Here is a list of things that I can think of... 1. There is no such thing as "good enough" physical condition. 2. 9/10 elk hunters we take are not anywhere near ready for an elk hunt. 3. Don't burn yourself out on the first couple of days, it's easy to do and will decrease your chances of success later in the hunt. 4. Learn to use a diaphragm call, put it in your truck, turn off the radio and blow on it everywhere you drive. 5. Spend less time practicing shooting lots of arrows and do lots of practicing shooting 1 arrow per session. It's the only one that counts. 6. Don't carry everything you can think of in your pack. 5lbs will make an enormous difference in your pack. 7. scent control will go out the window after your first 5 minutes of hiking. 8. Spend more time glassing and less time walking/calling, it will pay off. 9. If the bulls aren't talking, either go find one that is or sit somewhere you KNOW the elk are at and be patient. Walking through the dark timber rarely produces anything other than blowing elk out of an area that you know they are in. 10. Headlamps and batteries re irreplaceable. 11. Quality equipment isn't cheap and is irreplaceable. 12. Running out of water can mean really really bad things. 13. Patience kills more elk than hiking and calling combined. 14. Don't measure the success of your hunt on whether or not you kill an elk. 15. Be realistic in your expectations, DIY NR success is less than 15% in all western states. 16. Don't push yourself too far to get somewhere to kill an elk, because it can be really really bad when you do. 17. Even if temps are in the 80's, you can skin an elk, filet the meat open to the bone and put it in the shade and you'll be fine. 18. Garbage bags are not a replacement for cloth game bags. 19. Contact outfitters or pack services in the area you are going to see if they will pack out an animal, it may be the best money you'v ever spent. 20. The most important piece of equipment you will buy are boots. There isn't a faster way to ruin your hunt than blistered feet. 21. Quality rain gear is irreplaceable. 22. Learn how to cape an animal, all the way off the face before you go. 23. When you get the cape down to the skull, cut down to the spine all the way up to the shoulders to allow the heat to escape. Even in 30 degree temps the neck meat can spoil if this isn't done. 24. If you're going to quarter an animal, don't waste time gutting it. 25. If you have to leave the meat overnight, you can whiz all the way around it and leave a jacket over it to keep most predators away. Oh and Corey Jacobsen youtube videos are an excellent resource. That's what is on my mind now... if you have any specific questions. I'm happy to try and help.
Great feedback as always Dubbya. So here's my update with just under 8 months left... I've been working out. Lost about 12 lbs since Christmas. Down to a svelte 210, 185ish is the end game and a weight this old body hasen't seen in about 25-30 yrs. Month 1 has been focused on getting active, exercise and weight loss mainly. Near daily hikes with a pack of 3-7 miles I think was a manageable start for me. Some might not fit in the schedule till 9pm. Though the neighborhood does have hills, is not mountains nor at elevation. Adding weight to the pack is helping with cardio, recovery and endurance. 40# is the current load (weekly I add more). Weekends generally allow longer hikes and off the path treks. These are great to help with hip flexors, especially navigating obstacles with the pack) and the boots while trying to keep an eye open for sheds. Downloaded podcasts (The Rich Outdoors, Gritty Bowmen, Eastmans) have been insightful while on the hikes. Landmarks (mailboxes, trees, light poles, transformers) provide targets for distance estimation. Licensing varies greatly by state. IMHO, reading up on the deadlines, draws, systems requires studying, planning, strategizing and likely (very) longterm planning for anyone considering most if not all (especially non resident) trophy hunt prospects. Since some draws submissions are mostly in q1 and early q2 doing this homework well in advance is important. My sights are much lower, but even an OTC tag approach requires some time and study. I know which state I'm targeting, what I need to do in advance for pre license training/education, I've found/read the regs for the state. Found/saved state/gmu stats for my prospect units