Past season mistakes

[twinkieman]

What mistakes have you made in the past that you won't repeat this season?

Mine are to numerous to list them all , but I will start with not giving a cold calling setup enough time for things to develop.

[bigmart]

one mistake I wont repeat this season is to make the same mistakes I made in the past.
not being aggressive enough when time is right.
when to call and when to be quiet.
wind in my face at all times.
patience!! patience!!
slow down and listen more.
hunt in the afternoon.
tree stand over water or active wallow.
so many mistakes made in the past, missed opportunities.

[twinkieman]

That's why I posted this, hopefully we all can learn something from each others mistakes.

[under H2O hunter]

Forgetting my snow chains at home.

[TJB]

Not being aggressive enough to close the distance and making things happen
Not being patient
Not buying good enough rain gear to keep me out hunting instead of in the tent.

[Lefty]

The elk awoke me and hung around the tent for over an hour. Instead of following them I thought I knew where they were going,.. jumped ahead of them in the dark and lost them

[Toby]

Close the distance more before calling/setting up.

Hunt slower and look/listens more

[BRazz]

#1 - Not being flexible. Once a decision is made for hunt location or technique, it's too easy to just keep doing it. If it's not working, a frequent excuse is that the elk are gone, or they're call-shy, or it's too early in the rut, etc. Sometimes the greatest thing I've done is change my game plan - try different calls, different areas, different strategies...

#2 - Not being decisive. A couple guys have said both "not being patient" and "not being aggressive"... in my experience the right thing to do becomes all too clear in retrospect. But in the moment deciding whether to be patient or be aggressive can be very difficult. One of my recent goals is to make up my mind quickly and execute (but see #1).

[Elkduds]

Insufficient shooting practice from kneeling, sitting and other real-world shooting postures. Guessing @ range to game. Lack of preventive vehicle maintenance. Ran out of TP-not my fault, but still...

[planebow]

Not using my binoculars enough, not getting to where the elk are early enough.

[elk.addict]

Hunt slower and look/listens more

This is something I have always needed to work on. Seems like if I haven't seen an elk in a few hours, I start getting in a hurry and end up blowing them out.

[Trophyhill]

Making the wrong sounds at the wrong time sending elk to the next unit. It comes down to reading or mis reading the encounter. What works with 1 elk may not work on the next one and vice versa.

Bad set ups. Need I say more on that one?

Thinking elk are further away than they are.

Tunnel vision. Focusing on a vocal elk that you may or may not see and not paying attention to everything else going on around me causing an explosion of thundering hooves.

Not trusting my gut (second guessing my first instinct).

Starting high when I should be starting low and vice versa.

Not being mentally tough enough. (This doesn't happen often but it has happened a time or 2)

The list goes on and I expect to make many more but I will say this. If I'm not making mistakes, I'm not hunting where the elk are.

[wawhitey]

Hunt slower and look/listens more

This is something I have always needed to work on. Seems like if I haven't seen an elk in a few hours, I start getting in a hurry and end up blowing them out.

unfortunately we are products of the busy go go go human world. we are all guilty of moving too quick and not looking/listening enough. maybe not all the time, but more than anybody likes to admit. ive heard my share of hooves crashing, seen enough white flags in the woods etc to know i need to slow down. for me its a constant challenge to keep my moving / listening looking time balanced properly. unless i feel like im going absurdly slow, i know im moving too fast.

[Swede]

Passing on animals early in the season, I would have gladly taken later on is the first thing that comes to mind. Calling, not expecting anything to be around or to respond is another. Not seeing a twig in my arrow flight path happened last year. To be honest, I have made at least my share of mistakes. I suppose this year will be an opportunity to add to the list.

[wawhitey]

What mistakes have you made in the past that you won't repeat this season?

Mine are to numerous to list them all , but I will start with not giving a cold calling setup enough time for things to develop.

i could give you a much shorter list if you wanted a list of mistakes i havent made

[BrentLaBere]

#2 - Not being decisive. A couple guys have said both "not being patient" and "not being aggressive"... in my experience the right thing to do becomes all too clear in retrospect. But in the moment deciding whether to be patient or be aggressive can be very difficult. One of my recent goals is to make up my mind quickly and execute (but see #1).

Passing on animals early in the season, I would have gladly taken later on is the first thing that comes to mind. Calling, not expecting anything to be around or to respond is another. Not seeing a twig in my arrow flight path happened last year. To be honest, I have made at least my share of mistakes. I suppose this year will be an opportunity to add to the list.

I want to add to these two statements, they rang true for me.

