what hooked you on elk?

[JJ Overkill]

is there one moment that you can pin point and say thats where i got hooked? heres mine.

pauls post on when to shut down calling jogged my memorie from my fisrt elk hunt. i was sitting at a wallow in the early morning where i had seen a herd pass through the morning before. i sat there for about one hr and seen nothing. then i heard a bugle in the draw below me, and then a different bull bugled. i was on my feet and moving towards them. the bugling stopped just as fast as it started. i made my way towards the last bugle. i cow called one mew, the bull erupted with a bugle and chuckles. i knew from pauls book and dvds he wanted me to come to him. i moved as fast as i could towards the bull not worring about noise as he was expecting a cow to be coming. things went quite again so i called again and got the same responce from the bull but this time i heard his cows light up with excited cow calls. at this point i realized i dropped my bugle tube somewhere on the way down out of my pack. i made my way closer to the herd and figured id try making a spike bugle with my reed. i figured i was within 100yds of the elk. BIG MISTAKE. i heard a cow mew and nothing but hooves going down the mountain after that. what i didnt know as well is the elk where in a hidden medow. after i heard them leave i went down to where i last heard them. there was no way i was as closed as i though. but if you would have seen me making my way down towards my first bull to answer my calls, you would have thought i had him on the ground already. i had the biggest smile on my face and i was pumped up. from that point on i was hooked.

just got to thinking and thought id share. hope you enjoyed.

[bnsafe]

just a dream ive had since i was a kid about hunting in the mountains

[JGH]

There was no one "hook" in me ... I just keep picking up more "hooks" every year.

I like many kinds of hunting ... but archery elk hunting as surfaced as "the big one" for me for multiple reasons:

I love the weather in September.

What was initially a "bug" has now become a "feature": elk hunting takes multiple days, versus after-work whitetail hunting followed by a dinner at home and a night in my own bed.

Every bull bugle I've ever heard has been another "hook" to keep me coming back.

One of the best "hooks", though, was a 6x6 that had some cows and we called and responded for 15 minutes before the wind shifted and he ran off. That was years ago in Colorado, and I have yet to get a 6x6 down on the ground, but that moment taught me the most important thing for just about any goal in life:

This is possible!

Before that, I wasn't so sure. Since then, I am sure. I can do this, and I will.

I'm almost a little worried about what'll happen when I kill a 6x6 ... I'll need another goal! I can't wait for that day.

[WapitiTalk1]

A friend bugling through a PVC pipe, a herd bull screaming back, and a tall spike coming over a tiny ridge to my right rendering me incapable of drawing back my old school bear recurve and forcing my knees to knock together... Yep, that's when it started. I believe it was 1978 or so. Damn, I'm an old fart

[CrazyElkHunter]

I had already been bowhunting other animals for several years when I was invited to go on a DIY archery elk hunt. That was over 35 years ago. I shot the very 1st elk I had ever seen in the wild at 15 yards. Been hooked ever since. The next 27 were taken between 4 yds out to 59 yds.

[easeup]

just a dream ive had since i was a kid about hunting in the mountains

same here mr. safe.
I have posted to similar threads on the web in the past. a pretty spartan background growing up here in TX there were no elk hunters much less anyone we knew driving to hunt in the mountains. But at the barber shop they had Outdoor Life and F&S magazines and I could not wait to get my haircut so I could sit and look at those pics where men rode horses into the mountains in pack strings; and of course the flagship packing out a royal bull with the aspens and high peaks in the distance. yes sir, they planted the seed good.

what is cool is that 50 yrs later, real life is even better than the pics!!!

[Swede]

I had an intense desire to elk hunt before my dad thought I was ready. When I was taken on my first elk hunt as a teen, I was excited and enjoyed every part of it. Since that first hunt there has been a long series of adventures, educational events, and successful conclusions to hunts. Hooked, who knows?

[bowhunterty]

Would have to say chasing Roosies in the swamps of western Washington brought out the desire to chase elk. Then when I switched to hunting the high country set it in stone. Rather be hunting elk then anything else.

[Huntography]

Filming a group of elk hunters I call "the wolf pack"opening week of Colorado archery elk camp last Sept got me hooked.

Everything about hunting elk is addicting.

I can't wait to film more elk hunters this year and to get after elk myself.

I'll be posting real time updates here this season if I have a signal in the backcountry.

