Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Tagging out the first morning of a hunt

I feel that is the quickest way to ruin a hunt. I'd almost rather eat tag soup and get to hunt my whole hunt than tag out the first morning. I shot my NH moose at first light opening morning in 04. I had a cottage reserved for all week. What a long week that was. Now my BIL and my wife were Moose hunting VT that week but he didn't want me tagging along . Guess he was afraid he'd have to share the credit for finding a Moose (which they never did) with me. He's like that. My most satisfying hunt was a Moose hunt in VT where I scored the last day. If I could script it that's how it would go everytime.

That's why fishing was invented. I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Tagging out on the first day would be damn nice..

You can fug around doing bush hippie crap after.

I'll tag out on day one happily. There's plenty of things to do in camp, as well as just riding with other hunters.

I have no problem with tagging out on opening morning. I have managed to do it about once in every three or four hunts, and I appreciate the opportunity to spend some time with my cameras once the quarry is in the bag, so to speak.

I just had a hunt that was supposed to take two days, but storms were closing in from every direction so we attempted to get it done right away on the first morning, before the weather shut us down.

Bottom line was that we got it done in the first hour for sure, indeed the first few minutes....it was almost a let-down!

Can't complain about a 'gift horse' showing itself in that amount of time though....

What's a bush hippie?

You know.

Looking for berries.

Taking pics...

Hugging trees...

Enjoying nature's splendor.


Laughing at your unsuccessful brethren

Exactly! In most places there are birds/small game to hunt as well. A quickly ended sheep hunt in ID lead to a few sage grouse being shot along with a couple limits of chukar! As well as a trip to Elko for dinner at the Star!

I like tagging out the first day. I'll spend the rest of the time helping buds, still going out in the woods on my own, fishing, what not for the rest of the trip. Some of the best hunts I've ever had were where I got mine on the first day.

I'll keep camp if I tag out the 1st day and am hunting with others.

Play spotter on a hill and use a mirror if needed to signal.

jerk meat.

catch fish.

something.

I ain't going to waste the time.

I killed a small buck opening day back in 1990 on a bowhunt with friends here in Missouri.

My buddies threw shade on me for killing a small buck on opening morning and for literally killing off my next 6 weeks of bowhunting bliss.

I had a young family back then and money was tight so I bundled up all my stuff that Saturday and headed home with my deer to cut up....it was no doubt hot on October 1st

The next day rains set in for the next week and my buddies told me they sat in the rain soaked tents and gear that week wishing they had tagged out like I did.

To this day I have no issue cutting my tag on day one.

Easily identified by their ice axe.

Tagging out on the first morning isn't so bad, leaves more time to sit around the camp and drink Natural Light.

I had 2 opening days on a moose hunt in Idaho. Opening day got hot, like 92F by my partners truck thermometer. We gave it up at noon and went home. If we'd got a moose we'd have lost the meat for sure. A week later we started over and I got my opening day moose in 10" of new snow.

I have passed deer during our archery season (October) and opening day of rifle season. The past four years, I killed a buck here in Maine on the last day of the season, be it rifle or ML. Several years ago, I passed up a 9 pointer the first day of the season only to kill the same deer a month later on the last day. He weighted less and it was a much longer drag. That is when I said to myself, if I would shoot him the last day I sure as heck will shoot him the first.

You left out "drinking heavily". And that don't include natural light.

I can find things to do, but to me there is more satisfaction in having to hunt hard to fill the tag. Its a little different if I put in lots of time scouting setting stands before the season etc. But for the kind of hunt where there wasn't a lot of on the ground prep, stepping out of the truck and shooting big bull 5 minutes later is a bit of a let down.

Besides if you tell the wife you only hunted for 5 minutes, she will divide the cost by the time and then remind you what your hunting costs per minute.

Now if I have multiple tags, its nice to fill one early so you feel like the hunt was a "success" and then can hunt hard the rest of the week with no pressure.

There are 4 in my hunting group. A few years ago, one guy scored and the next day 3 of us scored on the same day. Luckily, we didn't do all of that on the same day. I have a string of pack llamas and we got 3 of the deer about 3 miles back. I hiked 12 miles that one day getting 2 of them out.

