In 2019 I had a Unit 10 archery elk tag. It is one of the top 5 archery elk tags in Arizona. I waited 13 years to draw it.

I did not fill the tag.

I passed bulls I should have killed. I missed bulls I ranged wrong. I blew stalk after stalk after stalk. I picked up broken antler pieces of one of my target bulls after I missed him fighting another bull by mere seconds. I stumbled on the biggest bull I’ve ever seen. I called in more than a dozen bulls, the last of which I hit in the guts with an arrow in the last hour of the last day and spent the next two days searching for in vain.

The hunt was epic worth every one of the years I missed while waiting. The outcome was not epic.

Here are three things I would do it differently if I could do it over again.

1. I would not have camped in an RV.
   
   The trailer was too comfortable. I was too comfortable in it. I wanted to sleep in the bed. This limited my mobility. At times I should have camped with the elk I was driving dirt roads back to the RV instead.
   
   
2. I would have hunted more middles of the day.
   
   With only a few days left in the hunt I moved in to where I knew a bull was bedded at 1 pm. I called for 20 minutes before getting up to move. Right as I stood up I noticed a bull dart off. It had come in quietly and had I been more patient would have presented a shot.
   
   
3. I would have stayed with the elk I had.
   
   Kevin and Brittney were also hunting the unit. They were in elk every day. As the rut slowed, I left the elk I had to hunt the elk near Kevin. If I had been patient, I would have relocated the 380 herd bull I was hunting a day or two earlier. Instead, I found myself maneuvering against two other hunters who found “my” elk after I had them to myself for 3 days straight.

I want to leave that at three things.

But here’s a bonus.

This could be said of all hunts—enjoy it more.

After the first weekend of that elk hunt the wind picked up and blew for a week straight. I went a full week hardly hearing a bugle while the sun was out. During that week, I got frustrated, discouraged, and I lost hope. Give me a do over and I would have loved every second of even the wind blown days.

I have an archery elk tag again this year. It’s not in unit 10. But it is going to be a great hunt. I’m taking the RV, but I won’t be attached to it. I can’t wait to hunt the heat of mid-day where I find elk and love every second of it all over again.