2020 Elk Hunting Fails
Elk
Every year there seems to be a few some ‘fails’ that happen during an elk hunt.
I’ve already been in the elk woods for 25 days in 2 different states with a few more to go. I’ve had a few fails that were very frustrating and I hope to avoid in the future.
1) OnX - as much as I like it, I dislike it. Here’s a tip. Before you head out to hunt, remove the app from your phone and then reload it. Mine was real glitchy when I was out hunting so I went to place with good signal and removed and reloaded. Bingo! All good. BUT.... I lost all the new tracks and waypoints I recently added. Grrrrrr.......
2) InReach - twice my InReach went down. Where I had to perform a hard reset. The first time it came right back, but the second time it was 2 days before it came alive. See pic on how to do a hard reset on an inreach.
3) Sitka Zippers - they are almost as bad as Badlands zippers. I found if you clean them and put a little lubricating oil on the teeth they will work so much better.
Any other fails to share?
On x has become a giant pile of steaming dog sheet. Won’t save a way point, trail disappears, etc. I was about to delete it last week and tell them to stick it. Maybe I’ll try to reboot it.
My inreach did the same thing and froze on me. I now carry the little pocket manual for trouble shooting.
My onx off line saved map had no topo.....very frustrating on Round 1. Went home and topos suddenly appear and remained for Round 2. Hoping it works Saturday for the last and final Round 3 for 2020.
True that, I delete my OnX app when I get home then reload it for the next trip and save to off grid what maps I need Before I leave the house.
Takes a couple minutes but it sure seems to always work when I get off grid.....
Good luck, Robb
It’s been so long since I’ve taken a carbureted machine to altitude. The last being an injected motorcycle, and I forgot to re jet my Polaris ranger.
Before I get crucified. We only rode the machines from our cabin to the beginning of elk turf. Then gained 1500-3000Ft minimum and 2 miles before getting into elk turf. Well it was running very rich I thought, ok it’s got “low energy” but running rich is better than lean and no worries. WRONG! Turns out running too rich washes the oil out of the piston rings and causes these type of motors to lose compression. Well the thing quit running towards the end of the hunt. And now an upper end Rebuild.
I'm with Scoot... failed to go elk hunting... oh, the horror.
I too failed to go elk hunting...EPIC fail!!!
The Northern NM elk failed to bugle during second season. Also, a 5pt and a 340+ both failed to stay in my shooting lane long enough to release an arrow on my last morning! The elk failed, not me and Jeff! LOL
The weather failed me on my first trip. 20+" of snow made access impossible. Headed back for redemption though!
I plan on doing a post hunt Spike camp gear dump as my time allows. (Gear review, new and existing). Spoiler alert. Not quite epic, but the 2019 repair of my bear damaged air mattress didn't go so well. (And I am in the market for a replacement)
Reading the ONx experiences make me chuckle (Not at your misery). On my hunt this year, I ran into another hunter and we were coordinating hunt planning. (So we didn't get in the way of each other). Looking at the Gaia app on my phone, he told me I should "Upgrade to ONx". Needless to say, I am comfortable with my hunt app choice.
I've never had an issue with OnX...
This summer my old labrum injury failed me, so I skipped buying any archery tags this year...
For ONX recently they sent out an alert to update all offline maps, maybe that has something to do with it???
I've seen tracks/waypoints disapear in offline mode, but a restart of the app (not reload) and it shows them up again. Never while using it, just while saving.
My fail was being in to much of a hurry to get to my wife before total dark (new area, not 100% comfortable in it). Stumbled right into a cow and wasn't ready! We have cow tags.
View Ranger is a nice replacement for ONX. You can export your POI's, trails etc. periodically and then email yourself the file for later import (say if you have to get a new phone and you don't want to lose your stuff).
I failed to hide my meat from the bears, they got a rear and a front quarter! They also got into my pre packed in water, the good thing was that I packed in another 6 liters. Other than that the hunt was smooth as silk
OnX worked perfect for me this year. Actually pretty much everything did. Pretty unusual to have a flawless hunt. But I feel your pain ;)
My fail stuck in 6' drift in the middle of September lol...
