Self assessment for me is an important part of preparing. How much time do I have to scout? How many days can I hunt? How ready am I for this hunt? What do I need to do to increase my odds of success? I replayed every archery experience I've had, thinking through every hit and every miss, thinking about what they have in common and thinking through everything from gear to fitness.
The bottom line is I will need a lot of hard work, a bit of luck, and all the help I can get.
The Good: I have just about everything I need as far as equipment to hunt out of a big camp, or to carry my camp on my back and hunt the backcountry. I am more familiar with this unit than any other in the state. (though that doesn't say much). I have a flexible job and can hunt every day of the season if I can cover my responsibilities and make sure my daughter has someone watching her as I'm daddy daycare on my days off. I have seen nice bulls in a couple areas and feel confident I can find more areas.
The Bad I haven't shot my bow in a year. Like I said, I'm a waterfowl guy and we had a kid last fall and its stayed in the garage since. Lots of shooting to do this summer. I don't know anything about the higher and western parts of the unit, where it seems most of the bulls might be. And I don't really know much about elk hunting. I've taken one shot on a cow and put the arrow right where I thought I wanted it to be, but saw her alive and well the next day. Other than that I've never even pulled my bow back on an elk. I've only been on 3 different elk hunting trips. I have never even attempted an elk call other than squeeking a primos hootchie mama which got me yelled at by everyone in camp.
The ugly. I said it would be honest self assessment. I'm what they call "fat". Not that fat guys can't kill elk, a quick view of past threads show otherwise. But with my limited skill and experience, lack of fitness will be a huge detriment. Here's a pic of me this March in Sierra Leone.
In fairness to me, the skinny African kids add 15 lbs...
but basically I've been 50 lbs overweight for a decade. I managed to dodge the Ebola out break in Africa and coming home I decided I should lose weight. In April I made a goal to hit the high buck hunt in september and have been working out and eating healthy since. I'm down 19 lbs and will be down at least another 25 by September.
So I set some goals for fitness and mental toughness. Normally I can hunt 3 days before I sleep in the 4th morning and lounge around camp. My goals for this hunt will be to head up August 31, and hunt Sept 2-6th, come home on the 7th, then head back up and hunt the 8-13th. While I could stay up the whole time, I think coming home for a shower, a good nights sleep and to restock supplies will be good for me. Plus it will give me a chance to go to church on Sundays and since I'm the pastor, thats probably a good thing.
So far my goals are around these catergories:
Fitness-Lose another 25 lbs.
Shooting-tune up the bow and put in the hours.
Scouting-at least once a week if I can. With 11 weeks to go, I hope to be up there 10 times.
Learning about elk: Well, In my opinion the best way to learn to hunt something is by hunting it. Too late for that, but I can still learn a lot before September and to get me started I ordered this from Elk Nuts:
I ordered it in the morning and had an email about 2 hrs later that it had shipped already. Two days from ordering it was at my house! Great service and already a fascinating read. Lots to learn.
Up next is bow work and ordering some calls from Jason Phelps. Gotta go, its treadmill time.
