Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting If you were setting up a new LR elk gun?

AWESOME Swamplord!

Ain't that the truth, great post Sir!

Swamplord, your very comment suggests you are the type that gives our sport a poor image. But have a nice evening.

If you do not mind Mohall57, can you go into a little more detail about why Swamplord's analogy is giving our sport a bad image?

Personally, I agree with his statement. Anyone can pay a guide to go hunting with and kill stuff, it's very easy! I consider that Shooting and not Hunting.

All the hard work is in finding the animal ON YOUR OWN, then understanding how to get close enough to kill it. I hunt with rifles, bows, and shotguns it applies to all disciplines.

Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with people going on guided hunts, but to me, that is not real hunting.

I have friends that fly to Africa and have shot Giraffes and Elephants, Leopards, and all kinds of species guided and within days. I do not consider that hunting, I consider it shooting, and as I said I have no issues with that. Whatever turns you crank go for it.

I am a meat hunter, I do all of my own work to locate the animals I kill, it's way harder and more expensive than showing up at a lodge and going for a walk and killing an animal that has been pre-scouted and set up for you to shoot.

All it takes to go on a guided hunt, is knowing how to shoot. Hunting requires many skill sets.

Dang it. I know.....I said I'd never do a PRC or Creedmore, and here I go.....can't do the flatbill though. 6 creed is in the back of my mind as well lol.

So build a fast twist 6mm Remington AI and be different!

Did that. And a 6x284. And a 243 ack. And a 240. Lol. Always preferred the old 243 win for my coyote eliminating needs. 243 win on a remmy 700 long action with berger 105s and 4350. 8 twist on all but the mark v in 240. Always been a huge 6mm anything fan.

I might be wrong, but I seem to recall you posting about a guided elk hunt on horseback?

You are not wrong in a hunting career of 57 years, I went on 1 guided Elk hunt.

The only way to get to the area I wanted to hunt was an 8-hour ride in on horseback in the Wilmore Wilderness Area in Alberta, I do not own horses.

I never said there was anything wrong with guided hunts. If I had been born into a family of wealth, like Donald Trump Jr. as an example, like him, I would have been going on guided hunts and been a tourist with a gun all over the world as well lol.

The only point I was making is that do-it-yourself hunts, without a guide and especially on your own, is an entirely different animal, and is actually hunting in comparison.

Whereas guided excursions to shoot animals is paying someone to do all of the hunting, locate the animal, then you get led to a specific animal and shoot it, which as I said I don't have a single issue with.

Here is a picture of that trip. My guide who did all of the work preseason scouting, setting up camp, etc is wearing the cowboy hat, them thar are his horses, giddy-up lol

Cringe when others shoot 300 yards farther than what is “light work” for your rifle.

Killer bee: l detest a person blowing their own horn, and I don ‘t mean to infer you are, But in reply to your post on guided hunts I need to point out my own hunting experiences. I’am 85 years old , hunted big game since the age of 15, blue collar working stiff my entire life and whenever possible hunted DIY , in a manner I felt ethical. I was forced , due to mandatory state or nations guide requirement to hire a guide in a dozen or so cases. In some cases they were much like you described but for the most part the guide simply provided transportation , knowledge of the country and the critters habits, they and I worked equally hard on the efforts to find the game, get on them , harvest it ethically, process it and get it back for processing. I was fortunate enough to achieve the grand slam of North American sheep. 2 the dall and bighorn self guided and desert and stone guided. In addition to the slam I harvested 8 or 9 dall and 1 bighorn, I was fortunate to live in Alaska and Wyoming where residents were.Not required to have a guided and I was lucky enough to draw the tags. I never took a shot at any of those animals beyond 400 yards, a couple were as close as less than 100 yards. I took immense pride and satisfaction in ever one of those hunts, I’m several of which were very challenging. In addition I was lucky enough to take 20 of the North American 29, all ethically and fair chase as defined by the Boone and Crockett club. Good day sir

Sounds like an outstanding career, congratulations!

Again, my only point is that when you go on guided hunts, most of the work is done for you, they do the vast majority of work before you even arrive, whereas when you do your hunts without guides you do all of the hunting and the work you definitely don't just "Tag Along".

