Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Did You Feel Intimidated the First Time You Saw an Elk...Moose?

First off, I've haven't been elk hunting yet but have shot a few whitetail so my perspective is as an eastern hunter. Had an elk hunt fall through this year but am hoping again for next year.

Anyway, I was at the Detroit zoo this past summer and got my first real look of a bull elk up close. I must admit feeling a little intimidated by the size of the bull...not afraid but from the standpoint of thinking how the heck a tiny little bullet is supposed to take something that large down. Couple that with shooting at distance...sometimes alot of distance and came to realize just what a huge task is being asked of such a small projectile...REGARDLESS OF CALIBER.

I've seen elk hunts on TV, the Internet, pictures, etc. so yeah, there's the proof but the real life encounter at the zoo provided a different perspective. These are really large animals! (again from my eastern perspective)

After pondering on this for quite some time, I realize it's ALL about the vitals...just as preached on this forum and every other one for that matter. Take out the lungs or heart, REGARDLESS OF THE SIZE ANIMAL, and it will fall. In other words, vitals are everything; the rest of the animal will follow suit...so to speak. Call it a greater appreciation for the vital zone.

Now that you've read through my ramblings, did any of you have a similar feeling during your first real-life encounter? Or perhaps you felt "undergunned" when facing the animal for the first time?

Nope. I did my 1st real elk hunt last year after a couple mule deer hunts with a combo license. When I saw my first elk I simply though, wow...he looks pissed that we are grunting in his territory and I was psyched he kept walking in.

Like you say, put any decent bullet from any reasonable caliber in the vitals and they will die.

Have to laugh at some of the conversations on elk hunting, they really are not that hard to kill.

Killing an Elk or moose isn't so hard, its when I walked up on the first one you just put down and start to consider the work it will take to get the meat back to the truck that I realized I wasn't whitetail hunting any more.

I was 12 years old when I saw my first elk up close. I went hunting with my dad, and he shot one. The closer we got walking up to it. The bigger my eyes got. I was pretty impressed, and I said at the time that I would hunt for elk all my life.

They still amaze me. Such a majestic animal.

Spent the first half of my life on a dairy farm, registered Brown Swiss. Breed standard was for a mature cow to weigh around 1600 lbs. We did a lot of showing cattle at various state and national shows and pushed those calves with potential hard. Many grew to more than the standard.
As a teen I was 6ft, long arms, and can remember the only bull we showed I had to reach over my head to reach his nose ring to lead him into the showring.
No, elk weren't intimidating. Just harder to find!

I was amazed at how fast a 7 mag put one on the ground! Twice!

I was bow hunting elk a few years ago and spotted a bull moose. No tag but for giggles I decided to try call it in. Big mistake. He wanted to stomp me and he nearly did. I'll never do that again. Yes I was intimidated!

Elk aren't intimidating and they are not hard to kill, but they are big,strong animals with a lot of vitality and buckets of adrenalin if scared or wounded.

If frightened or hit around the edges,with even the most potent cartridges,they can carry on and travel a long ways.It's hard to over emphasize the need to hit them pretty precisely,and if you do they generally won't go far if anywhere at all. But if you screw up the first shot,don't hit vitals you are likely in for a bit of a rodeo.

I've always gotten a kick out of watching my first son as he approaches and inspects dead animals.



In the case of his first moose, he started a bit further out than with the smaller stuff. He has always keyed-in on the eyes. (I'm glad he never got to approach a dying wolverine as a youngster; they can be intimidating as well as dangerous.)

Klik he looks cautious! I don't blame him....big animals.

Is that the ocean or a big lake behind him?

I noticed the setting as well Bob... one of the more unique spots, showing a downed moose, that I have ever seen...cool (on both levels).

I was pretty worried after putting my first bull elk on the ground, but a party-hunting crew of Mexican hunters helped me get started and I have never looked back.

I have always been cautious around moose because of their size. (I have never had the opportunity to hunt one.) However, the first time I blundered into a cow moose with a calf, I was very intimidated!

Grew up in elk country, so not an issue before the shot. Having gutted whitetails prior, I was definitely a little in awe of the task ahead once it was on the ground. It really is true that the work begins after the shot.

We never have been by elk, and had not on moose until a big bodied, but not quite legal bull showed up one day. We were on the ground calling, and he walks out about 10 yards away and wife nudges me, to look to her side, and I had to look up. What seemed way up to see his back. I figured good bull, got the 30-30 up, and out pops the head and Im' like, no way, you can't be that big and still have 36 inch antlers.....

As to any of them on the ground, nah, it just a bigger deer, more work, no biggy unless you have 10 backpack loads to go a half mile or more...depending on terrain and so on... then some times... elk have not bothered me that much, but I"ve beeen lucky so far on packing moose....haven't had to.

+1. Especially if you're alone, try rolling one over or moving it if it's in an awkward position. You'd better have 'et your wheaties that morning...

Given how differently elk and moose perceive humans, I don't feel intimidated around bull elk but I don't want to get close to a moose unless I have a tag in my pocket.

Case and point, my first year elk hunting. Bother and I were hunting two areas. First was overcrowded (White River Area) and went to a second location around Rifle,Co. I was making a hunt midday or actually easing back towards camp. I was walking a road back when I heard a shot up higher. Later I came to a curve in the road, midway I heard rocks and hooves meeting. I stopped and waited for a few minutes and realized they had spotted me. I moved away slowly and quietly about 100 yds. Down came elk in a rush, I didn't notice any bulls for my tag but brother had a cow tag. I noticed one bleeding so went to get brother and track it down for a finishing shot. We tracked that cow as far as we could over several ridges. No hint of slowing down. Never found it.

First elk hunt I was on, first morning out. Hadn't sat down overlooking a meadow maybe five minutes and looked over my shoulder to see a fair 7x5 14 yards away.

He spun as I saw him. Wind was in my favor and he stopped. Slipped a 160g pill in his boiler room and he was dead not 30 yards away.

lucky bastid!

to the OP- no I wasn't intimidated.I was pretty young when I saw my first one. I was in elk camp for the first time when I was 15 months old. doesn't matter how many I shoot I'm still impressed with the size of them and the ease and speed that they move over nasty rough terrain.

Neither. It's all just snow (in shadow) on the undulating tundra of the small drainages that feed into a small river. It's looking back in the direction of the ocean - probably 15 miles distant, but it would have been a white line if one could see it from there - covered in ice and snow in January.

At 10, he had a caution he didn't have when he was younger. When he was four, he was examining a lynx that had been alive less than two minutes previous to a 22 LR bullet through the lungs. At five, he had no qualms about pulling on the rubbery snout of a big sow bear that had died similarly, albeit with a 45 LR (45-70) bullet.