First photo elk camp 1980…
you work hard and learn your craft….I will start with this…when I first started bow hunting in 1986 and learned about calling elk, my elder elk hunters told me “you will just scare all the elk and good luck 
calling them in” …..well I can say they were wrong in their statement…just completed my otc hunt on day 2 called in a small bull that bugled till 10 on day one never saw another hunter and on day 2 at 9 am started a bugle fest with a beauty and at 11:15 i walked up to a beauty
…is calling for everyone no, but in the right mouth it is a deadly option and full of adrenaline 
They have awesome hats, thats howHow were you able to kill elk without sitka gear and swaros?
Elk camp breakfast
….he would arm wrestle you for a huckleberry pie
That is my pops the army Ranger now I’m older that’s he was in that photo by 15 yrs
My elk hunting mentor still wears his too. Must be something about those hats and slaying elk... im tellin ya.... except those brims arent even kinda flat.... what gives.
There is a certain romanticism that is being lost to that type of hunt. Every time I roll my wall tent out, just the smell of it brings out memories of years past. It is interesting to note how elk changed their behavior in the last two and a half decades.
I can remember the area I grew up hunting in sounding like an absolute war on opening day, camps were on every wide spot along the roads and yet you still really didn’t run into many people. There were just tons of elk to go around. Now it’s practically a ghost town. Old skid trails are grown shut, really the only people camping are just in the summer and anyone you do see hunting is just putting miles on an atv/utv. I’m not sure I could be paid to hunt there due to the near complete lack of elk
the 430 alarm got punched to 530…gear grabbed pounded aleve like m$ms, and out we went down into a canyon I heard a bugling bull Saturday while scouting….he had answered me and had a second bull with him…I found their tracks where they cut the bottom and went up the side I came down…nothing answered my calls in this canyon…at 8:30 told my buddy going back up and into a hidden basin having confidence if the bull could hear me bugle he likely would answer, if I got to him in the next couple of hours…….backup 1300 vertical we just came down I will say I am very confident in my calling if a bull is around and at all interested in talking….again no other hunters another throw back photo from the 80s with pops and a teaser pic my 20 yr with the beat up tikka
and radios in our packs the size of coolers. Always used compass and map and general knowledge of an area hunted for decades. Grabbed an iPhone two yrs ago and a zoleo…man these things give you a big upper hand to both never get lost, find your location, share your location, and study where game may be as you always know your location on the map program. Another item hunting partners choose wisely and you may have to vet a few before finding the right one. Giving props to my man Brian, I gave him a big hug on this day….we go back 25 yrs and I’m safe in my masculinity
he has always been trusted and is there 110% as needed. He is my lucky charm and a mighty fine caper And if your dogs trusts him he is golden a few photos with him over the years…..and the last photo is on my first bull with my tikka 2003 that he put me on to..good choice Brian
