INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the University of Elk Hunting Online Course! In this Course, I am going to share with you everything I know about elk hunting. Seriously. You will find 30+ years of elk hunting experiences, knowledge, information, and lessons learned packed into this course. It includes over 130,000 words of written text, 90+ video components, and hundreds of images and diagrams. Plus, it is available in Audio Book format so you can listen to the content if you don’t want to read the equivalent of 2 Elk Hunting novels! There is not anything I have learned about elk hunting that has been held back in this Course.
You’re probably asking yourself, why would you do that, right? The answer is simple: I love elk hunting, and I want others to be able to experience the thrill of the hunt AND the thrill of success!
I have been blessed to be involved in providing elk hunting and elk calling seminars across the country for the past 15 years. In that time, I have been asked every imaginable question – and some unimaginable ones – related to elk hunting. In each seminar, I have polled the attendees on their previous success rates, and I have opened the seminars for Q&A to get a feel for what issues and challenges are on the minds of elk hunters of all experience levels. I have received feedback from attendees ranging from very experienced, consistently successful elk hunters, all the way to people who have never been hunting before, and I have found there are several reasons why each of them are searching for more knowledge related to elk hunting.
At the heart of it though, it comes down to this: they want to be more successful, and they understand that knowledge equals confidence and confidence equals success.
It doesn’t matter if previous success rates have been 100% or 0%, hunters are always looking for ways to become better. And I would venture to guess, that is why you are here as well – to improve. Regardless of whether you fill your elk tag every season, or if you’ve never purchased an elk tag before, there is always room to become better. Personally, I like to think of myself as a student of this amazing game. In fact, every time I step into the elk woods and fail to increase my elk hunting knowledge, I feel I have wasted an opportunity to learn.
The elk – and the rugged country they call home – are the master teachers, and there is truly a lifetime worth of education and experience they can provide for us. But I also feel there is a lot that can be learned from others. I hope as you dive into this Online Elk Hunting Course, you will find valuable pieces of information that will enable you to become a better elk hunter and enable you to enjoy more consistent success, regardless of what your previous experience or success has been.
Elk hunting success rates for public land, do-it-yourself elk hunters hover just over 10%. Realistically, if you are anywhere at or above that mark, you could say you are doing “good enough”. The fact that you are here, however, tells me that “good enough” isn’t good enough for you. And “average” isn’t good enough for me, either.
I do realize that success can be defined in many different ways, and that simply coming home with an unpunched tag doesn’t mean that your hunt was necessarily a failure. But, you purchased – or you plan on purchasing - an elk tag, which means you have set out with the hopes of killing an elk. For the sake of this conversation, I am going to refer to success as putting your tag on an elk. And the reality of that statement is that 90 out of 100 elk hunters each year fail to do that. Another way of looking at this is that an average elk hunter only fills his tag one time every 10 years. That is not acceptable to me, and I want to make sure you know that THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ACCEPTABLE TO YOU EITHER! In fact, my goal is to get you to the point where you are so confident in your elk hunting abilities that you step into the elk woods each fall and EXPECT to fill your tag.
If you have never hunted elk before, there is nothing like it. I cannot adequately express in words the absolute thrill that comes from hunting elk in the habitat they call home. The scenery can be breathtaking and the experience, in my opinion, is unparalleled by any other hunting experience. The words of Francis Parkman sum up my love for elk hunting:
“To him who has once tasted the reckless independence, the haughty self-reliance, the sense of irresponsible freedom, which the forest life engenders, civilization thenceforth seems flat and stale. Its pleasures are insipid, its pursuits wearisome, its conventionalities, duties, and mutual dependences alike tedious and disgusting…. The wilderness — rough, harsh, inexorable — has charms more potent in their seductive influence than all the lures of luxury and sloth. And often he on whom it has cast its magic finds no heart to dissolve the spell, and remains a wanderer and an Ishmaelite to the hour of his death.”
