Western Elk Part 8: Planning for Future Elk Hunts
You have a year under your belt. Maybe you filled your tag, maybe you didn’t. Either way, you now have critical experience. Here are some of our thoughts on how to build on what you've learned for the future.
This is the final part of the conversation between James and Joe from The Fair Chase Podcast, focusing on reflecting on elk hunting experiences and planning for future hunts.
Catch the full discussion here!
James: After someone's first elk hunting season, what should they reflect on?
Joe: "Regardless of the season that you took, if it's over-the-counter, limited entry, a turn back tag on a second list, now you actually have boots on the ground experience elk hunting, which is more valuable than anything that you or I can say on a microphone. That's what you need and that's something that you need to compound on year after year. Start planning on things that you want to do differently, whether that's like a tactic that you tried that didn't work out or an area that you tried that was overcrowded."
James: What advice do you have for someone's first elk hunt?
Joe: "If you have the ability to shoot a cow on your tag and it's your first time, kill it. Half the experience is learning how to cut one up and manage that meat, pack it out. That is a euphoric experience having any elk on your back. My first elk was a cow and didn't matter if it was a cow or a 380 bull at that moment because it was just so awesome that I went out and did what I tried to do."
James: How should hunters approach planning for future elk hunts?
Joe: "Start thinking about goals that you have for what you want to be different, what you want to grow on. So that can be points, that can be getting a new skill set, that could be changing some gear out. That could mean a lot of different things. Points is a big thing - either go to like a WTA and get the tags program with them, have some help with that. That's probably the most efficient way to do it."
James: How do you view success in elk hunting?
Joe: "I kind of view it like stepping stones. The first stepping stone that people specifically from our area, from areas that aren't mountainous, that don't have elk or that don't have a huntable population of elk, that first stepping stone of success is just deciding to go. And that's the biggest hang-up for people. And then once they do it, and there's this stigma around elk that it's like this impossible to obtain species, it just flat isn't. They aren't that hard. They're physically demanding, they take planning, but they just flat aren't that hard."
James: What's your perspective on elk hunting statistics?
Joe: "They talk about 10% of elk hunters are successful. I think that's a load of crap. There's 10% of elk hunters that never leave the parking lot, or they go hunt for half a day then they drink Coors Light back at camp. All these percentages mean nothing. So if that's true, then 10% of the elk hunters are killing 90% of the elk, I think is also probably true. So do the things that make you the other side of that 10%."
James: How do you stay motivated during a multi-day hunt?
Joe: "You have to know yourself a little bit at that point. If you need a burger day, go have burger day. If you need a reset, it's the guys that, and I've talked to far too many of them, not just elk hunting but Alaska too, where I'll get a text message from them and I know they shouldn't have service and they've came down and they've quit on day four of 10. If there's something you can do to keep yourself from doing that, and if that's taking a little breather and running into town and grabbing a burger and a beer, kind of resetting, drying your clothes, I don't know, do it, but get back to it."
James: Any final advice for someone looking to get into elk hunting?
Joe: "Throw caution to the wind and just do it. Just that's - every - I don't know how many countless people have come over to learn how to bugle or have asked 'Can you look at a map with me and try to figure this out?' They've all gone and experienced it and I don't know, I can't think of one of them that has not gone the next year.
They might not have killed, they might have been like 'Terrible trip, we got rained on the whole time, we had hunters all around us, we saw two elk,' but 'We're going again next year 'cause we figured this part of it out.'"
Thanks for reading this elk hunting series!