Ep. 97: Ten Common Mistakes Made by Archery Elk Hunters

check them. But anyways, got cameras out, thinking about Elk all the time, a little bit thinking about Alaska, Doll Sheep. I'll be leaving here in a couple of days. Next time i'm back on the podcast, that hunt should be about finished up, and I'll be able to share those experiences. But for me right now, all I can think about

is Elk. You know, spending a ton of time on Google Earth, on on X you know, we got all of our tags in our pocket, just trying to figure out and do the best of our ability kind of lay out these hunts that that we have before us. But on today's episode, I didn't really want to do, you know, listener Q and A. I didn't want to

bring a guest on. I really just wanted to talk about my personal experience again, but really mistakes and a lot of people you know, want to learn from from successes, and you can, but I feel like there's so much more that can be learned from mistakes. And take it from me, is I've failed a lot more in the Elk Woods than I've been successful as far as you know,

you know, specific circumstances. I failed more of those and I've been successful, and so I really want to kind of dive into those and from my own experience kind of say, in my opinion, this is what causes a lot of people, you know, to to not not to tag throughout Elk season. So we're gonna go through. We've got ten things here I'm going to talk about. I just did my best to layout you know, ten of them. I've I've did a seminar, I've did some articles on

nees for a long time. But they're good. They've got this got a good structure, it's got good backbone, and we can talk about some things that kind of offshoot from from these ten you know things. So I get to go to a lot of sportsman shows, I get a lot of emails. I get a lot of people contacting me about their failures or why did this not work, whether it's calling, whether it's setting up, And a lot of people could be like, man, this is just boring,

Like I don't want to deal with this. But for me, I can take I can learn from that. Right, I only get so many hours in September, and I can't be in all of these situations all the time. And so if I can use others, you know, experiences and some of their failures and some of their decision making and try to continue to add that to my experiences and formulate better plans, it's all. It's all, it's all a win for me. I'm always learning. I don't got

this completely figured out yet. You know, it's elk hunting. The only thing for certain when it comes to calling an elk is that nothing from time to time is certain. It's always new. There's always a new wrinkle the elk. You're going to react a little bit differently, and so we're always changing. Now, what I will say is when when I go in to do some of these, you know,

setting up or getting close. We kind of tend to run the same prescriptive plan over and over because it has worked enough times that we know within a season it's going to probably pan out in our favor. And a quote that I like to use for my good buddy Thomas Edison, I've not failed. I've just found ten

thousand ways that won't work. And what that said, when it comes to elk hunting, it might not work ten thousand times in a row, but you never know that certain elk on the ten thousand and month time that might be the thing that was going to work on them. So with that said, now that we're all confused and like, well I don't I'm not gonna trust anything that he says here because he just said anything can work in some things don't. This is the general consensus, is this.

These things that we're going to talk about the biggest mistakes elk hunters can make. These are the things that the majority of time, you know, will screw things up when we get to things like wind and stuff like that. Like I guarantee you that will always screw an elk

cut up. So number one and this is maybe the thing that I tell people, and so of my seminars is this is probably the thing most people do, if if we could pick in one of these ten things, this is the thing that probably the majority of elk hunters that I talked to do on a call in. And so I think this is affecting the most amount of people, is calling your way into elk and not

getting close enough before you call. Anybody that's listened to cutting the distance before you guys have probably heard this. You know, you got the the the idea that this bull wants to breed, he wants to stay alive. And so when another bull approaches, that sounds whether it's small or big, and we're going to get into some of that, you know, calling like a big bull or a small bull. Regardless of what bull's coming at him, his first instinct is to take his cows and leave or stay a

certain distan. It's a way and you know, be able to maintain that ability to recreate and stay alive. So you know, you get a bowl of bugle, whether they're bigling on their own or you get them to bugle, and so we we call our way into it. You know, whether that's everye hundred yards, every fifty yards. We want to and it's I think it's a little bit of natural instinct on our side, is we want to keep

that bowl beggling. We want to know that we're heading in the right direction, we want to know that he's still there. We want to know all of these things. But in my opinion, it's best to just be quiet, assume his position at that point, and then move your way into it. Resist resist that urge to bugle once you know his location. Instead, grab your wind checker. You know, anytime you want a bugle, replace it with a wind check and you're going to be better off until the

point where you think you're really close. So if you got the wind right, you're coming in down wind of these elk I'm ideally trying to get within one hundred yards closer if possible. The vegetation the terrain allows me to I'm gonna get a little bit closer, and and I really want to. You know, when I get a bowl of beagle, I'm looking at, you know, on X maps, like where do I think this bull's at at this