and additional supporting info (topos, Google Earth, other info I may use for future hunts). Most stats are as foreign as the licensing for me. I've spent some time here and may elaborate on some of this later...there is a wealth of info available but I think distilling it will be helpful as I likely won't have much scouting/recon time in advance. I've considered my gear mainly for whitetails. I think most of my gaps are around possible overnight bivy/emergency scenarios and water treatment. Purchases will be spread over the year. I'm hoping to squeeze some camping trips into the calendar as a proxy to make sure the gear works as planned and I know how to use everything. As Dubs mentioned I had thought about inserts and my arrow weight. I will be making these tweaks in the coming months. Upcoming work todo: -Exercise (weights, jogging, longer distances and more pack weight) and weight loss. -Longer distance and aggressive up/down hill practice. Out a bit further, cardio to immediate shooting and single shot practice as Dubs mentioned. Any tweaks to setups -Finalize any pre hunt license education/certification pre-reqs. -Selective gear adds/changes. -Calling
Very nice list Dubbya - this may get copied and shared a few times in the future...great way to start someone off on right foot. I was going to highlight the ones I think are most important and then realized I would be highlighting basically the entire list I guess the top 3 that I've stressed to others: -get in best physical shape -good boots that are broke in -Shoot 1 arrow daily (90% of summer practice is just that one arrow each day, then maybe a longer session on weekend) I've seen the conditioning and blisters end more hunts quickly than anything else - even if hunter hasn't actually stopped hunting, once they are sore or blistered feet the effort and attitude fade quickly. Best of luck on your hunt - it's hard for me to imagine a better all around hunt that Sept Elk in the mountains!
22. Learn how to cape an animal, all the way off the face before you go. 23. When you get the cape down to the skull, cut down to the spine all the way up to the shoulders to allow the heat to escape. Even in 30 degree temps the neck meat can spoil if this isn't done. 24. If you're going to quarter an animal, don't waste time gutting it. 25. If you have to leave the meat overnight, you can whiz all the way around it and leave a jacket over it to keep most predators away.[/QUOTE] Shot first elk this fall. I had no problem skinning the animal. I knew how to cape off the head. I waited to skin the cape off the head the next day. Should have taken the time to do right away. I didn't skin up far enough and in a rush because night was coming I ended up wasting way too much neck meat. An elk is huge and has a ton of meat in the neck. I cut it off the next day on what I had missed and tried to save, but it was ruined by the time we got to a locker for storage. You want everything to come off the animal with gutless method that you are saving right away to get air circulating it. Including the cape because you might have some meat left on it depending on how good you are at skinning an animal. You don't want that to rot because that will cause the hair to slip on cape. (hair slip means the hair will fall off) 23 and 25 are good tips that I didn't know about this fall along with the entire list. We were on edge worrying about predators coming on us in the dark for a free meal. Nothing touched the elk the entire night that we know of. We did get all the quarters off along with backstraps and inside loins. Just hated wasting any of the neck meat.
Also been listening in to the Gritty podcasts, and researching as much as I can about Ultralight equipment. I think I am going to hold off on trying to draw this year, and just spend one more year trying to get prepared. But I really wanna get out there, lol!
We lost a couple of elk to bears even though the carcasses were thoroughly pee'd all around and had sweaty shirts hung on them. We also never went back to pack out until after the sun was well into the sky to let the bears, if there to move off, thus there were occasional issues with birds. The most important issue that I've found was to get the gut pile away from the carcass and if not required to leave "evidence of sex" on the animal, to remove the penis and testicles. Grizz seem to love the guts and sex organs.
