Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Hunting Gear for Roosevelt Elk 2020

Here you go John.

Caveat: I hate bulky and heavy gear. If it’s an uncommonly warm/mild weathered hunt, staying warm won’t be a problem.

It’s the rain, wind, and storms where bulking hunting gear hinders more than helps a guy after it get’s saturated with rain. It becomes heavy!

If you’re not planning on killing anything in my country, bulky gear won’t be a problem. You can stay relatively comfortable while watching an area all day. But, if you dump an animal the heavy clothes will work against you while you toil away getting the elk out either on your back, by winch or surfing it up the mountain with a truck, rope/cable and snatch blocks.

Plenty of threads going on recently about high-tech versus old school attire. YMMV.

What I always carry on me hunting.

My pack the last couple of years is a “Mystery Ranch Mule”. It’s a solid day pack. Big enough to carry everything I need for 24 hours and haul meat. It’s a dual purpose pack.







I’ve seen packs from KUIU that T_Inman and I believe GregW use that I would consider a better pack if I was going in and not coming out for several days. The Mule can handle loads comfortably up to 70lbs of meat and gear. Rinse-repeat a few more times and your at the trucks. Grins.

PS

The “Green Button” on my pack is from Fire member Tedhorn. It does keep your rifle sling from sliding off your shoulder. Most excellent idea.

Inside my pack is standard fare item. Garmin GPS Radio, OnX app on my cell phone in a water tight bag, Game bags, knives, small med kit, water straw, heavy leather gloves, mule tape, a few batteries for my Zebralight head lamp, water. lightweight shooting sticks, and a NOAA Beacon.

I plastic bag everything inside my pack. Water gets inside in harsh weather like this season making for a drying PITA later.



ZebraLight came to me from GregW. Applying the principles of “Less is More”. I no longer need to carry heavy batteries for my old head lambs. The zebralight runs a looong time on one battery. I carry a couple of spares just in case.





Bins/Range Finder in AGC Alaska Guide Creations bag.



NOAO Beacon


I typically take a couple different knives and a sharpening stone in my pack. None of these knives made the cut this season. I went with a couple of Gene Ingram knives because they have a Kydex sheathe which would do better in a wet pack than leather sheathes.

I have always carried a pistol on me. I will take the extra weight for those long nights taking meat out after my rifle has made it back to the truck and I have 2-3 more pulls to do.

Glock G20 10mm in a GunFightersInc chest rig. Extremely comfortable and it fits perfectly behind my bins carrier. I can get my hand on the grip fast if needed.



Getting older creates challenges that have to be overcome. If you don’t work it out, you’re gonna fail at the moment something worth killing steps out in front of you. Two things that come to mind are eyesight and knowing how to clear your optics in shît weather so you can see bone.

Contacts, reading glasses and a small light...

My eyes went to shît in my mid 30’s. I could see both near and far with contacts back then, but now, even though I’m corrected to Fighter Pilot eye sight at distance. I can’t see anything up close without wearing readers. Trying to dial turrets is hard, add in low light and it’s impossible.

I started wearing some heavy framed readers on a lanyard around my neck. I hooked a small light on my binocular case also. Now, when I see animal bodies in my bins at first or last light, I can range them, throw on my reading glasses, turn away from the killing field, hit my small light illuminating my scope turret, dial, turn light off, chuck the specs, and set the rifle up for hitting the go button.



I assume everyone knows that keeping your optics outside in a covered space like a tent, truck, or garage will help reduce optics fog and condensation? Well, if you didn’t, it does.
Climatizing your optics can help you see when you pull covers off your scope to kill something instead of looking into a mess of condensation.

Optics in rain and wind is difficult to keep clear for seeing. I had early years of frustration clearing my glass so I can see to make a good shot when my bins and scopes where covered in condensation or rain.

Solution. Besides decent scope covers. I use scope cloths, and more than one, to wipe away moisture in my bins caused by my breath or my eyes giving off heat in the early morning...I use a couple that I try and keep as dry as possible to wipe my wet glass.

