Your first elk.

[blackveltbowhunter]

1998. Just turned 19, no one in my family hunted but I had been bit hard by the bug since I was a kid. Had shot archery a bit and had a bow and was pretty good with it. My best friends dad did some bow hunting and on a whim they invited me to go along on an afternoon hunt. That lit the spark that led to 10 days of skipped college classes, selling a quad to fund a new bow purchase, a severe brush with hypothermia due to lack of knowledge on clothing, tearing down my 22r in the middle of the night to get my head gasket repaired before daylight and ultimately a blood trail in a swamp and a dead raghorn bull.

I feel fortunate to have lived thru the glory days .

 

[highcountrymuley]

From my first elk I learned to never shoot the lead cow. Tough as nails, and a lot of it to eat! Also they are darn tough critters so be patient for a good shot and keep shooting til they are on the ground. I have also learned that I don't like elk hunting. I much prefer hunting big mule deer bucks. Elk are tasty but every year I hear myself say "I f*n hate elk hunting"... it IS HUNTING though and I love it at the same time for that reason.

 

[S.Clancy]

First elk:
Most recent elk:


What have I learned...? I'm getting old.

 

[bz_711]

2013 small 6x6...on my 4th straight year of CO OTC archery.
I'll never forget it.
I learned there's hardly anything else I'd rather be doing.

I got that bull by trying a new spot roadside halfway up mountain that I had noticed didn't have any truck pressure that week. 40yds from the road I bugle and had a bull and cow answer...they eventually took off and I gave chase and continued to hear them going down mountain. Once I knew I'd never catch up I started doing cow call setups, wait a few minutes, then move 200yds and do again. Just as I put my arrow back in quiver I hear a branch break above me...spotted a bull coming in...re-nocked arrow. He was looking my way at about 40yds covered by pine. As he started down the mountain to my side I drew, said "35 yards" to myself and just naturally made the "meh" sound I use to stop whitetails. It worked and the arrow flew true.

I bet I checked the wind 100 times that day - my biggest take away in the early years was finally knowing how to keep the wind/scent right the best you can.

I still remember phoning the wife/kids who were swimming at grandma's because all sports were canceled due to heat that day (back in IL)...and I was trying to whisper and tell her I just got a bull...and she said "you sound like you just killed someone" Full bull fever rush had set in.

I love Sept in the Elk Mountains!

 

[Packer9037]

Grew up in MN hunting whitetails. First elk hunt was a cow elk hunt in 2019...told my wife it was a bucket list, once in a lifetime hunt. HAHA Was I mistaken! Had no experience in the mountains whatsoever, wouldn't even let the group send me in own direction cause I was nervous about bears. Opening morning we get out of the truck and the two guys I'm with are chatting about a plan and I look up and see a group of cows on the ridgeline. I tell the guys I see some elk and we hightail it up there in the direction we see the elk moving. Those half dozen elk turned into a large herd, 100+ of cows, spikes, and rags. Was able to make a clean shot at about 300 yards and she whirled and fell down. Hunting in the mountains hits different and I was hooked!

Heading back to Montana this year for year 6 (missed 2020) in the mountains and hoping for 40 more. I've learned that elk hunting is tough and everyone else should sell all their gear and quit. Kidding, kind of. But a lot about it is tough...getting a tag as a non res, getting the gear, doing the research, putting it in the miles, packing out. But everything is also super rewarding...sleeping under the stars, being the first human on the top of the mountain that morning, being blessed to harvest an animal, spending time with the best friends/family a person could ask for. Definitely worth the struggle! Good luck on the mountains!

 

[TheYukiYama]

My first elk was a cow. Killed it on a hunt with my grandma. First bull I killed was with my dad and grandpa.

My grandma is older now and hunting is more difficult for her so we don't get to hunt together much.
My grandpa passed away a few years ago.
My dad and I now live 1000 miles from each other so only hunt together a few times per year.

Thing I've learned is to appreciate the people and experience without putting focus only on tagging out.

