Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Rifle Weight.Are you really in shape?

Haha, dying here! You are obviously not a hardcore hunter. I carry a modified frame pack. My first trip out, parts of that elk are coming with me. You can always tell on the internet who hunts elk out of hayfields, and who hunts them in elk country. Everytime I see a whole elk in the back of a truck, hanging in the shop, etc. I know what kind of hunter they are.

Smartass...Never hauled one out hole either but I sure have packed a ton on Elk quarters up and down the hills.I admit,I have hauled them out after packing them to Horses/Donkeys/Tote Goats./Yamaha 80 step thru's/Honda 90's/Yamaha 360 and 250 Enduro's and by foot, by the quarter, but never with a pack and don't forget my new favorite....The Lewis Chain Saw Winch.

By the time I get back with the first quarter,I have lots of help for the rest.No...I am not a back pack hunter but we do have a Kelty and some other brand pack and frame,but I never have used them,personally.

Jayco

Are these to heavy for you?

My 454 Casull and BFR 45-70...



Just having some fun,don't get all bent out of shape.

Jayco

I dang sure wouldn't pass one up just because it was too easy to get to....

A big +1 on that philosophy.

I'm always amazed at the people that dont carry with them a pack to take at least take some portion of meat out on the trip back to camp. I'm also amazed at the lengths people will go to get an elk out an ATV or use a chainsaw winch. I once saw a group of 6 healthy looking guys spend most of the day chainsaw winching an elk a quarter-mile to the road. Than the 6 guys hauled the elk to camp and still had to skin the critter after being drug all day in fairly warm early-fall temps. Heck, two guys in average condition could have been back in camp by noon, sipping a cold one, if they had just quartered it, loaded it on a pack, and went to walking.

I think a lot of people are afraid of or not familar with the concept of quartering or deboning. I've heard a lot of similar stories about 5 or six guys trying to drag an elk to camp. Just an observation, but that seems to be more common amongst the eastern hunters who are required to bring the animal out more or less whole to a check station. Shoot, it was only about 3 or 4 years ago that Nebraska began to allow hunters to bring in quartered elk. Before that they were expected to bring it out intact.

I would have to agree with you on that.

Got to love all the friendly smilies Logcutter is all of a sudden using. Remember he was "just having fun, don't get all bent out of shape."

Big rig truck pics? On an Elk forum? Hmmmm
And did you see those big pistols? Whow!!!!
Minor heart attack on the 7th rep of 250lbs!!!

Always funny when a deserving tit gets caught in the ringer.

Think you ought to invite him to the Warriors Dash.

BTW, looked it up on the net. Looks like a hoot!!

We'll see what a hoot it is tomorrow! If you don't hear from me again you know what happened. I just want to finish the race. They have the warroir dash in his neck of the woods or close enough I am sure. Not to late for you to come Battue, Windham NY.

Fortunately I'm working. Whew!!!! Or I just may be dumb enough to give it a go. Checked the age groups and there are only a few of them above the middle 60s slogging that one out.

I'd finish or croak trying, but my time would be nothing to post.

I am sure my time will be nothing to post either!

Maybe I should be working out with more weight and a heavier rifle!

Of course all that horseback riding and ATVing I have been doing will surely help my times. RIGHT?

So do I. Successful.



I right there with you on that thought.

Bullchit!!!! Weight is not your friend when you are jumping over those fire rings.

Nor in the woods.

One of the bumpers stickers I've wanted to do goes something like this.

"real men get their elk out whole"



Dober

Reason #47 why to hunt with a pack. Cause it has the back-strap baggie in it.....


A good question to ask a camp is if there in on the back-strap pool?

First elk down, offers a meal of back-strap, you dine if you join.



First out, the antlers and cape, and a meal of back-strap!

Cut the back-strap into a thick stakes, pepper them, stand them on end and between a couple washed blocks of fire wood, smash them.

In a well.seasoned castiron fry pan or dutch oven, fry some lardy bacon, or olive oil till its about to catch fire, you want the fat/oil hot! Season the fat/oil with some smashed garlic (same firewood) and stand back when you toss the straps in with sliced onion, and if you remembered, some sliced mushrooms(you can't beat portbello), flip repeat.

Black on the outside, red inthe middle, and it don't get any better!

Tell anyone how it sucks to be them if they didn't join the pool.

I've got it mapped out on paper how to get a whole elk into the back of my truck, solo, no front end loader, etc..

Hopefully I get a chance to do it, and hopefully it will actually work without killing me in the process..

My two elk were opposites dat way.

N�mero uno got slid down a hillside by me and two other guys & into the bed of an F250, thence to a shop with an electric hoist, where the skinning and butchering was leisurely accomplished with a cold frosty in hand. Very civilized.

N�mero dos was just me (and the yellowjackets, lol) getting him quartered and packed out.

N�mero dos was how every other elk I've been around the killing of was handled since we hunt wilderness areas with no roads.

I forgot a part of it..

"real men get their elk out whole on public land...

Dober

My first elk was out on a big flat 3/4 of a mile from transportation. Dad and I gutted it, handed mom our rifles, and lugged the mother [bleep] whole for about a quarter mile before we decided someone was going to get hurt so we cut it in half for the other half mile.

Elk are not that bad. We used to have some wild hereford cows. I shot a 2 year old bull in the head with my '06 before realizing all I had was a knife. After gutting it out I managed to load it into the bed of the truck w/o any tools by myself. That was hard, worse than the elk maybe. There's nothin' like 1500-1800 pounds of dead thing flopping and shifting for sheer awkwardness.

I'd rather skin and quarter them for lugging and loading even if it means I have to wear the lacy panties.

Tom