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Posted: 8/26/2022 5:52:59 PM EDT
I finally drew an ELK tag after more than 20 years of trying.
Got drawn for a bow tag in a good Unit. Killed other things with a bow but never even shot at anything this big before. (Rifle or Bow) In this thread tell me your past mistakes. Also tell me the mistakes I am going to make. And remember this is GD 
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Posted: 8/26/2022 5:53:30 PM EDT
[#1]
Just here to say congrats on the tag!
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Posted: 8/26/2022 5:55:01 PM EDT
[#2]
A mule would be a great addition to your hunting gear for packing an elk out.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 5:57:15 PM EDT
[#3]
I did a public land hunt with an OTC elk tag in CO a few years back. I didn’t even see one.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 5:59:19 PM EDT
[#4]
Watch a video or two on deboning. Debone the animal that you harvest. Post pics and thank me in that thread.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 5:59:22 PM EDT
[#5]
For the Colorado mountains I learned to bring hiking poles and a lightweight stool.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 5:59:50 PM EDT
[#6]
Good luck! That’s one animal I would love to harvest. Tons of respect for them. They taste yummy!
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:00:28 PM EDT
[#7]
If youre not already very fit, start cardio training today.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:00:39 PM EDT
[#8]
If you're just used to being around deer...
elk are fuckin huge
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:01:51 PM EDT
[#9]
After you get it down the work starts! Have a good plan on cleaning/quartering/cooling the meat. Don't overlook the neck meat and such for burger! Once you get it out of the field have a plan for processing and keeping the meat cool.
Once you get it home the fun starts again as does the cooking  Good luck on your hunt! |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:03:34 PM EDT
[#10]
Make sure you have someone to help you when you get one down!
I've killed a few elk, and this still took me almost three hours to get this bull from this hill.......down the hill150yrds to my side x side and loaded up.   I'm in excellent shape and a pretty big guy. The quarters are a handful and then some. I was exhausted. I was lucky I had such a short way to get him to a road, and less than a mile from my cabin. It would have been much worse if I had shot him at dusk, instead of dawn. I never should have been up there without a buddy to help. Just gutting him was exhausting; trying to get his leg up and out of the way on the steep hillside. 
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:04:33 PM EDT
[#11]
I've never killed an elk, either.
Or a deer... or a rabbit, without a vehicle.  Squirrels however, we're like picking raspberries. 
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:06:00 PM EDT
[#12]
Only been on 1 elk hunt. Western CO. 2003
Public Land, season 4. Didn't see any elk until day 3. I put my brother in law in a nice ridge and he pops a 6x6. I almost got ran over by it's companion. Those fuckers can move so fast for such a huge animal. He got about 150 yds away and then I took 2 shots. Totally missed. Last time I borrow a rifle I'm not real comfortable with. Next day the owner of the place we were staying at, and his buddy road hunt by us. I walk in the woods and BAM. Fuckhead comes in the wood behind us and proceeds to nail a 6x6 that might just have come by me. Old fucker who no way in hell could have cut that up on his own, so we did most of the work. I heard that the head was mounted and was on display at the Gander Mountain in Wausau WI for a number of years. Fun trip, had hoped to do it again but life and kids got in the way. I do enough other trips that it's ok that I haven't gone again. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:06:47 PM EDT
[#13]
Laughs in elk bugle
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:07:15 PM EDT
[#14]
I watched a guy draw up on a good bull, his arrow de-knocked and fell to the ground when he went to kneel.
