Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting never hunted elk,need lil advice

Laker, it would not surprise me it you were the only one. Don't get me wrong: I derive a sense of accomplishment from the whole experience, as well as a kind of 'rightness' and well-being. Still, there have been times, particularly with elk, that my body started shutting down long before the task was over, and apart from the immediate pain, and the understanding of the pain to come, I rationally considered the possibility that I was risking my life. I obviously survived.

I don't pack, just carry a radio.
When it's packing time I call the young guys.
They eat my food, sleep in my tents, carry rifles I paid for and shoot ammo I've put together.
Getting game out is my payback.

You are a smart man, Tracks! There is a current lag in age-appropriate game haulers in my group. The big kids have married and moved away, and the young kids still rely on me and my brother to get the animals back to the truck.

Hell, I'm 73 and got no business hauling heavy loads.
Last year the kids beat me out of the canyon and they were doing the work. I found a new spot a couple of weeks ago, no more steep hills and knee deep snow for this guy.

In a sick kinda' way it is rewarding.

Always just looked at it as part of the game.

My back isn't what it used to be so a few years ago I got llama'd up. I still have to hike but the boys carry all the weight.

That works, too.

No, you're not. I always like getting back to the truck and putting the meat on ice, then grabbing a lawn chair and a beer and taking it easy for a while. Nothing like it.

When I get too old to do it, I'll be happy just remembering that I did.

Elk hunting and the work it takes, separates the men from the boys..

We call that a normal season. Try two seven miles from the truck. That will bring grins from the boys in camp. Karma does work when they open the tent door the next year to say we have three to pack.

We hunt elk by the theory that we only have so many days to shoot them. We have lots of time to pack them out. Every man is in unless you are over the age of sixty or have an open tag.

My ten year old got his first real elk camp this year. He was quick to learn that nothing good comes from a tent door unzipping at 10 in the morning. By late afternoon he was blowing chunks as he hit the trucks with a load of elk meat in his pack. The soon to follow smile let me know we have another elk hunter in camp.

No sir I'm with you on the pack jobs. All part of the hunt..

I'd pack a nice bull that far, with help.

A cow, not so much.

I'm a Texas flatlander and I get to hunt elk all of one week a year. I'm 44 years old with bad knee's, bad shoulders and a bad back and some REAL bad arthritis (football and bull riding in my youth). I would kill a cow elk on the face of the moon and pack it through space back to earth. I hunt to fill my freezer, and if I'm lucky hang some antlers on the wall. In other words, when a legal animal steps out, I kill it, period... I hunt public land in Colorado on OTC NR tags and opportunities are not usually all that abundant. So, I don't let my circumstances define me, I define my circumstances. My rule, don't hunt in an area you CAN'T get an elk out of. However I find a big difference most times btwn what I can't do and won't do� all depends on the hunter, and how much you need meat in the freezer. I've done some pretty stupid sheeyot over the years but somehow, the meat always makes it back to the truck, into the freezer and onto the plate. At the end of the day it's all about how bad you want it� same can be said for most things in life� Elk hunting at times can define mental toughness, or at least stupidity. IM(very)HO�

Foxx

Well, if the only place I could kill a cow was 7 miles from the truck, I'd do it. Usually 2-4 miles in is good enough.

My 1st time elk hunting, about 1966, we killed 3 bulls within thes 1st five minutes of the NM season.
We had rented 2 percherons as pack horse and we packed in,but had to take them back to the ranch that day. I lost the coin toss and after walking in, I had to walk the horses back out and then I had to walkback in. About 6 miles each way.

We left camp about 2AM opening day and got above timberline just before day break. Killed the three bulls at legal shooting light and made it back to camp that night at about 10PM.
Next morning, I lost the coin toss again (I think it was fixed)and had to walk back ou tto get the horses,back in and then another 3+ miles UP to the kill sight.

We loaded all three bulls onto those big tall draft horses and took them back to camp. The rancher OK'd us to keep the horses at camp that night and we packed the meat out the next day and went back the next weekend to pack out the camp.

It was three years before I got enough courage to go elk hunting again.

...and thats assuming your horse behaves himself. I've mentioned this incident before: Cecil Andrus, former gov. of Idaho and Sec Int under Carter, is an avid elk hunter (still is at 80). One time when he was governor, he and some friends packed way back in with mules. One of them shot an elk. They brought in a mule to pack it out and it got raunchy with them. It reared up and caught Andrus on the top of the head with a hoof, knocking him unconscious. So, they had a dead elk, a raunchy mule, and an unconscious governor. Luckily, he woke up and was able to ride out without a helicopter. Some haven't been so lucky.

Cool to cold weather, decent cordage, and good game bags go a LONG way in relieving the dead elk time pressure and the misery that it multiplies.

Are you guys trying to discourage a new elk hunter?

Shooting a nice buck deer is like hitting a single to win your recreation league softball game, your first bull elk like a walk off homerun in the world series. The scenic rough country they live in, the sheer size of the animal, and the effort required to get out the delicious meat is whole different kind of hunting.

You tend to think this cant be worth all this work sweat and pain on the tough days but cant wait to go back after about a week back home.

This time of year daydreaming about a particular spot in the mountains and hauling a bull and a cow with horses or the sound of a 750 lb animal crashing through the brush or hitting the dirt with a loud thud can take you right back to your last or best hunt.

DIY public land elk hunting offers some rewards that aren't measured in inches of antlers. The feeling of being able to sleep till daylight because you filled your tag and packed out the meat is a good one even if it takes a couple of Advil to get out of the sleeping bag.

Amen to that. It also means that not a lot of others will be "back in there" with you.

I like how you worked in the mention of Advil, the wonder drug.