In heavy rain, eventually, they will become too wet and fail from taking them out, wiping, putting them away, repeating this a 100 times.

I know that my scope is more important than bins. So, I follow this routine in bad weather...I will continually wipe my bins with the scope cloths while looking for animals. Even when the cloths get damp, they work good enough that I can see bodies and horns at closer ranges in shootable light, even in my fouled bins.

If I see something through my bins that says BIG BULL close or far away. I have a plastic bag with a big scope cloth I keep tucked inside my clothes. This cloth is only for my scope and bins when I need to take a final range on the animal before I set for the shot.

Being it’s dry cloth that hasn’t been used. I can clear my optics and see perfectly for the shot. If this helps someone, great!

Pictures continued...

Aside from the above. The only thing I carry on me is a rifle, ammo, my lucky hunting hat and Uber cool ascot.



Rifle is 300 RUM from Accurate Ordinance. With it’s louder attached - it’s a kitten to shoot.



I won’t usually carry my spotters with me on the hunt. I use them primarily for scouting. Once I’m hunting bulls, I have a pretty good idea what’s in each herd. I get surprised every now and then still. But, I always keep a spotter in the truck. If our area get’s blown and we have to play find the other herd, it’s helpful to have long eyes to check for horns on distance elk we come across.



😎

Roosevelt Elk Hunt 2020 didn’t suck,,,,but, it was challenging!

First, we didn’t connect with a good bull. The one bull I did see, I made a decision to pass on him due to where he was and what the weather was going to unleash upon us in a couple hours.

I started with the hunting party down 2 hunters. One hunter caught a draw unit on the East Side for elk where he came up empty after 7 days of hunting canyons,,,,,but he was 200% available to help take anything out we killed. Dan is an excellent hunter and solid dude.
Anyone who would offer to leave the comfort of their warm house and get involved in a mountainous nightmare deserves to be recognized.

The other hunter, Mikey, is building his new house and desperate to get it enclosed before the weather turned. What a phag! That left me and Jbird to put together a successful hunt.

I already mentioned I was going mechanical with winches, rope, and snatch blocks this season. Being down 2 hunters was the reason.

Dumping bulls several miles up in steep country where packing out is the only option didn’t seem exciting with just two of us. Fûck'n-A, I must be getting old.

I also mentioned earlier that the areas where winches are easy to use, are also drivable areas where you can get within several feet, and up to a 1/4 mile by walking in from a truck to being in position to take a shot.

These areas all hold elk, but are elk that every hunter who knows the area sends them Christmas Cards because we all know they are there.

This didn’t matter to JBird this season. He was looking for the easiest way to get it done without being wrecked. He’s been such a good mule the last 4 years. I guess my pard needed a break.

Opening Day! We got up to the area we wanted to hunt at 3AM to find two separate rigs parked with dudes sleeping inside. The area was gonna be covered. We left and drove to another spot.

At shootable light, we heard a barrage of 19 rounds fired from two different rifles in the same spot. Someone was sucking-ass at LR shooting. I knew exactly where the shots were coming from. The place would test a person out to 900 yards. These guys weren’t up to the task. Idiots!

We saw 5 animals that were cows and a calf. We also heard two different groups of hunters, who were close by us touch off a total of 6 shots between them. Both groups got a bull. A nice 3 point and a huge 7x7. Good for them 🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾

Headed to another haunt I know, from the mountain you drive in on you can stop at a landing and glass a massive clear cut on the opposite side that only has a single road at the very top. From the top you can’t see all the way down the cut. The only way to see the entire, steep mountain clear cut is from the side we were on.

Shots start at 625 yards straight across from the landing we sat spotting and can easily push a guy into the mid 800’s in yardage. It’s an excellent spot to take a BIG BULL, not something small.