point in time? And I may even drop a pin if I'm not super confident before I think I'm going to get turned around if I got to get down in some timber. So I'm going to drop a pin. And then if I get the wind right and I approach those things, I should at some point, anybody that's been in the woods long enough and smelled elk knows that it's a pretty pungent. It's got some it's got

some ability to travel, it's got some staying power. Right, And so if I get the wind right and I'm approaching where I think these elk are, at some point, I'm also going to start to smell these elk on my way or if they've been in this area. Let's say it's you know, late morning. We think those elk are going from bed or from feed to bed, and they've been in that area a lot, You're going to start to see where they've tore the area up even as you approach them, if you're a couple hundred yards off.

But potentially, but I'm starting to, you know, smell for elk. I'm starting to look for elk. We're just gonna move in completely silently at this point. Now with that said, I'm not too worried if I you know, snap a stick. You know, ideally I want to go in quiet, but elk also make noises, so if there isn't approaching elk, it's not the end of the world, you know, as

you approach. So I'm gonna be quiet and I'm gonna get to to a tight distance before I ever ever make that call we we want, you know, I use the shock and awe a lot of times if a bull's biglan and I don't ever have to make a noise. That bowl doesn't know I exist until I'm right there, and it's it seems to be like you didn't You didn't trigger their their curiosity, like is this a real elk?

Are they questioning if it's real? If you get close and tight, they've really got no no other option but to to come in, you know, and potentially check you out. At that point, they really can't round their cows up, you know, anybody had seen cow was in the timber or feeding. They're kind of just strung out, you know, maybe maybe a certain width, a certain length. Those elk aren't all in a tidy bunch where that bull can

always round them up and get out of there. So you really kind of left him with he can need to take a couple of cows and get out of there, or he's got to come check out you know, this bowl that's very very close to his cows, and and so that's that's my opinion. Do not do not bugle your way in a lot of times you're gonna get in that cat and mouse game where those elk always stay three to four hundred yards ahead of you. You never close any distance, and that's just kind of how

your morning hunt will end. You're just playing cat and mouse and you never can catch up to him. You also typically kind of push them through where they wanted a bed, so now you got elk kind of out of their routine. It just gets very very difficult. I'd rather keep them comfortable in their area. And you know, so for all of those reasons, do not bugle your way into elk when you're trying to call them. In

Number two, reluctance to change strategies. And this is one of the things that really kind of plagued my early What I would say, before I got smarter, I would sit in E scout, so reluctance to change strategy. I would E scout. I would sit on my computer all you know, all seat all the time leading up to season. I had you know, this is I had Plan A,

I had B, C, D, and E didn't exist. I I would go in come up with a plan A. I would go scout, and sometimes scouting looked like Plan A was going to be awesome, but then the hunt would roll in. You know, there were there was more pressure, the el could move, the bulls went and found cows, whatever it may be. But I was very reluctant to change what I thought my plan was going into the hunt. I wouldn't let the hunt dictate what my hunt. You know, what my plan should be, what my strategy should be.

So you know, regardless of my countless hours dissecting Google Earth and where I thought I needed to be, where my camp was, you know, I set up my my my spike tent or my wall tent perfectly. I knew where I was going to hike that first morning, where I was going to bugle from, you know, and I did all that before season even been arrived. The only problem was I would get to that spot and nothing was turning out like I wanted it to the elk court in the right spots, but I would try to

force that hunt. I was trying to force a square peg in the round hole, and it just wouldn't work. And many times, you know, if we would prepack, or you know, back in the day, I would go in like the weekend before and maybe stash some of my food, I would just ride it out regardless, you know, regardless of the action, regardless of what I thought my chances were for success. We would just ride it out and

try to force it. But now fast forward to where I'm at now, I'm a hunting career, not even in as good as shape as I was back when I was young. I will not hesitate to pull up spike camp and hike out to ten miles that I just hiked in that morning or that day before, whatever it is. If I've determined that I would likely won't kill an elk in this area, or if I do, it's going to be more on you know, luck than it was on skill or on being able to hunt the elk.

So don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Have a plan, B, C, D, E F whatever it needs. You know, have multiple plans until you get into an area that has elk that are ready to play the game. You know, maybe doesn't have the pressure, maybe has all of these things that allow you a better chance of success and doing it, you know, in my you know, on on my terms, playing the game the way that I want to play it. You know, you cannot force elk to be where they don't want to be. You

cannot force less pressure than where the pressure is. So the only way that is to move. You know, I give a spot a good twenty four hours, and if I don't see what I want to see or the amount of elk that I want to see, I'm out of there. I'm gonna go to a different trailhead. I'm going to bomb into a different area on a different day hunt and do some scouting, and all you know, I'm moving and I'm just trying to find good areas. And they in some certain areas we've hunted year after year.

