2019 Idaho Archery Elk Hunt

“Hunted public land with Marc Warnke Aug 29th & 30th, 2019 in Idaho on what was to be up to a 5 day hunt. We packed in around 3 miles with Marc’s pack goats and set up a nice camp (thanks to the heavy lifting done by the goats).

First day Marc and I covered some country (satellite says we walked 10 miles total for the day and peaked out at about 1600 vertical feet higher than camp itself) looking for any evidence of elk. Marc had a thorough knowledge of the area and its elk movements as well as calling techniques to get the elk interested. Had a nice 300-320 class bull surprise us on the first morning when doing locational calls.

That evening we called in 3 spike’s to 77 yards which I had a shot at but chose not to take. Second morning we set up in a known travel corridor to do a call sequence and called a 4×4 bull down a far mountain and into us. He was highly interested and came tripping down the mountain and even bugled once. Marc had a decoy and the bull circled him and as luck had it, he came into less than 8 yards of me.

While I wanted a larger bull, I couldn’t pass up such a close opportunity for my first elk with a bow. One shot and he was down within 30 yards, heart shot and expired right next to a stream. Couldn’t have been any better for cleaning and pack out.

Trip culminated with and elk tenderloin and liver/onions lunch before packing out of the backcountry. Great trip overall and hope to be back next year!”

-Ben Henk