As for the actual hunting, the most valuable skill I've learned is glassing. I remember early on struggling to find animals even with someone describing to me where they are at. I think this is only learned with time.
The other thing that I've learned is to slow down... I hate to think about all the animals I must've missed or bumped because I was trying to hurry to the next spot. I still struggle with this but get better every year.

 

[Indian Summer]

My first bull was a five point bull in Northwest Montana. My brother and I hiked 12 miles up a road that switched back to the top of the mountain. I killed the bull over the top. Took three days to pack it out. What the hell was I thinking! Since then, I haven’t killed one more than a mile or two at the most from the truck. Lesson learned. Death marches aren’t necessary to kill elk.

 

[Rogue Bay]

My first elk was a big cow I shot in 1997 in central Oregon. I was 15 years old and used my dad’s pre-64 Model 70 Winchester. A herd of about 30 elk filed across a sagebrush and juniper ridge, coming from a creek bottom. It was about a 225 yard shot. Everything was a blur but I hit her well and she didn’t go far.

When I walked up on her I was still in shock. My dad walks up and says “good shot”, then walks away lol. I had to gut her by myself. I’d gutted a couple deer and a few wild hogs at that point, but the elk was a whole new challenge. When I got done I had blood from finger tips to my arm pits, and even on my chin. I got it done though!

A lot has changed. Elk distribution has certainly changed. It’s harder to find public land elk in many places. Private refugia makes many hunts more challenging. Increased hunting pressure is another reality.

I’ve learned to slow down and be patient (patience has never been my greatest virtue…still isn’t). I spend more time glassing and not blindly covering ground, hoping to stumble into elk, like I used to.

 

[Bowhntr4life]

I have never had the opportunity to kill an Elk, but it is definitely my dream hunt. The Army moved me around for 23 years and not 1 time did they put me in a state where I could hunt Elk. Rude!! lol

 

[MallardSX2]

 

[T-Rex]

Great thread!

 

[well_known_rokslider]

First elk was on my first hunt back in 2019, Colorado. Went with a fine group of lads. Good group of lads but not exactly the most motivated. I found myself being the first out and the last one back to camp each day. After 3 days of finding next to no sign, much less any actual critters, the men were murmuring and pushing to leave early. I was not so eager to eat the $700 tag. Last hour of daylight on day 4 found me walking through the nastiest terrain I could find. The type of stuff elk seek and people avoid. Working uphill I bumped 2 bulls and managed to stop one with the world's shittiest mouth "mew". 70 yard quartering-to shot with the 212gm ELDX 300RUM (not a great short range combo) left me with a 40 yard tracking job without a drop of blood. Bull somersaulted into a mini ditch and I was over the moon!

Lessons learned: I never understood the expression "the elk are where you find them" until that hunt. And the only real variables you can control in the massive equation of success are the hours you hunt and the miles you hike.

 

[taskswap]

I wish I had taken more pictures. I took my first bull about half an hour before the end of legal light. It was a beautiful day but I knew the night would be cold and I had never field-dressed an elk myself before so I was anxious to get that sorted right away. I was alone so I couldn't have a friend take shots with me in it, and didn't want to bother trying to lean the phone on a rock or something like that. So I just took a few shots of where he fell and got right into dressing him out.

In a way it's probably good that I did. I really wanted to get all the meat I could so I spent more time on the neck and ribs than some do (not judging, but you know it's true). And I was clumsy dealing with the knee joints so I kept dulling my knife. It was probably for the best that I just dove in right away, but looking back I wish I had taken 5 minutes to try to get one or two good photos with me in it.

Pro tip: pop a couple aspirin or ibuprofen and maybe 100-200mg of caffeine right as you're finishing dressing it out, before you start your pack out. Better to have it kick in during the hard part rather than waiting for it to kick in later once you're hurting.

 

[WVELK]

I consider my first elk to be one I never even shot at, but one which taught me a lot. I was bowhunting in Wyoming with a friend in my early 20s. I lived in West Virginia, and had actually went to a State game farm to see an elk before the trip. If I was going to hunt one, it might be less shocking if the first one I ever saw was not blowing snot and bugling his head off 20 yards from me. You say “don’t worry, that never happens on your first hunt”. Stay tuned.