The pack out can only be done by rope/cable and you need to string at least 2000’ft and you may have to go all the way out to 2600’ft to reach the bottom. For those who don’t know 2640’ feet is a 1/2 mile of rope/cable down a mountain. Epic!

We see a couple trucks on the top road and then spot a yellow rope running all the way down the mountain...Later confirmed when I talked to the hunter on top that they spooled out 2400’ft of rope before they maxed out their reel. They didn’t have enough rope to reach the spike, so they used a second, shorter rope on a Capstan Winch, like mine, to winch the bull to the end of the 2400’ft pulling rope.

The rest was historic. 2 days to pull out a spike that was over 2400’ft down a mountain, killed from a shot that was made at around 625 yards from the opposite mountain. Now that is some seriously elk hungry dudes.

PS

Their rope kept snapping while pulling thru the Capstan Winch. They had to go get new 1/2” rope. FYI - 2400’ feet of 1/2”, 16 strand rope on a reel cost around $1900 bucks. That’s was also an expensive SPIKE. Laffin.

Day 2....Woke up at midnight to leave at 1AM to be back at the spot we wanted opening morning by 2AM only to find a different truck parked and dudes asleep inside.

We drove down to the second position that didn’t have anyone there...Cool. Waited until 5:30AM when a rig pulled next to us. I jumped out to chat with the late arrivals and send them on their way if needed.

They were the hunters who were parked in the spot I wanted opening morning. The hunter riding shotgun in the truck said he missed a 4x4 opening day at 250 yards. Then watched the bull run right into another hunter who came up from the bottom and shot the bull in the head at 30 yards. Bummer for him!

I know the area well. This herd can be shot at on opening day and without a doubt, aside from massive and consecutive storms, the elk will return within the last 3 days of the season. I’ve killed 5 bulls on this mountain cut and without fail the herd pops up again, minus a few bulls.

I hoped we might get lucky this morning after talking to the hunters, maybe the elk pushed into the lower portion of the cut where we were going to hunt since the herd was shot at on the other side of the clear cut...No Such Luck!

At 8AM JBird motions at me to look at the bottom of the clear cut floor some 750 yards down. There in a grassy opening, which is a great killing field spot the elk like, was a makeshift tent made out of clear plastic.

A dude gets out from his tent, stretches, takes a piss, etc...And I’m thinking.....Did he spend the night on some meat, or is he just a dumbfùck who wanted to test his 3M plastic sheeting for a tent? IDK either way, but we bailed right then. The area was hosed as long as there was a dude camping.

Back to the big mountain where we found the hunters going on day 2 of operation spike retrieval. I spot a small group of 8 elk that are moving away from where the hunters are working on pulling out the bull.

We jump in the truck and drive to the opposite side of the mountain to get ahead of the elk and direction they are traveling. Mission accomplished. They went into a saddle with timber and apparently held. We hunted the edge of the timber until dark but no elk poked a nose out.

Next morning a bull was spotted. Back to the spot we wanted the two previous mornings, arriving at 3AM. We found it empty! I parked the truck and we waited.

Every morning we have been rolling between 1AM - 2AM to claim this spot. Finally on the third day we got it. Now the weather report indicated up to 2” of rain with high winds 30-40 mph and 60-70 mph gusts. JFC, just kill us!

We had until 11AM before the storm was supposed to hit. From 3AM to 10:00AM it’s was just light rain, small gusts of wind, and temperatures in the mid 50’s. Killing weather for sure.

At first light I pick up elk bodies moving but feeding, so it’s a slow movement. I range them at 358 yards. I go through my pre-gunning routine. Put on reading glasses, grab rifle, turn away from the killing field, squat down low, turn on my small flashlight, cup my hand to reduce light from splashing out and dial my turret for 360 yards. Then put everything away.

I put my rifle on my pack and continue to glass until it’s light enough that I can see horns, either through my bins or scope.

