What’s your moment?

[Hammsolo]

The moment I’m looking forward to is sitting in the dark, hidden in the cliffs of Central Washington waiting for mule deer as the sun says good morning. I can’t wait. Feeling the breeze in my face. The smell of sage and soil. A big deep cleansing breath.

As many of you know my life has been littered with joint surgeries for 2 years; knees and elbow. I’m walking now, and dying to get out. I won’t be having the backcountry hunt of my dreams, but I will be hunting! It’ll take months and months to be , but my heart will be when that sun crests.

What’s your moment? The one that cleanses your soul, and makes your heart race? The one that gives you peace, or twists your brain? I pray you have it and more this season. God Bless

 

[belshawelk]

This year I am taking two people who have never shot an elk. I will find them elk ( cow) and hopefully they will connect. The moment they realize that they just harvested their first elk is that moment for me. The joy, relief, excitement, fulfillment and all the other emotions. Its that smile which I like ( after I have them out the gun down!)

That is only followed by when they put their hands on an elk for the first time, And if I am lucky I will get them to bend over the belly while I accidentally put just a little hole in the intestine. When the sweet aroma hits their nose, that look is the other one I always enjoy, after I laugh.

Getting new hunters locked into our lifestyle does it for me.

 

[hank4elk]

This year it will be simple. Now.
It's for me and Rio.
Started already this morning with him on the couch next to me and listening to 2 bulls bugle back and forth from the tanks and watching his ears go up and down.

A short walk in Nov. on BLM to Hank's rock(neighbors named it) and sitting for deer at sunrise with a mz in hand. Good ambush spot between private ranches.
Then in Dec. walking out my door with a draw tag and try and catch a cow here at daylight.
Hopefully my buddy will pull it off again with the LO tag a week later.

Everyone else is on their own this year.

 

[TOGIE]

sitting in the rolling sage prairies as the cold wyoming breeze hits my face, waiting for the sun to come up to hopefully see pronghorn moving about landscape. watch them. watch them some more. think about stalking some, then decide to just watch them.

it's been too long since i've done that and i won't be doing it this season. but i will get to do exactly that looking for late season wyoming cow elk. can't wait. but there won't be much watching when i find them

 

[RyGuy]

My moment this year, sitting on a hilltop as the sun rises to my right, feeling it’s warmth. Spotting scope in front of me, looking over a valley and taking inventory of the multiple big antelope bucks I know live down there. I’ll be looking for one special buck in particular, but it will be good to see others chasing does and feeding on the lush grass below.
And then when I find him, that rush of adrenaline! Making a plan of how to use terrain to put the perfect stalk together.

 

[Deleted member 52098]

It's really hard to pick A moment from what will be my first elk hunt... but I've always found it incredibly relaxing when I reach the crest of a ridge or saddle and get to gaze upon a completely new view. And hopefully my view on 10/15 includes a nice CO public land bull elk just ripe for the taking. Will be interesting to experience what is likely to be as rush of emotion

 

[OntarioHunter]

I've already had my moments for this year. I know exactly what you're talking about. Another trip to Africa was in the works before I left for home a year ago. For eleven months I chomped at the bit tinkering with my rifle and wondering just how different the next trip would or could be.

The unexpected is what makes the adventure. Of course 2021 was filled to the brim with the unexpected just getting over there. I feel sorry for people who have to plan their hunting trips right down to most minute detail. Just as well go hunting at a fast food drive-through or five-star hotel. Yes, I have a detailed list of stuff to do and bring but I know something will always be forgotten. No matter what I expect when I get to my hunting destination, I can always expect that I'll find something else.

This time only two animals were on my list but the hunt was for ten days. The lodge owner and PH kept after me to give them some direction on where to go and what to hunt after the lechwe and Barbary sheep were in the salt. "Let's just see what gets in the way when I get there." Turns out that worked best. They are always receiving requests from property owners to remove certain animals. If the lodge doesn't have a client available, the offer will go to another lodge. These aren't necessarily management culls (though I shot several of those too), but good animals that are ready or need to be harvested. So I wound up taking four very good animals (two of them extremely good) more or less on the spur of the moment. Three were on property the PH had never hunted before. An adventure for both of us.

Moral of the story is make your hunt an adventure. Yes, do the planning but don't plan it to death to the point you don't know what to do if something goes haywire. Just expect something will go haywire and enjoy the challenge of working around it. Can't stuff it and hang it on a wall but I think that's what really makes a hunt memorable.

