The Hunt That Almost Wasn’t

434 1/8 Gross, 423 0/8 Net B&C Non-typical Elk
Utah Rifle State Record 2007
by Darrell Snedeger

There is an old cliché that says, “Good things come to he who waits.” I must admit that there were times in my life that I thought the wait was actually going to kill me! There were even times when I wondered if I would even put in for the next year’s draw because I had put in ever since I could remember and, even with thirteen points, could still not draw a limited-entry elk permit.

Luckily as the years passed, so did my discouragement. The hope of drawing a big bull tag brought excitement and determination - this could be my year! As January was approaching, I began to think that maybe I needed a change of strategy. I had always been determined to hunt Monroe Mountain. I have lived at the base of this beautiful mountain most of my life and had dreamed of harvesting a big bull there. I submitted my application for Monroe Mountain; but, in the days that followed, I made the decision to change my application to hunt on Boulder Mountain.

April came and the draw results were posted. The thrill I experienced when I received my e-mail with the words, “Darrell Snedeger - “SUCCESSFUL”” matched everything I ever imagined. September sounded like forever and I found myself wishing away the summer.

Early August brought about an unbelievable chain of events. My wife threw me the first curve when she was told she had to go to Washington, D.C. for training the week of my hunt. She said she would go alone, but the look in her eyes told me that she needed me to go with her. I told her I would turn the tag back in and go with her if she needed me to. To my disappointment, she promptly said, “Thank you, thank you.” I went so far as to call the DWR to find out the process for turning back in an elk tag and the last possible date to do so.

After sweating it out for a couple of weeks, my wife was able to postpone the trip to Washington. The decision was made; nothing was going to stop me from going on this once-in-a-lifetime hunt. That was, until I received a letter a week later requiring my presence at Federal jury duty in Salt Lake City the week before my hunt was to begin. “What is going on?” I said. “Am I not supposed to be going on this hunt?” “Could a person’s luck really be this bad?” I learned quickly that elk hunting was not a priority to the court system. They showed no sympathy to my situation, and my only hope was that the case would be settled without going to court. Of course, I would not know that until the day I was to appear. Another week of blood, sweat and tears passed (well, maybe not blood, but definitely sweat and tears) and I made the phone call to learn that the case had, in fact, been postponed and I did not have to appear for jury duty. The hunt was on again!
The opening morning of the hunt turned out to be quite uneventful. My son Zach, brother-in-law Steve, his two kids Shelbee and Hunter, and a friend Darrin and I left camp about 4:30 a.m. At about 11:00 a.m., we got into a small herd with several bulls. We got a couple curious, small bulls to come in to us but, after about an hour, they tired of us and we watched them walk away. The evening hunt proved to be about the same. We did not locate any elk and went back to camp a little disappointed and concerned that this hunt may be more challenging than we had thought. The elk were not bugling and it was making it more difficult to locate them.

The next day was Sunday, so we enjoyed the beautiful weather and spent time in camp with our families. That night I tossed and turned until midnight and finally told my wife that I was so excited for the morning hunt that I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t worried; I was just as excited as I had ever been to actually be on a big bull hunt. I told her, “I can’t believe this is happening to me.” By 4:10 a.m., we were up and ready to go. Since we hadn’t actually located any big bulls, we took off from camp on our four-wheelers without much of a plan. As we went down a trail, we stopped every quarter of a mile or so and used the bugle and cow call to try to get a response. After about two hours, we had gone quite a distance when we finally heard three bull elk responding to our call. They were in the thick, dark trees so we could not get a look at them. We did get a glimpse of a four-point, and made the decision to start walking towards the bugling because of the time of morning. The elk we heard captured our curiosity because of the sound of their bugles. One was deep and hoarse and the other had a deep grunt. As we made our way through the thick trees, we got excited by the condition of the small pines which had been shredded from elk rubs. As we made our way to a small, light opening on the top of the backbone of the mountain, we stood together and looked over the valley below us. After a few minutes, a noise caught Steve’s attention. As he turned and faced me, he made a slight hand gesture about waist high to get my attention. As I looked at Steve, I noticed that his eyes were literally as big as silver dollars and the blood had left his face leaving him as pale as I had ever seen. He mouthed the words, “JUST SHOOT! JUST SHOOT IT!” As I turned to look behind me, there stood the biggest bull elk I had ever seen. My movement caused the elk to lunge, so Steve hit the cow call once again and the elk stopped behind a dead tree and turned his head to look directly at me at 15 yards. Luckily, there was no time to think. I pulled up my 300 Winchester short-mag. My 6.5×20 Leupold scope was black, the shot was too close. I pushed my rifle as far forward as I could until I could see only a pin-hole through the scope. I put the crosshairs on the elk’s forehead and moved slightly to the right behind his ear to his neck area and pulled the trigger. All of this happened in three to five seconds. The bull did not take a step. He dropped right where he stood.

As we stood over this giant bull, we acted like any grown men would act. We yelled and danced and jumped in the air. I picked Steve up and threw him in the air three times. I don’t think, even then, that we comprehended the magnitude of this beautiful animal. We soon realized that we had walked in without our cameras, so we hiked back out to the four-wheelers, made several phone calls, and arranged for a friend to come up with his horse. After about nine exhausting hours, we got the elk back to our camp.
“God’s Gift” as I affectionately named him, officially measures 434 1/8 gross and 423 0/8 net non-typical. He is a magnificent animal and surpasses everything I could have ever dreamed of. He was truly worth the wait!

Tags: 2007, elk, HI34, state record, utah

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