That changes from year to year. So you can't go into one spot planet a hunter there the whole time because you don't know if the elk are going to be a couple of drainage is over or vice versa. They may stay in that same drainage year after year. So you need to be mobile, be willing to go find the elk. It's our job to go find them. You know, I'm looking at things. If i can't find them at a certain elevation, I'm gonna go. I want one of my plans, whether it's A and D or

opposite elevations. Ones in the timber bottom, ones up in the alpine, you know, ones in, ones in steep country, ones in benchie country, ones down by the main highway that goes through the unit. Ones as far away from the highway as I can get. I'm trying to look at different different you know, factors that may affect where

these elk are at. And so I'm I'm you know, being very you know, contrasting in you know, an alpine area that's as you know, remote as you can get, versus a road, a piece of public that's right off of a public highway. I'm gonna to check, you know, both of those spots out. Is one you know, different than the other. Obviously yes, but is it different as far as holding elk? You know, don't get too fixated on one area, and you know, go check out different areas.

It's gonna, you know, typically typically pay off. As I'm looking for these different areas, but they all need to still have food, water, and some bedding or some escapement security cover to survive. It seems simple, but some of the areas I hunt in the alpine, there's not water forever, so if you're on a dry ear, you may just not find elk. You know, if you're some of these elk in certain areas, they live in ninety percent stage, but they do have, you know, some timber pockets and

some north facing slopes, whatever it may be. So you need to make sure. I like to make sure all of my spots that I want to go check out have food, water, and some sort of timber or brush or something that those elk can get to, you know, and and look at all of those things. Another thing that that I used to talk about. You know, we get a lot of questions on when your your strategy, but this has more with like planning your strategy prior to leaving and what we could vacation you're gonna take

or when you're gonna hunt. Is moon phase a little bit? I yes, I will admit moon phase changes the behavior of elk during the reut I'll put that out there. With that said, I do not care about the moon phase when I'm picking when I'm gonna hunt, where I'm gonna hunt, how I'm gonna lay out my seasons, any of that, the elk are gonna regardless of what the moon phase is, I will you know, I may need to be earlier. You know, let's say we're we're going into a full moon, you know, even barely coming off

of it. You know, on the backside, those elk will do a majority or they will be more active during the night, and it will it'll creep a little bit into that that next morning and it'll start maybe a little later. But you need, you need to be in your prime, your your your your number one spot early in the morning so you can kind of keep tabs on that. This I'm gonna let you guys all probably assume I'm a nerd, know that I'm a nerd by now,

but I use Excel for a lot. So one time I had went through and looked at the dates I had killed a bunch of my archery bulls on you know, dating back to the early two thousand and one, two thousand and twos, when I you know, started killing roosevelts all the way up to some of my more recent bowls that I've killed around you know, in other Western states, and I added up and just went back because I didn't know what the moon phase was on those days,

I wasn't paying attention. But I would go back and look at those and I realized that I had killed the majority of my bigger bulls within two or three days of a full moon. So it really didn't matter. It really didn't change the way, you know, my success. It actually was adding to my success. Now, I'm sure it wasn't a factor that that you know was a was a positive towards it, but it didn't seem to matter.

You know, these other these other thing kind of uh, you know, canceled it out or just elk playing the game like we did didn't really you know, matter on the moon phase. So I wanted to throw that out there.

Another way to think about, you know, reluctance to change strategy is if you go out and let's say your go to is always go out in just a normal calmu at any elk that you see out in the woods, Well, if that's not working, or if you're not killing a bowl you know, every third year, every two years, every other year, every year, maybe you should listen to And I'm not saying a person that that hunts like me. Maybe listen to a different guy that you know kills

elk every year. Maybe he's nothing but a spot in stock guy, and so you're like, huh, all right, so he doesn't call all but yet he still kills bulls. Or hey, this guy over here that bugles at every bowl kills a bowl every year, like maybe, So don't be stuck in your ways that your way is the only way. Now, if you like to hunt a certain

way by all means, don't change. But I'm saying if you're only your only measurement of of success is by killing a bowl, then maybe you should start to look at other ways to do it or other other options. As far as you know, calling elk or killing elk or getting to within bow range, you know there are no shortcuts, though. You can't just listen to people and go out and be able to implement that. The best way to learn is to get out there in the field and run your own system as much as possible.

