OTC Archery Elk

Well, here goes nothing. One day my husband came home and decided that he was going to learn to hunt elk with his bow. Neither of us had ever hunted elk before and this was going to be a huge learning curve. I was skeptical about this new hobby since I was just getting into hunting myself; now I needed to learn how to hunt an additional species. He was constantly watching tv shows, the born and raised outdoors shows, youtube channels, purchasing calls and bugle tubes... I mean you could only imagine what it was like in our house every night.

When it came time to hunt he could not find a single person willing to go with him to Idaho. I partially thought it was due to him never hunting elk and others were worried about his experience. However, as I get into hunting more myself I understand that taking new hunters can be challenging and rewarding. Austin was not a new hunter, just new at hunting elk. That is when I stepped in and told him I would take the time off work and go along for the ride. The excitement in his eyes was worth it right there. If only I knew how this hunt was going to impact me for the rest of my life...

Preparation

There is a lot that goes into a hunt out of state. More brain work than anything. Such as finding a unit, hunting spots, gear, and food. We tend to use GoHunt for looking up units in specific states and learning about draws, season dates, and so much more! This has been a lifesaver in most of our hunt plans. After deciding on a unit that had available over the counter tags he purchased one. Next, deciding when to hunt is another factor. Obviously, it has to be within your designated dates according to your tag but with archery elk he wanted to be there for the rut. The rut occurs in September when the cow elk go into estrus. The other thing we keep in mind is the moon phases around when the cow elk are expected to go into estrus. Once we figure out the dates we like to plan for about 7-8 days of hunting which gives us a day on either side for travel and getting back for work.

Check out my blog on gear list to see what we bring for elk hunts. Usually I am the one who writes out the gear list and we will spend an afternoon working on organizing our gear into totes for the trip. Next, I usually do the food prep. This consists of some freeze dried meals, mountain houses, lunch bags, and breakfast food. I typically make big batches of spaghetti, chili, chicken tortilla soup, or similar foods in bulk weeks prior to the hunts and vacuum seal them and freeze them. This makes for an easy dinner when you get back to camp, you simply warm it up on the stove top or can boil the bag in a pot of water. I bring enough mountain houses for long hiking days where we need more than our packed lunch bags or for when we do bivy camps. Our lunch bags look like this:

I make enough for each of us to have one per day for each hunting day of the trip. Breakfast is usually ends up being a quick protein drink and an oatmeal bar on the way to our hunting spot. However, I usually bring a bag of pre-made breakfast burritos for mornings where we feel like heating them up and having a warm breakfast. To get this easy recipe check out my blog on breakfast burritos!

The Hunt

Okay, enough with the prep. We started out early and hit the road all the way to our hunting spot in Idaho. Once we got to our hunting area Austin started scouting out the area and checking for camping spots. After we agreed on a spot we started setting up camp.

Of course, Austin wanted to get hunting and I was exhausted. He looked around a little and it started getting dark so we made dinner and got settled into our tent for the night. First thing bright and early we got up and hit the hill. Each day comprised of about 8-12 miles of hiking. During the rut we hike, bugle, listen, hike, bugle, listen. Neither of us are very good at sitting and waiting so this works for us. The first day we ended up hiking up and over a few ridges and once we sat down for lunch he decided to bugle. We saw two smaller bulls come over the hillside and run off. We were in the plain open and had no expectation of seeing an elk right there! We loaded up our packs, checked the wind and went into a timber patch nearby where we started calling. Before we knew it we called those two bulls back. I think it was the first elk jitters because Austin didn't even have an arrow knocked!! The elk got close (within shooting range) and then got startled and ran off. This was a huge learning moment. Elk travel much faster than you expect, always be ready!

Day 2

Thank goodness for a rain fly! The next morning we woke up to a beautiful white blanket of snow.

We decided to try our luck and hiked in a similar area but across the canyon. He ended up spotting a pack of wolves and watched them howling and playing down in the canyon. Actually hearing them howl in real life really is an experience. After watching them a while we decided we would be hiking a lot further due to the wolves probably pushing out the elk. A few ridges over we saw a herd of elk. Of course, they were below us on a saddle above a nice marsh all spread out. In order to sneak up on the herd bull would take a lot of time and stealthy work. All of the cows were spread out feeding or laying down with the wind just right and no timber to hide us it was going to be a crawling situation. I sat up on the hillside watching for hours while Austin worked his way down the hill. When he finally got within shooting range of the bull, he could not stand or the bull would see him and he was turned just right where he did not have a shot at the vital organs. Austin waited a minute and just like that they were all up and out of that canyon in seconds. I watched from above as the entire herd ran up and over the canyon away from us. After that we knew we wouldn't be able to catch them so we decided to head in that general direction back to where we ran into the smaller bulls the day prior. After many more miles and the winds picking up we knew we needed to get back. Once we got back to the truck we started heading towards camp which is when we came into a little problem.

At this point we realized we had no chain saw, no tow straps, and no way out. After sitting here contemplating the long walk back to camp or sleeping in the car we heard a motor. We hadn't seen any other hunters at this point so it was a bit of a shock! A nice man and his wife came up on their side by side with an ice chest of beer and a chainsaw. They were heading out to glass a nearby spot and we ran into them at the best time! Our camp had also seen better days...

After getting our gear organized and the tent staked down we had dinner and planned for the next day.

