Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting subaru forester for elk hunting vehicle

Not the best choice, but it would probably work.

Ya I don’t get that whole 223 for elk thing but a Subaru will haul it...

Hunt with what you have until you can afford better.

-Jake

yes use your Subaru and yes use a 223 what a combo !

I remember when my bro and I were younger...

I've owned F 250 pickup trucks since 1972. Hauled at least a couple dozen elk home in them. I bought my first Subaru Outback in 1985 and would often use it for day hunting trips from home. In 1992 I shot a cow elk in the North Bridger Mountains. With snow on the ground, I was able to drag her whole almost all the way down to my Suby, but the last couple of hundred yards was uphill so I had to quarter her to get her up to my car. Then I just piled the quarters into the back of my Suby and drove home.

I also used that "85 Suby on several eastern Montana antelope hunts. One time I got permission on a Block Management ranch the evening before the season opened. I camped in the back of my Suby that night on the side of a county road next to the ranch, and the next morning I walked a little way into the ranch, and had my buck back to my Suby by 7:30 on opening morning.

Another time two other hunters and I took my "85 Suby pulling a 1/4 ton trailer into some BLM land in north eastern Montana on an antelope hunt. I drove over a bunch of 4WD two track roads into where we camped and hunted, and back out with the trailer loaded with 3 bucks.

I can’t think of many places I’ve hunted elk where I couldn’t have gotten to the starting point with a car.

I am only asking this because I spent a few weeks hunting elk in Colorado last October and some of the roads were so muddy due to snowfall that I am not sure if I would have gotten out had I been driving my Subaru.

There have been more than a few times that we had to wait a while after dark to allow the temp to drop and freeze the mud in order to get back to the county road. Ice and snow can usually be navigated with good tires and chains, but some of that mud is another deal. Happy Trails

Haven't hunted with a Suby for a number of years now, but when I owned them it was all I had. Like buffybr they were older ones. My last was an '84 with the 2 speed "transfer case". Went a lot of places in that thing. Never lucky enough to have scored an elk when I owned it, but since I could get 1/3 of a cord of wood in the back (Measured space with seat down) I figured if I had there'd have been plenty of room, especially quartered or boned out. A bulls rack? Well, there was a roof rack for that.


Hunted the Big Boquillas ranch in N AZ a few times. Place on there , ranch house with corrals/cattle pens. One called the "bull pen". Road on the low side of was not a car friendly road. Came down it in the Sub wagon one trip, had to move a boulder or two to the side of the road, nothing major. Coupla guys meet me on their way up, near the bottom. Asked if I came down past the bull pen (as if there was another way??) , in THAT car? I said yep, no problema.

Someone mentioned the ground clearance on them. Bought my first Sub wagon in '77. Advertised as the same ground clearance as stock CJ-5 at the time. Not sure about the newer Forester models, but my brother owns one (2015?) and he runs around FS and ranch roads in N AZ taking pictures all the time.

Maybe try to plan for the earlier season hunts? When roads are likely to be drier. And avoid the Kaibab in the wet.

Oh, get a good mud/snow tire installed too.

Good luck and enjoy your hunting.

Geno

Subaru for the win ,

Like Valsdad posted "A bulls rack? Well, there was a roof rack for that."

It's not an elk rack, but it's as big or bigger than many of the racks of elk bulls that I've shot. When I went on my Quebec caribou hunt in 2017 I flew out of Denver. After I shot this bull, I thought he would qualify for the B&C record book, so I didn't split the skull and paid the extra air baggage to bring it back whole. The rack wouldn't fit inside my 2008 Suby along with all of my gear and my Golden, so I tied it on the roof rack for the drive from Denver back home in Montana. On the ride home I got a lot of looks, thumbs up, and folks snapping pictures of it.

Great thread. Where there's a will, there's a way.

When I was 17, I had a '70 Camaro RS with Cregers and L-60's on the back. The night before I went deer hunting for the second time, we had about 4" of snow. When I got to the farm, there was no way I'd drive it back into the field, so I parked on the side of the road and walked in. I ended up shooting my first deer (doe). I had to drag it about 1/2 mile, but with snow on the ground, it was a little easier. I loaded the deer in the trunk of the Camaro and off I went. When I got home, the trunk was full of blood and my old man went ape schit on me as if it was his car. Kinda knocked the wind out of my sails. I'll never forget it and I never let him forget it either. He did apologize eventually and then it became sort of a joke with us because I made him feel bad about it. That story got told many times at family functions.

My dad has a great old family movie of him and a buddy hunting in a Mercedes sedan. They got it stuck up to the chassis and then cut down some trees with an axe and levered the car out of the mud. Took their combined weight hanging off the tree trunk to unstick the car. Later there are cuts to them driving back with two deer tied to the Mercedes. A little Redneck ingenuity paid off.

If a Mercedes will work a Suburu should be even better. Take a Sawzall or other tools for braking the Elk down and you will be in good shape. I like those wheelless trailer extension that fit the trailer hitch, perfect for an ice chest, load of firewood or half an Elk.

I ran an old 98 forester with a 5spd as my alternate for a few years and have had a lot of deer and hogs in the back of it. And as far as capable- i never worried about stuff like what we got that minivan hung up in back in feb. it was a beast. My wife has a 2014 with 6 spud manual. Only issue is sometimes you gotta hit stuff harder than you want without a low range. But just grit your teeth and hammer down Bobby Big Rig!!!

I used to hunt out west in. Honda CR-V

Hauled many boned out deer and elk in the back in two large coolers with rear seat down

Chained up in snow. The mud was more challenging.

I was careful where I went and always anticipated bad weather before accessing areas.

Trailer hitch hauler and roof rack for gear

Have a good friend in Bromont Canada his hunting party had a Dodge ram charger they used to get back into were they hunted. They got a nice bull and put it on the roof of the ram charger. First bump in the road it crushed the roof in and jammed the doors! lol

Last time they went in with out a truck!

Back in '11, I drove a '02 Outback from WA to CO for a late season cow elk hunt. I managed just fine, though I did have studded snows.

Taking our 2018 season for example, every big game animal I and my family took (2 bulls, 1 cow, 2 bucks) could have been hunted from a Subaru.

Just hunt!

Some years ago, one very cold morning, close to 0, we left camp to head up a trail. At the trailhead was a Subaru sedan with the windows were all frosted up on the inside. As we got there, 2 big guys were prying themselves out of it. They'd got an elk a couple miles back shortly before dark. They'd packed out half of it and were heading back up for the other half. They'd gone hunting on a day trip so they had no camping gear and very little food. They'd spent the night crammed inside that mini-mobile freezing their tails off. The moral was that if you go hunting, you'd better plan for what you'll do if you actually get one. They didn't.