Tell us about your elk failures

[belshawelk]

in 10,000 words or less? not sure i can

 

[Z Barebow]

I would need my own website to catalog my elk failures. I don't think Randy has that many terabytes of storage.

 

[teej89]

2007- I’m driving down a Forest service road mid-day, after hunting whitetail that morning. Come around a corner and there’s a herd of elk on the hill, with one spike in it. This is a fresh burn, and I bail out and get set up in an opening where the elk are going to pass through. Cow, cow, cow, spike, try to pull the trigger and the safety is on.

2008- I hiked 3 miles in before light to watch a large canyon for the morning. At first light, I rattled in a couple young whitetail bucks. Shortly after rattling in the bucks, I noticed two bull elk feeding up into my canyon from lower down the drainage. A 5x5, and a 6x6. They’re feeding very slowly up the ridge, but right into the canyon I’m sitting. After waiting for what seemed like an hour, they finally clear some burned timber and I have a clear shot at 220 yards. I shoot 6” above the 6x6’s back and watch the bulls run out of my life forever.

2010- I’m archery hunting in the breaks. First morning of the hunt I follow a young 6x6 across a couple canyons, and he leads me to a very, very large 6x6 with a dozen cows. I sneak within maybe 60-80 yards of the herd in a timbered draw with the sun at my back, and let out a bugle. The large bull gathers his cows and comes ripping in to my draw. He stops across the draw and lets out a monster of a bugle right in my face. I send my arrow straight over his back. He rips another bugle, I send my second arrow into the very, very top of his hide above his backstraps. I see him three days later chasing cows, with my arrow still in him, looking like it was balanced on his back.

2011- I’m archery hunting deer in September in the river bottoms just West of Missoula. I’m in a ground blind in a thick cottonwood/willow stand when I see a cow sneaking through the willows. I pull out my camera to tape her walk by, when I notice a 340-350” 7x7 on her tail. I drop my camera and get my bow up in time to watch him walk out of the lane at 30 yards.

2012- I’m in a cottonwood treestand hunting whitetail in a SW Montana river bottom on the opener of rifle season. We knew there were elk in the area, and late morning a herd got pushed through. They’re real close, and there’s a bull in the rear. I rotate in stand to reposition myself, which causes my wallet to fall out of my pocket, stopping the lead cow in her tracks. The herd bails, and I graze the bull with a rushed shot as they’re exiting, and never see him again.

2014- I have a breaks elk tag I waited a very long time for. Opening day of rifle season I hike 4 miles back in to the same canyon I missed the giant bull in 2010. There’s a young 6x6 feeding on a ridge, and I watch him until he beds. I sneak into 50 yards of the bull, dry fire on him, and walk away. He was the only bull I had in range in 14 days of hunting that rifle season.

2016- I drew a very good elk tag in Wyoming. This elk tag also happens to be during the mule deer rut in a pretty good unit. I’m driving down a two track when I see an impressive buck chase a doe into a draw. I grab my camera and sneak over to the edge of the draw, maybe 20-30 yards from the truck. When I peak over, I see the buck with the doe, and I also see 3 mature bulls, the biggest being a 340” 6x6. I’m sky-lined, and they take off. After retrieving my rifle, I spend the rest of the day trying to catch back up to them.

These are just the obvious ones, there’s countless other less significant encounters.

I no longer hunt elk.

wow, I shall never complain again.

Sounds like you need to go deer hunting with elk gear a helluva lot more hahaha

 

[Irrelevant]

wow, I shall never complain again.

Sounds like you need to go deer hunting with elk gear a helluva lot more hahaha

I was kinda thinking someone with an elk tag needs to follow @Randy11 around while he's deer hunting!

 

[hossblur]

Mine is easy. My 12 year old. That little turd followed me everywhere for 7 years before he could hunt, at 12.

So of course we discussed the rules.


He got first shot. Don't stop shooting until it's down.

Well "failure" on my side. After 1000's of .22, 1000's of .17, and a few dozen 7mm-08, seems the little shit actually could shoot.

And now, until I can stop failing, that bull on the wall in his bedroom, is the biggest in the house

Anyone know how rough it gets listening to a now 14yr old remind me "who the real hunter is"?

 

[kwyeewyk]

One year...and its been a long time ago.

Well I wish I could say that my only elk failure was not punching a tag one out of 40 seasons! Like most here I have more than I can list, no major bonehead type mistakes, just lots and lots of little ones. Have never thought about quitting though, as frustrated as I've been at times, chasing cows and spikes for days and not killing anything, just love being out there with the elk.

 

[bailey68]

Bow hunting in light rain a big bull just appears, as he got up in his bed about 25 y rd away. Draw back and unable to see through my peep, I'm all confused looking at the peep trying to aim. Bull games off, I still didn't figure out my peep had water in it over the opening for another second or so. Week one with a 380_20 tag that peep got changed to one with a larger diameter

 

[streamer]

Got a tear in my shoulder a month in a half before my bow hunt in CO and had to teach myself to shoot left handed with my right hand bow. It can be done. Turn your quiver upside down and straight up. And missed a 4x4 at 40 yards right under his belly. It would have been cool to have a pic with that bull and my bow looking a bit goofy

 

[Muley_Stalker]

I consider not having fun on an elk hunt as a failure. Not whether you shoot or don't shoot an elk.

 

[Muley_Stalker]

Interesting situation. Who was the legal shooter and what tag was used or do both have to use it? I never heard of that happening before. I'm thinking either one could use their tag and the other is free to keep hunting.

 

[memtb]

Everyone talks about the times that they did well and killed something wonderful, or at least put some meat in the freezer. Nobody ever tells the stories about the times that they screwed it up or things were just stacked against them.

I don't have any elk stories yet. YET!

Lets hear your tales of woe.

Mark, We’ve suffered more than a few disappointments, the majority were self-imposed. The most notable being, for the previous 3 hunting seasons, passing on multiple easy kills on small bulls or cows, only to go home empty handed a couple of weeks later. This year, we decided to take the first legal elk available. Due to unexpected family issues, we hunted very, very little! We had one opportunity, 1 hour of shooting light left, and 860 yards away. We attempted to close the distance to a more comfortable 500 or less yards.....and we “muffed” the stalk! We’ll be “poaching” beef again this next year! memtb

 

[memtb]

Mark, Perhaps my biggest disappointment and perhaps my biggest elk, happened my during first elk hunting season.....1986.

Myself and a friend had just a little over a year prior, relocated to Wyoming for work. We were Louisiana boys, and were clueless about elk hunting. We were hunting the Wyoming Range, and about 5 or 6 days into our hunting season. We “cut” a set of fresh tracks in fresh snow, and as they were fresh, and we hadn’t even seen an elk....we started following the tracks. The tracks appeared small, to my expert observation, but at least it was fresh elk tracks!

The tracks soon left the open face of the ridge and led us into the timber. We came upon some “droppings”, I poked them with a stick.....they were still warm. I told my buddy, “ we’re close, I don’t know how close...but close”! He was in the lead, and I several steps behind. We had only gone about 20 feet, from the “droppings”, when it happened. About 20 yards ahead and slightly to our right a bull elk burst from his bed. He was running left to right, breaking limbs and making a lot of noise. I yelled......”it’s a bull, it’s a bull”, seeing his antler tips reaching along his hind quarters, nearly to his rump. I very quickly shouldered my rifle on what should’ve been an easy shot, but realized that my muzzle was just a couple of feet from my friends right ear. I quickly pulled ahead of the running elk, putting distance between my friend’s ear and my muzzle, waiting for the elk to enter my scope......he never got there! My friend had never even seen, only hearing the elk, as there was a very large conifer between my buddy and the elk. Apparently, the elk waited until my friend, while following the tracks, placed the big tree between them. But, I could see the elk begin his run. What I couldn’t understand, was where in the heck did the elk go! When we walked to where the elk was bedded, it was obvious what happed to “my” bull. There, just feet from where he was bedded, was the beginning of a ravine, that I couldn’t see from where I was standing. The bull merely, ran down into the ravine, below my line of sight, never crossing through my scope.

I’ve taken quite a few elk since then, 3 of which were 6x6’s, but that was my first bull sighting, my largest bull sighting.....and he got away!

I still question, should I have taken the shot.....after all, my buddy had two ears! memtb

 

[Elkdog]

Every year I draw a cow tag! All I can ever find is bulls. And in Nevada that’s a problem since I’m in the sit-in-the-corner-in-time-out kids crowd since I got a bull 3 years ago and can’t even apply again for 4 Years. 4 cow tags in 5 years and all I see is bulls bulls and more bulls....lol

 

[jtm307]

This past weekend I left elk to find elk. I let the Wyoming wind get into my head. I deserve to eat tag soup, but hopefully the elk gods will have mercy on me this weekend.

 

[gregt9146]

2015 Montana breaks cow tag (first elk tag i've ever had) glassing from i ridge top we had a herd of cows move in from the east about 1000 yards away. I was able to sneak off my ridge to close the gap without being seen. and i got below the ridge line that they were behind i made my way up to where they were bedding down. As i was going i didn't have ideal wind it was kinda blowing cross ways and i knew if I went to far that i would get winded. When i got up to the top of the ridge they were all looking in my direction and i wasn't sure if they winded me or heard me or what but i felt a bit rushed. I pulled out the range finder and ranged them at 327 yards, I got the rifle and found them in my scope and thought i made the right adjustments and pulled the trigger and missed. About 70 elk went running and they scattered fast.

2 days later we found the herd again in just about the same spot only down in the ravine more. We went to make a stalk and ended getting on the wrong ridge and ended up about 1/2 mile east of them. When we realized that we worked our way back to them dropping down into ravines and climbing back up the other side. We did that a couple of time and never found them so we decided to work our way back to where we saw them. When we got there i looked through my bino's and sure thing they were right where we left them. I made a different game plan and went right at them. I dropped of the ridge into the ravine they were in and made my way towards them. I had perfect wind and i thought to myself this is going to be a slam dunk. Boy was i wrong, i got to where i though they were and nothing there, so i kept going and still saw nothing. I was scratching my head trying to figure out where they had all gone and then i looked to my right and there was 1 cow standing there. so i got set up , put the bipod down took aim and all i could see was grass, I went to extend the bipod and then she saw me, so i hurried up and got it extended and took the shot and swore that i smoked her, but she took off around the corner like nothing was wrong, i went to the spot she was standing looking for blood, and a blood trail and nothing. As i was looking for blood the whole herd run up on the next ridge looking back at me 200 yards away, and i didn't dare shoot again as i thought for sure that i had a dead elk laying somewhere. We search and search and never found a thing.

2017 Montana breaks. 3 of us drew cow tags. We went to the same area as in 2015 and sat on the same hill side and started to here mows off to our west. We have never heard cow elk up to this point so we really wasn't sure what it was but it kept getting louder and we just sat there glassing. After about 1/2 hour of glassing and sitting on this hillside the mows were just about on top of us and off the ridge to our west a pile of elk came running into the ravine were were sitting on, i don't know how many for sure came running in but i would bet 2-3 hundred came off that ridge. After they filtered into the trees below us i told the guys we need to get down to this smaller clay hill top right where those elk ran by cause there could be more. They said we needed to be patient and wait to see what all these elk were going to do. Well about 10 minutes later another group came off that ridge to our west and ran right by the spot i wanted to get to. Boy you could say i was a bit upset. As that herd filtered into the trees below, the first group started to filter out towards the east. So again i said we need to get moving. We made a play and jumped down and started after them. To keep the wind good we had to go west and come up from behind them. Everytime we thought we were in range they moved east. it was like they knew we were there, we would move 100 yards and they would move 200 yards farther. We never did catch up to them, what a shame all those elk and not 1 shot fired.