One year I was bow hunting mule deer in the Missouri breaks. Twenty minutes after sunrise on the first morning I had a nice 3x mulie standing 28 yards broadside from me. I drew on him and had my 30 yard pin on his kill zone. I thought for a second about having nine more days of hunting and let my bow down.
Ten days later I was driving back to Minnesota never getting closer than 80 yards to another buck.
I hunted hard for ten days and saw a lot of great bucks but it has always been heavy on my mind if I made the right decision.

Mulie bucks aren't that easy to get with a bow. If you get the shot, you'd best take it when you can.

No problem at all tagging first day.

Plenty left to do.

In fact visiting AK in teh fall I WISH I could tag the moose the first day. So much more out there we can do...

I came back with tag soup this year. I passed up elk twice on opening day partly due to it being early on opening day and partly due to the work it would have taken to get them out (would have been a cow each time). Came close to a big bull that day in thick timber but couldn't get a good shot at it before it sneaked off. Didn't see another elk the rest of the trip, after opening day pressure the elk disappeared and there was little to no snow to help find them. I still had fun trying the rest of the trip but I would like to have that meat in the freezer!

Wife hunts with me. No biggy.

We put in time prior to the season opening, so there is that. We enjoy the hunting and typically its why we don't fill the last tag until the last weekend. But even if we shot them all out, we'd still drive to the lease, and have fun with everyone and go sit and watch. Plus have Tiger along for trailing as needed for the rest of the folks.

But with moose, there is one tag. Take it when it shows itself. If it ever does. Now when we move to AK like we hope to, then it could be all season for moose, and not worry about not having time to work on house maintenance, missing grayling fishing, missing taking hikes in new areas and so on...

That was my first time hunting them.
The good that came out of it was that I learned a lot about the lay out of the land and hunting them. It payed off two years later with a fine 4x I stuck at 62 yards. I believe that if I had shot that one I would have lost respect of hunting them and probably never had gone back.

This year the only reason I killed an elk on my third trip out was because the cow I seen at 7 am the first morning did not give me a clean shot. I would have been just as happy with that cow as the Bull I did kill.......

First day, mid week,or last day of the season,I have killed elk on all of them. If I am by myself,I usually go home as soon as I get the meat packed out.

If I am hunting with a partner,I stay until he tags out or the season closes. If warm I will figure out some way to get the meat in a local cooler or drive all the way home with it,get it in a cooler and return to camp.

I never stay in camp while the other hunter is out.I go out every morning with him, help with mules, bird dog, help any way I can,or hang around the stock to just enjoy the solitude.

If that was a bedding area, you spooked them out and they won't come back until someone else spooks them back your way. That's a big mistake many hunters make. Stay out of the bedding area if you plan to hunt it more than once.

Yep. Same is true with guys that get to camp early and then go stomping around in the timber to scout for elk.If they find them, they won't be there opening day

If I tag out early, I'll bear hunt the rest of the time while my hunting partner is out and about looking to fill his tag...

"Don't turn nothing down the first morning, you would die to have the last afternoon"

In my experience passing up a shot on the first day is almost always a mistake. I've done it on an out of state elk hunt with a questionable shot at a herd bull, and never had another opportunity. I've done it on local deer hunts, bow and rifle. If you want to fill the tag, the animal has a bit of say on when that happens, and there's no guarantee that they will work with your time schedule.

I've passed on 18 does with 3 doe tags in my pocket opening day, waiting for a good buck to shoot first, and then the last weekend there ain't one to be found...

My best opening day was on my bighorn sheep hunt. I watched 9 rams for 3 days from camp. Opening day was the Tuesday after Labor Day. We packed in on Saturday & saw the rams from camp that afternoon. I watched them for the following 2 days. Hiked up to that bowl on opening day and had a ram down by 9:30AM.

I shoot the 1st legal animal I see.

I was that way up until about 2010

I now let all non mature bucks walk

I passed up a little buck opening day this year, because I had two big boys I was after.

I passed up a medium buck second weekend, with the hope that another big one I had seen might come through.

I ate tag soup. My daughter ate tag soup. My son ate muzzleloader tag soup. Yet we all combined hunted more days this year than we have in a long time.

Last year, the kids put two monster bucks on the ground within the first 4 hours of the first day out. Now that was a lot more fun than tag soup!

My theory has been, regardless of the day, if you don't shoot the antlers you see pretty much as soon as you see them, then you generally won't be happy with them anyway....

