Arbutusbucks
WKR
Well, just got back from ID. I first hunted elk in NM on a very good tag and was successfull last year, i knew I couldnt wait to be lucky and draw again so i would need to find an OTC unit and get familiar with it. This was our first real backpack hunt. Definitely learned a lot from the articles and threads on Rokslide. It was the most successful "unsuccessful" hunt that I have ever had. We learned a ton and had an awesome time doing it, even when we weren't exactly having fun. I also found a pretty diesel mule deer shed.
Being from the east coast we knew we couldn't scout so basically we picked a unit based on harvest stats and the style of hunt that we wanted to do and threw a dart at the wall. We picked three areas. Area #1 (which looked the best to us) didn't pan out and we moved on after a few days, our 2nd choice turned out to be a good one though and we were into elk everyday. It was awesome and I'll never forget it. I missed high on a cow on the last morning. I had a bull at 40 and he would not give me a clean shot just tangled his rack in trees and pulled off branches for about a minute, all i could see was neck and above. I decided if a cow did give me a shot I would take it, one popped out at about 18 yards but being so rattled from watching the bull I never "re-ranged" the distance in my head and I shot with my 40 pin and missed high. Probably will go down in history as the easiest shot I will ever miss! I definitely rushed the entire situation and in hindsight I had plenty of time to do a lot of things different but it was probably the second worst "buck fever" I have ever experienced. So anyway no kill pics but here are some scenery/camp pics.
As I said everything worked out great. If I could do some things over I would probably do more specific training for the hunt (uphill sprints). I am in pretty good shape but theres always room for improvement. Shooting more uphill/downhill. I did do a lot of shooting uphill and downhill which gave me confidence but I almost feel like I wasted too much time shooting on flat ground since I had trouble finding a flat enough spot for camp on a few afternoons. I underestimated the size of the country and looking at google earth/maps just really makes things look a lot closer. So when I thought a point 4 miles away would take us about 2 hours to reach it was more like 4-5. It was all part of it though. I can't wait to do it again.
Being from the east coast we knew we couldn't scout so basically we picked a unit based on harvest stats and the style of hunt that we wanted to do and threw a dart at the wall. We picked three areas. Area #1 (which looked the best to us) didn't pan out and we moved on after a few days, our 2nd choice turned out to be a good one though and we were into elk everyday. It was awesome and I'll never forget it. I missed high on a cow on the last morning. I had a bull at 40 and he would not give me a clean shot just tangled his rack in trees and pulled off branches for about a minute, all i could see was neck and above. I decided if a cow did give me a shot I would take it, one popped out at about 18 yards but being so rattled from watching the bull I never "re-ranged" the distance in my head and I shot with my 40 pin and missed high. Probably will go down in history as the easiest shot I will ever miss! I definitely rushed the entire situation and in hindsight I had plenty of time to do a lot of things different but it was probably the second worst "buck fever" I have ever experienced. So anyway no kill pics but here are some scenery/camp pics.
As I said everything worked out great. If I could do some things over I would probably do more specific training for the hunt (uphill sprints). I am in pretty good shape but theres always room for improvement. Shooting more uphill/downhill. I did do a lot of shooting uphill and downhill which gave me confidence but I almost feel like I wasted too much time shooting on flat ground since I had trouble finding a flat enough spot for camp on a few afternoons. I underestimated the size of the country and looking at google earth/maps just really makes things look a lot closer. So when I thought a point 4 miles away would take us about 2 hours to reach it was more like 4-5. It was all part of it though. I can't wait to do it again.
