On Bowsite.com, a number of fellow bowhunters have a weekly thread recounting their conditioning for the Week. The countdown is to the beginning of Elk Season in the West.

This week it is 16 weeks before bowhunters hit the woods. So I had the Tennessee Ernie Ford Song “16 tons” rattling around in my head, so to get rid of this earworm, I wrote my own personalized lyrics to the Tune.

If you are unfamiliar with it, then give it a listen:

Some say elk hunters are a different kind
Some say that they’re all muscle, very little mind
Spend a year preppin’ body and soul
Gotta be ready to follow that bull down into the hole…

You train for 16 weeks and whaddya get?
Your hands are all bloody and yer boots are all wet.
you smell like an elk and your legs are like steel
And if your bugle don’t get him
Then your cow call will

Went huntin’ in the mornin’ up Notellum crick
Grabbed up my bow and a few pointed sticks
Hiked for sixteen hours uphill and across shale
Covered sixteen miles over hill and dale

Ya bump sixteen elk , whaddya get?
Try a few cow calls , then try “the Threat”
Satellite bull comes to your call
Then the damn wind swirled, and busted ‘em all…

Second day of the season ‘twas drizzlin’ rain
Hams and quads had that ol’ familiar pain
Packed up my bivy camp, and hit the trail
Into a new basin as it began to hail…

It drops sixteen degrees, and whaddya get?
A bull with some cows and he’s buglin’ yet
Give him a chirp and a lil’ raggy squeal
He’s got a spike with his cows and he sure sounds real

I heard the bull a comin’ down the other side
He was lookin’ for a fight and that’s how he died
29 inches of carbon and steel
Left a blood trail that now ends where I kneel.

You train for 16 weeks and whaddya get?
My hands are all bloody and my boots are all wet.
Got a bull on the ground with six on each side
Gonna bone him all out and give him a ride…

From Idaho Fish and Game
Idaho Fish and Game has changed the way it conducts the Super Hunt – starting with the first drawing this year, it will be done electronically.

Entries in this year’s first Super Hunt and Super Hunt Combo drawing must be received at the Fish and Game headquarters by May 31 with the drawing set for June 15.

The Super Hunt is a fund-raising drawing for 40 big game tags. The tags are handed out to winners in two drawings. Entries are drawn for elk, deer, pronghorn and moose tags. Winners can participate in any open hunt in the state for deer, elk, pronghorn or moose. That includes general hunts and controlled hunts.

Hunters may purchase any number and combination of Super Hunt and Super Hunt Combo entries.

The first Super Hunt entry will cost $6. Each additional entry purchased at the same time will cost $4 each. The Super Hunt Combo entries work the same way.

The first one costs $20, and each additional entry purchased at the same time will cost $16.

The first drawing is in June when entries are drawn for eight elk, eight deer, and eight pronghorn hunts as well as one moose hunt. One Super Hunt Combo entry also will be drawn that will entitle the winner to hunts for one each elk, deer, pronghorn, and moose.

The entry period for the second drawing is June 2 through August 11.

The second drawing is in August with two winners for elk, two for deer, two for pronghorn and one for a moose along with another Super Hunt Combo winner.

Winners can participate in any open hunt in the state for deer, elk, pronghorn or moose, including general and controlled hunts.

Entries can be purchased online at: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/superhunt/, at license vendors and Fish and Game offices, by phone at 800-554-8685 or 800-824-3729, or by mail at: IDFG License Section, P.O. Box 25, Boise, ID 83707.

Money from the sale of entries supports the Access Yes! program, which compensates landowners who provide hunter and angler access to or across private land.

For information about this program contact local Fish and Game officials or visit the Website at: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/ifwis/huntplanner/accessyesguide.aspx.

From Idaho Fish & Game

2010 Nonresident Deer and Elk Tag Quotas
As of:April 30, 2010