I will add my two cents in relation to fitness. I succeeded on my first elk hunt this fall. I have a degree in Exercise Science, about to start a Master's Degree, and ACSM Certified Personal Trainer for nine years. I don't mean to toot my own horn; but there are plenty of "internet" fitness experts out there. I want you to know that my advice is solid. 1) Great job on the hiking with a loaded pack! Nothing will prepare your legs and back for the mountains better. 2) Altitude masks as a training tool are suspect at best. Forcibly depriving your body of oxygen under strenuous exercise is a bad idea. The body needs more oxygen the harder it works. If possible, it would be far smarter and healthier to arrive two or three days early and allow your body to acclimate to the altitude. This would be plenty of time. Even one day would be better. Here is an article written by someone smarter than me to that point. 4 Gym Gadgets That Are Wasting Your Time | T Nation 3) Focus on strengthening your upper back and shoulders. Aside from the importance in drawing a bow, these muscles will bear the weight of a pack if you overload it or when you get fatigued. The heaviest objects in your pack should be at the bottom, let your hips support the most weight. If you happen to have a kyphotic posture or rounded shoulders, drawing a bow after lugging a pack up the mountain will be miserable. Make fixing posture problems your #2 fitness goal behind getting the legs ready. Any movement that focuses on pinching the shoulder blades together just became your new best friend. 4) In addition to hiking with a pack, add loaded carries into your training: pick up a heavy object and walk around with it. Farmer's walks and Suitcase carries are great for this. Also, most people have weak core muscles when it comes to anti-rotation. Skip the crunches and do Pallof Presses. In addition to better preparing you for slinging that elk quarter on to your back and keeping your balance should you misstep with a heavy pack on, this will help improve your endurance at holding the bow at full draw. Let me know if you have questions! Best of luck to you.
You have definitely made a great start losing 12lbs and preparing this far out! I also agree to avoid those masks. I am in the Army and doing a gas mask run is a once in awhile thing (maybe twice a year) and the intent is familiarity not enhanced training. Masks do not decrease the percent of oxygen in the volume of air you are breathing, they just make it hard to breath. Good job with doing realistic hikes with weight. Keep increasing the weight until you can easily handle 100 lbs. If you have the option to pick a time, the morning would be best so that you are running primarily off fat (also caffeine has been shown to help the body utilize fat during endurance events). If not, do it when you can. My philosophy for training at this stage would be to solely focus on fat loss. Do not worry about adding strength. The reason for this is two fold. The first being that it is hard to increase strength/build muscle while being calorie deficit (this is required for fat loss). You have plenty of time to add strength. The second reason is the psychological effects of fat loss. Losing fat starts a flywheel of positive benefits. You will feel better, you will look better, and other people will notice/ask you questions. All of this is great positive feedback that will feed your fire. I know your goal is 185 lbs but what is special about that number? 185 at 15% bodyfat is way different than 185 at 8%. You will actually look stronger at 185/8% than someone upwards of 200/15%. You need to focus on attaining a certain bodyfat percentage (I would aim for 8%) while maintaining your current lean body mass (LBM). You need to add in weight training if you haven't already and focus on training density (rest should be 30-60s between sets). Also have a heavy day at least once per week to prevent muscle loss (keep current LBM). The focus now should be large muscle groups that fire up the metabolism and burn lots of calories. I am impressed you mentioned hip flexors. Inflexible and weak hip flexors is one of biggest chronic issues in today's chairborne society. The importance of hip/glute strength is also significantly overlooked. I know this from experience. I had a hip injury three years ago that required a surgery. It took two years to get that surgery and during that time by body shied away from proper hip extension and put a lot of strain on my calf/achilles tendon. Essentially right now I am rebuilding my glutes and learning how to walk/run again. It sucks but things are getting better. You just don't know how important things are until you lose them. That is the end of my rant for today. I really just covered a initial phase of my training philosophy/strategy. I didn’t even have time to get into the tactics to implement this phase of the strategy (over 50% of your fat loss results will come from proper nutrition). I can definitely write more on it, but it will take quite a while. So let me know what else you are interested in. Also feel free to email me at jzornick at gmail.com if you want to set up a phone call or skype the finer points.
I'll say the same thing I just posted on another thread. Get the best binoculars you can afford. I am no expert, but all the times I have gone we have spent a lot of time glassing. Good/great binos will be worth every penny.
Practice out to 70-80 yards, A LOT. That will make a 40-50 yard shot seem easy. The kill zone on an elk is the size of a beach ball. When I drew my bull tag in 2012, I shot more than I have ever shot, and shot better than I ever had. At 50 yards, my average group was grapefruit size. I had never, and have not since, shot that well. I shot every day that it didn't rain. I'd run in place or jog around a bit to get my heartbeat up, then shoot one arrow. Sometimes only 25-30 arrows, sometimes pushing 100. Practice until you can't hold steady, then rest. It paid off for me as I shot my bull quartering away at 50+ yards. The most important thing is being able to make the shot. Good luck.