Day 3

After hitting a similar area for two days we decided to check out another area that we had scouted. This was closer to other camps and had a motorcycle trail up part of it so we knew we had to be up early to beat any other potential hunters. This was a 15 mile day! We bugled with one bull but could not call him in. We did see a group of cow elk with Austin contemplated shooting since his tag was good for either sex but with some miscommunication I may have ruined that opportunity for him. At about miles 10 we off trailed it to the top of a ridge where a lake was setting on the other side. This lake was full of elk tracks and bedding areas. If we had our bivy camp or were closer to camp we would have loved to see this in the early morning. We filled up our waters and knew we had a long way down to get back to camp before dark.

Day 4

This is when we thought "Don't leave elk to find elk". We decided to head back into the canyon and from Day 1 and 2 but keeping going even further and hopefully find some elk! We do like to bring an electrolyte and caffeine supplement from mountain ops to help fuel us mid day.

This ended up being a long, long day with no elk interaction. However, we had a ton of beautiful views and I ended up glassing up a shed horn!

This was the highlight of my day. I have always wanted to find a nice shed horn and it was out in the open on a nice hillside. I packed this thing around all day so I could take it home with me! We may not have found any elk but it was a good day of being outdoors and reflecting on our past encounters the previous days.

Being our first out of state hunt, the next day was our last day we had allocated for in the field. We decided to pack camp up base camp and head to a different area. On the drive out I was looking through our Onx maps app and saw what looked to me as a hard to access area with feeding and timber that was far from any road or trail. I looked at Austin, we both knew the hill was daunting but decided to make it happen. We packed our bivy camp and food and started up the hill in hopes of getting over it and finding a place to set up camp.

Day 5

The next morning we were up early. Austin wouldn't even let me eat a cold burrito and make coffee. He insisted we needed to get to a certain point so he could start bugling while it was still dark. It was cold, windy, and I was tired. I sat down once we got there and pulled out the jet boil. Aluminum foil crinkling and the water boiling I couldn't hear anything. Austin starts yelling at me to listen! I roll my eyes thinking there is no way! He bugles again and we hear not just one response but two, coming from different directions. I am not going to try to act like I am some pro elk hunter. I had only a slight idea where the noise was coming from and I had noooo idea how far away they were, not even a guess. Austin led the show and essentially I followed him, about 1 mile, which felt like 5. We got to an opening and hid back in the timber and started calling; between him bugling and me cow calling we sat there about 15-20 minutes. When we finally decided we needed to keep moving forward because we weren't close enough we stood up and just like that a younger bull heading directly towards us quietly, and two seconds later we had ran up that hill so fast. Knowing it was our last day we thought we blew it for sure. However, Austin knew that there were probably more elk up this hill he came down. So we hiked up and around it and got on this flat area that was surrounded with trees. He let off one bugle and instantly a bull bugled back. It was loud and insane. I found something to hide behind and call and Austin moved forward and knocked an arrow. I kept doing quite cow calls and raking on the trees (everything Austin had told me to do). I could hear the bull walking towards us, I could hear his heavy breath, and I was nervous I wasn't doing the right thing. Seconds later I hear an arrow fling and hear it hit the elk. However, I then see the elk walk a few more steps out around the tree and it found me, stared right at me and then tipped over. DOWN GOES FRAZIER. That's what we call him, Frazier. I can't even describe the excitement and emotion that went through the two of us. We had come in hopes of tagging out but had no expectation being our first year! Now the work really began!

I don't think that I really realized how big elk were until I was standing next to him. I was in disbelief that an arrow took him down with no suffering. I had never actually skinned a big game animal at this point but I knew it was time to learn because we had hours of work to do.

We worked and worked and got all the meat we possibly could off this animal. It gave us its life and we want to make the most of it and feed our family for the year.

While we were processing the elk we would hang the bags of meat in a shaded area near by so it wouldn't get hot on the ground. Next, we had about a 3 mile hike back towards the car where we decided to bivy camp at the top of the hill we climbed over and make the rest of the hike in the morning. It took us each 3 trips back and forth to get all the meat and our camp back to the bivy camp. It was not easy!! The picture below on the left was me crying. Yes, tears flowing out. I was exhausted, hungry, and out of water.

I had never carried a pack this heavy and my backpack did not have a meat packing system. I didn't have much gear accumulated and a nice backpack was next on my list! After a little pep talk from Austin we were up and moving. He offered to make two more trips so I only had to do two but I said no, found strength from somewhere within and we hiked by headlight and made it to our bivy camp.

Also, this was our first time using a two man tent. We actually borrowed this from a friend who works at a local sporting shop in town. Another item we were adding to our list of things to buy. The next morning we were up loading our packs and ready to make it to the truck. Austin found his first shed horn!

Just three more trips up and down this huge hill and we had all the meat and gear down to the truck! Next we spent some time packing the truck, making room for all the meat! We made it to town and bought some dry ice to help keep the meat cool for the next day and drive home. We got a hotel in Boise. I can't say I had ever gone 5 days with out a shower in my life!! Austin stayed out in the parking lot fleshing the cape and I ate at the hotel restaurant and showered. I think I got the good end of the deal. The next day we walked around downtown, tasted at a brewery, and saw some friends that live nearby before heading back home!

There are sooo many little details I know that I left out. Some on person because I didn't want this to be 20 pages long, and some because I may have forgotten. But the piece of this trip I always remember is that hard work, physical health, and mental toughness all play a huge role in archery elk hunting. Really I have learned that these three things are going to be my key to success on any type of hunt I pursue in the future. I owe a big thanks to Austin for pushing me beyond what I knew I was capable of. I am so proud of him for pursuing his dream even when I was his only option for a hunting partner (now he's stuck with a girl at hunting camp). Please reach out with any questions!