"The Moment"

R

RM Montgomery

New member
Dec 5, 2013
14
To add to the conversation...please list \"THE Moment\" you got hooked on elk hunting...mine????...after six days of riding the roads and wishing...I FINALLY dropped into the HOLE FROM HELL and had three bulls screaming their heads off....HERE THEY ARE!!.....two miles deep and willing....talk to me...
 
Welcome Marty! :welcome:

I have to say that I was hooked on elk hunting before I ever got to go. As a kid, I would get to go on scouting trips with my dad and dreamed of the day I was old enough to join in on the hunting trip. There was always something special to me about it, way before I knew exactly what I was getting into. My love has grown for it every year since!
 
My first elk hunt was with my dad when I was 10 years old. Elk meaning I went along. I wasn\'t hunting elk for another two years.

My moment was after my dad shot an elk, and we were walking up on it. I was amazed at how big it was. I had only seen/shot deer to that point. I was speechless, and my dad was getting a kick out of seeing me speechless. A rare occasion for me. I decide right on the spot that hunting elk would be a lifelong career for me. I\'ve never been sorry, or disappointed for that decision.
 
I have to admit that first being a NR, I was in love with big mule deer.
I had killed a pile of WT and mule deer were my obsession.
I had elk hunted, but I kept looking for big mulies.

It wasnt long before elk took over the drivers seat tho.
I did my tour of rifle elk hunting in the snow and shot many, many elk.
Then I switched it up and went ML elk hunting.
The bugling, the golden aspens, frosty mornings, the nice sunny afternoons...
I was in elk heaven.

That was the moment.

I have since switched to archery elk, but the time of year hasnt changed.
 
it started in 2011, id driven from MN to CO in 19hrs straight through, got to my wifes uncles house and drove another 3 hrs. finally after being awake for 30+ hrs. I went to bed. the next morning we where up at 4:30am and started up a draw. he was my guide for a few days. anyways half way up the draw just about dawn and a bull rips out a bugle that sounds like a song in a meadow 600yds up from us. from that moment on I was hooked. to the point I moved out to CO the following yr. :problem:
 
The first time I ever hunted elk the first morning I had a bull bugling above me. Being a total flatland greenhorn to elk hunting and being the first time ever being in the mountains I thought I would be able to catch up to him as he headed up. Boy did he ever kick my butt :lol: He taught me that I was in his world and I had allot to learn. He made me want him even more. I did shoot a rag horn 4/4 four days later but never did see the first bull again. I was so hooked that I have not missed a season since. When I realized he had beat me like no animal ever had I was hooked.
 
Interesting question. I do not know the answer. I have loved elk hunting since my dad took me on my first hunt as a teen ager. I never thought anything about it. It was just something I always wanted to be a part of.
 
I grew up in a family that not only loved hunting & all outdoor activities, but also raised a family of 6 kids mostly on wild game. It was a way of life that I was hooked on from the time I was old enough to comprehend what was going on. I can remember being to young to leave the tent with Dad & the guys, but my mother would take me out for short hunts that were the time of my life. She was as much of a mentor as anyone & for that I will always be grateful. They are both gone now, but boy o boy, did they learn me good!
 
Probably at least 15-20 years before my first elk hunt. Whenever was the first time I saw it on tv, I was hooked!
 
For me its the compilation of a thousand different sights, sound, experiences, with a few standout moments. One that sticks in my mind is watching from 80 yds a bull with headgear wide enough to bounce off trees hooking cows out of their beds and ripping bugles the first year elk hunting.
 
As a kid I used to read my neighbor\'s hunting magazines with passion...and was always thrilled reading about elk hunts...pack-in trips on horses...the wilderness..OH MAN that was exciting stuff!! We hunted plenty of deer here in Virginia but there\'s no rack like an ELK RACK! (There were also a couple elk hunts on American Sportsman with Curt Gowdy that fueled the fire big time!)

I was well into my 40\'s when it happened. A ML elk hunt in SW Colorado!! I literally had tears in my eyes the first morning when I got out of the truck. No kiddin\' !

For six days we hunted like most folks from the East...my two buddies and I hunted our comfort zone. The folks at the Lodge TOLD us the elk were \"down in there\"... we even got responses to our bugles after dark heading back...but there was NO *&^%$# way WE were dropping into THAT hole!

After six days - I\'d been bored enough - I dropped down nearly two miles - alone - and stumbled into a herd just after daylight. First, I had three different bulls responding to every sound I made on my brand new Power Bugle. This lasted about an hour. They got bored with ME and went on their way...and THEN...on my way out I jumped a 300 class bull with a cow - stopped them with a cow call...and FORGOT ALL ABOUT the ML on my shoulder...I went diggin\' for the camera!! (typical tourist/hunter...I know...I know...but I could have cared LESS!)

That was the morning I had \"MY Moment\" and I\'ve enjoyed that memory for years. I only hunt with the bow now...and come this September...the camera stays in the TENT !!
 
As most here know, I\'m new to this hunting thing. My son asked me to teach him how to hunt when he was about 8 years old. I had never hunted so we were going to learn this together. He was too young to even take hunter\'s safety so we put it on hold a couple years. Three months before his 10th b-day I signed us up for the hunter\'s safety class. He passed and I bought him a Ruger 10/22. We hunted rabbits and squirrels that first fall. Last year I was made aware of the OTC option for archery so I bought a tag and brought my son on all of my adventures. After realizing just how LITTLE I knew about hunting in general I decided to research the ever-living-crap out of it. My son will finally be old enough to hunt this fall so I am doing everything in my power to be prepared.
I was online researching mid-season last year and haven\'t stopped. I try to do something every day to help us be successful this year.
 
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