Fall usually finds me hunting whitetails in New York's Catskill Mountains. But this year I had a chance to go to Colorado and hunt mule deer and cow elk instead. I jumped at the opportunity. Who wouldn't?

I met Texas writer Brandon Ray and long-time friend Kevin Howard in Denver and we flew together to the Steamboat Springs-Hayden airport. Landing in a raging snowstorm was an adventure, but we were soon in our rental car, headed toward Elkhorn Outfitters, our hosts for the hunt. When we got to the lodge, we unpacked the rifles and headed to the range to sight in the Browning rifles and Winchester Supreme XP3 ammo Howard (who owns a PR firm representing Browning and Winchester Ammunition) had brought for us to test.

That night we met Dick Dodds, founder and owner of Elkhorn, and the lodge's general manager John Papierski, who told me that he had been guiding elk hunters for most of the three-month season. Ray and I were only his second group of deer hunters so far in the season. John said he had some monster bucks already located. Sleep did not come easy that night.