Understanding when to be patient and when to be aggressive. I have had times when elk are quiet and I knew they were near by, but decided I wanted to try calling! Not the right move trying to force something that wasn't in the cards that day. Other times I had sat back waiting for the evening hunt or the thermals to switch out....or whatever when elk were bugling like crazy! wrong time to be patient! Elk are aggressive? Step my game up....Elk are quiet and slowly moving? Slow my game down. Easy to do right?

I wont be passing on any shot this year on any legal elk. Yes I want to shoot a big bull, but I want to shoot an elk more. I am looking at 10-11 days in September to hunt so early part of the season for me starts with opening hours on September 6th.

Another one that still makes me sick to my stomach is not tracking like I should.
I could go on and on about how I screwed up but Its going to ruin my day, only because I look back and feel I should have done more. I shot a small bull at 24 yards and didn't find a drop of blood or my arrow.....what happened? Still not sure. But I do know I should of went off in a grid, or half arc areas away from where I shot until I had no where else to look. I guess I am still not sure that should be done, but shooting an elk in heavy timber is something new to me altogether, and it was very difficult to even find tracks or even blood.

Call after the shot, be patient because the elk was only 50 yards out looking for the cow again. Mark the spot where you hit your elk after your mark where you shot from. Look for blood around the shot area, wait it out if you have any doubt.
When you hear wolves howling around you the next morning, back out and hang your head ....

[NoWiser]

1. Get up earlier!! Being we were camped close to the elk we thought we'd leave the tent at shooting light and start hunting immediately. We should have been up an hour earlier and on those bugles when it was still dark! I know we could have had more opportunities. It sure is hard to crawl out of the sleeping bag when everything you own is soaking wet, including your socks and boots, for 7 straight days. No matter, we should have dug deep and found the motivation to get up sooner.

2. Not having a solid game plan when we did our calling setups. Twice I was calling for my dad and it became apparent the bull wasn't going to come in, although it still exchanged bugle for bugle with me. Both times I figured my dad was using the opportunity to sneak in for a shot, and both times he wasn't. I wish we would have talked about it and made a decision that if the bull wouldn't come closer, the shooter would sneak in for a shot.

3. Understand the terrain before we get to the mtns. Being from Minnesota we had no idea what the mountains were like. It turns out our "Plan A" was not realistic. We wasted 3 days and wore out our bodies in an area that we weren't physically able to hunt.

4. Packing peanut butter, bacon, and honey tortillas for lunch 11 straight days. By the end it was like choking down a giant garden slug. Yuck.

5. Not trying this elk hunting gig sooner! Not a single day has gone by since September that I haven't thought about elk at least a little!

This year there will be no failure. An elk will be making the trip home with me from New Mexico, no doubt about it!

[twinkieman]

I'll add not being aggressive enough to my list of mistakes from seasons past. I haven't made this one in a while, but not allowing myself enough time to hunt USED to make my list.

[SaskatchewanHunts]

It took us a few years to figure out that the way to hunt in our area is to get on a game trail and GO!! There is no road, no quad trail nothing but solid bush. We go in pairs. You feel a lot more comfortable navigating miles into the dense forest with two hunters, with two gps's, two compasses, two lighters etc. We travel the game trail fairly slow snapping twigs and cow talking constantly. When we got in a mile or so we could hear something large walking approximately 40 yards away. The forest was so dense that you could not see 10 feet in front of you. I would give him a bit of sweet cow talk and then he would rake the trees very lightly!! This went on for what seemed like 15 minutes. After a while he lost interest and started to leave. I decided to fire off a bugle. Within seconds the biggest baddest bugle I have ever heard erupts from 100 yards or so to our left. The young bull takes off and heads for the hills. The big bull is coming and coming fast!! My hunting partner and I look at each other and make a quick decision to go 30 yards back to a meadow where we could hopefully get him to come into so we can get a shot. BAD DECISION!! That bull came to exact position we ran from and stood there barking at us repeatedly. After a minute or so he turned and went back to his harem. We never did see either bull but I'm certain we ran away from the herd bull. Lesson learned don't leave your location once he has you pegged! I now see why the first bull was being so timid. From now on we will have decoys in our pack to flip up and move in the last couple yards.

[MountainmanZ]

One hard lesson I took from last season was to be in a ready position no matter how impossible the situation seems! I'd been working a bull for 45 minutes. Finally, I thought the bull had had enough of our back and forth, and with only minutes of shooting light left the bull's bugles were moving away from me. With little hope remaining I switched up my calling dramatically. Next thing I knew the bull busted out a scream and I caught a glimps do his rack coming through the timber at 45 yards (he must have literally turned a 180 and trotted in).