I don't think he had much practice with his draw release trigger thingie. practice moar. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:08:22 PM EDT
[#15]
I would love to do an elk hunt. They taste so damn good and are fucking cool animals
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:09:34 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If youre not already very fit, start cardio training today. Doing hard cardio (for me) and 64lbs ruck 12min mile 5 times a week before each work out for over a year now... Changed my meds last year dropped a crap ton of weight due to this and was able to intensife my work our 6'4" 350 down to 225 (21 more to go)
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:09:36 PM EDT
[#17]
elk are so large its easy to get deceived by how far they are when you take your shot. get a good range finder. you probably already have that for bow hunting but as Texas deer hunter going to Colorado i didnt and almost missed my first shot. it hit very very low on the animal. good enough to wound them so i got a second shot and put him down but it was a close call. and some very experienced deer hunters i know did miss their first shots for the same reason.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:09:48 PM EDT
[#18]
I want to go elk hunting bad. Bugling on a good hunting video makes my hair stand up so I can only imagine in person
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:11:38 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I watched a guy draw up on a good bull, his arrow de-knocked and fell to the ground when he went to kneel. I don't think he had much practice with his draw release trigger thingie. practice moar. Practicing 4-5 times a week even if it is just yard targets... flung about 70-75 arrows today... |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:12:21 PM EDT
[#20]
Elk with a bow would be the ultimate primitive hunt.
What's the average range Elk are harvested with a bow?  Bow Kills! Bulls and Bugles - Bow hunting at it's best! |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:12:50 PM EDT
[#21]
Anyone who hunts elk without pack animals is an idiot.
The only person dumber is the guy that owns the pack animals.  Archery hunting, for elk, several years ago. Hadn't bow hunted in years and wasn't really prepared. Bow was an old 4 wheel Jennings with about 30% let off, if that. I just wasn't strong enough to pull it back, quietly, and hold it. A few of us spread out along a ridge line, we knew there were elk somewhere below us in the timber. We dropped all of our gear on the ridge and then crept down the face to a tree line, settled in and waited for the elk to move up. Guy next to me noticed his pack was pretty exposed so he snuck back up to the ridge to do a better job of concealing his gear. Of course just at about the time he got to his pack a nice bull stepped out of the trees just below where he had been, and about 30 yards down and to my right. I happened to be seated in a clump of 3 trees, one behind me, 2 on my right side. I could not raise and draw my bow between being weak, and the trees being too close. The bull continued to graze uphill and got to my trees - me on one side, bull on the other. He was no more than 10 or 15 feet from me. There was a second bull just a few yards beyond him.. They finally got suspicious and turned around and disappeared into the trees. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:14:02 PM EDT
[#22]
Well if they're so great, why do you guys want to kill them?
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:15:09 PM EDT
[#23]
#1 rule of elk hunting- they don’t react to being hit. People all the time think they missed, and then the elk falls over a minute later, or runs 200 yards and falls over.
In the meantime, some folks will have shot at a different elk, maybe two. Now there are 3 dead elk...and one tag. Don’t be that guy! Know which animal you shoot at (or let an arrow fly at) and stick to it. Don’t assume a miss just because the elk did not react. I have seen them take a .300 WM or .45-70 and not flinch...they just don’t know they are dead yet. Give it a minute! My dad killed them yearly with a bow, now he does 2-3 a year with a rifle as he is old. Bow hunting- just shoot the biggest closest one. (Around here that means a cow.) Be prepared for a lot of work once you knock one down. Hauling them out on foot is no fun... |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:16:07 PM EDT
[#24]
With a Peterbilt. It wasn't pretty.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:17:11 PM EDT
[#25]
Quoted: Killed other things with a bow The bow that you are going to be using? And you know that bow inside out and everything about it? Because I once guided my dad into a spot 5 minutes into opening morning where many giant elk were pouring out of the trees 70 yards away, and he forgot how the safety on his rifle worked (Ruger M77, 3 position) and never got a shot off. He had always pushed the safety forward enough at the range for it to work without realizing everything that was going on, until that one time Will your [THAT] bow work when you are kneeling, or wearing a jacket or backpack? Find out now, many miles away from the elk.