2025 NV Archery Elk Hunt

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2025 Nevada Archery Hunt



First, I'll start by saying I've never been called a smart man. But between this community and a couple of FB groups, I figured I owed my story and lessons learned. Maybe, there would be a few takeaways for other new hunters.



How this whole process started was far from ideal. To give a little background and provide a few things I had going for me, I've always considered myself an "outdoorsman" even though I was not a hunter. I grew up having an obsession with fishing, hiking, camping, and various forms of offroading, with much of it done solo. I live at 4700' elevation and work at 6100', in a profession that requires me to be in good physical shape. I am also the type that when I take on something new, I hyperfixate on it, to the point that every opportunity I have to learn about whatever it is, I take it.



The bad: this was my 5th year putting in for tags in NV and prior to applying for this year, myself and a couple work buddies were talking strategy and units we planned to apply for. One of my buddies was continually telling my how great archery was and how much I'd enjoy it. So I casually started doing research and checking marketplace for used bows. I was definitely interested in the challenge but thought getting some rifle seasons under my belt first would be a better idea than jumping straight into a new hobby in archery, being I hadn't even hunted. (at least I owned a couple rifles I could hunt with and consider myself a fairly proficient shooter) Well, instead I gave into peer pressure and decided to apply for archery elk and mule deer as my 4th and 5th picks. The thought being there was no way in hell I'd get either archery tag, but I would start doing more research and get out with my buddies to shoot their bows. I ended up drawing a bull archery tag and the mule deer tag!



The prep: My first thought was honestly to just return both tags. In certain ways I had confidence in myself that I could at least get into situations where I'd have opportunities, but with no prior experience, there were too many unknowns. I decided to present my dilema to a FB group I joined, which provided quite the mix of opinions as the internet often does. There were certainly a lot of negative comments, but to my surprise, there were more supportive people than not, which I found here at Rokslide as well. I received nearly a dozen PM's from that post with people offering intel on the units, archery lessons, selling archery set ups etc. The general consensus was I shouldn't pass up the opportunity I was awarded, but if I were to commit to the tags, I needed to be all in. So, all in I went! I went to the local archery shop HuntnHouse, and got set up with a used Ventum 30 and all the other necessary accessories. Then I went to the local range which is about 5min from my house and became a member with the local archery club. In the 3ish months I had, I was hitting the range at least 3 times a week, if not 4 or 5. Like most people, I don't like looking like a moron, but I am also not afraid to ask questions and I received A LOT of free instruction from all sorts of random people I met at the range. During this time, I was watching every Youtube video I could find, listening to podcasts, and reading articles and books related to archery hunting mule deer and elk. It was information overload, but I was all in.



Scouting: With my obsession with fishing, I am no stranger to google earth, although I had to learn a lot of e-scouting tips related to hunting. I also spent a ton of time scouring the internet for any info I could find about the units, which yielded some info. The best came from those who reached out privately and gave me some good direction. A couple of those guys had tags in the same unit, one for cow elk and the other had a bull tag as well. Jeremy, the guy with the bull tag, much to my surprise had so graciously offered to allow me to hunt with him. At first, I didn't really think the offer was sincere to be honest. With how guarded people can be with hunting (and fishing for that matter) I was a little skeptical that a complete stranger would offer something like this. I also didn't want to be a burden for Jeremy, being I was new to it all. So, I came up with a general plan and set out on my first 3 day scouting trip in mid-June. The area I chose was based off where I was able to gather the most information on. My main goal for this first trip was just to get to know the lay of the land and mark potential areas of interest on OnX. Shockingly I was able to find old sign, some cow elk, and even saw my first moose! One of the best pieces of advice I got was to get some practice stalks in while scouting, which I felt was super valuable. I got some practice in on several mule deer and antelope which gave me probably the biggest confidence boost. Second trip out was in late-July, this time I wanted to focus my efforts on certain areas and was lucky enough to somewhat pattern a couple bachelor groups of bull elk and see my second NV moose. Another big takeaway from scouting, was that a friendly hello and a handshake can go a long way in obtaining intel and/or permission to hunt private land. During this time I made a point of sharing my intel with the guys that were willing to share intel with me, I felt I owed them that.



The Hunt: Based off my scouting, I was planning to hunt solo, since Jeremy had his own area that he preferred and was familiar with. But as gameday came closer, I reached back out to him to see if he'd still allow a newb to hunt with him. Again, he was gracious enough to extend the offer, which to me ultimately summed up his character. We came up with a plan and he shared some of his intel on the area he was familiar with. We decided to hunt the beginning of September instead of the opener, and I would show up a couple days early to get some last minute scouting in.

