Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Minimum number of young guys to pack out your elk?

I'll be 60 in June. I'm 5'10" tall and 150 (or a bit less) pounds. I can still pack out an elk from anywhere even if I don't like it.
I eat a whole food, low inflammation, plant based diet.
I work out for what I call "lean strength" with an emphasis on cardio/stair climbing and push ups/pull ups added (an Arabian will bury a Quarter Horse in the mountains).
Mental toughness can't be taught.
Desire can't be taught.
Some aspects of endurance are just genetic gifts. I have many of these gifts in spades. I realize they are gifts.
I haven't had anyone help me pack out an elk in 21 years. All mine come out miles-in from public ground, and unfortunately sometimes from super-steep, blow-down ridden hellholes. I don't like those spots.
Last bull I packed out was when I was 55 from one such hell hole. Took 3 trips. I can still carry 80+ lbs, but don't like it one bit.
I missed last season due to Covid (first missed hunting season in 33 years).
I passed on a number of lesser bulls since my last 6x6 kill in 2016. I'm happy not to punch a tag.
I'm likely not the toughest or smartest elk hunter.
I'm not a meat hunter (though as far as red meat goes, elk is as good as it gets). I hunt for the best, oldest specimen in a given area I can find. If I can't find that type animal I don't pull the trigger.
A couple key guys in my life really gave me some helpful bits of information that helped me early on... I've tried to pay that forward to a couple guys I think deserve the information.

Couple rambling thought's...

Good post, but the bolded point is debatable. I think I've taught it to my boys.

I also think every Marine from my Boot Camp platoon would think otherwise.

I doubt you taught it to your boys. They’re your boys. You’re just encouraging/nurturing in them what’s already there.

You don’t join the Marines without a fair bit of mental toughness already. You join the Navy instead (kidding).The Core just encourages and brings out what’s there. I’d reference my father in law, a Marine and forward gunnery observer who made three Pacific landings under heavy fire, and was finally wounded on Pelielu. He joined the Marines BECAUSE he was mentally tough. They just refined what he already possessed.

And “mental toughness” is essentially impossible to separate from desire.

I stand by my point.

I agree with Brad, mental and physical toughness can’t be taught, either you got it, or ya don’t.

Again, good intelligent post. Though, just by example, I think the tough backpacking hunts I took them on beginning at age 9 steeled them a bit.

Similarly, I recalled after all my Marine training and Desert Storm experiences (granted, that was, by comparison, an easy war), hearing others say things like "I had to stay up all night last night" for work or whatever, "and it was the hardest thing I ever have done." If I had to say up all night, I wouldn't consider that the hardest thing I ever had done. I think being pushed to your real, not perceived, limits in whatever context, even as a young adult, can change your level of resilience.

By another general example, it's fairly accepted that the more effectively and harder troops and units are trained impacts their mental ability to handle the worst in combat later. That certainly is true of troops who already have been in combat. They're generally more able to deal with it.

For example, assume that the first set of scenes in Saving Private Ryan is fairly accurate, generally, as a depiction of war. If those same troops had not been mentally toughened by training or previous combat experience, even if they had been technically trained for the task, I think there is no way they make it up and over those bluffs under fire.

Just a whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger philosophy, though taken to extreme, that's not true of course.

JMHO.




LOL.

I'd tend to agree with Marinehawk but it boils down to what you mean by "taught."

You can't learn it in a classroom. But I guarantee if you took identical twins and separated them at birth and one grew up on a farm working from a young age and the other was raised by a couple of gay interior decorators in NYC, I could pick the one most likely to hump an elk out on his back.

You might call that nurturing what's already there, but it's also learned behavior.

I have been fortunate to hunt Alaska 8 times. It was there I finally realized that mental toughness was just as important than physical toughness. If the mental part breaks down, the physical suffers and visa versa. So I now mentally prepare for bad weather, no game sightings, long hikes at altitude, treacherous creek crossings and whatever else can occur.
I accept all that as part of the hunt and realize that punching the tag is not the sole reason for doing all this.
On my last hunt, I didn't spot one caribou until the morning of the tenth day - the last day. While physically worn down, I had the mental attitude that the 10th day lasted all day and could deliver success at any time. That average bull means more to me than a B&C monster - cause other than a nice trophy and great meat, it taught me a valuable lesson.

Agreeing....The goal on the average bull is 4 trips. Straps and t-loins going in the shoulder bags. Ass ends are fooking heavy!

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Jeebus ! No words about that dude, except *Stud*.

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Don’t you guys winch most out beave? Ol man used a Lewis winch on my second bull up toutle in 95, didn’t even get 1 pull, I ripped quarters, pard and I packed on our backs... ropes, haywire etc are garbage...


Said bull if only for conversation, pard has run shovel for north fork timber since we graduated. Browning BAR 270 Roy, 130’s.... 😂😂😂

Many of the best professionals I've ever met, in terms of work ethic and diligence, which almost always is the most important, grew up on a farm. No cutting corners. No cramming for last-minute hopeful-results.. Just great work every day.

Pullin riggin, pullin line, hangin blocks is for rookies. Good pair of corks, sharp knife and a packboard is the way to go..,

If we’re hunting areas where our rigs can go, yes...If were hiking in behind closed road area, no.

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Gettin meat to a road, is gettin meat to a road... ever wear corks?

No. Time or 10 wished I had some.

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Behind a gate, it’s gotta be quartered either way, might as well do it in the brush. Server have been done in 1 trip, by 2 guys, but I’m not in that kinda shape anymore... thank god the boy Is though!! 😂😂😂

$$$ we’ll spent.

That’s shît is for the young bloods to pull off.

We’re back in between 3-5 miles. 2 guys making one trip out would be awesome. Not gonna happen with me running a freighter for a elk.

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Danner pronghorns here, easy buy here, don’t have to pose like big stick with the sole facing the camera, just easy cheap traction in the NW...

#madsens

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