Sumnabitch the elk are feeding into the timber and I don’t see any other elk anywhere. I can’t see bone yet, it’s still too early and fog has been rolling in and out of the mountain crevices that’s I’m trying to look into. The light wind keeps blowing it in and out over and over

Footnote: You want excitement? Be on a herd of elk and see big bulls get covered in fog before you can get a scope on them. Then wait for what seems like having birthday before the fog lifts and the herd is gone, vanished. Or, have no elk in sight, fog rolls in, then out, and you find bulls standing in front of you, just waiting to be cratered. It’s awesome and frustrating!



Where’s the rest of the elk? Are they already in the timber?. Probably. Just bad luck. I keep glassing, hoping animals will pop from somewhere I can’t fully see. Lots of saddles and swaths of timber and reprod that can cover or hold animals until they decide to feed into an opening.

I checked my watch when the rain and wind started coming hard. It had been 50 minutes since I lost sight of the elk. The wind was outta the South, which was putting it straight into my face. I’m getting hammered now by both wind and rain.

I catch movement just then far below on the left edge of the timber. Two elk are running towards my left. It’s gotta be the two elk that I watched earlier I assumed. I’m glassing them with my bins. Both elk are soaking wet. Their silver hides now look dark from the rain.

My heart drops because I don’t see any headgear. At the closing distance they were headed. I would see big bone even without optics. They both stop to look back behind them - something spooked them.

With them stopped I could see with my bins the second elk was a cow, the lead elk a small spike. I hit the range button - 170 yards.

I tore my scope cover off, I got my reading glasses on my nose at the same time. I pulled out my dry scope cloth hidden inside my clothes and wiped my scope out of instinct in case it was wet, which it was. This choreographed rodeo doesn’t affect me much. I’ve done it too many times,,,,It’s just natural. In the beginning, when I had to start doing it...It was an absolute shît show.

It was light enough now that I could read my turrets without the flashlight...I dialed down from 360 yards I had on the scope from earlier to 170 yards and got behind my rifle laying across my pack. I was solid.

The spike was now looking forward. I was on 5 power and could clearly see a legal spike with 3” maybe 4” over it’s ears. A total meat bull. I didn’t even move my scope off the spikes head. I just watched him for a few seconds as the wind and rain pounded both elk and me. I didn’t hit the go button. They both walked back into the timber out of sight.

Me waiting on Jay to arrive...Damn, I look tired.



I hailed JBird via a txt that I saw a couple elk with one a legal spike if he wanted to make his way over to me from his spot. I got a Thumbs up 👍🏻 Emoji from him.

Jay arrived and was appreciative that I didn’t dump the bull after he saw where it would have died. 170 yards below a shear rock cliff we were on top of. We’d have to lope around, then down and cross two steep saddles full of 500 plus yards of coastal love before walking the 170 yards to the spike.

Jay said, he’d have shot it...WTF? What a pard. Here’s Jay waiting for the spike to come back.....With his eyes closed. Grins!



We stayed another 90 minutes to see if anything else came out while the storm continued to get worse. Finally the wind took us off the mountain. High wind in timber ain’t fun.

I don’t feel bad about passing on this small meat bull. We’d have gotten him out eventually with some solid effort. But, I’ve got a cow tag coming for a depredation hunt. A cow will taste just fine in 2020.

😎

Great Story and pictures. That country makes my back and legs ache just seeing the pictures. Thanks for sharing with us.

Good deal dude. No butt out tool though? I'm a believer.....

As far as the capstan winch, 1/2 mile of rope and such, did you used to hunt with SafariMan? It almost seems like that's more work than just quartering the bull up and packing the pieces to the top.

I heard the BT tool works. I still use a blade to cut around the pucker hole. Grins.

Yeah, I read some of SFman’s older posts. He was a special kind of stupid.

Capstan versus meat pack for us depends on how steep the terrain is and if the truck is in play to carry all the equipment needed.

If we are doing a hunt where I can get a rope on the elk from the truck. It’s a dream pull using snatch blocks and the V8 engine...Just idling down a logging road will surf a full elk up a mountain, no matter how steep it is.

