Some mistake of hunter.

marcel9

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As hunters confess blunders less eagerly than they recount kills, it's hard to know how many elk would fall if hunters made no mistakes. Perhaps the elk keep track.
Elk Lessons
1. Mistake: Chief among failings, according to outfitters, is a hunter?s sorry state of physical readiness. Elk country isn't all steep, high, rocky, and strewn with jackstraw timber, but that's often where hunted elk go. Saying ?I'm just a little slow? doesn't negate the fact that elk are not slow. They live in big places and cover distance very quickly.

Lesson: At a minimum, walk or jog for several weeks prior to your hunt to get your legs and lungs in the best shape possible.
2. Mistake: Many riflemen shoot poorly without a bench. Over the years, I've muffed several shots that seemed at the time to be too easy to miss. As a guide, I've seen clients drill golf ball?size groups from a rest only to miss beach ball?size vitals with hasty pokes at elk.

Lesson: Practice regularly with a paper bulls-eye from sitting, kneeling, and off-hand positions. A .22 makes practice affordable and more comfortable. Determine a ?90 percent kill? sight picture, and fire only when you have acquired it.

3. Mistake: Long-range rifles often handicap hunters. Once, before I could stop him, a client crippled a far-off elk when we could have gotten closer. Another fellow who?d zeroed his rifle at 400 yards overshot a bull at 200. Heavy rifles also slow your step, tire you in the hills, and keep you from wanting to venture into the best elk cover.

Lesson: Limit your rifle weight to 9 pounds. Zero at 200 yards; hold center to 250. But most importantly, always get as close as you can.

4. Mistake: While I'm fond of iron sights, scopes are faster, with elk and reticle appearing in the same plane. But you lose target-acquisition speed, brightness, and field of view when you crank up the magnification. I've killed elk at 300 yards with 3X magnification. High power once cost a client an easy shot when he couldn't find two bulls in his scope as they trotted by at 60 paces.

Lesson: Keep your scope at 3X or 4X. You?ll have time to dial up for long shots.
5. Mistake: Often on elk hunts, a good option can scuttle a better, easier one. Topping a ridge long ago, I glassed across a draw at meadows and second-growth that screamed elk. A few minutes later, as I glassed the slope, a twig snapped close by. The bull that had stood there surely wondered why I didn't fire before it bolted.

Lesson: Look near before you look far.

6. Mistake: Elk hears well but dismisses some noises. Once, I sneaked into an aspen copse on an elk trail, pacing my steps as an elk might, and I passed a bedded cow at 4 yards to kill a bull. Padding along other tracks, I've surprised bulls that were bedded just feet away. Some were so astonished that they stood for a shot. But hunters who talk loudly or let their gear clack and rattle as they walk send elk packing.

Lesson: Move like an elk where elk move. If you must communicate, whisper.

7. Mistake: The wilderness pack trip has come to define ?pure? elk hunting. But odds at a shot can improve on forest fringe near agriculture, where elk densities run higher, especially in late seasons. Success in Idaho?s Frank Church, Montana?s Bob Marshall, and Oregon?s Eagle Cap wildernesses hovers below 15 percent. While I've killed elk in all of them, they yield elk reluctantly.

Lesson: Places of legend typically offer better scenery than shot opportunities.
8. Mistake: Dreams of outsize bulls fuel elk fever. But assuming you can always kill a lesser elk later in the hunt if a big one doesn't show early on is perilous thinking. One client passed up several fine bulls looking for a brute we knew was in the area. I admired his discipline, but he went home without firing a shot.

Lesson: Have a realistic plan. As an outfitter pal advises his clients, ?Shoot the elk you'd take the last day as soon as you see it.?
9. Mistake: Crusted snow and bare ground can make for noisy tracking and spooked elk. But as I hunted through crust one day, I caught up with a bull, thanks to wind, topography, and knowing when to leave the track. I moved wide around the herd through cover, and my chance came as I paused at the cover?s edge. Across a meadow, the bull had stopped to check his backtrail.

Lesson: Tracking can produce but always assume that the elk are stopping frequently and looking back.

10. Mistake: While taking a friend on a hunt, we passed a thicket in the dark and heard elk. He wanted to stop, but I urged him on. We ignored the animals and kept climbing. At dawn, in some Douglas fir, the flick of an ear caught my eye. The bull fell to his .300.

Lesson: Hiking past elk early puts you where elk don't expect hunters to be. Don?t stop in the dark to listen for elk. They?ll spook. Hike purposefully; the elk will let you by, and you'll shoot one later.

11. Mistake: Many years ago, when bugling to attract bulls was still a novelty, a pal insisted on shadowing a herd bound for shade at dawn. The bull thought him a pest and left. That afternoon I probed the timber silently toward a sometimes-vocal elk. At last, I glimpsed him long enough for a shot.
Lesson: Rutting elk sometimes responds to a bugle by moving away. Still-hunt toward a noisy bull, and be aware that he might lie beyond alert cows. Heart Heart Heart

All information is Collections.
 
Turn Your Scope down to 3X or 4X?

That'll be impossible for most of them!












I know so many people in so many places
They make allot of money but they got sad faces

It Ain't Easy being Me!:D:D:D
 
I would agree with most of what you say except for the one about shooting something the first day that you would shoot on the last day. Sometimes it's better to go home empty handed. One of the worse things I ever did was kill a bull on opening morning because my hunt was over too quick. As I have gotten older, I look forward to hunting elk more than I do killing elk. I'd rather kill on my last full day of hunting or go home with my tag in my pocket than to kill early on in a hunt. I'm trying to squeeze as much hunting experience as I can out of each hunt.

Of course everybody is motivated by different things.
 
Wonderful advice. Thanks for preparing this list.

I especially appreciate No. 6.

Mark
muledeer.jpg


My hunting spot is so secret, not even the elk have found it yet.
 
>Turn Your Scope down to 3X
>or 4X?
>
>That'll be impossible for most of
>them!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>I know so many people in
>so many places
>They make allot of money but
>they got sad faces
>
>It Ain't Easy being Me!:D:D:D

I've never really understood that theory? The only folks I've known who need to do so are new hunters / those that don't know how to use a scope to acquire their target.
 
>>Turn Your Scope down to 3X
>>or 4X?
>>
>>That'll be impossible for most of
>>them!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>I know so many people in
>>so many places
>>They make allot of money but
>>they got sad faces
>>
>>It Ain't Easy being Me!:D:D:D
>
>I've never really understood that theory?
> The only folks I've
>known who need to do
>so are new hunters /
>those that don't know how
>to use a scope to
>acquire their target.


Well!

What I'm Saying is:

Most of them These Days Have gotta have the Biggest of the Baddest of everything including Scopes!

Most of them can't Turn their Power Down any Lower than 6.5X!

But they can Turn it up to 20X or 25X!:D










I know so many people in so many places
They make allot of money but they got sad faces

It Ain't Easy being Me!:D:D:D
 
Love this list! Thank you for sharing your insight.

I can relate to Mistake 5, as I totally missed an elk by glassing in the distance when there was a bull looking at me at less than 100 yards away. I definitely remember now to ?look near before I look far!?

Thanks again for sharing!
 
I would add to this list playing the wind is more important than noise.

Last year as I chased after a bugling bull in the timber, I bumped nearly all of his cows along the way. But since the wind was in my favor not a single one barked. They simply moved on as I trotted forward through the trees to inevitably shoot the bugling bull.

www.utahscoutingservices.com
 

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