Travis's LE Utah elk tag, The Begining

LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-10 AT 05:45PM (MST) by Founder (admin)[p][p align=right]Thread Views Counter....[/p]

I will start with the begining. It started earlier this year when Utah came out with there new 5 year elk plan. I was reading several post where there are several people on this site complaining that they want more opportunity to hunt elk in Utah. Obviously they don't understand that there is 3 to 4 times the opportunity now then there was 6 years ago. Yes if you want to wait for a Pahvant, Boulder, San Juan, early rifle tag then you will have to wait your turn, if you study the odds you know it will take a very long time to draw some of the better units, especially an early rifle tag.
I am not a rocket scientist but I was able to figure out that there is lots of opportunity out there to draw an elk tag this year. I only had 6 points for LE elk, so I knew that the San Juan, Boulder, Pahvant, mainly all the early rifle tags are out for me, if I want one then I better plan on either being extremely lucky or wait about a decade or two to draw. I looked over odds on different units from this site and found which unit and weapon I had the best chances of drawing this year. Since I only have 6 points I figured my best chances would be a late rifle tag somewhere, or an archery tag. There were several tags that gave me anywhere from 30% chance to 100% chance. Well I decided I wanted to hunt elk this year so I put in for LaSal archery elk, I knew with the odds that I would draw this tag this year. The odds said it was 100% chance. So I filled out my utah hunt application. Then the wait began, even knowing that I had 100% chance there was the chance that other people with more points would jump ship and hurt my odds.
To be Continued...............................

With application in, the wait was on. Like I said I knew I would draw the tag so I needed to get ready for it. The preperation bagan. I needed to get me a new bow, atleast I was able to sell the idea to my wife that it was time to get a new bow because mine was too old. I bought me a bow 10 years ago and attempted to hunt archery deer each year but never successful, I actually only shot one arrow at a deer and missed. Anyhow I started looking at new bows. I wanted to go with a top bow so I began looking at the Mathews and Hoyt bows. I was going to buy a used Hoyt bow from a friend but it never went through. I then waited to see what was going to be sold at the auction at our SFW banquet in Blanding because items at the San Juan banquet usually go for pretty low prices. Well I was pretty pumped when they had the Hoyt Maxxis bow up for auction. I began telling everyone before the auction started that I was going to buy it. Okay the friend that I was going to buy the used bow from, well his parents come to the banquet and I let them know that they didn't need to bid on the bow because I was going to buy it, they laughed and said they weren't going to buy a bow.
Well when the Hoyt Maxxis came up for bid I let several people start bidding on the bow. The bow was at a low price and the great auctioneer started to give me crap because I hadn't bid yet and he metioned over the mic that someone here was full of talk, because I told him before hand that I was going to buy the bow and I haven't even bid yet, so I threw in my first bid. Now the bow was at a killer deal, I mean it was at a give away price, then remember the parents of the friend I was going to buy a used hoyt bow from, well they decide to start bidding, wow talk about a stab...lol....so then the bidding war begins, I would bid, they would bid, I would bid, they would bid, it got down to my last bid, this was it if they went one more it was theirs I wasn't going to go anymore,I was just glad my wife wasn't there, she was out working while I was spending money. Anyway the bid was good enough, I still got a deal on the bow, cheaper than you could buy it at a retailer, not just by a few dollar, but probably a couple hundred dollars cheaper.
After the Banquet I went and talked to my friends parents to give them crap about bidding my killer deal up. They then explained to me that they were bidding the bow for 2 of there sons. Mom was bidding for one and Dad was bidding for the other one. Well Braiden and Reagan I got it....lol...Now since I got a bow I am still hoping I draw my LE Archery Elk tag...to be continued.............

I then kept checking Monster Muleys forums to see if anyone was getting any creditcard hits. When people started posting that they had CC hits I then checked my credit card and seen that I had the right amount taken out for an LE elk tag. I was then excited, I drew the Archery Lasal elk tag. I then became more pumped that I spent the money to get a new bow. I was stressed there for a while wondering if I should have even bought a new bow because if I didn't get the elk tag then I really didn't need a new bow. At this time I didn't have my bow yet, I couldn't decide which color of a bow to go with. If you click on the link you can see the different colors.

http://www.hoyt.com/compound_bows/hoyt_maxxis_31_compound_bow.php

I couldn't make up my mind between pink, blue, white, or orange, I figured these colors all looked good for hunting. After a long debate on the color I ended up picking the 50/50 bow, the black riser and camo limbs. I know I should have went with blue or orange.
With bow ordered and all the accessories I figured I would have plenty of time to be ready for the hunt.