My First (tag along) Hunt

I'll start by acknowledging that a lot of people might hate the act of hunting or they see it as cruel and primitive. I'll write another article in the future diving deeper into why that line of thinking could not be further from the truth and into why hunting and fishing are so important. For now, I'd like to leave you with a two quotes to marinate on.

“I have always tempered my killing with respect for the game pursued. I see the animal not only as a target, but as a living creature with more freedom than I will ever have. I take that life if I can, with regret as well as joy, and with the sure knowledge that nature’s way of fang and claw and starvation are a far crueler fate than I bestow.” – Fred Bear

“In a civilized and cultivated country wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen. The excellent people who protest against all hunting, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wild life, are ignorant of the fact that in reality the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total extermination.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Since my cousin, Reyes, and I were young and playing Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts, we had always said that when we were older we were going to hunt big game together. Well, it took until our late 20s, but we finally went on our first hunt together.

My cousin was in the Army right out of high school until his late 20s while I was starting my career and later living in New York, so we were never around each other very much during our early and mid-20s. He did a lot of hunting on his own but as of my 28th birthday, I was yet to go on a hunt of my own or even tag along with someone.

This is one of the hard parts about not having an older role model or someone to take you along on these outdoor activities. Much like lifting weights, or fishing, it is really hard to get into hunting solely on your own. Of course, it’s possible but it’s one of those hobbies that, let’s be honest, CAN be very expensive and daunting to one day just decide to dive right in.

Let’s fast forward to 2020... The COVID-19 pandemic pushed most of the world into remote work and coincidentally I had just gotten a job that allowed me to work remotely anyway! My cousin was out of the army and back in Arizona and as the stars would have it, he was drawn for a muzzleloader elk tag after putting in for it for the past few years. Of course, he invited me to tag along and help him on this hunt. I was ecstatic! It was a childhood dream come true to finally go hunting with my cousin and finally have the opportunity to learn more and delve deeper into this primal human pursuit.

Muzzleloader season officially began on Friday, November 13th but my cousin went out early on Wednesday, November 11th to scope out the terrain near Stoneman Lake and to hopefully get a grasp on the movement patterns of the elk in the area. I was to head out and meet him in the field on Thursday evening but between his arrival and my own, he excitedly called me about 15 times telling me about the tracks he had seen and at one point, a small herd of elk near the campsite! No doubt this got me even more pumped to get out there!

I arrived just after sundown on Thursday evening and we immediately began going over the game plan for the following morning. We couldn’t wait to get to bed because we knew when we woke up, it was game time!

Day 1 of the Hunt

We woke up at 3:45 a.m. Friday morning (can you tell we were excited?). The sky was still pitch black, the air was bitter cold - but we didn’t care. We started getting ready, boiled water so that we had something to dissolve the cheap instant coffee that tastes gourmet out in the wilderness, and began talking over the game plan. We were to head out to a water hole where Reyes had seen some elk tracks the past couple of days - he was so certain we were going to take down a bull within 30 minutes of sunrise at that watering hole… We hopped on the ATV and rode into the darkness. 

While Reyes and I walked to the water hole, we were encouraged by the tracks near it - We set up on a small hill overlooking the water and began our wait… We waited for 2 hours, shivering, and didn’t see so much as a bird or squirrel. So we decided to change our plan and begin scouting - we hopped on the ATV to move to a new location and began hiking out. 

Our hike was more of the same, a lot of moving around, a lot of glassing the terrain, and a lot of seeing absolutely nothing. I got a lot of snow in my boot so we had to go back to camp so that I could change socks out and warm-up (a good lesson learned here: always bring extra socks). While at camp, we started thinking of a new plan - we were so sure we’d tag out first thing in the morning so we were a little shell-shocked and scrambling.