I do not remember all the details, but what I do remember is it came a point where the bull was positioned such that my friend needed to continue working the bull with cow calls and I needed to shut up as I was likely to be the one getting a shot. It was before every one on the planet had a television show about hunting. It was before bows shot 340 feet per second, and during a time when no “bowhunter” would even consider using a crossbow.

As is often the case in timber, the first thing I saw were polished antler tips - many of them. I had recently married and this elk was blowing and bugling like it was his wedding day. The wind was perfect and he approximately 50-60 yards away. The only animal I had ever tried to call in was a turkey, and I guess I thought he would be coy and cautions that last 30 yards or so. Wrong.

Before I ever even thought about drawing my bow back, the tip of his nose knocked my arrow off my arrow rest. I don’t think he ever knew anything other than something was not just right as he whirled, turned and ran out of my life - forever. I knew nothing at that time about cow calling to stop a bull, and had not even thought about trying. He taught me elk cover ground quickly. Never again did I fail to get a bow back and get a shot off on a hot bull. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have a bull within 10 yards and not get him.

I did kill a 300 inch bull that hunt, but he is not nearly as memorable as the one I did not take home.

 

[LFC911]

It was September 2022 in ID. I had been rifle and bow hunting elk in CO w/o success since 2017. My buddy @Fmarji and i lucked out in the December '21 OTC fiasco and got the same tag in our carts and hunted it together. I came from KS and he came from a hard bowhunt in MT, where he got his second elk. This was the first time that either one of us had been in this unit but we were into elk every day.

About half way through the hunt, we met a couple of guys from NV that got a bull down in a hell hole about 4 miles back. They got a couple of quarters out but one of them had to rush home, so we helped the other guy (Brian) pack the other half and horns out. We ended up befriending Brian after some shared suffering and he volunteered to call for us for a few days before he had to head home.

Just about every day that last week of the season, we had a bull sounding off above camp. So for three or four days, we would make a run at him but were unsuccessful. On the last morning of the hunt, we were having our coffee in camp and said, if he sounds off, we're going after him. Well he did just that. In the days prior, Brian was raking a bugling behind us but he would hang up. This time Brian was only cow calling and @Fmarji and i were about 100 yards above Brian in a V formation. The bull couldn't resist and came down right in front of me on the left side of the V and gave me a frontal shot at 20 yards. About 2/3 of the arrow buried in him and he whirled and took off.

We all regrouped and gave him a few minutes before we started tracking him. The blood trail was like you poured out a 5 gallon bucket of blood for 100 yards and there he laid. We started breaking him down about half way through him, Brian went the 1/4 mile back to camp to get our packs and my game bags. The 3 of us packed that whole elk out in one trip; Brian took two quarters, @Fmarji took a quarter and the loose meat and I took a quarter and the rack. I will never forget that hunt!

 

[Pony Soldier]

When I was 13 my dad took me along on an opening day hunt. He made a long sweep into a drainage while I worked my way up a ridge in a logging cut. It was brisk and I was skinny so after a while I saw a hollow log and crawled into it to get warm and fell asleep.

The sun came out and I crawled out to enjoy the warmth and was presented with a nice 6 pt with a 56" spread at 50 yds. I got him on the first shot and then had to wait for my dad to tell me what to do.

 

[griebel303]

My first elk came on year 4 of archery elk hunting in 2021. The evening before I had played cat and mouse with a big bull in the rain until it was dark. We were in a big meadow and I was in a grove of trees and he wouldn't come past 100 yards. I slept in a little later (6 am) the next morning due to everything being soaked still and was getting ready to hike up the mountain when I heard a bugle from camp. We quickly booked it towards the bugle, cow calling along the way, and found two bulls pushing a herd of cows up the mountain in a single file line. The first had passed my shooting lane but I saw the second one coming and mewed at him to get him to stop at 40 yards. He ended up dying a couple hundred yards from a 4 wheeling trail so the packout was a dream. Things I have learned and am still learning by failing - if you setup behind a tree/bush/deadfall for cover your shooting lanes are severly limited; bugling is not always the answer; play the thermals right and you can be 30 yards from animals and they will never know you are there.

