The Elk Thread

[ladrones]

Brick **** house right there.


-------------------------------
Violence never settles anything
-Genghis Kahn

Since it is an SCI bull it makes it way less impressive.

[Wits_End]

Been wanting to hunt elk for the longest time, but with no family or close friends with the knowledge handed down, I was up against a huge challenge.* I started reading this thread a couple years ago and decided it was going to happen one way or another.*I put this here because this is fruits of this thread's labor.


Last year I scheduled a back country bow hunt with a Colorado friend and the time slowly ticked down.* I PM'd some guys on the thread and started into a long conversation with old killer.* He looked over the area we were planning to hunt and gave us tons of advice on where to start, what to look for, how to attack them.* It is amazing how much elk and bowhunting knowledge George has.* We were thrown a curve ball with fire closing our area the week before we were going up.* We quickly changed plans and gave it our best effort.* We started camping in 80deg weather and ended with 3 inches of snow on our tent. We ended that hunt with no sightings, but a ton of good spots, elk had just recently been there, but it seemed we were just a week or two late as this was right after muzzleloader.


This year, George invited me to hunt with him and after that phone call my wife thought I hit the lotto.*The year flew by, but in the same time, it took absolutely forever to get to elk season.* The anticipation was a killer. Reading every article out there or talking to someone on the phone for hours has no comparison to the amount of information you get from seeing what they see, hearing what they hear, and doing what they do.* The trip and the gathering of knowledge was far beyond what I could have every imagined.* I feel like I took 10 years off of the learning curve in just the first few days of hunting with George.* He's like an indian tracker of sorts, seeing things many would simply pass by, I know I would have.* And to top it off, the guy can cook a chocolate cake in a fire pit.* I still laugh at the question, "Do you want vanilla or chocolate icing on the chocolate cake?". Yea, we had peach cobbler with ice cream and chocolate cake.


The hunting was tough, but the sign kept me out there.* I called in my first two bulls, but failed to seal the deal as they came in so hard I had no time to prepare.* Oh well, it was awesome having them bugle back at me and just a great learning experience.* The bulls had seemed to quickly move from pre-rut to peak-rut, but with the crazy number of hunters running around bugling, the animals went silent.* After 6 or so long days, it came down to the last few days of hunting and I had already prepared myself that I would go home empty handed.* I was ok with that and was absolutely certain the next year would be successful with all that I had learned.* *But, I kept telling myself, you will hunt this out til the last second and you will hunt it hard.* I kept thinking, it only takes 1 second to turn this all around.* It came down to the last half day of the hunt, bags were mostly packed, but i was out hunting.* I planted my butt on a wallow just as George had told me to do.* 3:20pm on that day, I turned my head for that one second and there he was, walking in. He came in quick for his mid day drink, just as George told me he would.

He ran 40 yards, I cow called, he stopped, and fell over.* OMG, Bull Down!* In my second year of bowhunting elk, second year of hunting anywhere outside of Texas, I had just arrowed my very first one. Hes no 350" monster, but honestly i could not be happier. The emotional roller coaster was incredible. I now have my elk bar set.





This thread has helped me tons in catching up from knowing absolutely nothing about elk to helping me get my first one.* I have notes from this entire thread, with so much good information, thanks for keeping it going and giving out the hard earned lessons and knowledge you all have worked at obtaining.* *I want to give a special thanks to oId killer for sitting on the phone with me for hours teaching me all his secrets and then inviting me to join him this year.* I am still stunned at the knowledge and awareness he has of everything mountain, weather, and elk related.

TexasBowhunter - helping dreams come true

[justletmein]

^That's awesome reading that. Hopefully I can follow in your footsteps, my journey starts in 4th season rifle this year but I'm treating it more like a scouting trip to learn for bow season next year.

[TildenHunter]

Awesome story


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tbeak]

Congrats man

[CenTex62]

Great write up and congrats!

[twdjr]

Been wanting to hunt elk for the longest time, but with no family or close friends with the knowledge handed down, I was up against a huge challenge.* I started reading this thread a couple years ago and decided it was going to happen one way or another.*I put this here because this is fruits of this thread's labor.


Last year I scheduled a back country bow hunt with a Colorado friend and the time slowly ticked down.* I PM'd some guys on the thread and started into a long conversation with old killer.* He looked over the area we were planning to hunt and gave us tons of advice on where to start, what to look for, how to attack them.* It is amazing how much elk and bowhunting knowledge George has.* We were thrown a curve ball with fire closing our area the week before we were going up.* We quickly changed plans and gave it our best effort.* We started camping in 80deg weather and ended with 3 inches of snow on our tent. We ended that hunt with no sightings, but a ton of good spots, elk had just recently been there, but it seemed we were just a week or two late as this was right after muzzleloader.


This year, George invited me to hunt with him and after that phone call my wife thought I hit the lotto.*The year flew by, but in the same time, it took absolutely forever to get to elk season.* The anticipation was a killer. Reading every article out there or talking to someone on the phone for hours has no comparison to the amount of information you get from seeing what they see, hearing what they hear, and doing what they do.* The trip and the gathering of knowledge was far beyond what I could have every imagined.* I feel like I took 10 years off of the learning curve in just the first few days of hunting with George.* He's like an indian tracker of sorts, seeing things many would simply pass by, I know I would have.* And to top it off, the guy can cook a chocolate cake in a fire pit.* I still laugh at the question, "Do you want vanilla or chocolate icing on the chocolate cake?". Yea, we had peach cobbler with ice cream and chocolate cake.


The hunting was tough, but the sign kept me out there.* I called in my first two bulls, but failed to seal the deal as they came in so hard I had no time to prepare.* Oh well, it was awesome having them bugle back at me and just a great learning experience.* The bulls had seemed to quickly move from pre-rut to peak-rut, but with the crazy number of hunters running around bugling, the animals went silent.* After 6 or so long days, it came down to the last few days of hunting and I had already prepared myself that I would go home empty handed.* I was ok with that and was absolutely certain the next year would be successful with all that I had learned.* *But, I kept telling myself, you will hunt this out til the last second and you will hunt it hard.* I kept thinking, it only takes 1 second to turn this all around.* It came down to the last half day of the hunt, bags were mostly packed, but i was out hunting.* I planted my butt on a wallow just as George had told me to do.* 3:20pm on that day, I turned my head for that one second and there he was, walking in. He came in quick for his mid day drink, just as George told me he would.

He ran 40 yards, I cow called, he stopped, and fell over.* OMG, Bull Down!* In my second year of bowhunting elk, second year of hunting anywhere outside of Texas, I had just arrowed my very first one. Hes no 350" monster, but honestly i could not be happier. The emotional roller coaster was incredible. I now have my elk bar set.





This thread has helped me tons in catching up from knowing absolutely nothing about elk to helping me get my first one.* I have notes from this entire thread, with so much good information, thanks for keeping it going and giving out the hard earned lessons and knowledge you all have worked at obtaining.* *I want to give a special thanks to oId killer for sitting on the phone with me for hours teaching me all his secrets and then inviting me to join him this year.* I am still stunned at the knowledge and awareness he has of everything mountain, weather, and elk related.

TexasBowhunter - helping dreams come true

Nice going, Congrats!

[jeff-fro]

Congratulations Wits_End, any legal elk on a public land hunt is a trophy in my book!

[texas shag]

any work how RdRrdFan's hunt in the Valle Vidal went? What about Pernell in unit 16?

[JTeLarkin08]

any work how RdRrdFan's hunt in the Valle Vidal went? What about Pernell in unit 16?

Im curious how RdRrdFans hunt went too. He sure was adamant to tell me my unit wasn't a good unit. Hope that Valle Vial pumped one out over 337

[bermise]

Nice pics

[tbeak]

Success and lots of luck

I had my first trigger pull to fill my tag this year. Opening morning, had just walked up past a bed I scouted the day before. Standing there listening to the 4-th of July celebration across the valley a small group of 4 came running up one me. Close shot about 30 yds. Dropped to a knee, a raghorn 2x2 stopped and knew something was there. My cow stopped behind him, he peeled off and she stood for just a bit to long. She took a 168tsx between the front left shoulder and throat, double lung and exit behind right shoulder. Very little bloodshot on the right and none on left. She spun 180 took 3 steps and done.
Started snowing just as she went down. Ended up with 3 inches by the time I had her cleaned by the time I was walking outit was 6inches and continued the whole time walking out. I really liked my caribou game bags. They did really well. Got everything hung and took a walk. Had a 2 mile hike. Got shoulders and backs/tenders out Saturday and hinds yesterday.
Most of the shooting stopped Saturday afternoon. Heard 2 shots Sunday packing hinds.
Lots of work but worth it. My boys eyes when he saw those big pieces of meat was priceless and he is so excited about having an elk steak tonight

[simek]

Well done, tbeak.

[LWC]

Good job tbeak.

[Wits_End]

Good job... elk, its whats for dinner for a while