Friends of mine that have hunted Africa as an example, show up and the next day they are hunting, in areas that have been scouted and they basically hop in a truck go to where the guide knows where the animals are, follow the guide and they shoot.

I consider do-it-yourself hunts, truly hunting. In my case for moose as an example, I do all of the pre-season scouting, by calling Fish and Game offices to find out which areas have the best success rates in the Zones I want to hunt in. That is the only thing I know about the area before I head out to scout it myself.

I load up my quad drive to the areas and do a lot of scouting to find the best sign and focus on those areas. If it is moose, I will be in the areas in September, and scout. When I find areas with the most activity, I will go back during the first week of October and hunt that area, without anyone's help or any guarantees. As I mentioned 90% of my hunts I do on my own.

I do the same when I hunt Deer and Elk, the only difference is I go at different times because I like hunting species when they are in full rut, which I call "Prime Time"

I have also Hunted the most exclusive Club/Property for ducks and geese in Canada, but the vast majority of my goose and duck hunting I did on my own, where I did all of the scouting and hunting without any assistance.

I think it's fantastic that you have been so successful in sheep hunting. No matter if you are going by yourself or with a guide you better be in great shape.

One of my father's friends listed #2 in SCI, used to have guides on speed dial all around the world, when he got a call that a certain species of animal he wanted to hunt was located, he would fly there in his jet to kill the animal. Nothing wrong with that! The hardest part of that type of hunting is making the kind of money you need to afford to pay the guides who do all of the work.

I am not opposed to any type of hunting guided or not. It's all good!

Thank you for your response and have a great weekend

You are a hoot. Meat hunting? I can literally go out for an hour a year to kill “meat”. Quite the chore.

If you want to call this chore hunting, fill your boots.

Humans have been increasing their effective killing range since they put a rock into a sling. Where and when do you wish to draw a line in the sand and say: "We should go no further."?

This is the unanswerable question. People with a conscience will always pay attention to the greater good without restriction. Those that don’t have a conscience, will continually stretch their boundaries without thought to the decency or integrity of the purpose of restraint.

In Montana, we used to have no posted speed limit on the highways, it was careful and prudent. We had the open highway to determine what speed we would travel and do so. After the ridiculous 55 MPH law of the Carter administration, Reagan disposed of the senseless energy saving speed limit. Montana went back to careful and prudent, but enough liberalism and immigration of California outsiders, they were screaming for a numerical limit because they weren’t capable of making a decision on their own.

The similarities of these 2 situations is evident in the decay of our society to require posted limitations on what we are to adhere to. As to “what is too far to shoot” it should be a reasonable distance acquired by knowledge of seasoned shooting and a disciplined limit that people should recognize out of sensibility and not restriction.

Once that is said, you will have those that will put no limit on distance and disregard the lack of safety with such a philosophy and press on.

Is it 200 yards or 2 miles? Do we really need to put a distance limit on it, or try to practice sensible restraint and be a unrestricted group of shooters that respects the safety of others and the value of the game that we hunt, then act responsibly?

Well said. The liberal mind loves control and loves to be controlled. You could replace the word liberal with evil and it still fits.

Hence, nuclear weapons when Napalm was certain to bring Japan to its knees.

Humans don’t by nature possess the ability to “stop here for moral reasons.” More like, “go to the ends of reason so we can meet our enemies there.”

Which has nothing to do with long range shooting except to recognize its inherent in human nature to push the limits.

Chore? Who said it was a chore? Oh you did, so you fill your boots doing your chores dummy!

The way I see it there are two types of hunters. People like me, who hunt to fill their freezers and Trophy Hunters.

When I hunt for moose, the first legal moose I see within range is going down, if I were a Trophy hunter I would be more selective. I am in it for the meat. But unlike you and your Alberta lady friends, I don't kill Moose Claves.

Chores you do around the house, I live in the city and have to travel to hunt, it's a lifestyle.

And do me a favor Dickhead, if you want to troll, stay on Alberta Outdoorsman where you specialize in trolling. In other words Piss off, AO douchebag troll!

Well that was rude.

Go outside and do some chores, with all of that fresh air, you'll get over it, troll.

Schrapnel , I am personally honored that you began posting again. You pose a clear headed opinion and do not interject insults or malice to get the point across. Sometime post that picture of you holding the antelope by the ankle while trying to finish it off. Makes my day to see such antics.....