Well, the 2023 general hunting season for deer and elk has come to an end for the year. I hope everyone that had tags out there, punched them and filled their freezers for the year! If you still have a tag, the hunting season might not be over for you thanks to what some hunting districts call the Shoulder Season, which allows cow elk hunting until February in some districts.
Luckily for me, I filled all 3 of my elk tags, and all 3 were cow elk. One tag was my general elk, and the other two were strictly meant for cow elk. The general elk tag can be used for either a bull or cow elk, but I never saw a good-sized bull that was worth shooting, so I ended up with the three cow elk. I live on a ranch, so I hunt on private land which is a lot easier to hunt and I can drive to the elk that I shot and load the elk up whole. My dad and I usually take half of an elk to make snack sticks and sausage. The other elk meat we don’t want, we give it to our relatives who can’t hunt anymore.
I also went with my friend Chance Marshall, and we did a morning hunt and went to a piece of state land that he goes to hunt a lot of the time. We didn’t get anything or see anything, but when he invited me to go along, I decided to go because I had never been on that piece of state land before. It was a fun morning and it was a fun experience exploring new country I have driven by but never hunted before.
I had fun every day when I could get outside and enjoy it! The weather was very good, it wasn’t too cold or too warm, it was comfortable weather to hunt in. I hope everyone else had a successful 2023 year filling their tags!