To me, elk are nothing more than groceries. I typically apply for a cow tag close to home here in the desert where one can be procured easily and loaded into the truck in big pieces, if not whole. Once that’s done I get back to what I really enjoy, hunting big mule deer and antelope.
Our rifle elk and deer season overlap for 2 weeks. Our deer season, in most units, ends Oct 31 and the rut starts after that so the big boys take some serious hunting to find them. This fall I saw a real dandy mulie buck with 10 does a week after the season closed. He would have looked good on anyone's wall. Standing broadside at 200 yds. Piece of cake except for that cussed closed season.
Antelope tags in Idaho are very hard to get. The odds are usually 1 in 25 or worse. I've only drawn twice in my life.
