Elk
31-Day Elk Hunt: Part 2, Bad Luck and Good Buddies
This is the second installment of a three-part elk hunting story by FHF founder, Paul Lewis. Stay tuned for the last segment or read the first here. On the morning of September 13th, I slipped into the river bottom, only to bump the herd and listen to them splash across the river. I stumbled across...
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Elk
31-Day Elk Hunt: Part 1, Family Ties
This is the first instalment of a three-part elk hunting story by FHF founder, Paul Lewis. Stay tuned for the next two segments. The silence was the worst part. Not the sudden silence of elk themselves, but the silence right after the shot, that sudden crushing, anxiety-filled pit in my stomach. For...
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Elk
The Anatomy and Ethics of the Elk Frontal Shot
I first heard about the frontal shot on an elk from a friend and watched a few clips on YouTube to try and learn more about it. My interest was peaked, but the shot still seemed risky to me. Shooting right at the chest of an elk doesn’t seem to leave much margin for error. Not to mention, in my...
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Elk
The 10 Biggest Mistakes Elk Hunters Make Every Year
Few things humble a man like public land elk hunting. You can spend all year shooting your bow, studying maps, watching videos, and convincing yourself you've got elk figured out. Then opening morning rolls around, and they make you look completely incompetent. The mountains are steep. Deadfall...
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Elk
I Shot the Public Land Bull Elk of a Lifetime…On a Day I Wasn’t Planning to Hunt
I just kept trying to breathe. The big bull elk was trotting forward with his head down as he chased another bull down the side of the mountain. “He’ll stop,” I said to myself as I did my best to hold down the rising panic I felt fluttering in my chest. He was 350 yards away, and I tried not to look...
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Elk
Alternate Ways to Access Backcountry Elk Hunting Areas
If you’ve hunted elk in the backcountry, you likely know a couple things to be true: it’s fun as hell, and big bulls often like to die in the gnarliest, nastiest places imaginable. While there’s not much you can do about that, there are a few ways you can shorten your packout, and it all depends on...
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Elk
Trail Cam Photo Contest: Best Bull Elk Pics
September is only a few days away, but we can already hear the bugles echoing off steep mountain slopes and the crash of antlers through the brush. To say we’re excited for elk season is an understatement. That’s why we want to see photos of the biggest and baddest bull elk you’ve captured on a...
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Elk
3 Tips for Making the Most of an Over-The-Counter Elk Tag
In the realm of the average hunter, elk are king. While the one-percenters busy themselves with $50,000 sheep tags, or African safaris to quickly fill up their trophy rooms, the Rocky Mountain elk remains at the top of the heap for most hunters. Why shouldn’t it? Bulls can weigh four times that of a...
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Elk
Bugles in the East
For most hunters living on the East Coast, hunting elk usually involves traveling hundreds of miles to the Western wilderness stronghold states of Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado. But, after decades of absence in the East, they’re starting to reclaim their former range. They’re not as abundant as...
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Elk
3 Things Elk Hunting Newbies Almost Always Get Wrong
There isn’t a more coveted game animal for the common hunter than a bull elk. Sure, the one-percenters might get glossy-eyed over some type of sheep that lives in the mountains of some country most folks have never heard of, but for the average hunter, it’s the Rocky Mountain elk. This is a hunt...
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Elk
How to Beat the Crowds in an Over-The-Counter Elk Unit
If you’re feeling a little too cheerful about hunting, and you’re interested in inducing a bout of depression, do a quick search on over-the-counter elk hunting odds. They aren’t great, but what’s worse, is that most info you’ll find that is focused on easy-to-get tags, is far worse. The bitching is...
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Elk
Study: Elk Bugle in Local Dialects
Blue whales have them. Songbirds have them. Turns out bugling bull elk have them too. Not just a song of their species, but local dialects that separates their tunes from others in geographic locations. In a discovery that may stir the coals of campfire debates for many Septembers to come...
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