Got Elk?

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation recently and proudly announced that new research is indicating, “More women per capita are attracted to elk hunting than most other kinds of hunting.”
According to the Foundation, 6.7 percent of all elk hunters are women — that means there are over 60,000 female elk hunters out there. Proportionately, that beats turkey, goose, duck, rabbit, pheasant, and squirrel.
“It seems a bit counterintuitive,” Foundation president and CEO David Allen said in a press release, “because elk hunting can be the quintessential ‘roughing it’ hunt. But obviously, women are not intimidated by rugged country, large rifles, unpredictable weather and pursuing animals several times larger than they are.”
I’m frankly not crazy about calling the trend “counterintuitive,” but it’s true that elk hunting is not for the faint of male or female heart.
I’ve never hunted for elk, but I very much want to, and have great respect for anyone who has. A woman I met in Idaho comes to mind, who got her first elk with a muzzleloader when she was 8 1/2 months pregnant with her first child. Talk about tough.
I know a number of us have elk plans in the not too distant future (I can’t believe, by the way, how fast August is going — I feel like it was just July). What do you have coming up, and how many elk hunts will that make for you? -K.H.