That first elk hunting encounter…

[WapitiTalk1]

I’m talking about the one, perhaps it wasn’t the very first, that “hooked” you for life into this thing we call elk hunting. I know this question will garner some great responses… let’s go.

[Tigger]

My first bull. That bull had read Elknut's playbook. I can still hear his bugles echoing off the timber. The fall colors. The smell of leaves. A small meadow. The moment I let the arrow go. The sound of a cement truck crashing down the mountain...then silence. Tracking his huge leaps. There he lies. The size. The SIZE. Almost breaking my leg on the packout. 4 miles is a long way at 2:00 am.

[Elkhunttoo]

It was the mid 90's and i was around 15 years old. I had watched the Primos truth 2 big bulls video about a thousand times that summer and was preparing for my first archery hunt all year. I didnt have school opening day but i had a commitment in the afternoon (if i remember right it was something to do with football practice). I went to an area that i had done a little scouting on for opening morning. I walked around and tooted my horn a few times with zero response. Around 10:30 i started making my way back to the pickup sure that there wasnt an elk around. I stopped and sat down on a log to eat a snack. I cow called a few times while i was sitting there. Than i decided i would take this opportunity to practice my calls with no hunters and no elk around. I spent the next ten or so minutes practicing my cow calls and bugles with the different reed's i had. When i was done i picked up my bow and took about ten steps. All i saw was a blur of an elk body and antlers spinning on a dime about 20 yards from me in the trees. No bugle, no sound, and no brains on my part but i had called in my first bull. I absolutely blew the situation and i dont even remember looking around before i stood up to walk out. But i had done it . I had made elk sounds and a bull had came in....I was forever hooked!!!

[Swede]

Long before there was the internet, there were books and magazines. There was also elk. I started hunting elk as an extension to my deer hunting. I could often get a deer, but getting an elk was hit and miss. I knew I was missing something and it bugged me. Why were some hunters usually successful and I was getting one only every now and then? I listened to the successful one more and more. The interesting thing I discovered was they were not the best athletes or even young hunters. Most were older men. They were not chasing the elk. They knew a place to go and just waited for the elk. A few horsemen were packing into unroaded places, but most were in very accessible locations. I never heard anyone talk about using a call though I saw one advertised in the Herter's catalogue.
After killing four elk on a very sporadic basis, I discovered calling and just a few years after that I found a place to just stop and wait to kill my elk. Once I discovered my elk spot, I went home and welded together my first tree stand. There I killed a 4X5 bull the first time out. And though I did not consider myself a tree stand hunter then, I was on my way to becoming one. Tree stand hunting fulfilled my need to get to where I would be consistent in taking home the elusive critters that had so often frustrated me.

[Lefty]

Growing up in Minnesota ,my dad was a deer hunter,,, and belive it at one time Minnesota had very few white-tailed deer. As a youngster I loved hunting with my dad,, However fur trapping took over my life. Jump ahead , 1988.I met this fine girl at church from Idaho,, She was a real Huntress. Over 30 mule deer bucks and a handful of them over 30 inches.
Our 2nd year of marriage my FIL put the 5 of us Son in laws in for a Montana elk hunt for the Gravely Mountains when he had hunted elk for years.
Opening day was on a Sunday , So I didn’t put much effort into that days hunt and was back to camp early where I spent the evening visiting with others at the trail head. One group was a huge family who moved in with a Semi truck and fork lift to make a camp which was incredible. The other were two gentleman from Minnesota, The one fellow at that time had the world record( shot in the Soviet Union) elk.
Monday I spotted a herd below me ( truley my first encounter ) a few hundred yards, however the bull would never give me a shot.. After a few hours I stated tracking the bull,, something busted him and he came charging past me at 40 yards through the heavy blowdown lodge pole. First bull I ever saw.
Heading back to camp, I saw 3 raghorns slip into a small quackie thicket. They knew I was there, . All I could see was legs and horns and ears and butts,, After some time I decided to more in, after a couple steps they busted out
Killed m bull on Tuesday,,, cool, I killed an elk.
One year I was invited on a Yakima hunt, another year Blue mountain of Washington, Another year I purchased and solo hunted Mt Saint Helens.
Moving to Utah I drew a CWMU dcow tag. Made a great 650 yard shot,
We moved to Idaho, My FIL put us in for Trophy elk hunt we drew. 10 tags for that hunt,, and we were all watching the same elk,, we were the only ones with permission on private ground where the bull had been every morning for a month.
Moved miles away, My FIL said he was going off one direction I figure for a nap.,,, I was to take my nephew a day off of a LDS church mission, he hadn’t even seen his parents. And was a non-hunter.
Minutes into my secret Huckleberry woods I killed a physically old and big bull.
So I had killed a Montan bull, Idaho bull and Utah cow in 5 seasons 7 days of hunting,,
Three elk: the eat just fine,, fun to hunt but more than anything I had never been in hunt camps of a sort.
Jump ahead a couple more years. My 15 year old daughter has an antelope tag. We chased after a Band C, 7 days But one of those days out in the Craters of the moon desert we spotted 2 elk…. Oh what an easy stalk. A quick drive to town, to buy a bow and arrows and licence,found out season had just closed.
The next year I ATV ed all over that potion of the desert, got on archery Talk and tried to learn what I could .
A neighbor was an archer and wanted a new bow,, and sold me ( well my wife) his last years model Mathews switchback. I knew I was limited with a bad shoulder and bad legs,,
I relied on my 40 years ago as a kids shooting ability.. The bow rturned down to 50, I had maybe shot 30 arrows over the next months.
My mobility was limited, I set up an OSB box blind 14 yards from a water tank,, guarding a trail at 21 yards.
Season opened. The 2nd Friday night I drove out and crawled in the box blind.

About sunset , off in the distance, The location Julie and I had seen the bulls the previous year
Two bulls silhouetted against the sky, bugling.
That was the moment

That was the time and place where I changed from a guy that had killed 3 elk,, to a pursuer of elk

[Lefty]

Idaho bull

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