Hello from Washington!

Swiftus

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Joined
Oct 8, 2018
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Where do I start? I am a brand new hunter and will be trying this season for my first elk. I'll have some experienced minds in the crew, but this will all be new to me. One of of the fellows in an archery guy and gets an elk most seasons that way. That seems like a whole larger bags of worms which I am not ready for. I'm not planning on coming home with an elk, but I am going to work as hard as necessary to improve my chances.

I grew up in the city on the east coast from a family who hasn't gone hunting in a couple of generations. We still have family who run a dairy farm, and family who are park rangers etc, but no one continued to hunt. Moving out west put me in contact with a number of folks who were still active hunters and got me started on this path. Understanding where my food comes from and being responsible for its harvest are large motivators for me. Plus, almost nothing tastes better than an elk tenderloin. I picked up a 10/22 a couple of years ago to get some shot fundamentals in place and I finally think I am ready for a public lands shot. Lots of jumping jacks before sitting, two breaths, press trigger.

I was bequeathed my great-grandfather's hunting rifle which hasn't been used in 90 years and I couldn't afford to bang around in the woods with me now. So, for my first hunting rifle I purchased a Howa Kuiu. I view it as the 'poor man's alpine rifle'. Its not quite as light, but with a 2-7 Leupold mounted it weighs well under 3.5kgs.

About a year ago I had the pleasure of meeting Randy in the Bozeman airport and had a genuinely good conversation with him. I'm not sure he could see how nervous I was starting up a conversation with him, but he handled it well :p. It was odd spending so many hours watching Elk Talk and then have that guy sitting in front of you. In any case, Randy was a genuinely nice guy and I didn't have a reason to be nervous talking with him. I should have asked for an autograph...
 
There's tons of options here in WA, good luck, and feel free to ask questions if you have any about our regs. They're about as confusing as possible.
 
There's tons of options here in WA, good luck, and feel free to ask questions if you have any about our regs. They're about as confusing as possible.

Thanks! I went through a hunter education course and they said the same thing. I don't think I'll ever have a handle on them, but I do have a few hundred page .pdf which I browse nightly.
 

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