A Western bowhunt in one of the great adventures of our time. Your quest can be for antelope, elk, mule deer, black bear and even more exotic species like moose, goat and sheep if you can draw a license. As an archer, you’ll find uncrowded mountains and forests to share the camaraderie among bowmen, even strangers. Information is readily available on-line and from game & fish personnel who welcome hunters as an important conservation element in their work.
Just Like Camping
A few years ago, I was invited to bowhunt for elk in Colorado where licenses were available without the need for a lottery drawing. I met my friends at the airport, we went to WalMart to buy a license and headed out towing a large travel camper. We drove into the mountains, set up camp and went hunting, hiking each morning from camp.
I could only manage four days away from my job, so the hunt was brief, yet I worked several bulls and sneaked within 50 yards of two. One afternoon, I came across a remote watering hole that had fresh elk tracks and was tempted to set up an ambush. Allowing wanderlust to take over, I moved on and returned just before dark on the way back to camp. I only got a glimpse of it’s rack, but a very mature bull was drinking at water’s edge as I approached. We saw each other at the same time and I had no chance for a shot. A more patient archer could have scored on a trophy bull while hunting public land without a guide.
Do Your Homework
I’m taking three men on their first elk hunt this fall to fill an unexpected vacancy in our Colorado camp. As rookies, this will be a grand adventure and a significant learning experience for them. No doubt, the experience will lead to other hunts as they find a new hunting area or team up with other experienced hunters.
Roy Grace covers 10 pitfalls that Western archers can encounter and this post from the Western Hunter website is a perfect primer to boost your success:
Have you ever wondered why some bowhunters seem to have more success than others? Whether or not they’re hunting multiple states and/or species, public or private land, they simply get it done each and every year. I’ve been fortunate to meet and know a few consistently successful bowhunters over the years and have learned that there’s a common recipe why they rise to the top while others fail. While there’s numerous contributing factors, here are the ten most common mistakes I’ve observed over my last 35-plus years of pulling bow strings.
