That’s got to be a great feeling. You have a great story behind your progress and it sounds like you have some great elk! I’d love to see some pictures if you feel like sharing!
Mentorship is something that keeps coming up in this thread. Sadly, I don't have a hunting mentor. My dad grew up hunting but stopped before I was old enough to go because Washington hunting sucks and he was tired of tag soup. I started watching MeatEater in ~2017 and did my hunters safety at...
Yes it does... I see big bulls ALL THE TIME. I wish I had been putting in for the bull tag the last few years but never even thought about it. This is the first year I'll be putting in for anything.
The difficulty is part of the reason we are waiting a few years- 1. to gain more experience and 2. to get in better shape so that we can do whatever it takes to get to the elk and away from other people as much as possible.
Sweet! My first year elk hunting, I only got to go out for one day which sucked but we spotted a herd ~1500-2000 yards away and 1800 feet higher than us. We put a stalk on them and by the time we got to where we would've seen them a nasty snow storm hit and the elk took cover in the timber and...
I'm hoping to get out for a week this year- my PTO is fairly limited, unfortunately.
Do you go rifle or archery?
I hope you do too! I'm itching to get some elk meat in the freezer!
First truck was a 1985 Ford Bronco with the 357 Windsor. Current truck is a new (to me) 1998 Ford F-250 with the 5.4. Drove a hand ful of other rigs in between but love being back in a truck. My '17 Subaru Crosstrek was a great mountain rig too- wife drives that now.
Like the title says, how long did it take you to bag your first elk? Bull or cow. 2023 was my third year hunting them and I have yet to get one. I've had encounters often but in the part of Washington I'm in its true spike only and I only encounter cows and big bulls. I'm putting in for a bull...