We pretty much hunted that giant herd all week long and finally on the 2nd to the last day we finally got a chance and shot 1 cow and there is a long story behind that also.

2018 Wyoming general tag never hunted mountain before so it was a whole new game. To make a long story short never swa an elk in 10 days of hunting just alot of trees and Grizzly track.

2019. Montana general tag, Only had one chance at some bulls. I spotted them on a hillside about 1 mile west of us and a couple hundred feet above us, so we grabbed our gear and first thing was get the wind right and gain the elevation, so we did that and were making our way towards the bulls and probably got about half way to them and a couple of other hunters crested the ridge from the back side with the wind at their backs, game over 8 bulls ran off the mountain side and into some dark timber never to be seen again. The other hunters never even saw them or new they were there.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I never really have found elk to be hard to find, hunt, and get killed, I can only recall a few times when they gave me the slip.

I wish I could say that. ..so many terrible memories of such close calls and mess-ups on great big huge bull elk getting away from me. As in several dozen times..

 

[Tiredofthebickering]

I wish I could say that. ..so many terrible memories of such close calls and mess-ups on great big huge bull elk getting away from me. As in several dozen times..

This, along with the pictures of bulls you kill, is what keeps me going

 

[hogcarpy]

This past season I missed a perfect opportunity at a nice 6x6 on a Montana general tag. It was the last Monday in September when the big winter storm started to blow into MT. I hiked up to a saddle when elk like to cross or at least a guy can see them from a distance as they work their way up the mountain. The cold, dampness and heavy fog forced me off the mountain way before I should have left. Honestly, I was cold but would have been fine for a couple more hours. I lost the mental game.

Anyways, I headed down the mountain through very open country. The heavy fog concealed my movement well, as I walked to within 500 yards of a herd with a nice bull. I was out in the open and crawled through the snow to the only cedar tree in the area. As they worked toward my right, the northeast, I buried myself in the tree preparing for a shot. This move was positive because it provide better concealment, however, I had to take my eyes off the herd.

30 minutes goes by and I still haven’t seen the herd. I assumed they crossed down through a fold in the topography. I stood up, couldn’t see any elk. Disappointed that I got very close and left my great vantage point up top decided to leave. I strapped my bow to the pack, which was sort of on the opposite side of the cedar, and my pack to my back. In the final motion of buckling my waist belt, I hear a noise. I look up and the 6x6 is staring right at me at 65 yards. The elk took a 270 degree turn after I tucked into the tree.

Impatience and taking my eyes off the elk cost me a great opportunity at what would have been my best bull. Rookie move, I know better as I’ve had this happen to me turkey hunting.

Thankfully, I did manage to get a nice cow 2 days later.

 

[7Bartman]

First year elk hunting, I missed three bulls. First was a herd bull that we worked on for 2 days. Finally called him in and he came behind a bush. I had no shot and he saw my buddy and spooked I stopped him at 60+ and shot just under him. He was a giant bull. Two days later had another herd bull and satellite come in chasing a cow in heat. The big 6X6 stopped broadside at 15 yards. I was imagining what pose I would get for the shoulder mount when my arrow hit a pine sapling at 10 yds and exploded. I quickly knocked another arrow and missed the satellite at 60. Those failures lit a fire under me and made it that much sweeter when I connected on another herd bull the following year.

 

[wheels]

ate a 14pt late post rut bull tag put 10 days into it saw 15 bulls no real solid chances on the move after set up time on the flip side outside of a bull on the ground wouldnt change a rhing learned a lot. after that put in time chasing cows had even less of a chance then with the bulls