every year i draw a tag, but i dont have the best luck in those draws...

god willing this year.
brad

i hunt every year i get a tag, have filled 4 out of 6 tags. 2 with bow! love those elk hunts!

mike838, I hope your dreams do come true, and you get to come west and hunt elk someday.

I think I've been elk hunting in 10 different seasons. This fall I've applied to use my 8 mule deer PP's to rifle hunt early season and will likely miss this fall. BUT ........ I'm taking my recurve and if I see lots of elk and tag early on my mule deer, I might elk hunt afterall !

Went last year, going again this year.

Jason, I hunted the Mussleshell down in the Breaks last year during the peak of the rut last year, it was Sept.25, during the full moon. I never hunted it before but it was a learning experience for me in learning new terriritory and hunting it solo. While scouting late one evening I saw a 6 pointer long this aspen hammock but it was to late for me to stalk so I backed out there and went back out before day break the next day. I had several cows come buy within 20 yds and I was using one as a live decoy as it was continuually making estrus calls and I thought she would lure a bull in. She stayed near me most of the morning. I didn't want no cow having seen the class bulls that I had seen. Walking back to my truck in the afternoon I heard a buzzing between my feet and jumped straight up and almost landed back on the prarie rattler but because of the grass being laid over it had trouble in trajectoring a strike. I played with him for a moment and then scooted him in a little gopher hole with my arrow. That evening I saw herds and herds of elk swimming the missiouri river depending on the hunting pressure. Man some nice bulls also, so close but not in the right spot at the right time. When I got back to my camp after dark and make dinner and drink a couple beers and then sack out. Herds of elk would come by my truck and bugle all night long and cloaking and they were so close I could hear the snot running and snorting. I actually had trouble sleeping as they would keep me up most of the night. During the day they wouldn't be so vocal and they would not respond to ANY calls, there was just so many cows that the bulls were very difficult to pull in. I never did get a shot off at a bull, I did have a 5 pointer broadside at 50 yrds, but that was out of my comfort zone, (wheres my 700?) but I think I got them figured out for this year. Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on. Good luck this year and looking forward to hearing some good stories from you this year, Bobby

I've accumulated 4 Pref.-Pt's. so far for elk rifle, but kinda undecided as to bow elk or save my rifle points?? I have 3 weeks where i think i might like to bow for two of those weeks and rifle hunt elk for the other week??

<if i draw an elk rifle tag>

This year will make 24 seasons hunting elk with a bow. One year I broke my right leg 3 weeks before the season I told the doc to put a good cast on as I am going huntn', got my bull on the last day of the season. Another year I fell at work 18 feet to the ground and broke 9 ribs 4 weeks before the season, still went hunting. 5 years ago I was going through chemo during the season, still went to chase those elk. I think only 1 thing will keep me from enjoying elk hunting. I figure I still got several seasons left, beside I can't die yet I'll have 10 preference points for Colorado. I have the best hunting partner one could have, my wife. She may not have the fever as much as I do, but she asked me the year I broke my ribs if I minded if she went hunting with out me.

121553 Bobby thats a cool storie and I bet you will connect this year. This is doing my heart some good, I am stuck at home right now with a hurt back.[:'(] It sucks because I can't work with my brothers and have we had to hire a college student just to take up the slack because we are so busy. Because I am at home not working I going through elkaholic withdraws. Not that anyone could tell? The only cure is to read and talk about elk and elk hunting.[8D] Your storie reminds me of my hunt in 1999. The story realy started in 1998. That year I killed a 6x6 300 class bull and was just starting to get the pieces put together on how to call in an elk. Anyway the area I was hunting in was closed for hunting any branch antlered bulls from 1991 to 1997 as a result many many bulls were allowed to grow big. I shot my 6 point bull on the second day of my hunt, after the meat was taken care of I was stupid and went out again. I left my bow in camp and went back out and kept trying to call in bulls just for fun of it. I say I was stupid beacause I was educating them as to my calls. Anyway I called 11 more six point bulls into me, in the following week. Some were bigger, much bigger than my bull in camp. So in 1999 I promised myself that I would not drop the string on any bull that was smaller than the year before. To say I was puffed up, so sure that I was going to kill a huge 6x6 that year would have been a understatement! One thing I was not aware of at the time was that several bowhunting mags had featured this unit as a top unit for Idaho in their where to go for success section. In 1998 out of the low number of bowhunters hunting the unit. It was like only around 450 hunters hunting unit, 50 or so of them killed 6x6 bulls. And if I remember right some 180 to 200 hunters killed elk. To have almost 50% success in a general season archery hunt is unheard of and is rare indeed. Little did I know how many people where going to be hunting that unit in 1999. Anyway opening day came and my brothers and their friends were with me, we had 5 days to hunt then we had to go back to work for a week but then we had a strait 2 weeks to hunt. On opening day we were into elk at the go, I passed on several raghorn bulls that day and the next day as well. On the third day my brother Jon told me he wanted to come along with me and my brother Josh would hunt with their friends. I took Jon up a drainage and we saw a least 50 elk out in the open and could hear several in the timber. I pulled out my decoy and told Jon to walk in front of me and close the distance to just under 100 yards. We did that and then I instructed Jon with hand signals to sneek ahead another 30 yards and set up behind a big log off to our right. He did that while I set up the decoy and started calling. My brother was no longer in my sight but I knewn where he was. Sure enough right off a big 5 point came running right at us. When he steped infront of where my brother should have been I stoped him with a loud cow call. He froze and I knew he was a dead elk. My brother should have been only 5 yards away. I waited and the elk started walking towards me, he came into about 15 yards and turned broadside almost tempting me. I didn't shoot and wondered why the heck my brother didn't shoot. To make a long story short a bigger bull came in around me and was comming up two me on the right. My brother was up and to my right and he could see the bull below me. He decided to seek around and try to meet the bull head on. Looking back I should have shot the bull, later that night we watched camper after truck after horsetrailer come into the valley we were camped in. It was friday night opening weekend and the hunters were comming in. We never had another shot at a bull that year. Live and learn thats what elk hunting is all about!