We set out again, with a plan to ride the ATV out 10 miles across a few different areas that we’d be able to glass and overlook some open areas to hope and spot a herd. Each stop we made went about the same - We’d glass for 30 minutes, see nothing, and continue to another spot. We did this for hours and eventually, the sun started setting and we were forced to turn back. One silver lining came during our ride back when we saw a pretty decent herd of Mule Deer. We weren’t hunting deer, but it was nice to at least see some living object out there so that we knew the area we were in wasn’t completely devoid of wildlife. We also found a small fort that someone left behind - it overlooked two small ponds AND we found fresh elk or deer scat nearby along with some tracks. We decided that this would be the spot we come to the following morning.

When we made it back to camp, we were exhausted. We did a total of 11 miles hiking and another 24 miles on the ATV. We couldn’t help but feel discouraged because we were so sure my cousin would take his bull at first light on opening day. Reyes fell asleep by 7:30 pm and I wasn’t far behind him, falling asleep at 8:30.

Day 2 of the Hunt

The next morning was supposed to follow a similar plan as day 1: Wake up early, set out by 5:30 and stalk out the area and hope a bull walks in for a drink of water at sunrise. But the disappointment from the previous day was still lingering in the camper. We both hit snooze more than once and when we finally got up, we just sat there and tried to encourage each other that today would be better. Even so, we moved slowly. At 6:15, 45 minutes after we were supposed to leave, my cousin was staring blankly into space and I finally stepped outside to get around to brushing my teeth. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were right on time…

While brushing my teeth, I heard the distinct sound of a cow elk… I ran inside, face full of toothpaste, and whispered loudly for my cousin to come outside. The glazed over look on his face quickly disappeared and he came out and listened - right on cue, we heard more cows calling. He didn’t have a tag for a cow, but we knew if the cows were calling, there must be a bull in the area. 

We scrapped our plan for the day, got ready at lightning speed, and began walking North and still hunting. Still hunting is when you take a few steps, stop, and listen and look for any signs of your game. We did this for about 30 minutes, moving a few yards, letting out a cow call, and moving again when the cows would call back. At this point, the sun was up, and it was legal to take game. Reyes let out another elk call and as I peered into the distance, my heart skipped. I saw a set of long brown legs on the move - at this point, I couldn’t tell if it was a bull or a cow. I whispered loudly to my cousin, “I saw one, I saw one, straight ahead!! Let out another call!!”. He couldn’t see it at first, but he let out another cow call as I used the spotting scope to determine we were 68 yards out from the spot I thought he would emerge from. Right on cue, a massive rack of antlers poked through the trees, and my heart began beating 200 mph! I fumbled the shooting stick trying to hand it to my cousin and told him to point to the right of a set of trees - at this point, he still couldn’t see it, but he let out one more call… Just then, a massive bull emerged from the trees and raised his head into the air, sniffing to see where the supposed cow was. My cousin set us up perfectly parallel to the wind and the bull was broadside, the situation couldn’t have been more perfect. The seconds felt like hours after the elk emerged from the trees and then I heard a loud crack split the morning silence. A kill shot. 

The elk reared up on its hind legs and took off. Being the novice that I am, I was ready to give chase but Reyes held me back, that he was sure he delivered a kill shot, and that we needed to wait to hear the bull come crashing down. We celebrated a little bit and then heard the crash not too far away. We excitedly began walking in the direction of the crash and about 20 yards away from where the elk was hit, we found him down. BULL DOWN! We were ecstatic and we could barely get coherent words out - We hugged, shook hands, and began excitedly calling our family. The Bull Elk was down. We sat in awe for about 10 minutes, it was a magnificent beast. We knew the real hard work of quartering and getting the harvest back to camp was just about to begin.

Even though I wasn’t the one that pulled the trigger, the excitement of the hunt and the exhilaration of seeing your game had me hooked on hunting. I couldn’t wait until I got the chance to take a big game of my own. 

The best recommendation I can give anyone who has never been hunting is this: Find someone close to you, either a family member or a friend who is into hunting and ask if you can tag along and help on their next one. You will learn so much by being an observer and it will give you another level of appreciation for the process. It’s hard work, but knowing you’ve done something so primal that will feed you, your family, and those close to you for months is a great feeling.