Colorado Elk hunting Forum

By Justin Jenness

Justin Jenness won our 2014 Eastmans’ Forum Elk Hunt Story Contest and received a custom belt buckle. Click here to enter your story in the 2015 contest and have your story published here! **Forum Story Contest Rules**

Over the years I have learned that elk hunting is one of those things that will provide a hunter with some of their highest highs and lowest lows. Let me be the first to say that by no means do I have everything figured out when it comes to bow hunting elk, as at the young age of 32 and with only 10 years of bow hunting experience, every single year seems to throw me a curve ball that I didn’t see coming. 2014 was no exception and I learned some valuable lessons during that season.

Every year it seems like I start to get the itch earlier and earlier when it comes to beginning the preparations for the next season. Inevitably, it always starts in the winter with getting my bow dialed back in and shooting in the garage at 15 yards, waiting for the warmth of spring to motivate me to get back into the hills. As soon as April and May roll around, I find myself in my honey hole, along with my 9-year-old boy and my best friend that I hunt with, looking for those dropped bones.

Spring of 2014 was a great year for shed hunting as we found around 30 elk sheds and 20 deer sheds in just a few days of hiking. The anticipation that builds every spring after finding those big matching sets of bone is almost too much to bear and it makes the preparation that much more enjoyable.

As the summer chugs along, I start getting excited for archery antelope, as in Montana it opens on August 15th and this turns out to be some of the best scouting for elk that I do every year. I know, now you are asking yourself how can a guy hunt antelope and scout elk at the same time? Let me explain how this came to fruition.