Ep. 97: Ten Common Mistakes Made by Archery Elk Hunters
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Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance. It's the beginning of August and all I can think about all day long is elk. I was able to take a trip out last weekend, got some trail cameras up. I've also figured out that some of these cell cams give me a lot of anxiety because if they're not producing pictures only a day or two in, I want to go back up and move them. I think I like the idea of cameras just sitting there and then I don't, it's a surprise until I show up.

and check them. But anyways, got cameras out thinking about elk all the time. Um, a little bit thinking about, uh, Alaska doll sheep hunt. 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, to share those experiences. But for me right now, um, all I can think about is elk, um, you know, spending a ton of time on Google earth on on X, um,

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 we have before us. But on today's episode, I didn't really want to do listener Q&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 want to learn 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 notch a tag throughout oak season. So we're gonna go through we've got ten things here I'm gonna talk about I just did my best to layout, you know ten of them I've did a seminar I've did some articles on on these 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, um, 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. Um, you know, it's elk hunting. Um,

The only thing for certain when it comes to culling an elk is that nothing from time to time is certain. It's always new. There's always a new wrinkle. The elk are going to react a little bit differently. And so we're always changing. Now, what I will say is 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, um, pan out in our favor. Um, and, and a quote that, that I like to use from my good buddy, Thomas Edison, I've not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. And, uh,

With that said, when it comes to elk hunting, it might not work 10,000 times in a row, but you never know that certain elk on the 10,001th time, that might be the thing that was going to work on them.

With that said, now that we're all confused and like, well, I don't, I'm not going to trust anything that he says here because he just said anything can work and some things don't. This is the general consensus. 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 hunt up.

So, number one, and this is maybe the thing that I tell people in some of my seminars, is this is probably the thing most people do. If we could pick one of these 10 things, this is the thing that probably the majority of elk hunters that I talk to do on a call-in. 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 idea that this bull wants to breed, he wants to stay alive. And so when another bull approaches that sounds, um, 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 bulls coming at him, his first instinct is to take his cows and leave or stay a certain distance away. Um, and, and, you know, be able to maintain that ability to recreate and stay alive. Um,

So you get a bull to bugle, whether they're bugling on their own or you get them to bugle. And so we call our way into it, whether that's every 100 yards, every 50 yards. And I think it's a little bit of natural instinct on our side is we want to keep that bull bugling. 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 to 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've got the wind, right, you're coming in downwind of these elk. I'm ideally trying to get within a hundred yards closer. If possible, the vegetation, the terrain allows me to, I'm going to get a little bit closer. And again,

And I really want to, you know, when I get a bull to bugle, 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 or if 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 late morning, we think those elk are going 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, potentially.

but i'm starting to you know smell for elk i'm starting to look for elk we're just going to move in completely silently at this point um now with that said i'm not too worried if i you know snap a a stick you know ideally i want to go in quiet but elk also make noises so if there is an approaching elk it's not the end of the world um you know as you approach um

So I'm going to be quiet and I'm going to get to a tight distance before I ever, ever make that call. We want...

you know i use the shock and awe a lot of times if a bull's beagling and i don't ever have to make a noise that bull 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 um

you know, and potentially check you out. Um, at that point, they really can't round their cows up. You know, anybody that's seen cows in the timber or feeding, they're kind of just strung out. Um, 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, um, he, you really kind of left him with, he can either take a couple of cows and get out of there, or he's got to come check out, you know, this bull that's very, very close to his cows. Um,

And, and so that's, that's my opinion. Do not, do not bugle your way in. A lot of times you're going to get in that cat and mouse game where those elk always stay three to 400 yards ahead of you. You never close any distance. And that's just kind of how your morning hunt will end. Um,

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

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 the time leading up to season. I had plan A. 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 elk had moved. 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.

you know, and I did all that before season even arrived. The only problem was I would get to that spot and nothing was turning out like I wanted it to the elk weren't 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 pre-pack or, you know, back in the day, I would go in like the weekend before and maybe stash some of my food, um,

