09-11-2021, 06:35 AM
well, here it goes with the story for my first time bow hunting in Southern Utah for Elk.
It all stated by learning the Utah DNR rules and regs. That is still not 100% clear, however once we learned the baselines its getting easier, and we learned "just Call them" super great people. So we applied for multiple tags and earned many different points which is always a good thing. We ended up with over the counter tags, which these have a low success rate. As i mentioned before in another post the week before opener we saw some incredible animals, come opener with full moon, hot weather and lots of people hunting not only Elk but deer season opener too; the animals kind of went nocturnal.
Well the next 2 weeks i went and kept trying, not seeing anything. Then the light shined down and a good friend and neighbor returned home and said "you still hunting", i replied yes. He said well i got a tag lets go. Now both of us are new to this region and both of us had little knowledge about the Elk in the area. We both asked other friend in the area and i even mad a new friend "red Creek Outfitters". All pointed us into what we needed to do, Thank you ALL! So Friday the 3rd of Sept. Randy and myself started the Adventure, we where hell bent on figuring out the elk and finding a spot. By Monday the 6th we had found some, by Wednesday we where on them. The rut slowly started and we got them bugling and getting them to talk, then we laid eyes on them. started with a monster 6x7, then a beautiful 5x5. Oh and we had 2 cows and a spike, they eluded us, "ha-ha" what we could shoot too. We didn't get many pictures as we where to busy learning and trying to figure out the strategies.
So now Thursday and Friday, we heated it up and stared in to fill our tags. Thursday gave us 2 shots at cows. the first shot was a cow bedded down in the open grass, she was saved by a little branch that deflected the arrow. The second cow well we really dont know what happened. However we know the monster 4x4 bedded next to her got a little scared, as once a again the arrow smacked some dead burnt wood and sounded like a like tree exploding, he jumped and ran, the cow walked off winded us then blew outta there. we tried to find them and gone. Now its Friday and we know where the animals are, we set our plan and plan to push hard as it is the last day. Neither one of us want "Tag Soup" so we give the old college try. We got in early and set up, we get the elk bugling and locate the directions, we started to get one bull with cows coming in, they turned. Now the light little storm with lighting and thunder kept the wind ever changing, not helping and it got humid. Well we started our stalk and 4.5 miles later up to a 10,000 foot ridge-line we side saddled for 2 miles at about 100 yards apart, not even realizing it, we where on another 5x5 with 3 cows. we both had range of 45 to 70 yards but no clear shots available. for 30 minutes we played the game and then they just vanished. We watched that bull rake some aspens and get pissed at us bugling and calling him, but the cows led him away.
so all in all we learned a ton of lessons and knowledge for the next go around. We also are grateful that we didn't go back last-night as when we went to talk with some neighbors the side by side blew a rod and that would have been all bad up on the mountain side. For now if things work out and we get the time, Utah has the extended archery tag extension, it is not for our area but north of us and we will go for it.
Until the next adventure!
#elk #elkhunting #hunting #adventure #outdoors #memories #friend #family #elkbugling #tagsoup
It all stated by learning the Utah DNR rules and regs. That is still not 100% clear, however once we learned the baselines its getting easier, and we learned "just Call them" super great people. So we applied for multiple tags and earned many different points which is always a good thing. We ended up with over the counter tags, which these have a low success rate. As i mentioned before in another post the week before opener we saw some incredible animals, come opener with full moon, hot weather and lots of people hunting not only Elk but deer season opener too; the animals kind of went nocturnal.
Well the next 2 weeks i went and kept trying, not seeing anything. Then the light shined down and a good friend and neighbor returned home and said "you still hunting", i replied yes. He said well i got a tag lets go. Now both of us are new to this region and both of us had little knowledge about the Elk in the area. We both asked other friend in the area and i even mad a new friend "red Creek Outfitters". All pointed us into what we needed to do, Thank you ALL! So Friday the 3rd of Sept. Randy and myself started the Adventure, we where hell bent on figuring out the elk and finding a spot. By Monday the 6th we had found some, by Wednesday we where on them. The rut slowly started and we got them bugling and getting them to talk, then we laid eyes on them. started with a monster 6x7, then a beautiful 5x5. Oh and we had 2 cows and a spike, they eluded us, "ha-ha" what we could shoot too. We didn't get many pictures as we where to busy learning and trying to figure out the strategies.
So now Thursday and Friday, we heated it up and stared in to fill our tags. Thursday gave us 2 shots at cows. the first shot was a cow bedded down in the open grass, she was saved by a little branch that deflected the arrow. The second cow well we really dont know what happened. However we know the monster 4x4 bedded next to her got a little scared, as once a again the arrow smacked some dead burnt wood and sounded like a like tree exploding, he jumped and ran, the cow walked off winded us then blew outta there. we tried to find them and gone. Now its Friday and we know where the animals are, we set our plan and plan to push hard as it is the last day. Neither one of us want "Tag Soup" so we give the old college try. We got in early and set up, we get the elk bugling and locate the directions, we started to get one bull with cows coming in, they turned. Now the light little storm with lighting and thunder kept the wind ever changing, not helping and it got humid. Well we started our stalk and 4.5 miles later up to a 10,000 foot ridge-line we side saddled for 2 miles at about 100 yards apart, not even realizing it, we where on another 5x5 with 3 cows. we both had range of 45 to 70 yards but no clear shots available. for 30 minutes we played the game and then they just vanished. We watched that bull rake some aspens and get pissed at us bugling and calling him, but the cows led him away.
so all in all we learned a ton of lessons and knowledge for the next go around. We also are grateful that we didn't go back last-night as when we went to talk with some neighbors the side by side blew a rod and that would have been all bad up on the mountain side. For now if things work out and we get the time, Utah has the extended archery tag extension, it is not for our area but north of us and we will go for it.
Until the next adventure!
#elk #elkhunting #hunting #adventure #outdoors #memories #friend #family #elkbugling #tagsoup
Let God lead the way!
Give a man a fish he eats for one day, teach him to fish he eats forever!
Give a man a fish he eats for one day, teach him to fish he eats forever!