 

[Marble]

My first elk was a cow. Colorado, about the 6 or 7th day. Camping at 10k and hunting mostly hunting above 11k. Got up to our spot to glass and I immediately found a herd of elk feeding between 450 and 600 yards. One cow was at 475, which I had a cow tag. Got all set up. This was before I had a scope I could dial with. I knew my hold over, squeezed the trigger. My hunting buddy says, "You missed." Then the animal fell and rolled down the hill and we heard the bullet hit. She was dead and then the rest of the herd started moving out into a group. Probably 50 animals, 10-15 bulls. My buddy had a bull tag and the bull we had been chasing for 6 days steps or at about 200 yards, a 350ish perfectly symmetrical 6x6. He dumps him and then the work starts.

Took half a day to get horses to them, then the rest of the day to load and get back to camp. We ended up killing 5 elk and 4 bucks in 7 or 8 days.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[hoosierhunter11]

September 2024 - my first elk hunting trip and my dads 4th trip. We got onto elk on day 7 but couldn't seal the deal. We headed right back up into the same basin and dark timber on day 8. I shot this awesome 5x6 around 7:30 in the morning right after a cup of coffee by the creek. I'll never forget it! I had my pops about 10 feet behind me as I took the 16 yard shot.

 

[buffybr]

My Dad didn't hunt so my first hunting opportunity was in my 2nd year of college. One of my college friends from Craig, CO where he had grown up deer and elk hunting.

In 1965, he invited me to go deer hunting with him to the mountains north and east of Craig where his Dad had a hunting cabin next to the National Forest. He loaned me a Winchester .32 Special and I killed a spike buck. After that hunt I proudly hung those trophy spike antlers on my bedroom wall.

The next year that friend and two others and I rented a house together, and that fall I went hunting with him again. For that hunt I had borrowed a sporterized .30-40 Krag rifle from my Uncle. It had iron sights with a front post and bead. Back then combination deer, elk, small game and fishing licences were OTC and cheap enough even for a college student.

We hunted from the same cabin as the previous year, and the first morning there was a few inches of fresh snow on the ground. My roommate and I came out of the timber on a hill that overlooked a fairly open valley, and I immediately spotted some cow elk and a 5x5 bull walking through the valley bottom. They were about to enter a small patch of trees, and I told my roommate that I was going to run down and try to get a shot when they came out the other side of the trees.

I hadn't gone 5 steps and my roommate took a shot at them, so I sat down and aimed at the bull. The elk were so far away that the bead of my front sight completely covered up the bull. That started a several hour and mile chase. Luckily, there weren't any other hunters near us. My roommate didn't follow me on that chase, and when I finally killed that bull I had fired 13 shots. Two bullets had hit his antlers, two more had just creased the hair on the top of his back, along with several more non-deadly hits in his body, and one just behind his shoulder that finished him.

I got him gutted and went back to camp. We were able to drive a truck to him and quartered him for out dirve back to college. My roommate wouldn't let me bring the antlers home in his car, so I had to wait for them when his parents came to visit him with their truck.

My elk was one of 4 that two of my roommates and one of our other friends killed that fall, that we processed and double ground all of the burger meat with a small hand grinder. We literally lived on elk meat that winter, and I eventually got my antlers back where I again proudly hung them on the wall in our house. Now, 49 years later those elk antlers, along with 20 some other sets are still hanging in the trusses of my garage.

That elk hunt got me hooked on hunting, and the next year I bought a .30-06 barreled action and a semi-inleted stock from Herter's and put together my first hunting rifle.

That elk hunt changed me into an avid big game hunter that I have been fortunate enough to have hunted 19 of the 29 species of North American big game animals, 13 international hunts, and has turned my house almost into a museum with 80 mounts of some of the animals that I have hunted.