There is a huge gap between locking your truck on opening day at the trailhead and punching your tag. It can be intimidating and I’ve found you need quantifiable goals to measure your success. I found a cool way to check “progress” through your elk season (or elk hunting career for that matter) is to set a checklist of attainable/incremental goals that build on one another and eventually result in...filling a tag. I literally carry this list in my pack:
1. Be Safe and Have Fun: I hope to check this box everyday.
2. See Elk: I check this box after the first sighting of the season —any sighting. It could be a tail/ear/an animal that busts me. That might happen in the first 20 minutes of the season or after 20 days, either way it counts.
3. See Undisturbed/Unspooked Elk: As you know, it’s one thing to see elk that have already picked you off. It’s a totally different thing to encounter animals that are unaware of your presence. I check this box when I see elk that are totally relaxed and unaware of my existence whether that is at 15 yards or 1500 yards.
4. See Elk in Bow Range: It’s pretty obvious when this box gets checked. As we know it can be a pretty big accomplishment after a hard week of hunting.
5. Get a LEGITIMATE Shot Opportunity: In my opinion this is where the bar gets starts getting raised and the learning curve gets a little steeper. Prior to this point I might have seen elk at close range but the box only gets checked after I have an encounter that could have [or should have] resulted in a shot. Whether I capitalized is another story
.
6. Take an ETHICAL shot at an Elk Downrange: This will have a varying definition based on ability. Just because that animal presented itself unobstructed and inside my effective range doesn’t mean that I had my bow drawn or was able to release an arrow. Pretty self explanatory when this box gets checked.
7. Make a LETHAL hit on an Elk: It might take a while (years for some) but just because you loose an arrow doesn’t mean you’ve got backstraps in your freezer.
8. Successfully Recover an Elk: Hopefully, I check this box right after I check of #7.
9. Successfully get ALL the Meat off the Mountain: This can be easier said than done in the September heat.
10. Enjoy the Meat with Family and Friends
I’m not advocating for participation trophies (my personal opinion is that punching a tag is the mark of success) and I also recognize that the details of everyone’s “checklist” will look different. Regardless of how we define “success”, I feel it is a critical and (often missed step) to break down the expectations of your hunt into more digestible portions. Especially, for those guys traveling across the country. You wouldn’t want to climb that mountain without breaking down your route on a good map...right?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk