First year elk hunting with traditional equipment......

[Venator]

and what I learned.

I have been lucky enough to harvest some good bulls with a compound. However, after having a release and a drop away rest break bear hunting in Canada on two separate occasions, and having a cable guide rod break elk hunting last year I decided it was time to try to simplify my setup. I started shooting a recurve a year ago to the date today. When I started I told myself that if I had enough confidence in my setup out to twenty yards by July that I would hunt with my recurve, if not I would hunt with my compound for one more season. Well July came and my confidence was good based on my first shot arrows at twenty yards and in, my first shot arrows at 30 and beyond were low the majority of the time. Based on this I knew that twenty yards was going to be my max distance. My dad and brother were disgusted by this decision and refuse to talk to me about shooting it.....HA, they are convinced that we would be chasing wounded elk around all season, boy was I hoping to prove them wrong this year. This did not happen, but I do not have regrets in switching to a traditional bow. I have fallen in love with traditional equipment and have no desire to go back to shooting a compound.

The type of elk hunting that I do is in dark thick timber, calls and ambush strategies are the norm for my type of hunting. I do not sit at waterholes nor do I sit in tree stands, I get to impatient trying to hunt this way. I typically try to find open areas to set up in when hunting with my compound, open enough to try to shoot at least 40 yards in all directions. I knew going into this year that I was going to have to try a different strategy in order to get closer shots. With that said I ended up setting up in extremely thick timber. Although this sounds like a good strategy this was in fact my first mistake. I had two bulls under 20 yards the first day hunting and was not able to get a shot because of the limited shooting lanes. I also do a lot of hunting by myself, this makes calling a little more tricky because once a bull gets close and does not see any elk they will eventually get nervous and walk off. Due to this I did not have enough time to move and try to get into a better shooting lane.

The next mistake that I made was not doing enough shooting from my knees. On the third day I had a small bull come in at about 20 yards and was heading directly for a good shooting lane. As he was walking to the shooting lane I raised my bow and began to draw. As I was drawing I must of been dropping my bow hand into the proper elevation. Even though I am still not sure what exactly happened and how it happened but I ended up driving my bottom limb into the ground while I was drawing, I did not expect this and the bow ended up falling right out of my hand. Well that was enough to drive the little guy right into the next county.

All in all this year in my mind was a success even though I did not arrow anything. I learned some valuable lessons this year that will stay with me for life.

I would also be interested in any other tips that people have and what they have learned from the mistakes that they have made.

Congrats to all the people that have been successful this year.

[Tradman]

Elk hunting with trad bows is tough at the least but much more rewarding when it all finally falls into place.sounds like you had some good encounters and made some new memories.any questions you have just ask.

[bjorn]

Gotta' keep the options open. This year I decided to not make any ground blinds; but instead stalk and just stand in a likely area with cover either behind or in front. I wanted the option of moving to take advantage of an upcoming ambush. It paid off! Three cows came down the hill right beside me and I was able to position myself to kill a good cow that would not have presented a shot from the spot I had thought about for a blind.

[Plenty Coups Archery]

You are now officially hooked. There is no cure and no going back!! Only the future to look forward to.
As far as tips from past mistakes......well I may write a book on how NOT to kill an elk with a bow on that subject but for now...
Never call without being ready for a shot.
Be ready even from approaches from down wind.
Human voices do not always spook elk, even laughter (don't ask how I know this) Once again be ready if there is fresh elk sign.
Practice in low light (dusk) as critters tend to be farther than they look when the great hunting lamp is almost out.
Practice when it's cold as a ditch diggers hind end!
Above all keep it fun.