaking about six hundred yards or so through the pines, one of my guides, Team Realtree Pro Staffer Steve Beilgard, decides that we’re close enough to make a setup.

Matt and Justin drop back about thirty yards to cow call, while Steve, Bear and I get positioned for a shot. The guides are cow calling. No bull. I watch anxiously as the sun sets lower and lower. Still no bull. Far off I detect movement in between two tall bushes. I bring my Bushnell’s up. It’s a bull! Steve ranges it at three hundred and fourteen yards. As I get a closer look at the bull, I see that he is only a raghorn, a young immature bull. The young elk perks his ears up, listening to the guides’ cow calls. He’s obviously interested, but he knows that the big boy is somewhere close by in the timber, ready to give a whipping to any bull that bugles in his territory. Wisely, he continues eating, along with another bull of equal size. The sun has set. I’m not going to get that bull tonight.

Saturday, September 16th, 2006, 9 a.m.

There are elk everywhere! We’re parked on the top of a ridge, glassing the surrounding flats. About two to three miles to the southwest, a large herd of elk could be seen grazing on the flats. There are definitely some big bulls in this herd. After about thirty minutes of driving, we can see them clearly, and…if they were on the right side of the fence, my story would be over now. Unfortunately, we had no such luck. After watching the elk bed up and seeing some sheer monsters, the weather turned and in rolled the fog and rain. Of course! There goes the afternoon hunt. We will have to wait until tomorrow.

Sunday, September 17th, 2006, 2:30 p.m.

Bad weather calls for a nice nap. After missing a true giant around nine o’clock this morning (the scope mount came loose on my Savage Stevens Model 200 .270, so I was lucky if I hit the broadside of a barn), we switch spots (not to mention guns) and stake out our claim above a pocket where Matt and I had watched nine bulls bed up in earlier this morning. Our cameraman Ernie and NAHC managing editor, Dave Maas, had to catch a plane out of Gillette early in the afternoon, so they could only film the morning hunt. Mix very chilly temperatures and 45 mph winds with warm clothing and a heated suburban and you get a toasty concoction I fondly call a “nap” - and nap was just what we all did, with one guide glassing the pocket at all times. With the early mornings and late evenings, we all need sleep. Even the guides are snoring. Bear says he doesn’t, but we all know he does.

6:15 p.m.

The guides have driven close to where we saw the big bull on opening night; maybe they’ll get a better vantage point. I’m sitting in Justin’s truck, praying that I’ll shoot a bull, when the call goes out over the two-way radio, “We’ve got elk!” We drive up to where we can put a stalk on him; the big boy isn’t even ten yards from where he’d been on opening night. At two hundred and seventy-nine yards, I fire Jeff’s Remington 700 ADL in .30\06 and send a hundred and fifty grain Hornady bullet through both lungs of the broadside bull. Looking up from the Leupold scope, I can see the bull buck and lunge forward, running down into a ravine. Immediately, I have four sets of hands to high five and all my guides are cheering and patting me on the back.

After driving the suburban up to where we had last seen the bull, we come to the mouth of a ravine. Matt points him out, just twenty yards inside; the big boy’s antlers were entangled in a young pine. He’s breathing hard and trying to lick his wounds, the reason his antlers were entangled. I go and sit on the ravine side, just ten yards away from this colossal animal. My guides are all patting me on the back, but I don’t heed them; it’s just me and the bull. “Thank you, big boy,” I said. “He’s dying, but you need to put another shot in him,” says Matt. We go over to the other side, and, just as I chamber another shell in, the bull starts to rise to his feet, but the exertion is too much and he falls back down. I fire the gun, shattering the left and right shoulders. He gives one final kick, and lays motionless.

I hear doors slamming and my parents come down the ravine side; my dad, as usual, filming the entire thing. My mom is grinning from ear to ear, she’d never been on a big game hunt before, but she had a blast on this trip.

