Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 3rd and 4th rifles season

When I was young, I couldn't get one out in one piece.

Lol I'm not a young buck and realize if I get one its coming out in qtrs it's either hang with the crowd and wait for the suicidal elk or hump it in and up my chances...

Me either. It helps if you're stupid.

In that area when i see whole elk carcasses at the processor i wonder if it was that close to the road but assume they were on someplace private where you can get an ATV or truck.

I did kill a cow once in the snow that ended a 100 close yards from the road an easy drag, but needed a come-along to get her in the back of the truck. Dragging and hauling are not usually on the menu for us there, cutting up and packing out are almost a given. That nice soft pliable meat that hangs in a tree overnight is so much stiffer and less comfortable going into the pack in the morning.

If you are truly going to hunt alone, I would suggest you look into a Personal Locator Beacon; in case of emergencies. You might also want to consider renting a horse from Sombrero. A lot easier to load quarters on a horse and walk it down a mountain. Anyway, good luck and much success.

Loading meat in a pack and hauling it out on your back is as easy as falling off a horse...

Good one smokepole

I've rented horses from Sombrero a couple of times to haul elk off the hill and thought it was money well spent on 2 occasions, and once it was a pain in the ass when they raised the price and gave me a crappy horse to boot.

Using a horse for hauling elk is about as much fun as it gets and makes you feel like a classic Western elk adventure, that is just leading one a few miles in loading him up and walking him out. Id love to have a couple of horses or mules and a pack string of my own but that or a $5K guided hunt aren't in the budget for the foreseeable future. A couple of hundred bucks for a rental is an efficient cheaper option without the feed and vet bills or the big check to get the whole deal.