 

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Day 1: I arrived to our planned camp spot at about 1pm and got all unloaded and camp set up. My plan was to check a couple way points Jeremy had sent me for sign and then find a good glassing spot for the evening. Sure enough, I did find some sign that was a week or two old but no elk. After looking at OnX I found an area that looked similar to where I had seen elk while scouting, so I found a glassing knob and set up for the evening. I spent about 30min glassing this canyon before my restlessness kicked in. Patience in glassing is something I really need to work on. I started looking at OnX again, trying to decide if I wanted to make a quick move or at least make a game plan for the next day.
That’s when I looked up and saw some movement coming through a saddle down where the canyon opened up into the flats. Sure enough there was a group of 10 or so slowly feeding through the saddle and along the sidehill up towards me. Based on my guestimation, they were about 1.5 miles away, and I had a little over an hour of daylight to get to them. I couldn’t make out any decent bulls with my cheaper set of binos, but there was at least one that at least needed a closer look (ended up being a 4x4). With the wind coming up canyon I made at my face, I made the decision to cross a ravine, then get on the backside of the opposite ridge to make my approach. That plan quickly changed as I dropped into the ravine, I could see the bottom of the canyon had a well worn cow trail and lots of cover, I figured I could cover a lot more distance quickly by taking that trail. But, as soon as I made it about halfway to the small herd, the wind switched directions and was now blowing straight to them. Back to plan A, I headed up the ridge I had planned earlier getting a nice little burn going in the legs as I moved with a purpose. I reached the top and was just about to crest the other side, and as I did I see a larger herd of elk mixed in with moo cows at a water hole. I hit the breaks and dropped to the ground as I see what I think would be considered a nice bull, just about anywhere, chase around a couple spikes. Plans change yet again, and now I had a target! I watched the herd for several minutes as I came up with a plan for an approach. The herd split into two groups, mostly cows in the first, with the bull slowly following, and the second made up of cows and spikes following the bull. They were feeding up the draw that faced West/East, and the wind was coming from the North. The bull was pretty actively bugling and bullying the spikes (which should have been a little cue for me), but my first mistake I made was to leave my pack and calls at the ridgeline. I had ample cover moving in towards the bull to about 120 yards, before things became a little more sparse. I took my time, taking note of all the possible eyes on me and moving from bush to bush as I could. I made it to 79 yards where I took a moment to let the adrenalin settle a bit (and take some very shaky video/pics), which then the bull decided to continue feeding around a little rise where I lost sight of him. Despite the lack of cover, I thought I could make it to the next patch of bushes, about 20ish yards away. As I closed in, I got almost to the bushes, when one of the spikes feeding off to my right spotted me, but surprisingly didn’t seem too concerned. I decided to just go for it, thinking my cover was blown and pushed to where I thought the bull was going to be. As I crested the rise crouching low, I saw antler tips, moved a little closer and got a range (41 yards), then drew my bow. As I stood up and got a better view of his body, he turned to where his butt was directly facing me. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity hoping he’d turn again to present a shot for me, but he just kept feeding. It was then that the spike that had busted me earlier decided he had enough and spooked which then scared a couple cows. The bull still stood there and looked at them, like “what is your guys deal” before he turned his head and saw me. He then spooked off at least a few yards before turning broadside. I didn’t want to guesstimate a shot so I tried to quickly let down and hit the trigger in the process, sending an arrow into the dirt 3 feet in front of me. Then the bull spooked again and stopped broadside, 82 yards was the range. Not a shot I was willing to take. The rest of the herd gathered up and moved up the hillside and began feeding. I watched them for a little bit before deciding to leave them alone as it was close to getting dark and there was no cover for me to make an approach.

