Thought I would tell the story about my first elk hunting experience and the lessons learned.....
I left Tampa at 11 ft above sea level and headed to 7100 for my first elk hunt. I chose to go guided because I only had 5 days off work and got an offer I could not refuse. Although I was planning on OTC in unit 53 in Colorado, I ended up in Idaho.
I prepped my ass off in every way imaginable from exercise to equipment to research.....my biggest lesson learned was nothing prepares you for elk hunting like a few days of elk hunting!!! I thought I was ready for everything but the end result of my blind date with Mother Nature! I got off the plane in jackson hole to grab my gear from the baggage claim belt, so I thought. As I picked up an skb case off the belt, I said man they beat the hell out of this bow case and a guy behind me said that one is mine bud. As we chatted about our hunts and watched the 2 other bow cases come through, the belt stopped. Yep, you guessed it, no bow for me. Not a good sign for the week ahead.
An untimely response from a baggage guy stating "if it's not here it is what it is" set me the hell off! My bow was left in Dallas! I was going to be getting on a horse to head into the country 2 hours and had no bow. Several calls to the airlines, most disconnected, resulted in my bow arriving sometime the next day hopefully. This did me no good and too much was invested at this point. A couple calls by the outfitter and a lot of money later, I walked out of a small town archery shop with a new elite bow I had sighted in up to 40 yds before it got dark. Talk about being removed from your comfort zone! Never thought I would miss my Matthews drenalin as much! I mounted a horse about 8 pm and headed to camp. I arrived at about 1030 that night tired! Only good part of the ride was hearing my first live bugle 10 minutes from camp. We woke up at 4 Monday and hiked in a couple miles in the dark. We did hear one bugle and it was thought to be a good bull. After just climbing we had to bolt down and back up another ridge to chase after what was assumed to be a legend in that area. Mind you, with a brand new bow that had only about 20 arrows shot the night before. That bull took us for a ride for a couple hours until he shut down at about 830. All in all we managed to walk about 15 miles that day for my first experience. That's when It hit me, holy $@&;, it's gonna be a long week. I am so thankful I was in good shape. Those mountains kicked my ass. I ended up sitting water that evening for about 2 hours and ended the day only seeing two cows across the canyon in the morning and a couple mule deer does.The weather was in the upper 20s at night and hit about 70 for a high.
Tuesday we went in and had quite a few talking first thing but again they shut up about 830. The bugling was awesome for the short time we got to hear em! I might not have had my drenalin but those bulls got my adrenaline going! We chased 3 bulls and ended up having one bull locked up but never was able to lay eyes on him. He was only about 60-70 yds based on hearing him bugle but the area was as thick as I see in Fl when hog hunting. Again we hiked and covered a ton of ground the remainder of the day since I also had a deer tag in my pocket. Weather got a little warmer today and knew it would continue to get hotter but we had a great wind today. We hit a spot at 8800 ft and got service on the phone and needless to say the weather forecast was only getting warmer. It was calling for 80 + for the next 3 days.
Wednesday we went in to the same spot and did hear 5 different bulls despite it continuing to get warm. I got close to one just over the ridge but either he smelled us or saw us, Game over. The wind was not on our side today. Heard nothing after about 815. This is when the physical nature of the hunt started to mess with my mental state of mind..... Was this gonna happen? Was I cursed from the start with the whole bow fiasco? Did I have 2 1/2 days left in me? Determined to harvest my first bull, I made up my mind I was game for whatever, Whatever it takes to get my first bull. I traveled 2000 miles and I was heading back to Florida leaving it all in the wilderness! We put those bulls to bed and thought we would try to locate them and get a stalk. As we had one located, we moved in and jumped another bull we never heard, a nice 6x6 that I would have been tickled to harvest. Although we were only about 40 yds from him, he gave us no shot opportunity. He apparently didn't get that big by being foolish. On the way to sitting water, I did shoot my first grouse, tasty little guys! That night had a very unfavorable wind at about 15-20 so day 3 ended with a little hope now that I broke the ice with a grouse.
Thursday am we had a perfect wind but we didn't hear a thing in the am and at this point, depression was an understatement, so I went to hunt water again. 11 hours on stand, one lone bugle at 215 and only a glimpse of a velvet spike later, I called it a day. Talk about ups and downs and testing ones resolve.....
Hoping for the story book ending based on the crappy beginning, we went all out Friday morning. We heard 3 bulls right away and one we thought was the legendary bull from Monday. We checked the wind and decided on one bull we wanted to go after and booked to the bottom of a canyon in incredibly thick stuff only for him and the others to shut up! Today they started about 630 and ended at 745, so much for 830! I returned to water and only saw 5 muley does that gave me no shot. I was sweating bullets today! So no luck at all, if it was not for bad luck I would have none! At one point this week my guide said to me, "you have all the right equipment, you are in great shape, obviously a good hunter, but ever look to buy a rabbits foot?" It is not a good feeling to know that I am the only person in 3 years with outfitter to not have at least a shot. Just last week a guy missed a 6x6 at 16 yds from the same stand over water I spent about 24 hours on.
Lessons learned: although I was in great shape its never enough for elk hunting, Mother Nature has to cooperate (But I can't wait until our next date), check the wind, check the wind, check the wind.....mental toughness is a necessity, and be prepared for anything, including hunting without your bow! I have to say, this was an expensive lesson but now I am ready for the next challenge and cannot wait to learn and experience more. More often than not, a hunt is not successful and that is why it is called hunting and not killing. For me, despite all the bull$&?!, and not harvesting an elk or deer, this was a successful hunt because of everything I learned and this experience has only made me better for the next ones! Now if I could just talk the wife and kids into moving west......good luck to all of you this season and thank you all for the info to prep me this year!