I was standing exposed and only had time to step behind a sapling I was near before the bull was there. I was at full draw as the bull zigzagged through the deadfall directly toward the sapling. I moved my bow left, then right, and back again, totally expecting the bull to give me a shot on one side or the other, but he never did clear the sapling's branches. He stopped eight yards the other side of the sapling, facing directly at me. Not sure if he smelt me or finally saw my profile through the tree but he busted. If only I had taken the time to set up in front of the cover before calling again, regardless of how futile my calling efforts felt. It was an awesome experience either way, being face to face with an beautiful bull, and one I'll never forget.

[twinkieman]

One hard lesson I took from last season was to be in a ready position no matter how impossible the situation seems! I'd been working a bull for 45 minutes. Finally, I thought the bull had had enough of our back and forth, and with only minutes of shooting light left the bull's bugles were moving away from me. With little hope remaining I switched up my calling dramatically. Next thing I knew the bull busted out a scream and I caught a glimps do his rack coming through the timber at 45 yards (he must have literally turned a 180 and trotted in).

I was standing exposed and only had time to step behind a sapling I was near before the bull was there. I was at full draw as the bull zigzagged through the deadfall directly toward the sapling. I moved my bow left, then right, and back again, totally expecting the bull to give me a shot on one side or the other, but he never did clear the sapling's branches. He stopped eight yards the other side of the sapling, facing directly at me. Not sure if he smelt me or finally saw my profile through the tree but he busted. If only I had taken the time to set up in front of the cover before calling again, regardless of how futile my calling efforts felt. It was an awesome experience either way, being face to face with an beautiful bull, and one I'll never forget.

Not being ready is a huge lesson for all of us to learn! Thanks

[Kevrod3]

Honestly not buying the Playbook before I headed out last year. I've learned so much from that book its not even going to be fair to the elk this year!

I arrowed a small 5x5 and had a less than perfect hit. Felt I got liver and maybe one lung if I was lucky, but honestly never saw the arrow hit the bull. I had fairly good blood about 25-35 yards from where I hit the bull. I wanted to give the elk more time but my guide thought otherwise. After waiting only 1-1 1/2 hours my guide took off down the trail to look for him... bad move. he bumped the elk only 125 yards from where I shot him. Lost all blood, and never found him. This year absolutely no question I will give an elk more than enough time to lay down and expire if I have even the slightest thought that it wasn't a perfect shot! I live with the guilt of loosing that bull each and every day.

This year we are going DIY. Plan on spending an extra 4 days, and living with the elk. Yes it was nice last year sleeping in a nice wall tent with a stove and a cook to prep meals for us, but we spent most of the time walking out of camp and back to camp. We slept at 9,600, but hunted at 8,500 we should of taken bivy's to stay closer to the elk. Won't make that mistake again!

Hunting the entire time I have available. We walked off the mountain early, not even waiting for the outfitter to come get us with the horses. Sick from not finding my bull, and having a 9 month pregnant wife at home, had me bowing out early. (sidenote: wife didn't have our daughter until 12 days after I got home)
Will spend more time studying my area I will be hunting. For your first time Elk hunters going with an Outfitter, don't think just because they have a guide that they know what they are doing or where elk are. Our guides had know clue, but just hoped they were Bugling. They weren't so they didn't know what to do. I plan to have a plan A,B,C,D, etc.!

[BRazz]

Kevrod you got me thinking - I'll add one more:

Not calling to a bull right after the shot to try and calm him down. They can cover lots of ground quickly, especially with a less-than-perfect shot. Maximize chances by calming him down - hopefully he'll squat down close by.

[twinkieman]

Other threads made me think of this, going into the elk woods with calls, able to make elk sounds, but not knowing what the sounds I was making actually meant. Elknut1 has changed that , I now know what I am saying!

[bloodarrow]

I really need to listen to that CD some more!! I guess my only 'mistake' would be to not be afraid to get away from that base camp and spend the night out to minimize the trek in the next day. That is, if you arent seeing/hearing elk nearer by. I keep thinking that on my last hunt, 'I should have climbed to that ridge top, and stayed up there a night.......'

[nrocchio]

Insufficient shooting practice from kneeling, sitting and other real-world shooting postures.

This is a really good one. I need to do that more this summer too. I shoot a lot at the indoor range by my office, but chances are I won't get to stand up straight to take a shot in the woods.

[ishy]

Here's one of my buddies that we can all learn from, Never eat yogurt that has been in the trailer for atleast two weeks!

[LongShot]

The most frequent mistake I've made since I started hunting anything was being too late getting into my hunting spots. My Dad used to almost pop a vein waiting on me to get outa the house. He always said "It's better to be an hour early getting in the stand than 5 minutes late!" Of course, he was right. I finally learned this lesson in my 40s and now I'm almost always deep in the elkwoods come first light.