Day 2: I was up well before first light and got to a glassing spot. I spent the first couple hours in the morning glassing along a ridgeline and checking different drainages, nothing but some bucks and antelope were spotted. I decided that I would do some more exploring during the day and dropped down into the flats so I could head south and get back up into the mountains in an area that looked good on google. I spent most of the day hiking covering ground and looking for sign, as well as marking a few water holes on OnX. Once evening started coming around I wanted to be back at my glassing spot from the evening before. I was cruising in the side by side in the flats (where I assumed I’d see no elk) and spotted a small group running into the PJ’s from the edge of an old burn. I didn’t see a bull, but the majority of the elk had made it to cover before I spotted them. I kept driving the SxS another ½ mile or so before I stopped and decided I’d try to make a move on the herd and see if there was a bull with them. I grabbed my bow and pack and hustled to a rise where I could see the patch of PJ’s they ran into. It took a good 10 minutes or so to finally see a body hiding in the thick trees, so I began my approach down a wash towards where they were hiding. Cover wasn’t the greatest once I got to about 100 yards from where I had seen one of the elk. I started trying to glass again looking for antler tips, but the cover was so thick that I could only make out a few bodies. I thought of waiting them out, but that only lasted maybe 20 minutes before I decided I’d let out a bugle and see what happens. I didn’t get an answer, but to my surprise a little 3x3 immediately stood up and started looking around, then began feeding and the rest of the herd followed suit. They fed back out into the open burn and I decided to leave them alone and continue with my original plan, hoping I’d find the bull from the evening before. I drove the SxS to the base of the mountains and began my hike up towards my glassing spot, this time approaching from a different direction. I got within a ¼ mile from the spot and when I was about to crest over the ridge I heard a faint bugle! I slowly peaked over making sure not to skyline myself and there was a herd of elk and what appeared to be the bull I had encountered the night before. This time, my plan was to try my hand at calling and see what happens. I doubled back so I could drop down into the canyon without being seen and worked my way up towards the herd. By the time I had gotten to their last location I had seen them, they had moved along the side hill feeding around some groups of aspens. I wasn’t sure where the bull was and the herd was pretty spread out, so I let out a bugle. The bull instantly fired back! And what shocked me more, was another answered and he was much closer! The excitement and adrenalin rush I felt was like nothing I’ve had in quite a few years. The three of us proceeded to have a bugling match where we all began moving closer to eachother. This match felt like it lasted for close to 10 minutes, where both bulls seemed to be moving closer, but slowly. What I didn’t anticipate, was how suddenly and quickly the 2nd bull would move in. It was so quick, that he (a smaller 6x6 than the herd bull) caught me in a small patch of willows at about 40 yards. Once he didn’t see another bull, he started sidehilling and looking down onto me. The wind was still in my favor, but I got the feeling he was trying to circle in behind me. I ended up ranging him at 70 yards broadside, which didn’t fall into the parameters I had set for myself. In hindsight, I could have maybe used some cover to close another 10 yards, maybe more, but I realized that too late. I thought it’d be worse if he winded me, so I stepped out from cover and he decided to work his way up the ridge. By this point it was too late and too low light to go after the herd bull, so I made my way out of the canyon. Once, back at camp I sent Jeremy some pics and gave him a call to update on my encounters. He was originally planning to meet up in a couple more days, but my pics convinced him to show up early! He ended up showing up late that night.

 

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Day 3: Similar plan as the day before, but just a different glassing spot. This was one thing I noticed and was consistent with the majority of other hunters I talked to, was that the elk seemed to be bedded down before first light. We never did see any elk early morning, but we did have a full moon during the hunt. Maybe that played a factor? Jeremy and I put in some work glassing and searching for signs of life. It wasn’t until late afternoon when I was showing Jeremy where I had found the bull the first evening, that we ended up spooking a couple mule deer bucks. Jeremy had a tag for them as well, and while we were glassing, we found a better buck feeding near some aspens on a far hillside. With no elk, we decided Jeremy should put a stalk in on the buck. Watching him work his way in on an unsuspecting buck was pretty cool! I mis-range caused him to shoot way low, but it was still a cool experience for me to watch. As Jeremy made his way back out he signaled to me to head his way, he had found a herd of elk! I made my way over to him and we proceeded to watch the largest herd of elk I had seen so far feed on the hillside across from us. The bull, which looked different from the herd bull I had seen the two evenings before, was fired up bugling and trying to mount his cows. With how open the terrain was, we really did not have an opportunity to stalk in. We talked about the possibility of working our way into an aspen patch and see if we could call the bull away, but we were running out of daylight and decided to leave them alone. As it got dark, I did take the opportunity to practice a few more bugles, in which the bull promptly answered. We were excited for the next day!