The onx maps were blank but the waypoints were there which helped some. Went to town ten days into hunt and re download and was fine for the rest of hunt. I'm in the camp that never trust electronic solely. Always keep a compass in my pocket and in a pack. Had a compass flip polls on me (Silva) last year. Busted it with a rock.
The wind failed me. Every time I was close the wind would switch. Game over
Gee, where do I begin? Clutch in my truck went out in Gallup, NM...had to get it towed to Santa Fe, so KHNC could pick me up. Turned into an 8 hour tow truck ride (wearing a mask the whole time), because I-40 was completely closed, apparently, due to a shooting incident, where no one was actually killed???
This was our 3rd trip to this unit, and I had never seen so many hunters. Every drainage we came out of, had trucks/ trailers/ quads by parked by the time we would slip back out in the mornings. Called in quite a few dudes over 10 days.
Bulls had completely shut off vocally due to hot weather, occasionally responding to aggressive cow calling. And, they were hitting all the waterholes after dark, even with virtually no moon.
The capper....we did a 6 mile loop the last Day, with only one tiny bull squeal to show for it. Get back to the rig right at dark, only to have a bull bugle at us 100 yards away. And, we have a flat tire to boot !
One of those Seasons, where success just wasn't in the cards!
I failed to hit a bull in the sweet spot, instead I hit him in the shoulder on the 2nd to last day! Still crying
I didn’t believe the weatherman and failed to backpack in cold-weather gear. Had been in the high 80’s so I figured he was lying again...
My failure was a lighted nock that fit too tight to the recurve bow serving bow string. When I released the arrow at a bull elk 19 yards away, the nock held too tight for a split second on the string, causing the arrow to kick left and then dive at the rear foot of the bull. Needless to say, he did not stick around. Back at camp, I filed the inside of the nock to lessen the pinch. After that, arrow flew like a dart but just a day too late. Never had another chance with the stick but killed one later with the compound.
My Samsung s8+ had gps issues and worked for a while if I restarted it. Onx had an update about the start of Sept that if you did not update might have hindered your effectiveness.
I have failed to go elk hunting for another year. Upon retirement this next spring, that trend will discontinue and I will return west to make elk hunting part of my annual commitment once again.
Whiffed a gimme shot on a nice 6x6, enough said.
My biggest on the list was loosing a hearing aid. That sucks big time. Gotta go to the hearing doc today and the bill after insurance is going suck big time too.
OnX has been terrible as of late, I spent a week out of cell service and all of my waypoints would disappear, then show back up at random... then disappear, along with layers, particularly the roads layer, nothing like being able to see trails but not the roads that connect them... I deleted and reloaded before the hunt and also updated ... not super psyched, glad I usually use Gaia for tracks and waypoints as I like it's basemaps better...
Mentioned before but our failure, my son ran my Gravityworks filter backwards into our Camelbaks.
To those loosing OnX layers that happened to me last year. OnX said it was a result of going in and out of cell signal and not just staying offline. Needless to say this year my trails and roads were line traced before leaving the house.
My iPhone wouldn't orient OnX properly. But this was minor. The biggest fail was not seeing or hearing an elk in 6 days of hunting.....
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failure to find or hear and see an elk this year. First time ever
Whoever deleted the post that mentioned that Gaia blows OnX away, please send me a PM to discuss. And put your big boy pants on.
I failed to see a single elk this season......other than on a game cam.
Not really a failure, but felt like it at the time. Opening morning I hiked in about a mile and got set up at a trail intersection I had found while scouting the day before. I got in there an hour before sun up and could hear bugles and cow calls below me. So I moved off to the side a ways so they would not catch my scent. I sat there for a couple hours after shooting light and then made my way back to camp after watching the elk take a different trail up and around me. Was back at my truck about 30 min and up pulls a game warden. SUPER nice guy. He said "man, I thought you were you going to get it done opening morning". I gave him a puzzled look like WTH. He asked "could you not get a shot at either of the two bulls below you?". Come to find out he was 1.5 miles across the valley watching me and watched 2 bulls parallel me what he guessed was 50yds below me. I never seen them, but I heard several noises below me.