 

[BirdManMike]

Cold air, clear blue sky, still day. Falcon takes a wonderful pitch pumping hard above me, tiny speck, hardly visible, up above with the light underside barely glowing against the blue sky. The falcon tucks his wings and starts a hard stoop, a stoop that has an audible sound, like the sizzle of bacon, as the bird exceeds free fall speed. It doesnt matter if the stoop is on game flushed off a point or on a pair of released homing pigeons. It doesnt matter if the bird connects or kills the target. Its a beautiful thing, every time. Absolutely glorious.

 

[JimQ]

Back in Missouri my moment was always as the sun hit the horizon while I was in my deer stand and listening to the world come to life. Since being in Montana I discovered that it is on top of a mountain with the same sunrise and life waking up. It reminds me just how good God really is

 

[2rocky]

I'm looking forward to seeing that first glimpse of the biggest bull of my hunting career.

It has been 6 years since I've been afield with an elk tag. The anxiety has been the worst.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Like you, surgery is going to keep me from getting my fix on my sharptail moment. Mild September weather, walking a hillside of buffaloberry and little bluestem, hearing sharpies chuckle as they flush.

Hoping I’ll still make it out for a sunrise over the sagebrush, glassing for antelope or deer. Sitting on a hillside, leaned back against my pack, glassing the folded landscape out in front of me, smelling the dusty cured grasses and sage. Watching the colors on the horizon grow and change. Listening to the geese going out to feed. Love those mornings.

 

[Keep on]

For me it's the 10 or 15 minutes before legal shooting time in my duck blind. Decoys are out, call lanyard on my neck, gun uncased and everything set for another morning of waterfowl hunting. Time to enjoy a cup of black coffee from the old stanley thermos and watch birds fly in the dark half light. That's my special time.

 

[Dsnow9]

All of it! Every last minute of it, the suffering from long hikes, watching the sunrise miles deep on a glassing knob, freezing boots as I get out of the tent, all of the animals I get to see when slowing down and watching the world flow by, the sound of the wind, dried blood under the finger nails, and heavy miserable packouts!

Taking people on their first elk hunt this year and really hope we can get them their first elk. I am also taking my employee along on a few hunts without a tag so he can learn how to hunt for next year. Hope they come away from the season with the same fire I have for all of it.

 

[noharleyyet]

A week with Ken Jr chasing Colorado bulls. It’s been too long. The packing, driving, scheming, and doing.

 

[RobertD]

In my favorite stand

The best wind for hunting is a SE wind

Because a SE wind blows your scent out to the cornfield and not down to the lake

And because a SE wind might mean a winter storm that gets them on their feet

And because a SE wind means the wind is blowing across the top of the old fried chicken place in town and sucking up all that hot bird grease and drifting it out to me in my tree and tickling my nose with it

When I smell the chicken grease. That's my moment.

 

[Nick87]

For me it's the 10 or 15 minutes before legal shooting time in my duck blind. Decoys are out, call lanyard on my neck, gun uncased and everything set for another morning of waterfowl hunting. Time to enjoy a cup of black coffee from the old stanley thermos and watch birds fly in the dark half light. That's my special time.

Yes.

 

[Nick87]

Well @Keep on pretty much spoke for me. This year it will be patiently waiting in the deer woods of Southern IL. It will be my step sons first year sitting by himself so I can wait and listen for that shot, no more coaching from me. I'm probably just as anxious as he is.

 

[44hunter45]

The moment I’m looking forward to is sitting in the dark, hidden in the cliffs of Central Washington waiting for mule deer as the sun says good morning. I can’t wait. Feeling the breeze in my face. The smell of sage and soil. A big deep cleansing breath.

As many of you know my life has been littered with joint surgeries for 2 years; knees and elbow. I’m walking now, and dying to get out. I won’t be having the backcountry hunt of my dreams, but I will be hunting! It’ll take months and months to be , but my heart will be when that sun crests.

What’s your moment? The one that cleanses your soul, and makes your heart race? The one that gives you peace, or twists your brain? I pray you have it and more this season. God Bless

I pointed my goHunt MAPS at the scablands last week. That is amazing country. Ping me if you need a packout assist. I'm not too far.

 

[Cammy]

My FIL will be 86 this year and we have NV mule deer tags. This will more than likely be his last hunt with a tag in his pocket for NV. Looking forward to the trip and the time spent with him.

 

[rtraverdavis]

The moment of arrival in camp. Anticipation in the air, bullshitting and joking around with buddies, setting up and going over plans.

After hiking out in the dark, getting out to The Big Look—sun just breaking in the east, a cold, light breeze coming from the north. The binoculars on the tripod scanning the canyons below. Spotting the blond-yellow body of a bull feeding up into a patch of firs. The plan of approach. The nervous anxiety and laser clarity that comes only in such moments.

I cannot wait for November.