I would just ride it out 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 in my hunting career, not even in as good a shape as I was back when I was young. I will not hesitate to pull up spike camp and hike out the 10 miles that I just hiked in that morning or that day before, whatever it is. If I've determined that I likely won't kill an elk in this area, or if I do, it's going to be more on, um,

you know, luck than it was on skill or on, on being able to hunt the elk. So, um, 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 it doesn't have the pressure, maybe it has all of these things, um, that allow you a better chance of success and doing it, you know, in, in my turn, you know, on, on my turn,

terms um playing the game the way that i want to play it um 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 to is is to move um you know i give a spot a good 24 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 going to go to a different trailhead i'm going to bomb into a different area on a different day hunt do some scouting and i'll

you know i'm moving and i'm just trying to find good areas and and they in some certain areas we've hunted year after year that changes from year to year um so you can't go into one spot planning to hunt there the whole time because you don't know if the elk are going to be a couple drainages over or vice versa they may stay in that same drainage year after year so you need to you know be mobile be willing to go find the elk um it's our job to go find them

Uh, you know, I'm looking at things. If I can't find them at a certain elevation, I'm going to go, I want one of my plans, whether it's a and D or opposite elevations, one's in the timber bottom, one's up in the Alpine. Um, you know, one's in, one's in, um, steep country, one's in Benchy country, one's down by the main highway that goes through the unit. One's as far away from the highway as I can get. I'm trying to look at different, different, um,

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

and, uh, you know, go check out different areas. It's going to, you know, typically, typically pay off as I'm looking for these different areas, but they all need to still have food, water, um, and, and some bedding or some escapement security cover to survive. Um,

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 year, you may just not find elk. Um, you know, if you're some of these elk in certain areas, they live in 90% sage, 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 how food, water, and some sort of timber or brush or something that, that those elk can get to, um,

you know, and, and, uh, look at all of those things. Another thing that, that I, 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 week of vacation you're going to take or when you're going to hunt, um, is moon phase a little bit. I've yes, I will admit moon phase changes the behavior of elk during the rut. I'll put that out there with that said, I do not care about the moon phase when I'm picking, when I'm going to hunt, where I'm going to hunt,

How I'm going to lay out my seasons, any of that, the elk are going to regret, regardless of what the moon phase is. Um, I will, you know, I may need to be earlier, you know, let's say we're, we're going into a full moon. Um, you know, even barely coming off of it, you know, on the backside, there was elk will do a majority or they will be more active during the night. Um, and it will, it'll creep a little bit into that, that next morning and it'll start maybe a little later. Um,

But you need to be in your prime, your number one spot early in the morning so you can kind of keep tabs on that.

This I'm going to 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 went through and looked at the dates I had killed a bunch of my archery bulls on, you know, dating back to the early 2001, 2002 is when I started killing Roosevelt's all the way up to some of my more recent bulls 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.

Um, so it really didn't matter. It really didn't, um, 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 things kind of, uh, you know, canceled it out or just elk rutting playing the game. Like we did didn't really matter on, on the moon phase. So, um, I wanted to throw that out there. Um,

Another way to think about reluctance to change strategy is if you go out and let's say your go-to is always go out and just a normal cow mule at any elk that you see out in the woods. Well, if that's not working or if you're not killing a bull every third year, every two years, every other year, every year, maybe you should listen to...

And I'm not saying a person that hunts like me. Maybe listen to a different guy that kills elk every year. Maybe he's nothing but a spot and stock guy. And so you're like, huh, all right. So he doesn't call all, but yet still kills bulls. Or, hey, this guy over here that bugles at every bull, kills a bull every year. 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 your only measurement of...

of success is by killing a bull, then maybe you should start to look at other ways to do it or other, other, um, options as far as, you know, calling elk or killing elk or getting within bow range. Um, 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, um,

gives back you know poor results then maybe you should change up and be willing to change um

you know, uh, that, that process. So listen to successful elk hunters, um, listen to as many as possible to hunt in 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, um, that the others are, um, you know, it, it's,

It can take years off your learning curve if you just listen versus be stubborn and like, I'm going to 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 younger. I would go in. I waited 11 months for September to roll back around. As soon as October 1st hit, I had my calendar set. I wanted September to be here. And I would go good for a day or two, maybe three.