I almost let a buck that was close to 160 inches in the hill country walk 2 years ago, but when the rain finally quit and I could see him better, I whacked him as soon as I found the ammo in the backpack and could load the gun.

Others that I"ve seen over the years, let walk, then shot later... have never impressed me once they were dead...

RE shooting other than for the wall, IE on my meat hunts, those I tend to stretch as long as I can, because I just like sitting in the woods...as long as I know I can shoot a doe on the last day...

I guess a lot depends on how long your season is. I mainly hunt elk in Colorado's 1st rifle season. It's 5 days. I shoot the 1st legal elk I see. If there is a herd I'll usually pick out a dry cow over a bull. A dry Cow is much better eating. I go back to hunt deer with my brother in Ohio, it's a 1 week firearm season, again I shoot the 1st legal animal.

May well be the case. But not likely for me to be able to catch him going to or from as far from the trail head as it was and not having horses. I could have spent the night up there if I really wanted to rough it but wouldn't have known he was in that patch of timber ahead of time anyway at this particular location. Was cool just to see him though, he was a big one:)

Yes. Ruined a 9-day hunt once doing that.

Have taken an early dink once in a while and then bounced some monsters as I was trailing around with my buds.

I would have to be a really good one. We get good buck and a cull, plus two does. Mess up rest of season!!!

Is not a problem with me when the right opportunity presents itself......

My hunt last fall lasted 35 minutes from the time I left the truck till the deer was on the ground, fastest hunt ever in 42 years of hunting. I look forward to retirement when I can spend the whole season afield as opposed to one or two days. At that point I will forego my current mantra of if it's legal I'll take it. Till then I'll take what I can get.

If anybody is on a guided hunt and you don't want to kill opening day PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let your guide know. I have no problem with whatever a client wants to do as it's their hunt but what might be your first day might be my 10th day or 15th day. I've hadn't guys pass giant deer due to it being "first day" and I had been busting my ass for weeks trying to turn that animal up for others.

Personally I am a trophy hunter and not many animals meet the requirements of what I want to kill so I'll gladly take a shot opening day. This year I killed my mule deer in Mexico 20 minutes into the hunt and never saw a better deer the rest of the week. It's just how it goes

I can understand where you're coming from too. I would never do that to a guide.

I've only been on 4 guided hunts in the USA

All 4 were first day tag outs.

I attribute those one day hunts to guides being on animals the days and weeks before I got to camp.

After waiting 16 years to draw a Colorado moose tag in 2015, my hunt last about 20 minutes tops the first day. I had a less than 1% chance of drawing that RFW tag according the draw statistic.

I am not a trophy hunter, so I am glad when I can tag out quickly. Gives me more time to get my traps together and fish. Our deer season is really long so I never worry about those, if I see a buck I harvest.

Tag out early? Oh hell ya! No pressure and you can either help or heckle your fellow campers the rest of the season. Just be sure you have enough whiskey to last you the rest of your time in camp.
P.S. You don't have to tell your wife when you fill your tag early.

A couple years ago my deer season lasted less than 10 min. I hadn't been out of sight of the pickup for more than a couple minutes. I was strictly meat hunting and got a BIG yearling 2x2. Body wise, it was huge for it's age. 4 of us got 3 deer that morning. The deer were home that day.

Agreed. If I get the opportunity day one I'll take it. Always more tags to fill,small game to hunt,camp chores to do, etc,etc.

I still stay the entire week, I just become a designated meat hauler.

Passed up a nice mule deer buck on opening morning of a week long hunt thinking I would see something better. It was the only legal deer I saw all week. Never again.

THIS

I used to try to hold out for big. Nah. Anymore, I won't shoot a buck on the last day that I wouldn't have shot the first day. There are a ton of other things to do out there that I won't get to do 'til I tag out, especially late fall fly fishing. Fall, here, is just an incredible time to be alive.

Tom

Any more I don't just want any mule deer buck, I want a monster. So, if he shows up the first day I'm happy, otherwise I keep looking. I've not killed a buck for several years now, but I have passed on many good four year old 4x4's. Maybe next year.

On our elk hunts tagging the first morning means probably hauling out your elk alone and then pitching in to help haul everyone else's. That's fine. Everyone's happy to do that.

If I spent big money one a guided trip I would be happy to tag a whopper the first morning, but I'd probably be second guessing it if I tagged an average animal and spent the next 5 days just lurking around camp.