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:17:52 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: #1 rule of elk hunting- they don’t react to being hit. People all the time think they missed, and then the elk falls over a minute later, or runs 200 yards and falls over. In the meantime, some folks will have shot at a different elk, maybe two. Now there are 3 dead elk...and one tag. Don’t be that guy! Know which animal you shoot at (or let an arrow fly at) and stick to it. Don’t assume a miss just because the elk did not react. I have seen them take a .300 WM or .45-70 and not flinch...they just don’t know they are dead yet. Give it a minute! My dad killed them yearly with a bow, now he does 2-3 a year with a rifle as he is old. Bow hunting- just shoot the biggest closest one. (Around here that means a cow.) Be prepared for a lot of work once you knock one down. Hauling them out on foot is no fun... i will be happy with a boney cow I just would like to be able to say i did it after trying so ong for a tag....drew 3 tags for a three-group hunt. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:19:33 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I've never killed an elk, either. Or a deer... or a rabbit, without a vehicle. Squirrels however, we're like picking raspberries. We can be friends. :-) At one point, I thought about putting my kill stickers on the vehicle, like a fighter plane. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:19:36 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The bow that you are going to be using? And you know that bow inside out and everything about it? Because I once guided my dad into a spot 5 minutes into opening morning where many giant elk were pouring out of the trees 70 yards away, and he forgot how the safety on his rifle worked (Ruger M77, 3 position) and never got a shot off. Will your [THAT] bow work when you are kneeling, or wearing a jacket or backpack? Find out now, many miles away from the elk. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Killed other things with a bow The bow that you are going to be using? And you know that bow inside out and everything about it? Because I once guided my dad into a spot 5 minutes into opening morning where many giant elk were pouring out of the trees 70 yards away, and he forgot how the safety on his rifle worked (Ruger M77, 3 position) and never got a shot off. Will your [THAT] bow work when you are kneeling, or wearing a jacket or backpack? Find out now, many miles away from the elk. Funny you say that as today i was shooting with all me gear and pack and at up and down angles and talking to my buddies about kneeling shots |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:19:39 PM EDT
[#29]
Sort of killed one. Put a bullet in his liver, cranked another round in the chamber and sighted in for the follow up just as my buddy put one through his heart.
FWIW, I was kicking myself for missing until we cut him up and found my hit. He never reacted to my shot or hit other than to raise his head from grazing and look my direction. They are tough. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:21:22 PM EDT
[#30]
Dress them just like a big deer, that's the easy part, getting them out is where the work begins. Depending on where you're hunting, a Mule, horse, atv, snow machine, or capstan gas powered winch can make life a lot easier.
ETA, The posts about using enough gun are spot one, I use a .375 H&H with 260 grain accubonds. I had to chase an elk for miles using a smaller caliber, I don't play that game anymore. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:23:36 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If you're just used to being around deer... elk are fuckin huge Truth.... 
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:25:23 PM EDT
[#32]
I've never even seen one in the wild unless it was on the highway. Big is an understatement.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:26:05 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted: #1 rule of elk hunting- they don’t react to being hit. People all the time think they missed, and then the elk falls over a minute later, or runs 200 yards and falls over. In the meantime, some folks will have shot at a different elk, maybe two. Now there are 3 dead elk...and one tag. Don’t be that guy! Know which animal you shoot at (or let an arrow fly at) and stick to it. Don’t assume a miss just because the elk did not react. I have seen them take a .300 WM or .45-70 and not flinch...they just don’t know they are dead yet. Give it a minute! My dad killed them yearly with a bow, now he does 2-3 a year with a rifle as he is old. Bow hunting- just shoot the biggest closest one. (Around here that means a cow.) Be prepared for a lot of work once you knock one down. Hauling them out on foot is no fun... Yup, all of this. That bull I posted above, was hit 2x with 250gr. Sierra Game Kings in .338 win mag. The first hit he didn't even flinch. I thought I missed. The only reason I knew he was hit when he took off running after the second hit, was the huge splurging of blood out of his side as he ran away from me, visible in my scope. He ran about 200yrds up the hill with 2 solid hits in his chest. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:29:36 PM EDT
[#34]
