I have the opposite problem, we butchered are cattle early. So I got to elk season with the long anticipation of a kid at Christmas. And then.......bang.......bang.bang= it's over.
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The early cow elk hunt for the father in law started at the target range mid afternoon with an instructional on long range equipment for his first ever seven hundred yard practice (7 shots) and then we headed up the mountain and we bagged him a cow a couple hours later, wam-bam one and done.
Only an eight day bull elk season. Day one of elk was an unexpected bust but I got a huge 6x7 on the second morning, helped the parter get a 5x6 the next day. Wife's back is prepping for surgery and she can't even walk upright but still managed to get her a chance to shoot a spike (altho she passed) knowing it would be a hard recovery for us.
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All in all another great year elk hunting and making seven successful years in a row for me.
Season has bean over all of five weeks and I am already longing for next year...............the coyotes are gonna have to pay the price of that anticipation but it just aint the same.