Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Thanks Montana (solo backpack elk) and 2013 season

This.

Shut your whiny gash!

^^^^^ what Higbean said

How about I shove my boot up your whiny gash [bleep] homo? No whining there at all. If you weren't such a do nothing dumb [bleep] you would realize that. How about you continue to imagine that you have a clue and let the big boys talk?

Jim had his cow allotment below eagle peak in colorado years ago before finally starving out working his cows on the weekend on the NF and working the mines out of Grand Junction through the week. He would visit and eat with my brother and me on occasion at our archery camp at the trail head at 10,300 ft.

After many years he had been the guy who found the remains of two different lost, frozen hunters the following spring. These guys had pushed it a little too hard in pursuing their ultimate quest of a bull elk trophy.

He found each the following springs of their last hunts after bringing his cattle in from the low country and repairing fence on the Nat. Forest in the Colorado high country.

He said each were found in the same manner and sitting on a hump, hands frozen over the muzzles of their rifles which stood upright from between their spread feet, chins resting in perpetuity on their glove clad hands, faces black as the ace of spades.

The second and last he found before he was starved out by small acreage and low cow allotment really kind of tempted him, he said, as his head was propped up over the muzzle of the most beautifully stocked Weatherby he had ever seen - a gun much more valuable that the old travel trailer he left in the mountains to stay in over the frigid weekends to oversee his cows and fix fence from on his weekends away from the mines.

He begged me and my brother to gut shoot any bruin we got a chance at with our bows as their population was outstripping that of the elk and deer and costing him several of his bovine herd every year.

Great read Form!!

You need to take your meds in the correct order....

You need to refrain from talking out of your azz.

I think its great he took pictures of his adventure no matter how beat down he was. I love looking at old hunting pictures of others so I make it a point to take as many pictures as I can so years down the road I can look back on them and enjoy and remember.

I love this thread.

Sorry it took so long...

Found something needed killing when I got back-





And then back to work.








Jesus tittie christ did some of you turn in your man cards....? "oh my god it was dangerous!". Really?

I was going to ignore it, however I have to admit to being a bit amused now...... So I'll try to address it once, and then move on.



Not quite sure what's so unbelievable?

That I drove 40+ hours one way?

It were a few miles-





That I went alone? Well I'm not afraid of my own shadow and I would rather do it solo than with dudes who are afraid of chipping a nail, or effort.

That I almost slid off a 60ft cliff? Yep, I slipped. Not quite a glamour moment.



That I busted tail down a big ridge, up and over a small ridge, and then up to some elk?

Unfortunately I didn't save the position where I spotted the three bulls and dropped off the finger, however here's the trail where I dropped my pack-



And here's where they went into the timber-




Sorry can't find a whole lot that is remarkable about that, half the guys I work with are in better mountain shape than I am, though it's safe to say that I don't work behind a desk, and I might just have some fitness.


That I missed a 374 yard shot? Well have to agree with you there.... I can't believe I 'effing missed it either.


That I was able to track the bull for quite a while through snow without a single drop of blood or strand of hair? Ya it's called a miss. SU, may want to recalibrate you ballistics program, and while you're at it check how wide an elk is head on..... Then maybe you could describe how you can gut shoot one looking at you....

That I was freaking tired and wanted food and sleep? Yep, called effort. And weakness.

That I found another bull and killed it? I went to MT to kill a bull. Not talk about how much fun I had, and oh well.... Maybe next year.


The only skin left on a quarter was the proof of sex.

The mud puddle picture wasn't a puddle, it was the trail and it was half raining/half sleeting, I was soaked and it was absurd. I like to remember moments like that.


Or maybe it's like RC said- the pictures? They were taken with a phone camera. They were taken and then texted as smack talk to buddies that couldn't make it when I got signal. Talking chit to friends is worth a whole heck of a lot of effort. RC, that's weak sauce. There is no ulterior motive. Dudes kept asking me to email/write the story to them, so I did. Was never intended for public consumption. However, seeing how I greatly enjoy reading about other's trips, I thought WTH....




RC, no this is not my first time out west. No, I wasn't all that excited. No, there was no embellishment. I did what it required to kill an elk. I didn't drive there for sightseeing.




The fact that some think this was so over the top, is truly sad. Theodore weeps for you.

Awesome.

Stick?

Seems like half these guys have never 'pushed' it before. But that's OK. Some [bleep] just can't operate without a safety net......and others can't leave the couch.
But to bitch,moan and call bullschit on those that can/do/done it, just to sound 'experienced' is really rich..

Agreed.

The funny thing is most of the guys on here saying the Dude made some mistakes ARE guys that have BT/DT. We can all use these stories as a learning tool if we realize that mistakes and [bleep] ups were made. Believe me, I've done some dumb schit in the hills too, and lived (so far) to tell about it.

The way I look at, I'm not going to give someone a pat on the back and tell them what a good job they did, when they nearly got themselves killed due to poor decision making. Best thing to do is learn from it, and move on.

+1 I'm sure Forma.... is a good guy. He's a good writer too, doesn't mean that this whole thing was done as it should have been. Rule #1 when leaving on a hunt is to plan your hunt and hunt your plan. I'm done with this - I just hope that anyone reading this in the future will realize that things weren't done as they should be.

I'm still wondering what parts of the story are so "unbelievable"? I'd hardly rate a solo hunt that involved a trail as risky. I know plenty who venture off alone with in much more rugged terrain and tougher conditions, and who hunt further than a days hike from the rig. (not to take anything away from the OP)

Anybody who hasn't screwed up in elk country, especially when they were under 40, probably didn't really want an elk.

Though here in Montana I know quite a few guys who've never killed an elk without being more than a few hundred yards from their pickup, if that. Though some of them still screwed up while getting the elk out....

Man, I musta missed rule#1 when I was in hunter-tyke skool. Been on a bunch, where I just took off and went. And, without alla todays gizmos and gadgets. But then, I've allus had an aversion to 'rules' and auth-or-i-tah......