If you have been elk hunting in the past, you likely have some level of an appreciation for that quote, and can relate to the seductive charms that occupy your thoughts throughout the year as you anticipate elk season. You have been bitten by the elk bug, and you’re not looking for a cure to dissolve the spell. You likely remember the exact experience where that spell was cast on you. For me, it was elk hunting with my Dad in 1983.
I was 8, and my Dad (for some reason) decided it would be a good idea to drag me along with him on an evening elk hunt. I grew up in heart of elk country, so the drive from our home to the spot we parked to hunt was only about 15 minutes. We made a relatively short hike into an area where my Dad had previously found elk. For the first couple of hours, he bugled sporadically without any responses as we hiked around the basin. We found ourselves overlooking a beautiful high-mountain meadow, and skirted around the edge of it until we reached the far end. The meadow was surrounded by miles of old-growth fir trees and was divided in the center by a small stream.
We completely circled around the perimeter of the meadow and started making our way around the other side, still skirting the edge of the thick timber that separated the meadow and the surrounding forests where the elk spent most of their daylight hours. Then, not long before dark, my Dad’s bugle was answered by the bugle of a bull elk on the ridge above us. I don’t remember my Dad spending much time explaining to me how cool it was to hear an elk bugle, and I don’t think he needed to. He quickly positioned me under a large red fir tree and told me to stay put as he quickly disappeared into the timber to chase the bugle.
I sat there in the waning moments of daylight, watching as the sunlight raced across the meadow, staying just in front of the shadows that were slipping up rapidly behind it. The excitement of hearing my first elk bugle was quickly replaced with thoughts of the approaching darkness and the coyotes that were surely hiding just inside the dark timber. After a few minutes of silence, an ear-piercing, hair-raising scream shot out from just 40 yards away.
I looked to my left and watched as a beautiful 6-point bull elk emerged from the trees and scanned the area, looking for the challenger who had bugled from that location just a few minutes before.
I’ll spare myself the embarrassment of all the details that took place over the next 15 minutes, but it involved yelling - first by me, and then a few minutes later by my dad - as well as me sprinting across the meadow to escape the coyotes that were surely nipping at my heels in the darkness. I pretty much single-handedly ruined the hunt that night, but despite my awareness of my mistakes, I couldn’t stop talking on the hike out. I’m not sure at the time if it was the fear of the darkness and coyotes that was keeping me chattering, or if it was the adrenaline rush of having a big bull elk scream in my face at less than 40 yards away. All I know, is that I’ve been able to overcome my fear of the dark and of coyotes, but big bulls screaming in my face is something I can’t get over!
The passion for elk and elk hunting was instilled in me at a very young age, and I was blessed to be able to grow up in the heart of elk country, in the “glory days” of elk hunting. I want to share this passion – and the associated excitement and adrenaline rush that it brings - with others. Beyond that, I want others to taste the sweet satisfaction of success – either for the first time or on a more consistent basis. And that is exactly what I hope to do with this Course. Whether you have only ever dreamed of hunting elk or you’ve hunted them for over 35 years as I have, I want to share my experiences with you in a way that will help you become even better than you currently are.
If you’ve only ever dreamed of elk hunting, everything you need to know – and everything you need to do – to make your dream a reality can be found in this Course. If you’ve hunted elk in the past, but never been able to cut the month and date out of an elk tag, you will find multiple resources, tactics, and strategies to get the monkey off your back. If you’ve killed a handful of elk, but just haven’t quite put it all together in a way that allows you to replicate that success season after season, I’m going to share several concepts with you that will help move the needle of your success closer to the 100% mark and far above the 10% average. And lastly, if you are one of the few elk hunters who has figured out how to be consistently successful year after year, I hope you'll find several details within this Course that you can add to your bag of tricks to help make you a more well-rounded elk hunter, which will enable you to enjoy even more success than you already do.
