When I left the house to head to Utah I was a little nervous because the elk Titan was no where to be found. All the guys at the ranch had been looking for him hard for the past two days with no luck. And I'm sure John the owner of Star Mountain Ranch was even more nervous because he had a camera crew showing up to film the Titan hunt the next morning.

About an hour and a half before I got to the ranch John called me and said they finally found Titan and were not going to let him out of their sight until he bedded for the night. John estimated him to be about a 450-460 beautiful typical 7X7 in velvet. After I hung up the phone with John I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep that night but, it probably didn't matter because we were suppose to be at the ranch at 4:30 in the morning.

The next morning after a few warm up shots with my bow in the hotel room my buddy and I headed to the ranch which is only about 15 min. from town. When we got there we talked about how to plan the hunt in coordination with the camera crew. Then John showed me pictures of the elk after stating don't get to nervous and make a bad shot on the elk.

At day break as the sun rose everyone was looking through bino's and spotting scopes where Titan had bedded the night before. We spotted several bulls around and every nice bull we saw we would ask if that was Titan and the answer would be you'll know when you see him, you won't have to ask! Finally around 5:30 we spotted him and he was huge in horns and body, and headed our direction. The only problem was the camera crew hadn't shown up yet. Of course John was calling them like crazy to see where they are and they said they were approximatley another half hour away. So we waited and watched Titan and several other nice bulls appear and walk around on the hill sides.

When the camera crew got there and everyone micro-phoned up Titan was was in a perfect spot running the base of the hill near tree's and next to an old irrigation ditch, perfect for an archery shot. As we crept over to our set up spot Titan meandered in and out of the trees just like he was suppose to. We were fully set up when he was about 75 yards away from us walking through the tree's towards us at the base of the hill and somehow gave us the slip. We didn't know where he disappeared too. We crept up to the top of the hill to look for him franticly glassing all the hillsides and meadows jumping other elk along the way but, still could not see him. Looking back around the base of the hill we see him headed across a sagebrush flat toward the back side of the ranch were we could easily loose him.

In an attempt to cut him off we would need to climb one hill, side hill, the next hill, and get to the back side of the ranch. So, I jogged to the next hill top with the guide but, the rest of the guys couldn't get there that quick so we slowed down and still beat the elk to the tree line. The only problem was when we got up on the elk in the tree line it wasn't Titan. But, Instead another nice bull over 420. So, we decided to take a break and enjoy looking at all the other elk and land we could see but, we still couldn't find Titan. We all decided to go to the high hill tops and glass. We broke up into different groups along the way to find Titan. The sun was high now and it was turning out to be a scorcher. We tried everything that day walking,hiking, glassing, sitting on water holes, sneaking back to the trucks to raid the coolers for water several times, even the neighbors came over and drove the ranch roads to help but, no one could find this elk.

Eventually, the taxidermist and his friend who made it there before first light and had helped all day called us and said they spotted him close to where we saw him at first light. We hauled butt down there with only one of the 2 camera men because the other camera man was dehydrated, and out of snacks he was just plumb out of energy. Our guide got a good description of where the elk was from the taxidermist and his buddy. When we came to the last rise between us and where we thought Titan was we crested the hill and there he was bedded just in the edge of the tree's and just off to the side of one of the ranch roads. We got ready, crept up behind some cover, and got 25 yards away where we had to step out to get the shot and also get the shot on camera. The guide ranged him at 24 yards as I drew back and the elk simultaneously stood up, he said take him. I let the arrow go and got a great shot. The elk went down in less than 20 yards and we celebrated as everyone congregated to the kill site.

Thanks John Romero for the hunt of a lifetime. I'll never forget it. Oh, and not to leave you hanging to long, Titan was 466 SCI in Velvet!

Thanks John from Shawn!