I left Tampa at 11 ft above sea level and headed to 7100 for my first elk hunt. I chose to go guided because I only had 5 days off work and got an offer I could not refuse. Although I was planning on OTC in unit 53 in Colorado, I ended up in Idaho.
I prepped my ass off in every way imaginable from exercise to equipment to research.....my biggest lesson learned was nothing prepares you for elk hunting like a few days of elk hunting!!! I thought I was ready for everything but the end result of my blind date with Mother Nature! I got off the plane in jackson hole to grab my gear from the baggage claim belt, so I thought. As I picked up an skb case off the belt, I said man they beat the hell out of this bow case and a guy behind me said that one is mine bud. As we chatted about our hunts and watched the 2 other bow cases come through, the belt stopped. Yep, you guessed it, no bow for me. Not a good sign for the week ahead.
An untimely response from a baggage guy stating "if it's not here it is what it is" set me the hell off! My bow was left in Dallas! I was going to be getting on a horse to head into the country 2 hours and had no bow. Several calls to the airlines, most disconnected, resulted in my bow arriving sometime the next day hopefully. This did me no good and too much was invested at this point. A couple calls by the outfitter and a lot of money later, I walked out of a small town archery shop with a new elite bow I had sighted in up to 40 yds before it got dark. Talk about being removed from your comfort zone! Never thought I would miss my Matthews drenalin as much! I mounted a horse about 8 pm and headed to camp. I arrived at about 1030 that night tired! Only good part of the ride was hearing my first live bugle 10 minutes from camp. We woke up at 4 Monday and hiked in a couple miles in the dark. We did hear one bugle and it was thought to be a good bull. After just climbing we had to bolt down and back up another ridge to chase after what was assumed to be a legend in that area. Mind you, with a brand new bow that had only about 20 arrows shot the night before. That bull took us for a ride for a couple hours until he shut down at about 830. All in all we managed to walk about 15 miles that day for my first experience. That's when It hit me, holy $@&;, it's gonna be a long week. I am so thankful I was in good shape. Those mountains kicked my ass. I ended up sitting water that evening for about 2 hours and ended the day only seeing two cows across the canyon in the morning and a couple mule deer does.The weather was in the upper 20s at night and hit about 70 for a high.
Tuesday we went in and had quite a few talking first thing but again they shut up about 830. The bugling was awesome for the short time we got to hear em! I might not have had my drenalin but those bulls got my adrenaline going! We chased 3 bulls and ended up having one bull locked up but never was able to lay eyes on him. He was only about 60-70 yds based on hearing him bugle but the area was as thick as I see in Fl when hog hunting. Again we hiked and covered a ton of ground the remainder of the day since I also had a deer tag in my pocket. Weather got a little warmer today and knew it would continue to get hotter but we had a great wind today. We hit a spot at 8800 ft and got service on the phone and needless to say the weather forecast was only getting warmer. It was calling for 80 + for the next 3 days.
Wednesday we went in to the same spot and did hear 5 different bulls despite it continuing to get warm. I got close to one just over the ridge but either he smelled us or saw us, Game over. The wind was not on our side today. Heard nothing after about 815. This is when the physical nature of the hunt started to mess with my mental state of mind..... Was this gonna happen? Was I cursed from the start with the whole bow fiasco? Did I have 2 1/2 days left in me? Determined to harvest my first bull, I made up my mind I was game for whatever, Whatever it takes to get my first bull. I traveled 2000 miles and I was heading back to Florida leaving it all in the wilderness! We put those bulls to bed and thought we would try to locate them and get a stalk. As we had one located, we moved in and jumped another bull we never heard, a nice 6x6 that I would have been tickled to harvest. Although we were only about 40 yds from him, he gave us no shot opportunity. He apparently didn't get that big by being foolish. On the way to sitting water, I did shoot my first grouse, tasty little guys! That night had a very unfavorable wind at about 15-20 so day 3 ended with a little hope now that I broke the ice with a grouse.
Thursday am we had a perfect wind but we didn't hear a thing in the am and at this point, depression was an understatement, so I went to hunt water again. 11 hours on stand, one lone bugle at 215 and only a glimpse of a velvet spike later, I called it a day. Talk about ups and downs and testing ones resolve.....
Hoping for the story book ending based on the crappy beginning, we went all out Friday morning. We heard 3 bulls right away and one we thought was the legendary bull from Monday. We checked the wind and decided on one bull we wanted to go after and booked to the bottom of a canyon in incredibly thick stuff only for him and the others to shut up! Today they started about 630 and ended at 745, so much for 830! I returned to water and only saw 5 muley does that gave me no shot. I was sweating bullets today! So no luck at all, if it was not for bad luck I would have none! At one point this week my guide said to me, "you have all the right equipment, you are in great shape, obviously a good hunter, but ever look to buy a rabbits foot?" It is not a good feeling to know that I am the only person in 3 years with outfitter to not have at least a shot. Just last week a guy missed a 6x6 at 16 yds from the same stand over water I spent about 24 hours on.
Lessons learned: although I was in great shape its never enough for elk hunting, Mother Nature has to cooperate (But I can't wait until our next date), check the wind, check the wind, check the wind.....mental toughness is a necessity, and be prepared for anything, including hunting without your bow! I have to say, this was an expensive lesson but now I am ready for the next challenge and cannot wait to learn and experience more. More often than not, a hunt is not successful and that is why it is called hunting and not killing. For me, despite all the bull$&?!, and not harvesting an elk or deer, this was a successful hunt because of everything I learned and this experience has only made me better for the next ones! Now if I could just talk the wife and kids into moving west......good luck to all of you this season and thank you all for the info to prep me this year!
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