First Elk Hunt...Cow Tag

[AH64DMatt]

So, I just found out I drew a Muzzleloader Cow tag for my first Elk hunt ever.

I'm really excited to be headed into the Elk woods, and while it's not going to be a bull, the prospect of filling the freezer with delicious elk meat and spending 7 days in the beautiful Arizona mountains will keep me dreaming of this hunt for the next 6 months.

All you see out there on the hunting shows and internet videos are bull hunts. What about cows? Being a rookie, I'm going to be trying to learn as much about hunting cow elk as I can. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm pumped...

Matt

 

[BiggWimm]

younger = tastier

 

[JLG]

What unit? Good Luck on your hunt, JLG.

 

[LNGBOWFLYER]

Matt first congratulations it should be a fun trip. Second the way I learned a lot from elk hunting calling etc is through Elknuts CDs. He will truly knock off 5-10years from your learning curve. Volume 1,2&4 are mostly about bulls but volume 3 is all about the cows. It will be the best $35 investment you make. I recommend starting with disk 1 listening to it and practising u.til you master disk 1 then move on to disk 2. Disk 1-4 is like starting in kindergarten and moving up through college. Awesome stuff. Plus being able to call a bull in can be very helpful. In 2003 I had a cow tag. I heard a bull bugle and I called him in. He had 5 cows with him and I smoked one at 15 yards with my muzzle loader.

So my list of advice is this
1. Buy this CD or MP3 audio set
2. Bugling Bull game calls (also on his website)
3. Listen and memorize all the different sounds (like 5&9s)
4. Practise practise practise
5. Listen to these CDs again and again and again
6. Buy his playbook so you can also read about what he says.

Audio CDs
http://stores.elknut.com/Detail.bok?no=48

Playbook.
http://stores.elknut.com/Detail.bok?no=140

 

[huntRme]

Touble with cows is that you can't age them once they grow up the way you can a bull, and they get tough just like a bull does once they get up there in years. My one and only cow was a work-out to chew. Hopefully you can run into a bunch of them and can pick out a yearling.

 

[mixedbag]

x2 on elknuts dvds,and playbook

 

[gman82001]

Yep shoot the smaller of the group cuase I shot a cow with and ear tag once near a feedground area that girl was tagged as a 3 month old calf on the same area and was 16 1/2yrs old talk about a tough eat WOW! Make sure you take it all in and enjoy the crap out of your experience.

 

[LNGBOWFLYER]

As far as bullets goes here's some good reading on quality bullet. A lot of the big names out there suck for elk bullets. All these threads have good info and if you scroll through has pictures of bullets after the shot, their effect etc.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=77194.0

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/361092-science-project-report-long.html

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=75690.0

There's also a discussion about this in the Muzzle Loader section.
http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=250477