The key is, you can't lurk after tagging out. You've got to saunter.

I have never had a problem with tagging out on the first morning, but it has been a long time since I have done it. The only time that it bit me in the ass was one year when I shot a decent 6x6 opening morning, and spent the next two days looking at interesting places that I might want to hunt.

While sitting on an abandoned logging road on a hillside above a little spring seep, to see if anything would show up, I heard a series of bellowing bugles getting closer and closer. After a five or ten minutes, a herd of cows, calves with several bulls wandered into sight on the old road bed that I was sitting on. The lead cow was taking her time and looking at the spring down below and up a small canyon that led up to a mesa above me.

The herd bull was by far the best elk that I have ever seen in the wild, in or out of hunting season. While the old cow made up her mind, he stood there and screamed and hollered for a good five minutes, standing 63 yards away from me. I know that because I had plenty of time to dig my rangefinder out of the day pack at my feet and confirm the distance several times while he stood there. The group finally meandered up the canyon, filtering out of sight.

Since then, I have only tagged out once on the first morning, taking a decent 6x6 that was the largest-bodied bull that I or anyone in our hunting camp had ever seen. But I do tend to be more choosey about what I shoot these days, and where I shoot it. It also leaves me free to help others who do get their elk, something that gives me almost as much satisfaction as getting a good one for myself.

One time I had a ewe tag for the Sangre de Cristos.
Rain was predicted so opening morning I prepared for weather instead of hunting right away. I brought a bunch of extra stuff for weather at altitude. I ferried a tent, tarp, raingear to the highest timber cover. Dug drainage around the tent (something I never do). Made lots of elaborate preparations.

Finally I can begin to climb. I go 500 yards up the trail. BOOM! Drag the ewe back down. Spend a couple hours tearing down the camp I had just got done putting up.

I've tagged out on The Opener several times over the years, and I really could not have been happier. In fact in 1991 and 1992 I nailed the biggest bucks I'd had taken to date from the same tree on the same day. These remain my #1 and #2 bow kills.

1996, I was in with my buck before 0900

2003, I was tagged out within 10 minutes of the start of season with my largest buck to date

2007, Ditto. This was my #1 buck of all time as well as the camp's record.

2014, my son and I both tagged our bucks before 9 AM on the Opener. We shot our bucks 300 yards apart, but they fell less than 50 yards apart. It made it really easy to get them out in the truck-- only took 1 trip.

2016, We had three bucks on the pole before sundown on Sunday, including the #2 and #4 all-time bucks at our camp. I got the biggest, my buddy nailed one with a bigger rack. My son nailed his #2 all-time.

Truth is, in the Trans-Bluegrass, the Rifle Opener in Mid-November is the absolute best time to get a shot at the big bucks in the woods. If you go too far into the first week, the Rut has usually calmed down and the deer are off acorns and feeding in the field. If it's going to rain monsters, it's going to happen Opening Weekend.

Spent three days scouting antelope, hunted 20 minutes. Came home. OK with me.

Done this many times. One year we had three six point bull elk down within the first 20 minutes of legal shooting time, scattered over seven miles of mountains that we had scouted hard for the previous four days. Each of us went after a specific bull on opening morning.

And then a couple of years ago I spotted a shooter buck as it got light when I was a few minutes late driving to where I planned to hunt. Stop, got out, got legal, bang.

If its a gift, take it if it is the kind of animal you want. I love to sleep in if we are camping, cook, help others pack meat, shuttle a vehicle to a pick-up point, go fishing, etc.

A few years ago I tagged out on my best bull elk before the sun was peeking over the horizon and so did my uncle. We spend the next few days working around our outfitters place repairing an old dump truck, splitting wood, building fence and catching a bunch of trout from a series of high beaver ponds. It was a great trip that we followed up with a quick run up to Wyoming to fill 6 pronghorn tags in a day and a half of hunting on alfalfa fields. The truck was loaded on the way home.

Perry

The thing about tagging out on the first day, is that on the last morning of the hunt,... you are tagged out

Be Safe,

You can't eat a day on the calendar. But you can eat a legal animal that comes your way, regardless of weather it's the first day or the last day of a hunt. Here in Minnesota, party hunting is legal. As long as one member of your party has a valid, unfilled tag, you can continue to hunt after filling your own tag. Sure makes for some extra opportunities to spend time afield.