How do you motivate yourself?

[Bait O' Eggs]

When hunting elk with a rifle in the fall I never seem to have a problem keeping the spirits up and finding the energy to get up before daylight and chase elk till dark no matter how many days I have already done it in a row. :smile:

When bow hunting elk in the hot summer heat I usually get burned out at some point in the season. You dont see as many animals in the heat, they are harder to locate. It is harder to expend the energy to cover the distance needed when the thermometer is over 90 degrees the bulk of the day.

I love watching bow hunting videos. I understand most of them are done on private ranches and when hunting public land it doesnt always work the way they show. I plan on taking my 12 volt TV this year and am thinking we can watch hunting videos on the VCR at night to keep the juices flowing for the following day. :grin:

Once your defeated between the ears the chances of killing an elk drop dramatically IMO. What do you do to keep your spirits up when you are hot, tired and not finding the animals on an extended hunting trip, though you know elk are in the area?

[blackdog]

First thing, don't kill yourself during the day. The elk are only active for a very short period of time, first and last light. This is only heightened as the heat goes up (usually all bow season, especially when it keeps getting earlier - a whole different issue ). You should really concentrate your efforts during these times and mimick what the elk do during the rest of the day - find someplace cool and rest up. Take a nap in the shade and be ready to go when the sun gets ready to go down. Hunting them at times when they're not active, all you're going to do is spook them out of their normal routine, decreasing already slim chances of killing one. Hunt clear to the last second of daylight (don't take chancy shots - just know where to start the next morning) and be back in your 'spot' before the sun starts up the next morning. Hunting like this will hopefully help from killing yourself while hunting/hiking during the sweaty hours of the day. Plus dreaming during your daytime nap of the huge, screaming bull you watched on your vidoe the night before will have you rarin' to go by late afternoon.

[jet]

Graze during the morning, Sleep during the heat, Graze during the evening... you are a elk... you are a elk. A bald elk but you are a elk.

A little elk scent under the arms and some **** rolling might help you to smell like one as well. I cant say that... I really used the right word, Dun@ is not a bad word

Jet~~~

[ 08-16-2002, 09:47 AM: Message edited by: jet ]

[6wapiti6]

This goes a little against what has been said,but elk need to drink during hot, dry days. Try to find a wallow or a spring that has been seeing a lot of activity. Find a shaddy spot and sit for a while. You may be surprised to see how much activity there is during mid-day. It is also a good place to see other game such as deer or a coyote. Seeing animals, no matter if they are what I am after or not always gets my blood flowing!

[ 08-16-2002, 10:20 AM: Message edited by: 6wapiti6 ]

[Myles]

It's just a long season!! I don't know how much you get out but I work in Hillsboro and can get out during the week after work. Sometimes when the weekend came I was too tired to get real motivated. I had found a herd and kept going back to that area and found them about 40% of the time. If I didn't have a herd scouted it would have been real hard to just "wander" the woods day after day. The herd seems to have moved a bit and I'm still trying to locate them consistantly without much luck. I was out there last night till about 10:30 just listening from the ridge in different locations and did hear some cow/calf talk about 3/4 mile from the old hangout. I'll be scouting that area this weekend.

With that said: if I didn't have a herd or area known to hold animals it would be real tuff to keep motivated day after day.

If I'm out midday I consider it scouting with a bow, not really expecting to come across animals but maybe a well used area, a rub or wallow. (mostly I find another road that I could have driven too )

myles

[DRUNK COWBOY]

I am a caller for several of my friends in Eastern Oregon. I have experienced several nice opportunities and shots that have come in the heat of the day. Hot bulls are not always relaxing during their season of lust :shocked:
We pack a lunch (MRE) and are gone from dawn to dusk.

Just my .02 worth

[tailchaser]

Hey cowboy, I was curious to see if you were still alive?? The next day after you left I shot a 275 lb bruin with Kenny in the afternoon about 10 min from his house.

tc

[Bait O' Eggs]

If its light I am hunting. You can shoot them all day long. Some of my best situations have happened in the middle of the day when I keep my mind in the game. I dont care to sit and wait for them to come to me. I could never own a tree stand. An elk has to eat every 4 or 5 hours as it is like a beef cow, it chews it cud and then gets up and forages a little and drinks a little because it is hungry.

If I had more endurance I would run them down when I spotted them :shocked:

This year I will get to hunt the first weekend, then a 4 day weekend, then a weekend, then 9 days straight in the end of the season. That only gives me 17 days of actually trying to get that bull to stand still at a killable angle for a couple seconds at less than 40 yards, with no cows tipping him off, or a branch in the way or any of the other 1000 things that always seem to go wrong at the last second. And in the middle of the bow season I have a rifle deer tag that will be calling for a little attention.

If I could only pack my bow and rifle at the same time when both tags are available.

[blackdog]

I didn't mean to start a debate about whether or not elk are active during the day or not. Especially during the rut, anything can happen. But, as it was pertaining to your original question on staying motivated, the point I was trying to make was to not kill yourself to the point of dreading what you are doing. Hiking like crazy during the heat of the day (which lately has been well into the 90's in our elk country) is a pretty quick way to do that. As with everything else, persistence does pay though.

[Norm]

90% of my shots have come in the morning or evening. If I'm hunting in the afternoon it's by water. I never get burned out, tired maybe, but never burned out. My knees still knock when sighting down on a bull, after ten years I still love it. If bow season was longer, I'd be unemployed and single :grin: . It keeps me motivated to stay in shape, when it's cold, rainy, 6:00 AM and I'm up jogging, it's because I love the hunt. I usually travel 5-10 miles a day during elk season, no way I could still do that if I didn't stay in shape. Now I'm training my son and nephew and hopefully passing on the passion to a new generation. One more week and it's yah hoo time.