My guides position him for pictures and at nine hundred pounds, moving this bull is no easy task. We estimate the bull at four to six years old, and, with a six by six rack, he’s pushing 300 on the Boone & Crockett scale. After the “photo-shoot”, Dad, Steve and I go back up to the trucks to fill out my tag. By the time we get back down to the elk, my guides have completely field-dressed the bull. It takes six men to drag the enormous bull up the ravine and into the bed of Steve’s truck, but, with a lot of effort, it’s done. I watch as the western sun sets behind the Rochelle Hills of northeastern Wyoming. This has definitely been a hunt of a lifetime!

I’d like to thank the Hunt of a Lifetime organization and Tina Pattison for making all the arrangements to get us out there. Thanks to my guides, Matt, Bear and Justin. Special thanks to Team Realtree Pro Staffer Steve Beilgard and his wife Rilda, for the meals and friendship and guiding while we were out there. Thanks to Jeff for letting me use his .30\06 when my gun failed. Hope you shoot a big one, buddy! Thanks to Ernie and NAHC Managing Editor Dave Maas for filming and for the good times joking around; that was a blast! A very special thanks to my friends on the Realtree Forums for raising the time and money to get my mom out with us on the hunt. You guys are the best! Thanks to Savage rifles for donating my .270 and to David Blanton of Realtree for the fun conversation and the DVDs as well as the autographed hat and Team Realtree Nikon scope. I owe you, David! Call me up if you ever want to go pheasant hunting. Last but certainly not least, thank you LORD for walking with me throughout my life and through my surgery. None of this would be possible without Him.

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[ QUOTE ]

from Dakota's Dad

Hi everyone! I gave some thanks on a previous thread but I wanted to make a separate post to thank those who made Dakota's hunt possible.

Thanks so much to Steve and Rilda Beilgard for their hospitality, and for Steve's expert guidance and encouragement! A big thanks also to those who helped on the hunt: Jeff and Kaeden, Justin and Christina, Tom, Bill, David Maas (from North American Hunting Club) and Ernie, and of course, Matt and Bear.

Thanks again to each of you on the forums for your prayers, calls, cards, gifts, and visits for Dakota during his surgery and recovery, and to Steve (BowtechTurkeyHunter) for organizing the forum fundraiser for Dakota, which helped to make it possible for Dakota's mom to come on this trip! She really had the time of her life seeing her son bag a huge bull elk! Thanks to Steve and Kimberly (Bowtechs Wife) and Brian (rifleman25) for coming to the fundraiser to represent all of you on the forum.

Thanks to Savage firearms for donating a rifle, and to David Blanton for donating a scope to Dakota for his hunt!

Thanks to Billkay for writing a wonderful story about Dakota on the Real Tree website!

And THIS TRIP WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED without Tina Pattison at Hunt of a Lifetime! Thank you so much Tina!!

And of course, we thank and praise our heavenly Father in the name of Jesus, for providing this opportunity for Dakota, and for bringing just the right bull at just the right time, and for guiding Dakota's shot.

I know that I probably have forgotten someone or something in my thanks, and I greatly apologize if I left anyone out! We are so grateful to you all and are proud to call you friends!

Sincerely,

Chuck, Jennifer, and Dakota Case

[/ QUOTE ]

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Exturkinator 12-Pointer

Exturkinator

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Re: Ok! Here\'s the story!!!!!

Way to go big-time Dakota - you are the MAN - what a great experience you've had. Congratulations on a beautiful elk. Thank you for telling us all about it - I wish I could have been there just for a second to see the look on your face after the shot...

One other thing, you wax quite eloquent in your prose - certainly you have talent in writing - perhaps an avenue to explore for the future??

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NYBUCK Monster Buck

NYBUCK

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Re: ********Ok! Here\'s the story!!!!!************

Awesome story Dakota. I really enjoyed reading it. As others have said, it brought a tear to my eye but also a huge smile. Glad that I could play a small part in your happiness and success. You are one deserving young man and will go far in life. You not only have been blessed but you have touched many of hearts, probably more than you know. God Bless you.

Jim

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