Each of us holds dear our first “close encounter of the elk kind” in the treasure chest of our memories. The adrenaline rush with the heart pounding excitement as a huge, wild bull elk suddenly appears several steps away. Seeking you out the bull holds you in his power, with your knees shaking, and teeth chattering, part of you wants to run away, or faint, and part of you wants the elk to run away. The fear of making the wrong move paralyzes you as your heart pounds louder than Indian drums. Then after the bull leaves, comes the torment of reliving all the things you could have done. To relive that chance, the wish to try again, to try to conquer that paralyzing fear, so you can claim your prize as a hunter, that is the boon of elkoholism.
I came to be an elkoholic in the days before the mass bugle hype and hysteria. Before the compact video cameras and “How To” audiotapes. What this means is that I had to learn at the School of Hard Knocks. Fortunately, some people can learn from the successes and mistakes of others. For the rest of the world, like me, we have to learn from our own mistakes. I have had the fortune, or I should say, misfortune to guide men who refused to listen and learn from someone else’s knowledge. To let those men repeat the same blunders that I made was regrettably the only option I knew. What a sad waste of hunting time. To try to persuade these men was like swimming upstream in a waterfall.
While waiting for the opening day of the 1980 Colorado hunting seasons I had some time to explore the Colorado Rockies, and to hear tales of conquest, and defeat as my addiction became fueled by each, and every story shared by the local bow hunters. I would visit what was known then as Colorado Bowhunters Supply three to four evenings a week, a very large indoor archery range and pro-shop. Even after my fingers were too sore to draw a bow, I would stay to learn from the “experts”. Back then anybody that made one trip to the mountains in their lifetime knew more than I did, so in my eyes, they were all “experts.” Since that time, I have altered my definition of “Expert” to Successful Expert.” Many a well-intentioned word of advice, from the unsuccessful, has led to error.
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| 2008Julie Woods Art |
Once, I read a comic about two shipwrecked bow hunters on a very small island. About all they had between them was one of their bows and two arrows. At almost the point of starvation, a seagull landed on the head of one of the men. While his partner is taking careful aim at the seagull, the caption reads; “Your intentions may be good, but it is the results that count.” This seagull comic has proven itself over, and again in all aspects of life, especially business and hunting. From that time on, it impacted a major change in the philosophies I live and judge my life by.
It is amazing how people who are new and unproven, have an opinion on how another should operate a business, or should hunt a particular piece of land. As for my personal successes, I have over thirty public land, big game archery harvests to my credit, including a trophy class mule deer, antelope, and whitetail deer, which now adorn my walls. What’s more, I have guided other hunters to three times that many animals and some to greater trophies than I currently boast. Hunting in Colorado is not like hunting in the eastern states, in Wisconsin we could get up to 10 deer tags per year, per season, but in Colorado you only get one tag and can only hunt one season. If you hunt archery deer season in Colorado then you may not hunt rifle deer season in that year in Colorado.
The seagull comic caused me to seek out the three top scoring, fingers shooters at the Colorado Indoor Archery Range Animal Shoots. Unknown to them, I copied their equipment and style to the smallest detail. Amazingly, all three men used the same, or nearly the same, accessories on their bows. Now, so do I. I could not afford a shooting coach so I would bother the tar out of the instructors for a tip here and there and listen in as they instructed others. A well-timed bribe of soda worked very well too. It did not take long, in less than a year I was competing against those top shooters.
They were still out-shooting me, but I found that the adrenaline rush and stress in tournaments is very near the same caliber as Buck Fever when facing a nice deer. Hunters, who refuse to participate in tournaments out of some fear, possibly that their skill might be ridiculed, miss out on this important learning experience. I have noticed among many archers a direct correlation between tournament shooting skills and hunting success.
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| 2006 Morris McClung |
Getting myself deer and elk educated was not very easy. How many times have you bribed the tongue of an experienced elkoholic, only to end up wishing you could bash his teeth in for being so uncooperative? I recall those frustrations, yet I was determined to get straight and clear answers out of those “residents”. It took nearly ten years to get some of those residents to warm up to me, enough to be more than social. By that time I didn’t need them. For by then my success rate and skill levels were then greater than that of my former heroes. Continued...
Finding Big Game (Paying the Dues)