Imagine just reaching your teenage year, and bagging an absolute MONSTER of a bull elk.
Well, this dream became a reality for this 13-year-old kid from Warren, Minnesota.
According to the Grand Forks Herald, 7th grader Ryker Copp went out for a hunting trip with his dad, Jerred, for the first day of elk hunting this past Saturday in Kittson County.
Ryker found out this past July that he had drawn a Minnesota elk tag for the second season in Zone 30, which is the Caribou Township area of northeast Kittson County, known for massive bull elk.
He was only one of two hunters to draw an either sex elk tag for Zone 30 Season H.
Jerred admitted that he and Ryker were “pretty bummed” when the bull didn’t show itself on the first day.
“We’d spotted this elk the Sunday before, and then I kind of kept an eye on him during the week when I could sneak up there, and he was around. And then all of a sudden Saturday morning, there was no elk there.
I was really trying to figure out where they went, and I guess they moved north a couple miles and we caught up with them on Sunday evening.”
Sure enough, the massive bull showed itself the next day, and he shot the elk from 359 yards away with his .300 Weatherby Magnum…
And by massive, I mean it’s estimated to weigh at least 950 pounds, with an 8×10 rack that measures around 390 inches.
Jerred says the rack will have to dry for 60 days before it can be officially measured and scored.
Ryker discussed the hunt:
“When I saw it, I was probably shaking a little bit. The hunt was fun, though. We had some elk bugling, too, and when he came out, he was bugling quite a bit, too.”
Jerred said they set up a ground blind at the edge of a soybean field near where the elk had been feeding:
“We didn’t want to get too close because the wind wasn’t very good. It was an east wind, so we wanted to stay as far back as we could without them scenting us.”
He also weighed in on the moments leading up to the shot:
“My biggest job was to get him (Ryker) calmed down to make the shot. We watched (the bull) for probably 15-20 minutes.
I had to keep cool so Ryker would be cool. I just kept telling him, ‘You can do this, you can do this. Take some deep breaths, calm down, it will be fine.
And then when I asked him, ‘Are you good?’ he’s like, ‘Yep,’ and I said, ‘Flip your safety up and take the shot.’ It was a very exciting moment for a dad.”
Needless to say, the two were ecstatic when they realized Ryker had bagged the massive bull:
“Once it was down on the ground, him and I were jumping up and down and high-fiving, and I think that ground blind was probably 10-feet in the air.”
Talk about a cool moment for Ryker and his dad, sharing a once-in-a-lifetime hunt together.