I will start off at the very beginning of this adventure, and talk about how to effectively Plan an elk hunt, including when to go, how to get tags, and much, much more. From there, I’ll share details on several aspects of "preparing" for an elk hunt, including Scouting, Physical Conditioning, Gear, and Using Elk Calls. Then, I’ll transition to "in-the-field" topics such as Locating Elk, Setting Up on Elk, and Calling Elk. I’ll also share several alternate methods for hunting elk, both with and without calls, as well as some of the Common Challenges associated with elk hunting, and how to overcome them. Plus, my good friend Randy Newberg has helped create an additional Module devoted to hunting elk after the rut. I’ll walk you through a detailed explanation of Tracking Elk, Taking Care of Your Elk in the Field, and Packing Your Elk out. And lastly, I've added Modules that will help you with specific topics like hunting Roosevelt Elk and hunting Cow Elk. There will be multiple video clips introducing each Module, as well as videos clips explaining or highlighting many of the topics that I’ll be discussing. You’ll find plenty of pictures from my hunts to break up the reading, as well as diagrams and other resources to help illustrate the points I am trying to share.
Before I completely turn you loose here, I want to take a second and express my gratitude to a few people who have made this Online Course possible. Something of this magnitude doesn't just come together without a lot of assistance, and I'd feel ungrateful if I didn't mention a few of those people. Inevitably, whenever I try to start listing people to thank, I will probably miss a few....if I forgot to mention someone, it wasn't intentional. But I do need to say thank you to the following for making this project possible:
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) - The RMEF is an incredible conservation group that I feel every elk hunter should belong to and support. Their role in conservation is simple - protect elk and elk habitat. They believed in this Online Course from the beginning, and stepped up as the sole and title sponsor to get it off the ground. To learn more about the RMEF, and to become a member for just $35 (and receive a special thank you for UEH Members if you decide to join), visit: RMEF.org/Elk101/
John Abernathey (Idaho Media Solutions) - John is a genius with a video camera and editing equipment. He's been a part of the Elk101 group for several years, and you'll recognize his work in many of our film projects, including our 'WYOMING' film (2016), the 'Destination Elk' YouTube series, and more. John is also responsible for 95% of the video/editing included in this Course. A high percentage of the images you'll see within this Course are also the result of John's incredible talent. He is a rock star!
Randy Newberg (ElkTalk Podcast, HuntTalk, Fresh Tracks with Randy Newberg, OYOA, etc...) - Randy is just an awesome guy, and he provided some key pieces of content to help illustrate some of the points in this Course. Additionally, Randy shared his vast knowledge of post-rut and late-season elk hunting to be used in creating a complete Module on the topic.
Mark Huelsing (SoleAdventure.com) - A few years ago, Mark was a completely novice elk hunter. He started a website to help document his journey of becoming an elk hunter, and provides a lot of great insight from the perspective of someone who has a lot of questions. Mark was instrumental in the information that I pulled into the first 2 Modules of this Course, and provided wonderful, thorough content to include.
Donnie Drake and David Burdette - I reference these guys throughout the Course, and they have been instrumental in my learning as an elk hunter. They have been awesome elk hunting partners, and even better friends, for many years.
My Parents, Rockie and Rena Jacobsen (founders of Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls) - My Dad gets credit (or blame) for infecting me with the elk hunting bug at a young age. And before I could drive, my Mom was often the one who would drive me out and wait at the truck for me while I stumbled my way through the slow, frustrating process of learning to be an elk hunter.
Lastly, my wonderful wife, Jennifer, and our 3 beautiful children - Jennifer has been so supportive of my crazy addiction for the past 2 decades. And throughout the development of this Course, she has been a true source of motivation, dedication, and support. When it seemed too daunting to undertake, she said "Go for it!" When I wanted to quit in the middle of the project, she said "Keep after it!". And now that it's done, she was the first one to say "You did it!" And I couldn't have done it without her. For my children, I hope to be able to continue teaching them everything I have included in this Course on a personal and individual level, and continue sharing this passion and love for life and the great outdoors with them!
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.... 🙂
Again, thank you for joining me here in this Online Elk Hunting Course! If you’re ready to dive in and continue the process of becoming a more consistently successful elk hunter, Click ‘Next Module’ Below, and let’s get started!