But if your own system gives back, you know, poor results, then maybe you should change up and be willing to change. You know that that process, So listen to successful elk hunters. Listen to as many as possible to hunt as many different ways as possible to get an idea of their strategy and tactics. Take all of those, throw them in the cauldron, boil them up, and then come up with your own system that's maybe a little different or a

little better than what you're doing now. If you're not finding the success that the others are, you know, it take can take years off your learning curve if you just listen versus be stubborn and like I'm gonna do it this way all the time. Number three, the resistance to do what it takes. And when I say resistance, I fought this when I was, you know, younger. I would go in. I waited eleven months for September to roll back around, right as soon as October first hit.

I had my my calendar set like I wanted September to be here, and I would go good for a day or two, maybe three. You know, maybe I wasn't as good as shape, or the elk hunting's not going as I wanted, and so I'm a little bit tired and burnout, and I would I could remember sitting on the mountain, have bowlsby going down below me at times, you know, maybe I didn't have a good plan, but somewhere in my head I allowed it to like creep in. Like, man, you can get back to home an hour and a

half and you know, be eating a hot breakfast. You know, you could get back to the tent and you know, be taking a nap here in a half hour, you know, versus I think you're And then I would start to tell myself that I would go down there and screw those Oh cup any ways, I just probably leave them

for this evening. Now, the more experienced, more mature me, he says that that might not be a bad ideal all the time, But back then I was letting kind of the the you know, the naysayer kind of creep in and tell me to go do something different, whether it was you know, get out of there, just just not hunt, you know. And the mental the mental part of a hunt is just as real, if not more than the physical side. You know, was I you know, how far am I from the truck? Do I need

to go back? If we kill this elk? How bad is the pack out gonna be? You know? Is there a bowl closer to the road, Is there a bowl closer to home? If you're constantly asking yourself these types of questions. It's going to keep you away from opportunities that may be the one that kind of, you know, the that allows you to be successful or it gives you the opportunity. So don't be the person talking yourself out of opportunities that may prove to be your best

chance of success. You know, I've been fortunate to hunt with a bunch of guys that are like minded. We make it a point to no longer ask those questions. No matter what you know you need to be. You need to kind of battle hard on yourself though, be a little bit bulletproof, and you have to become a mentally tough elk hunting an elk hunter or an elk

hunting partner. You can't have partners that will kind of breed out or materialize doubt, you know, on a hunt, or also agree with you when you're down you're saying like, hey, I think we should go back. You need that partner at that time. You need to rely on him to say like, no, we're going to stay here. We got this, or vice versa. When your partner gets down, like even if you got to fake it, like no, we need to stay and that's kind of where we've got to

as a group. It helps us we're in the field more when when we do have a good plan, we don't start to second guess it. We're we're kind of sitting there, you know, talking each other up or giving each other even if it's false, false hope. We're there for each other and then we're everything that we do, every effort should benefit our success. And that's my mentality. If I'm not an elk, I need to walk them mount until I find out. I'm not going to take

a nap that day. I'm gonna use the afternoon downtime to explore new basins or different levels within the mountain. You know, within the basin. Everything that I do is is going towards the success of me being, you know, a successful oil hunter. And so that's kind of how I run my day. You know, whether it's you know, big one at you know, after dark or whatever it

may be, all those things kind of end up. You know, they're tough to do, they're not easy to do, but they will always make me a more successful oil hunter. Number four is overthinking you're calling We mentioned earlier, both were thinking about two things. Caws and five. The herd bull is focused on breeding as many cows as possible and keeping all the other bulls away. And I'm going

to oversimplify all this. The satellite bulls are trying to steal as many cows away or just mining their business if they're too low in the pecking order, but always willing to go find a cow, so you know. All With that said, even the smallest rag bulls will typically come into calls. It's it's it should be pretty straightforward

and simple when you think about it this way. All I try to do is feed off of what those bulls want, what they're doing at that and then what their emotions are, and I try to get those bulls fired up and into archery range. If it's a small bull, I think I want him to think he's got a chance at a cow, so I may not want to have any other beagles involved. I may want to just

throw straight cow calls at him. If it's a semi mature, you know, herd bull, I may throw some semi mature bull sounds and cow sounds at him because he may have a chance to steal that cow from me. Versus a herd bull. I want to go in and let him know I'm going to try to steal cows from him, you know, And so I keep it very very simple. You know, they herd bulls are going to be reluctant to come a long distance, leave their cows and come to a call. A satellite bull is more willing to travel,

