Been there, done that, got the T shirt.......

[WapitiTalk1]

Allrighty, with our hunting seasons looming very close.... I figured it was timely to start this thread. Let's offer up a "mistake" that we've made once or more while elk hunting. It can be something as simple as forgetting a needed piece of gear to a mistake while stalking, calling, shooting, etc. These discussions/points of light are a good reminder for us old salts as well as good references for some of the newer wapiti hunters. Let's go! I'll start with a very basic one.

If a bull continues to answer your calls each and every time as you approach him, but, seems to continue to move away....... he's using your calls to locate you and move his pack o' elk away from an amorous bull who would try to steal what he has gathered up!

[Pete112288]

Dang, Right there is a great purpose for a thread like this.
2 years ago was the first time I ever got into it with calling back and fourth with a bull that has cows with him. That is exactly what he did. Kept calling but then would move off.

My biggest mistake was not aiming small enough. I was only about 20 feet away. In thick brush. Last week of late season archery. Big lead cow comes up through the brush and walks clearly into the only clear shooting lane there was. This was mostly young growth filled in with vine maple and blackberries. I let it fly when I saw that all my pins rested on solid vitals, instead of picking a point and aiming with one pin. There was a vine maple twig that had stuck up in the way closer to me than the elk. The arrow ended up stuck in the tree inches above the elks back. I am just glad it didnt turn into a bad shot and lost badly hit animal.

[vandeman17]

Hunting backcountry in Oregon. Got caught in a rain squall so scrambled to get rain gear on. Squall lasted a little bit then sun came back out so I stopped to strip rain gear back off before continuing the hunt. I was on a steep hillside with sporadic trees here and there. About 20 minutes later just before I crested a little saddle I heard a few cow chirps and could see antler tips about 50 yards ahead in thicket of timber. Nock an arrow and do the hand flip to grab my release and.... no release. Slowly backed out and proceeded to take the last hour of daylight backtracking and retracing my steps to try and find the tree that I took my rain gear off under. Darn camo wrist straps make them suckers tough to find. 

[Woodchuck]

At the truck waiting for a couple other guys to come out. Decided to sit in the truck and listen to the radio. Some minutes later look up to see a herd crossing 20 yards behind the truck in my rear view. They went over the hill and out of my life forever. 
Stay outside the truck with weapon handy, they will show up in the oddest places.

[pianoman9701]

Dang, Right there is a great purpose for a thread like this.
2 years ago was the first time I ever got into it with calling back and fourth with a bull that has cows with him. That is exactly what he did. Kept calling but then would move off.

My biggest mistake was not aiming small enough. I was only about 20 feet away. In thick brush. Last week of late season archery. Big lead cow comes up through the brush and walks clearly into the only clear shooting lane there was. This was mostly young growth filled in with vine maple and blackberries. I let it fly when I saw that all my pins rested on solid vitals, instead of picking a point and aiming with one pin. There was a vine maple twig that had stuck up in the way closer to me than the elk. The arrow ended up stuck in the tree inches above the elks back. I am just glad it didnt turn into a bad shot and lost badly hit animal.

CAB and I had this happen last year, didn't we, Jason?

My recurring mistake (and i think I've broken myself from it), was moving too fast through the woods and bumping animals. I've gotten to a point now where I'm seeing them first, which is cool.

[WapitiTalk1]

At the truck waiting for a couple other guys to come out. Decided to sit in the truck and listen to the radio. Some minutes later look up to see a herd crossing 20 yards behind the truck in my rear view. They went over the hill and out of my life forever. 
Stay outside the truck with weapon handy, they will show up in the oddest places.

Instant classic  . 

[Woodchuck]

At the truck waiting for a couple other guys to come out. Decided to sit in the truck and listen to the radio. Some minutes later look up to see a herd crossing 20 yards behind the truck in my rear view. They went over the hill and out of my life forever. 
Stay outside the truck with weapon handy, they will show up in the oddest places.

Instant classic  .

I was pretty bent at myself for a bit.

[gaddy]

Make sure every one in your party is fluent with the reg's. My brother brought a buddy of his along from the west side one year. They had talked about the spike only in the blues and we did a refresher once at camp. I understand and have read the reg's he said. One day he was designated to be the pick up person and took the truck while my brother and I dropped into the woods. When we met up with him, he told a story about having a huge bull at 50yd's from the truck that just hung around and once stood there broadside for aprox 5 min's.
The one thing that we had not thoroughly discussed was that only one side had to be a spike, not both.    He had passed on a 6x spike. We grabbed the reg book off the back seat and showed him the definition of a spike and he about cried. Not long after season I heard of a 6x spike being taken in the general area.

[JWEBB]

Worst mistake I have ever made elk hunting hands down. Knocked a huge 6 point down on an almost vertical cliff. Had 2 other hunting partners with me and we thought it would be a good idea to tie him off by his antlers with para cord. As soon as we moved him into dressing position all we heard was a loud snap. That bull literally flew down the hillside and ended up another 200 yards from where he initially laid. Luckily he only lost one point.  Won’t make that mistake again

[Old Man Yager]

Not shooting a legal rag horn, while waiting for the herd bull. Me and my buddy got into a herd of about 20 elk. I told him to follow them where they entered the timber. I ran up the road and jumped into the timber and waited. Cows and 3 legal rag horns start coming out of the brush and enter the clearing, 3 tag horns all broadside at 60 yards, they don't even know I'm there. So im watching the bigger Bulls antlers come through the brush, and thinking perfect, he's going to follow the cows and be broadside. BOOM, bull disapears from my scope, buddy shot him!! Best part was it was right at dark, my buddy looks at me, looks at the elk, and asks what do we do now? Good times right there!!

[Dan-o]

Make sure that the idiot overbugling his way up the draw midday isn't a huge bull.........

[Mr Mykiss]

I cow called at a bull from 7’ away...it didn’t work.

[ruttnbuck]

I cow called at a bull from 7’ away...it didn’t work.

 Sorry that happened but that's good stuff right there ,can't stop laughing

[bearpaw]

This is for novices.

Learn What Elk Tracks and Rubs Look Like Before Hunting Season!
I grew up in the NE Corner of WA, when I was a kid most areas here had very few elk and very few moose so I wasn't knowledgeable at all on knowing the difference in moose and elk tracks and rubs. The first year myself and some other teenage buddies hunted in Montana we went over almost every weekend during archery and rifle season. We wasted 1.5 weekends hunting areas for elk because we saw what we thought was big elk tracks and rubs. After a couple weekends we finally figured out the difference due to the fact all we kept seeing was moose, bulls, cows, and calves. Once we figured out what moose tracks and rubs looked like we finally found good elk areas and had a blast chasing rutting bull elk. There are enough online resources now that anyone can get this learning curve mostly out of the way before ever going on a hunt so you don't waste your time chasing moose sign thinking it is elk sign like we did. 

[Jpmiller]

Last season I got super screwy with my sleep schedule during the season. Instead of taking naps in the middle of the day I fell asleep twice on a glassing nob an hour before dark because I skipped my nap. Of you're a guy that needs a nap during the day take a nap before it's too late.