Um, you know, maybe I wasn't in as good a shape or the elk hunting's not going as I wanted. And so I'm a little bit tired and burnout. Um, and my, I would, I could remember sitting on the mountain, have bulls bugling 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'll be eating hot breakfast. Um,

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 in. And I would start to tell myself that I would go down there and screw those up anyways. I just probably leave them for this evening. Now, the more experienced, more mature me says that that might not be a bad idea all the time. But back then I was letting kind of the, you know,

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You know, in the middle, the mental part of a hunt is just as real, if not more than the physical side. You know, was I...

How far am I from the truck? Do I need to go back? If we kill this elk, how bad is the pack out going to be? Is there a bull closer to the road? Is there a bull 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 allows you to be successful or gives you the opportunity.

Um, so don't be the person talking yourself out of opportunities that may, um, prove to be your best chance of success. Um, 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, um, no matter what.

you know you need to be you need to kind of battle harden yourself though be a little bit bulletproof and you have to become a mentally tough elk hunting um an elk hunter or an elk hunting partner um

you can't have partners that will kind of breed doubt 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. Um,

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

I'm going to use the afternoon downtime to explore new basins or different levels within the mountain, you know, within the basin. Everything that I do is going towards the success of me being, you know, a successful elk hunter. And so that's kind of how I run my day, you know, whether it's, you know, bugling it, 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 elk hunter.

Number four is overthinking your calling. We mentioned earlier, bulls are thinking about two things, cows and fighting. The herd bull is focused on breeding as many cows as possible and keeping all the other bulls away. I'm going to oversimplify all this. The satellite bulls are trying to steal as many cows away or just minding their business if they're too low in the pecking order, but always willing to go find a cow. So with that said, even the smallest rag bulls will typically come into calls.

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 want him to think he's got a chance at a cow. So I may not want to have any other bugles involved. I may want to just throw straight cow calls at him. If it's a semi-mature herd bull, I may throw some semi-mature bulls

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. Um, you know, and so I, I keep it very, very simple. Um, 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, um, you know, to a call. So you, you keep all of that in mind. You start to develop a strategy very quickly, just based on a few things, um, that, that I'm thinking about within the hunt. Um, 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 you can do a whole lot of damage there as long as they're not winding you you know but but don't overthink your calling to a point where you're unwilling to make a call at all during the situation like I've been around people who are 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 on a different topic the best way to learn is 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 cow call here do I get a bugle do I get a cow to 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 gonna do and I just used enough experience you know I

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 hunt 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 bull, but 10 situations, he'll do 10 different things regardless. You know, I can cow 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 your calling. Get in tight.

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 beagle will be right behind that cow, basically letting that bull know that there's a bull with the cow in your herd. For herd bulls, satellite bulls, 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 bull, 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 pretty good certainty. You know, I'm not going to say you're going to call every bull 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. Um, 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. Um, 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. Uh, by all means, that's fine. But I also feel that, um,

It can also hurt your calling and I'm gonna I'm gonna give some examples why I'm fortunate to hunt with some of the best Callers that are out there as well, you know And and we're never we never call with the idea that we're too aggressive or we're afraid that we're gonna scare elk away We don't scare them away. We push them away for other rings 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 15 yards he's ripping on beagles and all of a sudden this bull starts to get closer 100 yards well guess what at 100 yards that real bull has got depth he's got volume he's got all these things that my buddy who's only 15 yards behind me blowing this call right in my ear no longer or he never had he's not as loud he's not as thunderous he's not as guttural

And so why this guy's cranking 15 yards away and by the time you start to get all of the sound to bounce off the timber and the vegetation around, you already by default sound like a small little bull compared to what's out there. And 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 blow on a call, no matter how much air you put across it, you're just not going to sound like

you know, like as big as a real elk. Reason number two, um, for those that don't know my background, I grew up, you know, on at the base of the Willapa Hills just outside. And we don't have very big bulls here. We have big body bulls. Some will say Roosevelt's, but we, we have some, you know, small horn bulls, probably a younger age class. Um,

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've keep a lot of my Roosevelt bulls, I'm like, man, you think this guy would eventually go after a herd bull every once in a while. Guess what? I killed a whole bunch of,

of 150 to 170 inch roosevelt bulls a lot of times they're four points maybe some real small fives but in my attempt to try i would trust me i was trying to kill herd bull these dang rag horns 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 um

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 while cranking on bugles or cranking on like, why would I, you know, those two things added up. Like I'm not going to call any less than I am now.