When we walk in to hunt, Mikey carries in 50’ft of rope we’ll use if we have a steep section we have to come up. We’ll string a rope line for any section we feel will be a problem getting up...I’ve done a couple backwards somersaults down a mountain while under load. I once found myself piled up, upside down, against a dead fall with my legs flailing like I was riding a bicycle.

I’ve also laid out a long line that’s tied off to a tree that we’ll use as a handhold to help pull us up a mountain while packing meat instead of going mechanical. But, there are places that it’s not reasonable to get out under load due to the steepness and ground cover.

The Capstan is slow and going for a full elk retrieval isn’t always the best option. Like the hunters snapping their rope line found out.

I’ve used the winch to take up meat bags strapped into a coffin I made out of the black conduit loggers use when building logging roads that allow water run off to flow under a road. The conduit is virtually indestructible. Strap all the meat and horns in and let the winch pull it up. It works, it’s faster, and it’s easier to move the conduit coffin if it get’s snagged up than a full elk.

What’s the fastest, if the terrain allows for it? Bone and pack, no question. All of us prefer it. One, maybe two trips and done. Slam PBR and hit the flasks.

😎

Fantastic thread, appreciate you posting it

Goodness Beav -

I just like talking about shoving things into butts. It's who I am.


Anyhoo, glad you had fun and have a retrieval system down. Bummer on not connecting but with an extra cow tag, more fun is to come. Good luck with that!

I should get that tool as a Christmas stocking stuffer for Cinch. He’d love it. 😂😎

Nah, it wasn’t that bad...Just should have sucked it up and spent the night in our trucks the night before the opening.

Jbird brought his wife down with him,,,,,so

😎

Quoted for truth.












I post a lot about the conditions in the Pacific Northwest but never about the bad behavior and how hard you have to hustle to stay ahead of the fools. You covered it exactly. Some of these people shouldn’t be allowed to buy an elk tag ever again.

Thanks for a GREAT writeup.


Okie John

Like I said earlier, way different than the SW.

Neat read.

The hunts you, Tin_man, Alamosa and Ralphie, to name just a few are spectacular. Your country is incredible and challenging.

Maybe one day for me...

😎

The intermountain west is challenging in different ways than the coast is for sure....it is drier thank god....but the snakes in the southwest, bears in the US North Rockies and the possibility of hotter weather anywhere makes each area have its own issues....the pointy and sticky plants of the SW compare every bit to Devil's Club on the NW coast IMO....and plants are a non-issue in MT, WY and ID other than some prickly pear. Some of the distances a guy has to hike in these states can make up for the lack of pointy plants though. Beav has mentioned walking in 3 miles down a gated road to his spots....I am used to walking at least that far without a nice road to walk down, or even a trail.

That's one thing I like about this forum vs many others.....the diversity of hunting areas to hear about, and where to apply next to experience as much as I can.

Good stuff!

It is pretty neat to see/read the diversity of different regions.

Beav’ probably saw more rain during his hunt than I saw all year.

When I was archery hunting here in Oregon we tried our darnest to get our elk during the regular season. If we didn't then it was off to the "Penalty Hunt" which was for cows only ( aka "the black headed bitches") in the Wilson Unit on the north Oregon coast in December. Same type of country with lots of elk but some were in places you just about could not get to on your own legs. We've killed elk that required the same thing Beaver talks about. Rope off and basically repel down, tie the animal to a rock or tree if you can find one to gut it then hand over hand climb back up with guys on top helping pull on the rope in the really bad spots. Some great hunts but man, when you get out of some of those holes you just fall on your face in the set stuff and try to stuff your heart back down your throat. I've swilled more than one rain puddle when I got to the top of the climb.

Amen, brother, Amen.

😬😎

Me and bud did the draw party hunt for afognak next year.. hopefully we draw.

I know that stump!