Dealing With Elk Depression

You always hear about people in their elk stories talk about the lowest of lows to the highest of highs during their season. The one thing no one really highlights is just how much of an emotional toll your mind goes through when elk hunting.

Public land, do it yourself hunts are one of the most challenging and rigorous tasks anyone could ever attempt. This is my story, recalling the suffrage of what I refer to as Elk Depression.

I’ve been hunting rocky mountain elk since I was a boy. I’ve been in on many kills with friends and family, yet I had not had the opportunity to connect for myself. At the age of 25, I’ve been on my 7th straight archery only season with not even drawing my bow back on an elk. Each year would progress from not seeing sign, to finding wallows, seeing cows, and then hearing elk talk. You really start to re-establish what a successful hunt is when you are out running around with a bow and arrow. Just getting into the elk is a win on its own. But when is it not enough?

After being in on elk for 3 years in a row, and no shot opportunity, it starts to wear down on your self-esteem. Imagine all your friends are being successful, and even the friends of friends. It even digs you into a deeper hole when you know that after putting in so much time into shooting your bow, learning elk, scouting, and putting boot to ground, only to be shown up by guys that kill an elk their first year shooting archery let alone their first year hunting. Working in an archery shop, I saw it all. I would see that new archer come into the store, a month or less before season opener, buy a bow and all the gear necessary, and kill an elk his first season out sometimes even on his first day. Talk about dampening your spirits.

The roller coaster of emotions seems to always end up in the lows time and time again. How do you come back from that? How do you go from such a long cold streak and not hang up your bow or rifle? It’s true, I don’t just go out hunting for filling my tag; I go out to enjoy nature and God’s creation. It’s the experience of being so small compared to the vastness of the mountains, pitting myself against all odds when they’re stacked against me. From horrible weather, climbing mountains in the dark, covering as many as 25 miles a day, to rescuing other ill-prepared hunters, it all is just a way of nature to test your morale and perseverance. The problem is however, it would be really nice to actually come home with something substantial every once in a while whether it be a doe, buck, bull, or cow. We’ve all been there. Hearing your buddies or co-workers asking how tag soup tastes, or if you’re going to start keeping all your unused tags in a crate now that you’ve overfilled a shoebox. It gets old after a while. But we are too proud to admit that inside it is tearing us apart.

What’s your next move?

Do you just give up?

Do you change your hunting techniques?

Do you change hunting spots/zones?

I’ve tried a few different things myself. Even though knowing there were elk in my area, I would change areas the next year. Hoping that the new spot may relinquish some better luck, I find that throughout the season I end up migrating back and forth between spots. That never seemed to pan out. Changing techniques? Oh I spend the majority of the offseason reading magazines, online forums, hunting articles, etc. All to no avail, trying to figure out what it is I am doing wrong, or what I’m missing. For example, some years I hunted completely silent, whereas other years I may bugle a little/lot, or only cow calling. Needless to say, nothing ever seemed to work. At 25 years old, the biggest thing looming over my head was the story of my father not killing an elk during archery season until about the age of 30. I can’t go that long being unsuccessful after putting so much time in. Am I going to walk the same footsteps?

Be persistent; keep going after an area that has sign. As one of the quotes goes in one of my all-time favorite movies, “I saw a big track on the ridge, and you know what they say; big buck makes big track”-Escanaba in da Moonlight. Where there’s sign, there’s game. Go where other people aren’t willing to go, through the thick and even the steep.

Elk know where people frequent and they may avoid the area by as little as 50 yards while still staying hidden. So get off the trail and bushwhack. Shots may not be as easy, but you’ll be surprised at the amount of game you actually see or jump up. Another key I can give is hunt during all times of the day. Going back to camp during midday for lunch is not only removing hunt-able daylight from your day, but game is still active. You can find all sorts of tips out there to being a successful elk hunter; but how do you bounce back to continue after not being successful?

Even when sprits are down, a solid group of hunting buddies are there to pick each other up. My advice is to push one another. Keep morale of the camp up and encourage each hunter with the same. The group I hunt with could see my esteem in the dumps, and they acted on it. They kept encouraging me to go out eventually something has got to come into range. Time and time again you just have to find the strength somewhere inside to keep going into the woods. 90% of the time, the hunt is just luck. It may not be the case that you are doing something wrong, in fact, perhaps you’re doing everything right; it just so happens that luck was not with you that day. If you hunt solo, just keep walking knowing that the next step you take could open up that window of view that the majestic wapiti is standing in.

You don’t have to take my word for it that your luck can change in a second. But my luck changed this year. I no longer have the sense of unsatisfied hunger whenever hunting conversations are brought up. I no longer feel as though I would rather stay home and work. The embarrassment of not killing something even though I work in the industry has subsided. I now can laugh and smile as I hear others tell their stories. All knowing that I will soon have my turn…to tell them the story………of my bull of a lifetime.

Soon.

- Eli

Side note: If you would like to watch a classic movie that is not only a great hunting movie, but a comedy classic that highlights how someone surrounded by family/friends overcomes being the “Buckless UPer” when life revolves around deer camp; check out Escanaba in da’ Moonlight. As I watched this film, relating to everything the character Rueben felt, it really connected to me in the end as it tied all my emotions into one.