Quoted: I finally drew an ELK tag after more than 20 years of trying. Got drawn for a bow tag in a good Unit. Killed other things with a bow but never even shot at anything this big before. (Rifle or Bow) In this thread tell me your past mistakes. Also tell me the mistakes I am going to make. And remember this is GD My dad finally drew a doe tag …but had pancreatic cancer. Asked me to go on the hunt with him - asked if I had ridden a horse. I was like sure. When I was like 10. On one of those old horses that went in a circle. We overslept an hour or so on hunt day, so the guide took us up a different path, basically up the mountain. On horseback. While it was still dark as fuck. I had hiking boots because that’s what I always wore hunting and I had never ridden a horse, not like REAL HORSERIDING. My hiking boots wouldn’t fit into the stirrups. Horses, when going up a steep incline apparently charge it. Not being able to put my feet in the stirrups my feet flew back and my ass started sliding off the saddle. So basically my arms were the only things keeping me from falling off a horse onto a rocky landing 10 feet below. Oh yeah, horses are assholes. They’ll happily nose under tree branches that will take you out at stomach level. I had to do the limbo a couple of times to keep from getting knocked off the horse and falling 10 feet below onto the aforementioned rocky landing. So we get about halfway to where we need to go, and my dad calls it quits. Privately I was relieved. Then they suggested that I continue the hunt. So I did the quick mental math…more riding, followed with maybe a kill, followed by quartering and packing out. And it would be my luck a fish cop would come by and check my tag and lack of license and bust me for poaching, so I was like nah I’m good. On the way back, we found the carcass of a bull elk that had been snacked on a bit by a bear, so my dad got to take a picture with that elk for his elk trophy. Anyway, I ended up riding solo back to the camp and my fucking horse decided it was going to gallop the whole way back (it was really a trot, but on a hard surface road it felt like I was getting kicked in the lower spine each time it’s hooves hit the ground). Because I didn’t have Cowboy boots I couldn’t stand in the stirrups. So yeah that sucked. That’s my elk hunting story. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:34:03 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Anyone who hunts elk without pack animals is an idiot. The only person dumber is the guy that owns the pack animals. Archery hunting, for elk, several years ago. Hadn't bow hunted in years and wasn't really prepared. Bow was an old 4 wheel Jennings with about 30% let off, if that. I just wasn't strong enough to pull it back, quietly, and hold it. A few of us spread out along a ridge line, we knew there were elk somewhere below us in the timber. We dropped all of our gear on the ridge and then crept down the face to a tree line, settled in and waited for the elk to move up. Guy next to me noticed his pack was pretty exposed so he snuck back up to the ridge to do a better job of concealing his gear. Of course just at about the time he got to his pack a nice bull stepped out of the trees just below where he had been, and about 30 yards down and to my right. I happened to be seated in a clump of 3 trees, one behind me, 2 on my right side. I could not raise and draw my bow between being weak, and the trees being too close. The bull continued to graze uphill and got to my trees - me on one side, bull on the other. He was no more than 10 or 15 feet from me. There was a second bull just a few yards beyond him.. They finally got suspicious and turned around and disappeared into the trees. 
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:36:28 PM EDT
[#36]
I have killed a few with the bow.
Going to warn you here and now; You will not get the same thrill for hunting anything else once you see your arrow slide into a elk, it just changes you. We always did self-guided hunts on public land in Wyoming. We had a very high success rate as a group but we worked like fools, we did not go for a excuse to drink with the boys, we went to kill elk. Get your legs in shape, best they have ever been. Screw everything else, don't run but do a shit ton of up-hill fast walking with a pack on your back, all the difference between success or not. My brother and I had it down pat, slight cow call when your near the pack with one guy 50 yards behind the shooter, caller falls back quietly with softer calls so the bull advances to the shooter. If the wind holds it is fool proof but the herd bull will never get too far from the cows, you have to move in tight before you start. You should plan to top a mountain with a meadow before daylight and sit and wait. Your in for the time of your life but you can't be a lazy slob and be successful. It just don't work that way.  Attached FileGood luck |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:36:36 PM EDT
[#37]
Quoted: #1 rule of elk hunting- they don’t react to being hit. People all the time think they missed, and then the elk falls over a minute later, or runs 200 yards and falls over. In the meantime, some folks will have shot at a different elk, maybe two. Now there are 3 dead elk...and one tag. Don’t be that guy! Know which animal you shoot at (or let an arrow fly at) and stick to it. Don’t assume a miss just because the elk did not react. I have seen them take a .300 WM or .45-70 and not flinch...they just don’t know they are dead yet. Give it a minute! My dad killed them yearly with a bow, now he does 2-3 a year with a rifle as he is old. Bow hunting- just shoot the biggest closest one. (Around here that means a cow.) Be prepared for a lot of work once you knock one down. Hauling them out on foot is no fun... I saw a video where a guy shot a wild bison in the shoulder with a .300WM, zero reaction. He just kept on strolling along. 