you know, to a call. So you keep all of that in mind. You start to develop a strategy very quickly, just based on a few things that that I'm thinking about within the hunt. You know, people that say you shouldn't bugle. I think you should bugle a lot at least to locate bulls when and we call this just our location bugle. So I'm out there locating for ELK a lot. I don't feel that you can do a whole lot of damage there as long as they're not

winding you, you know. But but don't overthink you're calling to a point where you're unwilling to make a call at all during the situation, Like I've been around people whore like I don't want to call. I don't want to mess this up. You know, the best way, and once again I had mentioned on a different topic, the best way to just get out in the field as much as possible, and try to develop your own tactics to see what the outcome is. If I cal call here,

do I get a bugle? Do I get a counter respond? Do I get elk leaving? If I go out there and calf call, what do I get? If I go out there and give a big nasty bugle? If I go out there and give a small bugle, what are they all going to do? And I just used enough experience, you know, I don't like throwing numbers out there. I don't talk about how many bulls I've killed. I don't talk about how many elk I've called in. But I've been able. I will say it's been a lot. I've

got a lot of bulls to bugle. I've been fortunate to elk come a whole lot in a whole lot of great areas. But everyone is different as well, right I try to you know, I locate bulls, I get in tight and sometimes I might have a herd buwl. But ten situations, he'll do ten different things regardless of you know, I can col call to him one time might be the right answer, bugle might be the right answer next time. And so you just need to develop

a system that gives you the most confidence. But don't overthink you're calling get in tight, you know, make you think you're one of his cows. I then typically like to announce that I am one of those cows close to his herd, and then a challenge biagle will be right behind that cow, basically letting that bowl know that there's a bull with the cow, you know in your herd. You know, for for herd bulls satellite bowls, I'm going

with lots of cow calls. I know I've oversimplified that, all right, you just gave us one cookie cutter example for bulls herd bowl and you gave us cookie cutter examples with cow calls on satellites. But I guarantee you that that right there is good enough advice to be able to call in the majority of those bulls that are out there with with pretty good certainty. You know, I'm not gonna say you're gonna call every bowl in,

but that strategy works a lot of the time. Tip Number or biggest mistake, or one of the biggest mistakes. Number five is calling too quiet or too small. You know, many times I'm sitting at a sportsman show or I get an email like, hey, I don't want to be a very big bull. What call? What diaphragm should I get?

Or I don't want to scare them off? Which is fine if that's your strategy, maybe you found a ton of success doing that by all means, that's fine, But I also feel that it can also hurt your calling. And I'm I'm gonna give some examples. Well, I'm fortunate to hunt with some of the best callers that are out there as well, you know, and we're never we never call with the idea that we're too aggressive, we're

afraid that we're going to scare elk away. We don't scare them away, we push them away for other reasons. I've said, they want to maintain cows, they want to do all of these things. Yeah. I recognize there's many ways to be successful, but are you missing out on opportunities because you aren't calling loud enough? So, you know, let's say I'm in a patch of timber, we're calling bulls. I've got one of my buddies behind me fifteen yards he's ripping on beagles, and all of a sudden, this

bull starts to get closer one hundred yards. Well, guess what at one hundred yards, that real bull has got depth, he's got volume, he's got all of these things that my buddy, who's only fifteen yards behind me, blowing this call right in my ear no longer ever had. He's not as loud, he's not as thunderous, he's not as guttural. And so why why this guy's cranking, you know, fifteen

yards away? And by time you start to get all of the sound to bounce off the timber and the vegetation around you, already by by default sound like a small little bowl compared to what's out there. And we've we've checked this on satellite bulls, we've called in, we've

checked this on herd bulls, we've called in. No matter how hard you know, how hard you blow on a call, no matter how much air you put across it, you're just not gonna sound like, you know, like as big as a real help Reason number two for those that don't know my background, I grew up, you know, on at the base of the Willpa Hills, just outside and

we don't have very big bulls here. We have big bodied bowls, and we'll say roosevelts, but we we have some you know, small horned bowls, probably a younger age class, and I would always go in with the intention of calling in a herd bull. So I'm in there ripping. I'm you know, the biggest, nastiest calls. I've got as

much rasp as I can throw in. Well, guess what when you go to look at my rafters on where I keep a lot of my Roosevelt bulls, I'm like, man, you think this guy would eventually go after a herd bowl every once in a while. Guess what. I killed a whole bunch of one hundred and fifty one hundred and seventy inch Roosevelt bulls. A lot of times there are four points, maybe some real small fives, But in my attempt to try, I would trust me I was

