Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk fever - It's real

A subject shooting into a herd of elk near Nehalem killed one and mortally wounded at least three others in January, while illegally shooting from a road, and in the direction Hwy 101. The 66-year-old subject blamed "elk fever" when he self-reported the incident, according to authorities. The subject, whose name has not been released pending the investigation, expressed remorse after the event and had turned himself in.

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2023/03_Mar/031623.asp

I hope they through the book at this jackass.

I witnessed a similar situation 2 years ago. Some tacticool Dikwad shooting about 500 yards into a herd that was bunched up as a result of the approximately 8 shots fired. He killed his cow, and who knows how many others.

Similar years ago a group shot into a herd with a single bull they were bunched up. I think they killedc2 cows and wounded another one the bull got away. Stupid is stupid elk fever is not a excuse.

Lloyd

Some years ago, we were moving in on a big bunch of elk with a couple bulls. We were still a half mile away when a pickup came out of the trees right at them. They stopped and a couple guys fired off 2 or 3 shots from 4 or 500 yds away. The elk all took off. Then the shooters got back in their pickup and drove away. They didn't even walk over to see if they'd hit anything. We did go over and look around but didn't see any blood. That doesn't mean they missed entirely, though.

Same thing happened where I hunt. My elk hunting partner and I were sneaking in to get closer to a group of elk near the tree line. We were in the trees when we saw 2 truckloads of guys stop on the far side of a field and start shooting. We had to stand behind trees as bullets were flung our way. The elk also ran past us. Some of them were injured. My partner managed to shoot a spike that was running on 3 legs past him. He dropped that spike with one shot to the back of the head with his 30-30. It's those kinds of "hunters", that give the rest of us a bad name. And when I say 2 truck loads of guys shooting, that was like 6+ guys with a total of about 40 shots fired, and elk scattering . Some wounded and some not. I yelled at those stupid sob's, but what else are you going to do? My elk hunting partner had to hold me back, because I was pretty fn pissed off at the whole ordeal. There are some guys that don't need to be hunting or carrying a gun, as far as I'm concerned.

Well at least they didn't shoot a Llama or a riding mule out from under a hunter.

Too bad they didn't partake in a circular firing squad. DUMB MF'ers

It's been done. This was in MT about 10 years ago.

I remember that one. MF'er should not be issued a hunting license ever again.

At that time, MT put the hunters name and town on the tag. A game warden took a picture of it and someone put it all over the web. Every hunter in the country knew who did it. IIRC, there was a small herd of feral llamas where he was hunting and it was open season on them. He didn't break any laws but he wasted an expensive non-res tag on it.
In his defense, a llama's silhouette in the shade does look a lot like a cow elk. They have a similar shape and stance. However, once it was on the ground, the only similarity is 4 legs.

There's a very big difference between excitement "fever", and stupidity/lack of ethics/ignorance/lack of character/unpreparedness. No excuse at all for "flock shooting".

I'll confess to getting caribou fever once. I had a very hard time controlling the adrenaline shakes in order to make a killing shot, at only about 150 yards. I had to lead the crosshair waver.... and made the shot.

I'd not been hunting in two years, so that's my excuse. It was my 23rd caribou.... a heck of a time to be getting "buck fever" - there have been more than 50 caribou since, with no re-occurrence of the malady. Terrible affliction!

A cow I took 3 years ago had been hit by a couple clowns blazing away at probably 700 yards or more with 8 or 10 shots. Whether immaturity, stupidity, excitement, or chitty range guessing I can't say. I am myself a crappy eyeballer over water, tundra, or alpine conditions, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. When she (limping) and several others came back by me (I'd passed on them earlier at 200 yards), I took her out at @ 300 yards (lazered 294, but she moved on a bit before the shot).

She had a chipped hoof. No regret - it was a 2 animal season. the next day I took an orphaned calf for my second permit. it's chance of survival was small. Got all of maybe 20 lbs of meat off that one, but we had 4 more permits to use, of which we took one more cow.

I figure the more mental and physical preparation I do, the more stone cold I can aspire to, lessening the chances of "the fever" getting in the way. Hunting the same spots annually has advantages.

. I now know how far that clump of brush she was passing by is , and I've ranged other landmarks there. The following year - 2 ago- I took the biggest bull I've ever taken, from the same shooting location, at about 340, using my pre-ranged markers. He was well out there, and leaving Dodge.... no time for ranging. No fuss, no muss.

In another location up the ridge where the caribou like to cross, but I've yet to shoot from, I've made cairns of white quartz rock at various hundred yard distances from where I would be shooting from. Sometimes there just is not time enough to use the range finder I carry.