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:37:33 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Anyone who hunts elk without pack animals is an idiot. The only person dumber is the guy that owns the pack animals.  Attached File |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:37:49 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If youre not already very fit, start cardio training today. ^That. To kill an elk, you have to go where the elk are. Eta: Also, have some comfortable, very durable boots. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:37:52 PM EDT
[#40]
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:41:49 PM EDT
[#41]
I’ve killed one with a bow, was hunting for 2 weeks and killed one on the last day. Made many mistakes and had many missed opportunities for a couple monster bull. Happy that I got one.
Be very patient, make sure you are not down wind. Dont try and sneak up to one they will smell or hear you from a 100 yards away. Key is to call them in, or cut them off while being still and hidden |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:42:59 PM EDT
[#42]
2 years ago shot a cow on my 3rd day. Didn't even take a step. Worked my ass off for her though. This was in new mexico. Used a Swedish mauser 6.5x55 with iron sights. About 100 yrd shot.
This whole need to have a 375 hh or 4570 is such crap. Shot placement is everything. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:44:14 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted: 2 years ago shot a cow on my 3rd day. Didn't even take a step. Worked my ass off for her though. This was in new mexico. Used a Swedish mauser 6.5x55 with iron sights. About 100 yrd shot. This whole need to have a 375 hh or 4570 is such crap. Shot placement is everything. 
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:45:26 PM EDT
[#44]
Watch you don’t bounce an arrow off that scapula.
 Attached FileHave fun man. I’ll be on the mountain in a week for the whole month.  Attached File Attached File |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:51:14 PM EDT
[#45]
Drawn 3 tags. 2 bull and a cow. 4 years ago I missed a running bull. 15 years ago I shot this 5x6
 Attached File Attached FileTwo years ago I shot this cow  Attached FileWhen you get yours let me know and I'll send you my elk & green chili roll-up recipe  Attached File |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:51:43 PM EDT
[#46]
I've killed one. It was the easiest "hunt" ever. I was working for some people with land and they let my get a tag so I kept a rifle with me all the time. I saw 2 elk coming down the mountain so I found a good spot and waited. One shot and it went straight down. I got the front loader and picked up the elk and took it to the barn. It was a small cow and it was the best meat I've ever had. I even ate the heart and liver.
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:52:18 PM EDT
[#47]
I have gotten 2 Elk in my entire life. Taken a lot of deer so when I got the first Elk I was blown away by the size of it when I stood over it.
I wasn't ready to process something that size. Luckily, I was much younger then and I had 2 strong hunting partners with me and we got it outta there and quartered. 2nd one we were more prepared and knew what to expect. It's a big animal. Took them both with a .270 Win using Nosler Partitions, 150 grain. They went right down but I would probably use my .300 Win Mag if I did it again. |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:52:18 PM EDT
[#48]
I killed a 6x6 bull in unit 52 last October. Rifle. 280 yds. It was my first time hunting. My buddy and I hiked/climbed two and a half hours in the dark to find em. I shot him at first light the morning of the second day.
We were prepared and worked our asses off finding them but I do know how lucky I am. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. What unit are you hunting? |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:53:52 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I want to go elk hunting bad. Bugling on a good hunting video makes my hair stand up so I can only imagine in person Yeah, that and more. Few years back, I was standing in thick alder, called one in right at dusk. I'd have swore to god it was a pissed off T-Rex. I mean I could see the boughs/ limbs flailing as he stampedes to about 15' from me. I let out an audlble WTFFFFF! and this thing does a 180* and disappears/spares my life |
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Posted: 8/26/2022 6:55:08 PM EDT
[#50]
had elk jerky but never got to go hunting.
this guy posted these monsters. don't remember the story.  Attached File |
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