Country star Chris Johnson admitted he became 'a little arrogant' before his grueling elk hunt in Colorado.

With only 30 minutes left in his trip, Chris Johnson finally tagged a bull elk after a week of humility in Colorado's high country.

Country star Chris Johnson talks about his grueling Colorado elk hunt

Country music star Chris Johnson tells OutKick OutDoors about his challenging elk hunt in Colorado, where he finally bagged a bull in the last 30 minutes of his trip. The "Buy Me A Boat" singer also explains why she takes the sport so seriously.

Chris Johnson has spent enough time chasing elk in the mountains of Colorado that he's got it all dialed in pretty well.

The country music star recently returned from a successful elk hunt in Colorado, where he has made annual trips for the past six years. And while he ended up coming home with a beautiful bull, the hunt didn't go exactly as planned.

Usually, Johnson said, he can fill his tag in the first day or two. This time, he figured he'd kill the hunt early and spend the rest of the trip resting on the water.

But one thing about chasing big games - it humbles you fast.

"I came in a little cocky," Johnson told OutKick OutDoors. "I kind of went in, 'I've done this, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to get a deer the first day, and then I'm just going to fish the rest of the trip.' But it didn't work out."

Check out Chris Johnson's full interview with OutKick OutDoors here:

Instead, Johnson and his hunting buddies spent a week hiking in the highlands, encountering elk, but struggling to collect everything.

He suspects the unusually dry weather played a role. With the rain, Camjohnson said in the area, the deer weren't behaving as well as he expected during September, when bulls are usually more active and vocal.

"We were very high in the country and we had a lot of chances that we didn't get at the last minute," he explained.

And as the days passed, his patience increased.

"I take hunting so seriously that sometimes I don't even enjoy it when I'm around when I don't want to," Johnson admitted. "That's the hunter spirit in me. I hate to lose and so I just want to go out there and do it."

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With their trip over and no moose to show for it, Johnson and his group decided to change their strategy. After spending most of the week hunting in the highlands, they moved lower.

And with just 30 minutes to go, Johnson finally got his cow.

"We've been hunting high all week and hunting semi-high and then we've been in the low country where we probably should have been from the start," he said. "But that's hunting."

Of course, stalking a deer through the mountains is a completely different animal than sitting in a tree stand waiting for a whitetail to wander by (no problem with that, by the way). It's a physically demanding pursuit that can include miles of walking, steep climbs and some unforgiving terrain.

And that's not exactly how Johnson spends his free time in the gym preparing for it.

"I'm not really a workout guy. I don't exercise," he said. "But I call it my training of the year, because of course it's all on foot, and you're just climbing here and climbing there, and you're walking mile after mile."

Mental toughness is just as important as physical fitness, he said, especially when a deer is rolling a few hundred yards away and the only thing standing between you and that opportunity is another brutal climb.

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"I'll climb any rock, crevasse, mountain or river. It doesn't matter," Johnson said. "If the mission is accomplished, I'm in."

For Johnson, the grueling week in the mountains was worth it.

"Good bull," he said, "and I've already eaten half of it." "And it's been really good."

Still, too much for all the fishing he was going to do.

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