Cicely Nichols’ 170 class Montana Mule deer, which was shot on public land at the beginning of the rut. (Photo by Ray Nichols)

Sara Gillespie says: My first year in Colorado for the Elk hunt, i couldn’t have been more excited. We were only about an hour away from our house. We rode the horses up to the top of a mountain where there was a lake, this was our spot. The whole week we were up there we didn’t see anything.. Until the very last day. About 200 yards away i could see something down in the trees and i turned to my dad and told him that i think i saw some deer. My dad got his binoculars and started freaking out telling me that those weren’t deer those were elk. So we waited for them to move a little more out of the trees and i could barely even hold my gun up, i was shaking so bad. So i made the first shot that didn’t even phase him. So my dad is yelling at me to shoot him again. My mind was so panicked i couldn’t even reload my rifle. I threw it at my dad and he gave it back and i shot again. Nothing was phasing this elk that was sitting just staring at me. But he finally went down and when we found him the next day i couldn’t have been more surprised and happy to see that my first bull was a 6×6.

Danny Stoll says: This was my first trip to Wyoming and definitely won’t be my last.