trying to kill a herd bull. These dang raghorns will come in off the edge of the herd, just like they will when you're you know, trying to call in some of the biggest Rocky Mountain bulls. It just is how it works. And so I killed a lot of small bulls by calling big, and it didn't really seem to matter. So I'm like, all right, now I've got the confidence that my buddies don't sound as loud as I, you know, as a real elk, and I'm still able

to call in these small bulls. Why cranking on bugles or cranking like, why would I you know, those two things out up like, I'm not going to call any less than I am now, So I'm I'm always going out there cranking. I don't think you can really screw up. And I also feel that, you know, at times, you know you're going to sound you know, smaller. You may not elicit either of these bulls to come in because a satellite bowl, you know, may not want to come

check in a lesser bowl. There are times, though, where I will spike squeal a lot, you know. One of the tips I had mentioned earlier is don't call your way into a bowl. There are times where if it's a long long distance and there's been a long time in between the last time I heard a bowl bugle, I will need to maybe sound check because I don't know if they've moved or I wasn't confident that they betted. I usually give out like a small bowl kind of

a mony bugle. It's a little less uh intrusive it's a little less aggressive, and so a lot of times I will throw that out, you know, as I call in. But that's about the only time I try to really crank back my calling. Other than that, it's going one hundred and ten percent, you know all the time. Some you may laugh and I will, I will allow it. So I'm gonna talk about physical fitness or lack thereof. You know, I'm a guy. For those of you that

know me, like, I'm a yo yo. Throughout the year, you know, hunt season gets here, I'm in great shape. The rest of the year, I'm like, I let myself go a little bit, but I know my body. I know where I need to get to, you know, to be ready for September. But one thing I want to touch on physical fitness is it will never make you a worse hunter, or it will never negatively impact your chance for success, if that makes any sense. So yeah,

you may not need to be in great shape. And that's what I always tell people, Like, you can go hunt fifteen miles into wilderness and that's great, Like it gives you the ability, but hey, I could also go kill an olk a half mile off a highway. But I want to have the ability to go hunt that fifteen miles deep in the wilderness if that gives me my best chance for a certain type of bowl, or

just the best chance of success in general. So you have to be able to go where they are, and you have to be able to go where they are on the last day as well as the first day. So yeah, you maybe in you know, get be able to get there on the first day, but are you going to get there on the last day. Are you going to be able to pack a bowl out from somewhere on day three and not need to take two days off when your buddy's ready to hunt. You know,

hunting season isn't the time to get in shape. It isn't the time to start to question or let it start to question whether you are going to go over the next ridge. So so just be in as good as shape as possible. It's always going to be to your benefit. A lot of people, especially if you're coming out from back east, or you've never been to the mountains, or you're going to a new unit. I'm always surprised.

I don't know if it's because I'm getting older every year, but I show up to units that I was you know, in ten years ago or new units that I've scouted. I'm like, man, everything looks bigger, nastier, and deeper than I ever remember it. And these these hills is kind of my joke, but it's like, man, the hills get steeper every year I go back, and it's it's the reality of things like Elk cutting is hard. Elk cutting in places where elk want to be, and they go

to escape to live as hard work. Being as good as shape as possible. I'm not gonna spend too much time on that one, but find whatever works for If you're a crossfitter, go CrossFit. If you're a weightlifter, or go weightlift. If you're a bike rider, go bike ride. Just being as good as shape as possible and be you know, be able to go up and chase bowls wherever you need to to be successful. Number seven is

the wind and playing it too perfect. I've I've talked about this before a lot of people, especially if you're unwilling or uncomfortable, which many should be on taking a frontal shot. You know, playing the wind too perfect could mess you up if you're not willing to take that shot, because if the wind's perfect, right, on my nose the whole way I'm calling. In the majority of time, that bowl isn't going to be able to go get wind

on you and is going to come in head on. Happens, you know, to the point where he should be able to see where that elk is calling to him. If we let that wind get a little bit, let's say, to our right cheek, we can now predict with pretty good certainty that bowl is going to come to our left. So I like to go at the wind. You know, thirty forty five degrees is plenty. Like you, you can give them even more than that, but the chances of you not getting a shot before that goes up pretty dressed.

You know you're going to get a shot typically before they can escape you or your wind circle. Now, the more wind you give them, the more comfortable they're going to be, and they will typically take that circle a little bit tighter. So let's say we you know the wind's hitting us perfectly in our right ear, that elk may come more on a straight line to you, which I will sometimes do if I'm hunting solo or calling for myself. I may give that bowl ninety degrees of wind.