So I'm always going out there cranking. I don't think you can really screw up. And I also feel that at times you're going to sound –

you know smaller you may not elicit either of these bowls to come in because a satellite bowl you may not want to come check in a lesser bowl um there are times though where i will spike squeal um 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 bull bugle i will need to maybe sound check because i don't know if they've moved or i wasn't confident that they bedded i usually give out like a small bowl kind of a money bugle

Um, 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 him, but that's about the only time I try to really crank back my calling. Other than that, it's going 110%, you know, all the time.

Um, some of you may laugh and I will, I will allow it. Um, so I'm going to talk about physical fitness or lack thereof. Um, you know, I, I'm a guy for those of you that know me, like I'm, 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'll let myself go a little bit, but I, I know my body, I know where I need to get to, um, 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

15 miles into a wilderness and that's great like it gives you the ability but hey I could also go kill an elk a half mile off a highway um but I want to have the ability to go hunt that 15 miles deep in the wilderness if that gives me my best chance for a certain type of bull or just the best chance of success in general um so you have to be able to go where they are um

And you have to be able to go where they are on the last day as well as the first day. So yeah, you may be in, you know, get, be able to get there on the first day, but are you going to get there on the last day? Um, are you going to be able to pack a bull out from somewhere on day three and not need to take two days off when your buddy's ready to hunt? Um, 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, um,

So, so just be in as good a 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 10 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 the reality of things. Like elk hunting is hard. Elk hunting in places where elk want to be and they go to escape to live is hard work. Be in as good a shape as possible. I'm not going to spend too much time on that one. But find whatever works for you. If you're a crossfitter, go crossfit. If you're a weightlifter, go weightlift. If you're a bike rider, go bike ride. Just be in as good a shape as possible and be able to go up and chase bulls wherever you need to to be successful.

Um, number seven is the wind and playing it too. Perfect. I've, I've talked about this before. Um, a lot of people, especially if you're unwilling or uncomfortable, which many should be on taking a frontal, um, shot, you're playing the wind too. Perfect. Could mess you up. Um, 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 bull 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. Um, 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 that bull is going to come to our left. So I like to go at the wind, you know, 30, 45 degrees is plenty. Like you, you can give them even more than that, but the chances of you not getting a shot before that, um, goes up pretty dress, you know, it, it,

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 bull 90 degrees of wind. You know, I'm still safe, but as soon as he crosses that imaginary line between my right and left ear, you know, if you project out to my left, I'm going to need to make sure I can, you know, get that, you know, done. So,

Give them a little more wind though. They'll take a tighter circle that you know If you give them just a little bit of wind 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 bull will be more likely to come in perfectly straight ahead number eight

shooting your bow or your muzzleloader and not getting bull fever and being able to make the shot. So, you know, we all get to shoot out in our, 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 and,

Guess what? My heart rate is at a perfect 72 or 68, whatever it is. I don't even know what my heart rate is. I don't have sweat rolling down my brow into my eyes. I don't have a mosquito on my neck trying to bite me. My heart rate's not 114 because I just ran up a mountain to try to get this shot. My heart rate's not excited, elevated because I'm so excited that a big giant bull's coming in or bull's ripping bugles off, whatever it may be.

the shot that i described in my driveway is i'm just shooting at a 30-yard target versus the shot that i'm about ready to take um on a real bull they're completely different and none of nothing matters not your your tags don't matter your preparation doesn't matter you know all of your fancy gear doesn't matter nothing that you have did to get to this point matters if you miss this shot um 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 10 archery bulls I've killed, like half of them, I almost blackout 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, I shoot a trigger now because I had some bad habits with a wrist, you know, wrist release and,

