Top this, if you can

[gburk]

Two of my sons and I had been making preparations to take my nephew from back east on a Colorado first rifle elk hunt that he drew in the youth preference secondary draw. He’s 16, lives on a farm in Kentucky, has shot some things but never hunted anything like elk in Colorado. Anticipation was high. Time off work, gonna trailer the jeep, new-to-me wall tent and stove, e-scouting 10 plans deep — the whole nine yards.

Well I turned my office upside down yesterday, the day before he’s scheduled to fly into town, and.. no tag. Oh well, I’ll hit an office Monday or Tuesday after we get up there, inconvenient but so is most of this stuff anyways.. nbd. FINALLY I think to check nephews CPW account overnight and it appears I invented this hunt out of whole cloth. There was no tag awarded. No idea how I misread it, months ago. No idea why I waited until now to confirm its non-existence in this years stack of tags sitting in plain view.

I just texted him, my sister and two sons to let them know just how much of an idiot I am. Have offered to take him fishing on the coast instead, and I hope he still makes the trip to Texas but I don’t know, man.. I’m feeling pretty bad about it.

His mom might say he’s got to stay home and not miss school, which I wouldn’t blame her for. This is practically on the way to the airport for them, scheduled to arrive here at 10am

Anyone done something similar? I suppose it could be worse, I could have waited to make this realization in the CPW office after a 700 mile drive. That would have been an epic meltdown.. and probably a much better story

I suspect I’m in a league of my own on this one but there may be some therapy in writing about it. Bad stuff

 

[SilentKid0423]

Maybe grab an OTC 2nd rifle tag? Would suck to have all this anticipation lead to nothing. Heck, maybe on Wednesday you get lucky and there’s a returned 1st rifle tag available!

 

[buckbull]

A good friend of mine did something similar. Thought he had applied for deer permits for him and his daughter and didn't realize he didn't the day before they were to leave. Just illinois deer permits so not the logistics you were dealing with. I set up a reminder for all my buddies to get their apps in.

 

[duckhunt]

Maybe grab an OTC 2nd rifle tag? Would suck to have all this anticipation lead to nothing. Heck, maybe on Wednesday you get lucky and there’s a returned 1st rifle tag available!

Do this

 

[gburk]

Second rifle would be awesome but the dates are wrong. So I’m considering an otc bear tag and then can play the first season leftover game once we’re in the field.

 

[El Jason]

This might be more epic than me forgetting my dogs on a road trip

 

[gburk]

This might be more epic than me forgetting my dogs on a road trip

Ha! Might depend on whether you forgot to bring them there or back.

 

[El Jason]

Ha! Might depend on whether you forgot to bring them there or back.

Halfway there. We got to go back home.

 

[Khunter]

Holy crap! That is a harsh reminder hunters, even kids, but especially their parents when a kid is tagholder do their own damn hunt apps and receive the tag themselves at their address instead of farming out those tasks and not verifying with their own eyes what they have/dont have.

Fortunately I cannot “Top this” as relates to tag draw confusion.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

Were you the only one that remembers him drawing? If you all remember it could be a Mandela Effect?

 

[gburk]

Were you the only one that remembers him drawing? If you all remember it could be a Mandela Effect?

It’s pure dumbassery and needs no fancier name than that

 

[Islander]

My house was broken into when I was a young newlywed. Couldn't find my wife, and no note that she'd gone out (no cell phones in those days). Behind the house was a run down trailer park. I went door to door with my pistol screaming at each tenant that they better tell me who kidnapped my wife! Turns out I was supposed to pick her up from work that day.

And even that isn't as bad as what you did! But we're fallible beings. Your nephew will get over it. You've got time to make it up to him.

 

[noharleyyet]

*Hold my beer story...

 

[Caseknife]

Sorry, @gburk, can't top that. One of those "Oh S**T" moments for sure. It will make it all the better in the future if you can get it done.

 

[gburk]

Holy crap! That is a harsh reminder hunters, even kids, but especially their parents when a kid is tagholder do their own damn hunt apps and receive the tag themselves at their address instead of farming out those tasks and not verifying with their own eyes what they have/dont have.

Fortunately I cannot “Top this” as relates to tag draw confusion.

Thats an interesting take. And get off my lawn!
You may be right in the big picture that it’s a better way to fly.
But I think as it relates to confusion and order it would be worse. I’d be signing up for whatever unit he happened to pick, whatever season. Fine so maybe if he doesn’t get it right, the trip doesn’t happen, sorry kid. But here’s a guy so green I’m not sure he could pick out Colorado on an unlabeled map. (Him, not me, to be clear)

At some point in the process I’d agree with you, the kids need to grow up and take care of business. But to start with if I don’t do it, it just won’t happen. So I’ll spot him the first couple apps.

 

[gburk]

Update: nephew was happy to come visit with no promises of an elk tag (something to do with growing up on a farm??) and we’re heading north tonight. A day later than planned but that’s okay. Expectations have been lowered.

We’ll start with a bear hunt and then take our chances with an up close and in-person edition of the weekly reissue shitshow to see if we can score a cow elk tag, ideally in the same unit we’ll have looked over for a couple days already.

If anyone wanted to drop some October Colorado bear wisdom on me, I wouldn’t object. From what I hear the season has been a tough one. We have never really targeted bears and I understand it’s a tall order to kill one. To start with, what’s on the menu now? I have a call in to the regional biologist, hopefully will hear back from him tomorrow.

 

[NR_Hunter]

Man! This is something I would do. You’re still a good Unc, OP.

I will admit I’ve had to use my shotgun as a paddle more times than any duck hunter should.

 

[huntin24/7]

I remember doing a deer drive as a kid in North Dakota. I was too young to hunt but helped do drives which were popular back in the 90’s as was party hunting at times. We kicked up a basket rack buck that took off running across a dry lakebed. Everyone started shooting. Eventually a guy in our group made a long shot and dropped it. On the walk to it, he said he only has a doe tag and had got excited in the moment and shot. I remember us all walking out to it and he pulls his doe tag out to show everyone, and it was actually a buck tag. He never looked at it and had no idea what the hell he had. . I’m glad we all quit hunting like that many years ago. lol

 

[gburk]

Made it into the unit and set camp this afternoon. I basically pulled an all nighter behind the wheel plus a couple catnaps, so pretty well toasted now.

Located a big herd of elk today, a cow should be very killable if luck is a lady in the Montrose CPW office tomorrow. My nephew was the first to spot them, pretty cool.

Bears, yup got him a license but no idea yet what we’re doing with it Hopefully we won’t be under pressure to figure that out, with a cow tag in hand.

 

[F250]

Good luck with the tag !!