You know, I'm still safe. But as soon as he clawed, you know, crosses that imaginary line between my right and left ear, you know, out if you project out to my left, I'm going to need to make sure I can you know, get get that uh you know done. So give them a little more wind. They'll they'll take a tighter circle that you know, if you give them just a little but when they may start their circle

out a little bit wider. But but give them a little bit of wind and typically you're gonna be able to steer them into you versus you know, having the wind perfect, you're gonna tip. You're gonna have to take a frontal shot or that bowl will be more likely to come in perfectly straight ahead. Number eight, shooting your bow or your muzzleoder and not getting bowl fever and being able to make the shot. So you know, we

all get to shoot out in art. You know, for me, it's my driveway or my field, you know, all year long, all you know, all summer long. As we're getting ready. Guess what my heart rate is at a perfect seventy two or sixty eight whatever it. I don't even know what, but my heart rate is. I don't have sweat rolling down my brow, you know, into my eyes. I don't have a mosquito, you know, on my neck trying to

bite me. My heart rate's not one hundred and fourteen because I just ran up a mountain to try to get this shot. I'm not or my heart rate's not excited, you know, elevated because I'm so excited. I did that a big giant bulls coming in, you know, or bulls ripping bugles off, whatever it may be. The shot that I described in my driveway is I'm just shooting at a thirty yard target versus the shot that I'm about ready to take on a real bowl. They're completely different,

and none of nothing matters. Your tags don't matter, your preparation doesn't matter. You know, all of your fancy gear doesn't matter. Nothing that you'd have did to get to this point matters if you miss this shot as far as success is concerned. So I like to shoot enough throughout the off season or now I'm at a point in my life career I've shot bows enough that i don't have to spend as much time. But I've got to a point where I've become almost automatic. Everything's the

same as it is always. I'm confident in my system, but you need to shoot enough where it's almost second nature. I honestly don't remember, you know, out of the last ten Archie bowls, I've killed like half of them, I almost black out and I can't remember anything about that shot process. But I did it enough. I'm I do it enough the same exact way that things are just automatic. You know, I shoot a trigger now because I had some bad habits with a risk a wrist release. I

you know, I click it on, I grab it. I I get to my anchor, I centerr my pin, all right, I center my housing on my on my peep, I check my level, I you know, bring my pin up. I'm a, i'm a. I bring my pins up typically and then I I hover the pin or the area I need to and I just slowly start to squeeze. Now, I don't remember doing that on multiple bowls, and it's the only way. I just have to credit that back to doing it enough throughout the year that it was

just automatic. But but yet I've sent my blacked out. So it's like I've executed perfectly without really like consciously knowing what's going on. And that's where I like to be I'm not overthinking it. It's like it's all right, it's automatic. I'm not looking at horns. I'm not doing everything is just it's you know, go up the backside of the leg, go halfway, move you know, move back three inches, you know, start to squeeze so you know, for me, and then I kind of talk to myself

like anchor center and breathe, you know. I I still get a little bit excited, especially on certain bowls, and so it's just my way of breathing because I'll try to hold my breath for a minute during this whole process, and the next thing I know is I'm out of breath or I'm breathing too hard as this bull gets into range. The other thing, I want to take the time until you're in a lot of these situations, you

may not know when to draw your bow. I I'm going to preface us with I'm not responsible for any boy you don't get a shot at, but I would I always err on the side of drawing my boat

earlier then later. Now you need to be able to read how slowly the bull's approaching, what he's looking for, is he's stopping, is he gonna continue you to keep coming is on a mission like all of that will eventually change when I'm gonna draw my bow, but I will always draw earlier than later, because you're typically not going to get your bow drawn when that bowl is

close and locked in on you. So that's another thing that kind of you know, adds to that shot has being able to get your your bow drawn early than trying to draw it late. Number nine, setting up and then capitalizing when you're in the red zone. So as I get to a setup spot, I always look where are my shooting lanes from where I expect that bowl to come in. I want to set up within shooting distance of any terrain or vegetation breaks, So I want to set up in front of brush or trees if possible,

to break up your outline. I want to stand if allowed. So a lot of times the reason I make the decision to go to my knees versus stand is if I've got branches that are going to be in my way, I kind of imagine, you know, vital heights out in front me, And there are times where being on your knees allows that arrow to be you know, two feet lower. For the majority of its flight and just you know,

less issues there good visibility. Can I swing my bow and get shots in most directions where the heavily used trails or good open paths my shooting lanes? Where is he gonna where? You know, what's that bowl likely gonna take? Once I pick my spot and I'm confident my setup, then I'll start my calling. But I'm looking at all of those things, like, you know, what what is the wind doing? Is it? Does it got a chance to switch?