Day 4: With us finding elk in the same general area the past three days, we knew where we were heading in the morning. Again, nothing but some deer were glassed up, so Jeremy and I parted ways to cover more ground. Looking at google, there was a drainage in the area that had some good aspens for bedding cover, that I hadn’t checked out yet. Another lesson learned here, I left the side by side and decided to hike a little, to a spot I could glass, leaving my bow behind…thinking “I’m not going to see anything mid morning”. Well, I was wrong, I was skylining myself walking down to a point on the ridge and as I looked over to my left, I see an elk come over the opposite ridge. I instantly dropped to the ground and got my binos on it. It was a 4x4 bull! For whatever reason, my mind went to thinking this bull was maybe trailing the main herd, and just maybe they were in this drainage. I watched him until he was out of view before racing back as fast as I could to get my bow and pack. With the wind direction, I wanted to go back down to where I had seen the bull and come up the drainage. Once, I started working my way up towards the aspens were, I started seeing the most sign I had found so far. Beds were everywhere along the hillside! I came around a rise and caught a glimpse of the bull heading into the aspens. I wasn’t sure what my move should be, so I let out a couple bugles thinking maybe I could bring him back out. After waiting 30 minutes or so, and no answer, I moved to the edge of the aspens. There, I tried some cow/calf calls, thinking maybe that would entice him out, but he had no interest. I decided my move now would be to still hunt into the aspens. I slowly made my way into the forest, not expecting him to have bedded so soon at the edge of the thick stuff. I spotted him just as he turned his head my direction. I gave a little cow call and he stood up, I had him at 26 yards, but with the branches and trees, I didn’t have the confidence to make a shot. He didn’t seem to like what he saw so he moved off further into the forest. I snuck through the bedding area, seeing trees that had been scarred by antlers, for who knows how long, but never seeing anymore elk. There were some really nice bucks that I spooked, but nothing else. It was this day that we had a bunch of other hunters move into the area, most of which were just cruising in their SxS or trucks. We did not find the herds of elk in the evening, but on the way back towards camp we did come across a lone 5x5. At this point, my confidence was really high, and given the opportunities I already had and knowing the potential for a bigger bulls in the area, we both decided to pass on this bull. This foreshadowed my hardest lesson learned. I had told myself, I just wanted meat in the freezer, I didn’t care about a trophy. But now, I was caring about decorations on the wall.

The next 5 days: These days were rough. The elk we had been on disappeared. The area just seemed way more busy with other hunters, many were probably deer or antelope, but definitely not ideal. I was up at least 2 hours before daylight every morning and staying out well past dusk, often getting back to camp around 9:30-10pm. I tried bugling at night to locate bulls and never had an answer. And Jeremy and I covered lots of new ground, lots and lots of ground, but just couldn’t put anything together. It seemed all the elk hunters we talked to were having the same luck, or at least thats what they said. The last full day I had to hunt I came across a father and son that stopped to talk to me. They were deer hunters who had moved from the southern end of the unit to up north where we were. They claimed to have seen a lot of bulls, but couldn’t find any deer. We shared some info, as I had no trouble finding bucks on this hunt. I decided as a hail mary effort that I would move camp to an area the other hunters suggested and put in an evening hunt and one last morning hunt. I needed a lot of luck, but I figured at least I could provide Jeremy some intel since he planned to hunt until the end of the season. I got back to camp, loaded everything up, and headed south. I had a couple way points to check out, and shortly after leaving my new camp, I found some fresh bull tracks, over some fresh tire tracks. I got up to a glassing point and got comfortable, planning to glass until dark. But the fatigue, regret, and frustration soon got the best of me. I decided I was done. I headed back to camp and loaded my gear for the final time to head home. Irony is an amazing thing sometimes, in the most frustrating of ways. As I was driving out the main road back to the highway, I stumble upon a bull standing in a water hole. He didn’t really spook, so I drove close to a mile to the next bend in the road and parked. I grabbed my bow and pack and sprinted back to where I had last seen him. He was on private, but I gave it one last go to try and call him in. He actually started bugling and made his way right up to the fenceline, frequently answering my cow calls. But he never did cross onto public and it quickly became dark. Defeated, I headed back to the truck. As soon as I could, I gave Jeremy a call and relayed the info. The next day he was in the area and was on elk! He ended up getting on a bunch of elk in that general area and was ultimately successful with a super nice bull right near the end of the season!

Although this hunt was unsuccessful for me, I was stoked for Jeremy and super happy to have met and become friends with an awesome guy! It was a hard lesson learned for me and its been awhile since I’ve been humbled like that. But I learned a ton from Jeremy and a ton from my own experiences that I will be able to apply on future hunts. Now I’ve got a new addiction that I can add to an already long list of hobbies.

Thanks to all that reached out and gave me advice!