Rudy

[>>>---WW---->]

Hate to tell my age, but back in the 50s when I was just a kid, I walked into a sporting goods store in Springfield, Illinois. There was a hunting magazine laying on the counter. That in itself was a big deal to a youngster like me beause we couldn't afford to spend money on magazines. The Sears & Roebuck catalog was about as close as we ever got to anything like that!

Anyhow, in that magazine was a picture of a man with a Weatherby rifle with the inlaid stock they used to have on them. And he was poseing beside a very respectible bull elk he had shot. I didn't even know what an elk was. But I knew right then and there that I was going to shoot me one of those big deer someday.

Then in the 70s I traded the corn fields of Illinois for the mountains of Colorado and I have full filled my dream many, many times over and over. And I'm still hooked on elk!

[JohnFitzgerald]

Not what, but who. My dad when I was six.

[Trophyhill]

the moment i got hooked was my first elk hunt, first encounter. i called in a herd bull with a push call when he came in from above me and stopped 20 yards from me and screamed in my face a few times with no opportunity for a shot. i came off the mountain shaking so it's probably a good thing i had no shot. it was a life changing event for me.

[otcWill]

Literally the very minute I stepped into the woods although I must admit the bowhunting addiction was full fledged long before I went elk hunting. I was lucky enough to have a guy show me the ropes who knows his stuff. Within 50 yards of the truck, within my first minutes of elk hunting we had a rag and 2 cows come right by us at 45 yards! At that time 11 years ago I had been used to shooting deer from 20 feet and 45 was unthinkable. LOL, woulda been a done deal today! Elk hunting had me from the start!

[ElkNut1]

# - 1 reason for myself is their vocalization! Those Bugles are like calling me to the supper table when I'm starving! Can't get enough!

ElkNut1

[elkmtngear]

# - 1 reason for myself is their vocalization! Those Bugles are like calling me to the supper table when I'm starving! Can't get enough!

ElkNut1

I'm with Paul, the first time I heard a herd of elk bugling and mewing within 100 yards, I was hooked!

[Lefty]

Mine was a slow long set.
Raised in Minnesota elk were something rich guys went to Montana to hunt.After marring my wife who was from SE Idaho, My FIL invited all the sonin laws on a huntto Montana. Nice hunt no hook, and I killed a raghorn. I was invited to another hunt in eastern Wa. good hunt
Moved to Utah , a few more elk, but not hooked.
Moved to Idaho, FIL put us in for a trophy hunt,.. killed a huge bodied bull, still no hook.
On an antelope hunt my daughter and I spotted a couple bulls,.. I checked the regs,.. no season where we were
But I have always liked the desert, I enjoyed my time in western SD and Nebraska, Spent a lot of time in i the Utah deserts, a lot of time in Idaho deserts. A buddy convinced me my shoulder could shoot a bow. And I started shooting, We have one fellow in my ward who archery hunts a lot
My 3rd night sitting on water I heard a bugle,... that could hve been the set

[JJ Overkill]

hey lefty what part of MN? thats kinda like me, my first hunt was in co with my wifes uncle. loved it so much 1 yr later we moved to co.

[Whitetail180]

I was fortunate enough to have a Father who was a big game hunter and when I was 10 years old I was able to go on my First Elk hunt. I am now 40 and I have only missed 3 seasons since. I will never forget my dad calling in a giant 6x6 (he scored 362 7/8) with me by his side, that bull came in hot and I mean Hot, the sound of that Bull screaming and the limbs busting as he rolled through the timber, then then sight and sound of that arrow hitting him, OMG, it simply was amazing and that moment etched something in me that I will never,ever, forget......

[Hackbow]

I'd always been intrigued by the elk hunting stories in the magazines, but it never resonated with me until one of my good friends asked me to join him and a couple other guys for a bowhunt in Utah in '02. I read as much as I could, but it didn't prepare me for the experience. We had some pretty bad storms and I believe the second day out we had rain, sleet, snow and freezing rain. At one point the sleet was horizontal and stinging my face, so I covered up and crouched beneath a pine tree for about 90 minutes. I was a couple miles from my spike camp and remember thinking I'd NEVER dealt with this before while chasing whitetails in the midwest! While I understood the dangers of that storm and the boulder fields I had to occasionally cross, the adventure drew me in. I was hooked and didn't even see an elk on that first trip!

[Bartfrncs]

I've hunted Africa Canada most of the lower 48. The first time I had A bull bugle at 20 yards in the mountains was my hook. There is nothing like it still sends chills down my spine.
Bart

[one_elk]

Elk! They are a great animal and live in cool country....