Are we in that late morning you know, nine ten o'clock in the mountains where the sun's you know, starting to hit or the opposite, you know, you're at five or six at night and the ship the shadows are starting to get long and kind of filling in your base, And like, is that wind going to potentially switch at anytime during this you know calling. I'm looking at all

of those things. But the reason I add this to uh, these ten mistakes, and sometimes it may be even the biggest mistake, is I get to see a lot of videos, you know, and I always joke with people. A lot of times I get shown I'm like, oh man, this is a fifteen minute long video at a at a show, and I'm kind of like, ah, but I watch a fifteen minute video and you know, you get to see a ball come in for about ten seconds in the middle of it, and then he kind of hangs up

and leaves. Well, these people, I'm convinced that the majority of people or hunters can find ouk, they can call out good enough to get him to come to their direction. I'm but they aren't thinking their way through the setup. And so this is what really wanted, you know. Has me adding this to my list is because I've seen it over and over and over and over. You know, guys that maybe haven't killed bulls for five ten years, you know where they kill one bowl every ten years.

They show me these videos enough times and it's like, well, you did everything right. Besides, you set up really crappy in a crappy spot with with crappy odds, and so

spend more time on your setup. He is going that bowl, no matter if it's satellite or whether it's a herd bowl, is going to hang up when his eyes can see has a straight line site distance to where the elk calling to him, which is you or your buddy, whoever's calling should be So if you're in a thousand yard meadow, a giant meadow, and that bowl comes out on the opposite side. He's likely not going to walk all the way across that meadow because he sees where these elks

should be. If there's none elk there, they're going to typically go back to whatever they were doing. The same thing with one hundred yard meadow in a pocket of timber, like, they will cross that, but many times they will not. Same thing goes with inside the timber. If it's wide open, old growth timber and they can see forever. A lot of times they're going to get to a spot they're going to see, they're going to hang up, and they're

going to go back. So limit the shot distances on setups, you know, even if you got to wait a little bit, whether you got to push the envelope to get a little tighter, find a spot that's better to set up than than you know, a spot that you know doesn't have the train breaks or the vegetation breaks. You need

to get a close archery shot. And number ten, this is my last one, and I still think that this is more important than anything that I know, anything that you know about all cunting nothing matters if you don't have the time to get out and go hunting. So time to hunt. And some people may say, well, I've only got a weekend. You know, I've only got weekends.

I've only got one week of vacation. That's fine, but that week of vacation is going to be way more important to your success than than you know, being a weekend warrior or not getting any weeks. And this isn't meant to you know, say that you need to hunt every day, like you know in September, like we get to or I you know, I've got the privilege to do. I'm just saying, don't. Don't expect to be successful if you've only got a limited amount of time to hunt.

Always it's no matter what, no matter how good you are. I've looked at a lot of hunts, like, man, if I only got to hunt this for three or four days, I would have struck out. I wouldn't have been successful. Hunt as much as you can, but the time, the amount of time to hunt is typically going to be like the most correlating factor to your success. Now, some people will argue like, well I I have an awesome piece of private or what, Yeah, there are things that

are going to add more to success. But as far as you know our general you know, general hunting or public land hunting or you know the stuff where you don't have a huge advantage that the amount of time to hunt is going to be, you know, the biggest factor towards finance success. Just because they are elk. You can't control what they do. You can't control the wind.

There are times there are hunts where the wind is just all over the place, or storm systems are moving through and there's nothing you're gonna do to ever kill an elk in those situations with the bow. So I'm gonna end on on time to you know, spend as much time out there. It's it's an awesome experience. I love every September. I try to spend as much time out there as I can. It's kind of my my chance from you know, all the hustle of the year's work and you know, all the call design and going

to shows. I love being out there in September. Listening to bulls bugle just kind of lets me unwind. Is kind of my refresher for the year. I feel like I come back to work and ready to roll. But just go out there and enjoy elk cutting this year. Get excited, be willing, be confident, be willing to call. And I hope you guys, all, guys and gals all have a great September elk season. But yeah, avoid these ten mistakes and I feel like you're gonna have a

lot better odds at finding success this year. Until next time, thank you for tuning in to cutting the distance, dit Mot and a back TI