All right, so I live in a community that has just pushed a new handle on us - "Elk Hunting Capitol of the World" - they even have T-shirts so it has to be true. The following may sound a bit bitter and negative, but bear with me.

So, elk hunting started out good, we had a 4-point bull race through our camp the day before the season started........well, all I saw was spikes and cows, and me with a bull tag requiring 4-point or larger. We got about 4 inches of snow at around 9,000 ft, many folks headed down the mountain, things were looking up....well, I won't drag it on, I got skunked, and to make matters worse, once we had broke camp and I was driving down the mountain around 9 pm, a 6 point bull walked right in front of me easy as could be, if he would have had a third hoof, I am sure he would have saluted me with the middle one. All was not lost on this, there were some beautiful days and they were very serene. When I got home, my boots were in shreds - 3 seasons was all I got out of them.

Okay, moving on to deer season the following week - again, the weather was miserable, high winds that turned into a really wet and nasty snowfall, we even had to turn around the following morning due to the weather and pushed it off for a couple hours to let it clear up. Man, we saw a ton of does and itty bitty bucks, horns didn't even breach the ears. This went on for several days, oh, did I mention that we saw a ton of elk, big bulls too, oh yeah, my tag had expired for them. So on to this past weekend, things began to look up, began seeing more bucks, healthier and more mature. I was really holding out for a pretty mature buck, as luck would have it, a 4 pointer would be my prize.

I had really been focused on the elk hunt, so I did not prepare my 6mm arsenal very well so I ended up having to buy the only box of shells I could find, some Federal 100's as I did not have nay bullets either loaded or on the shelf for loading - I put the buck in my sights, perfect broadside, just as I pulled the trigger he moved slightly allowing me to catch him just behind the ribs and forcing a lung shot. No excuses, I was behind the trigger, my shot totally - was expecting a better punch at least, but they did not produce - again, I was the operator, can't blame the machine or projectiles here, they were only doing what they were told. Well, I had just explained to my son the importance of a "1shot - 1 Kill" scenario, so with my bullet down range and an injured buck on the move this life lesson was pretty much in the wind, we began to track through the brush and woods a blood trail. This old boy decided to take us on a hike - we finally found him and dispatched him with a 2nd shot - he lay beautifully in the bottom of a ravine about a 1/2 mile from the nearest road and about a 1 to 1 slope. Okay, now for the sleeves up, knives out portion. It was dark by now and I put on my headlamp, I really should have checked the batteries as it died out within 2 minutes, I will say that I still have all my fingers and when I got it back home it wasn't too bad of a gut job. Give me a week or so and I may find some humor in all of this, we will see.

I am not bitter, more so, I am kind of disappointed in myself. I don't mind getting skunked on the elk, this happens and it is hunting. I am however unsettled in the fact that so many of the mistakes I made were simple oversights on items that should be 2nd nature. The morale of my story is that, checklists are important and it is easy to become complacent about these things. Next year I will be more prepared or I won't go. I hope you all had better luck than I did and I hope that my mishaps will be a good reminder for others. Not looking for sympathy, infact a good swift kick may be in order!

What don't kill us makes us stronger . It happens to all of us( it was just your turn) Hang in there Buddy
Joe

I'd still go hunting on a trip like that. If everything went perfect, what would be the fun??

in for a penny, in for a pound

Gidday Wiley....don't get too down in the mouth mate....at least you were out there having a go. As Joe says:

shrpshtrjoe wrote:

What don't kill us makes us stronger . It happens to all of us( it was just your turn) Hang in there Buddy Joe

If it makes you feel any better, have a look at this thread mate.

I'm a Total Klutz...a Moron

Now that should make you feel better.

However mate, remember the five " P "s they used to teach us in the services:

Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

I start preparing for my next rip the day after I get home.

Cheers, Vince

I had a season like that many years ago Wiley.
Normally, the years dull the bad things about something, and the good comes out.
All of my memories remaining on this one season still say that it sucked!!

It was a year where on opening day, the temps were well below zero.
Throughout my two weeks of deer hunting, I would sit on a stand at 25below zero weather for hours at a time. There was about 4" of snow on the ground during this period. Not less than four times that year, I would stand up and take a short walk to get the blood flowing again, and then find fresh tracks in front of my stand.
I finally got tired of seeing nothing off of my main stand and took another one about 300yds down the line
Within a couple of hours I heard a shot from the direction of you know where.
Later, checking tracks in the snow, I could see that someone walked up on a buck and shot him 20' in front of my main stand.
It gets better.
On the last hour of the last day of season, a doe steps in front of me, {the first deer that I have seen all year,} and you guessed it, I missed the darn thing a 30yds.

I have shot tons of deer sense that fateful season, but that year still sticks in my craw.

You know, I stared this reply to you to make you feel better, but after writing this, I realize that the only thing that I can tell you is that this year that you had will most likely piss you off for the rest of your life.

Sorry that I couldn't cheer you up like I intended Wiley.

Eric

Well, we've got an early moose season up north Wiley and I managed to screw up the dates at the beginning and end of it so I wound up with exactly one day hunting. Saw some nice fresh tracks in a couple of areas that I'm going back to in second season, but that's all. Tracks don't make good soup

Fortunately, I have a second moose season and deer season coming up in the next few weeks, hopefully I'll have learned to read a friggin' calendar by then.

Appreciate it guys, yeah, we have had a pretty good laugh about it all. Seems like that was the theme this year, a few of my buddys had similar luck out there. The best part is we will have a whole year to try and out think ourselves.

Ely - your golden, I usually keep a pretty good attitude and can only blame the fool in the mirror - I still bagged out, might not have been as I planned, but sometimes even a poor plan sees the light of day now and then.

good luck to all!

Last Christmas was my first experience hunting (down in southern Colorado)...plenty of Elk tracks, but always a day or two old. On top of that 2/4 hunting days were a no go due to the multiple feet of snow we got down there. No elk that year, but still a good time. Fast forward to the end of Sep this year...3 days of hunting and not a single elk. According to the forest service guy we ran into while hunting, someone had pulled a nice bull out 5 days prior in the exact area we were heading to...too bad all we found was 5 day old tracks (of course!). I then heard from my father-in-law that 3 weeks ago or so another guy shot a huge bull out where we were.

I might be driving back out there this next weekend for some more hunting...this time deer/elk, whichever might happen. It's pretty frustrating having been shut down completely on my first 2 hunting experiences, but I'm hoping for the best next weekend and then over this Christmas if we need to. I have had a great time out there and definitely would not trade the experiences for anything, but man I hope this trip back home turns out better than the first two! Oh well, my luck has got to change sometime, right? Good luck to everyone else out there...hopefully you all don't run into this snag like I have.