I click it on, I grab it, I get to my anchor, I center my pin, or I center my housing on my peep. I check my level. I bring my pin up. 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 bulls. 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. Um,

But but yet I've seen 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 alright. 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 um 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 pool gets into range um 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 this 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 bow earlier than later. Um, now you need to be able to read how slowly the bull's approaching, what he's looking for. Is he stopping? Is he going to continue to keep coming? Is he on a, is he on a mission? Like all of that will eventually, um, change when I'm going to draw my bow, but I will always draw earlier than later because you're typically not going to get your bow drawn when that bull is close and locked in on you. Um, so that's another thing that kind of, uh, you know, adds to that shot.

It's being able to get 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 my shooting lanes from where I expect that bull to come in.

I want to set up within shooting distance of any terrain or vegetation breaks. 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 of 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 are the heavily used trails or good open paths? My shooting lanes? Where is he going to work? You know, what's that bull likely going to take?

Um, once I pick my spot and I'm confident in my setup, then I'll start my calling, but I'm, I'm looking at all of those things. Like, uh, 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, 10 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, the shit, the, the shadows are starting to get long and kind of filling in your base. And like, is that wind going to potentially switch at any time during this, um,

I'm looking at all of those things. But the reason I add this to these 10 mistakes, and sometimes it may be even the biggest mistake, is I get to see a lot of videos. And I always joke with people. A lot of times I get shown, I'm like, oh, man, this is a 15-minute long video at a show. And I'm kind of like, ah. But I watch a 15-minute video, and you get to see a bull come in for about 10 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 elk. They can call out good enough to get them to come to their direction. I'm, but they aren't thinking their way through the setup. And so this is what really want, 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, 10 years, you know, where they kill one bull every 10 years, uh,

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 crappy odds. And so spend more time on your setup. We've all seen plenty of gadgets and fads come and go, but here's one product that stood the test of time. Seafoam motor treatment. Lots of hunters and anglers know that seafoam helps engines run better and last longer.

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Help your engine run better and last longer. Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more. He is going, that bull, no matter if it's a satellite or whether it's a herd bull, is going to hang up when his eyes can see, has a straight line sight 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 bull comes out on the opposite side, he's likely not going to walk all the way across that meadow because he sees where these elk should be. And if there's an elk there, they're going to typically go back to whatever they were doing.

Um, the same thing with a hundred yard meadow in a pocket of timber, like they will cross that, but many times they will not. Um, 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, um, limit the shot distances on your setups. Um, 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, uh, 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 10, 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 cutting.

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 week, you know, I've only got weekends or 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. Um, 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,

So 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 and 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 have an awesome piece of private or 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, 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 finding 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, you

The wind is just all over the place or storm systems are moving through and there's nothing you're going to do to ever kill an elk in those situations with a bow. So I'm going to end on time to hunt, you know, spend as much time out there. 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 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 hunting.

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 hunting this year get excited um be willing be confident be willing to call and uh i hope you guys all guys and gals all have a great september elk season um but yeah avoid these 10 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. Outdoor adventure won't wait for engine problems. Things like hard starts, rough performance, and lost fuel economy are often caused by fuel gum and varnished buildup. Seafoam can help your engine run better and last longer. Simply pour a can in your gas tank. Hunters and anglers rely on seafoam to keep their engines running the way it should the entire season.

Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more. Are you looking for some great listening material for car rides this summer? We've got you covered. Meat Eaters Campfire Stories is back with its third installment, Discoveries, Revelations, and Near Misses.

There are stories here about gunshot wounds, wild archaeological discoveries, getting lost for days, hunting turkeys in a tornado, and getting an accurate premonition about a 24-point buck in a dream. Order it now. It's available wherever audiobooks are sold. And, as always, you can write into Campfire Stories at...

TheMeatEater.com if you'd like to share one of your own. It's Meat Eaters Campfire Stories, Discoveries, Revelations, and Near Misses, narrated by me, Stephen Rinella.