Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Is 40 elk enough?

What if someone shot 40 antelope instead of elk? when i was in yellowknife after the wolf hunt there was a young couple at the table near me. they had just returned from seeing the gentelman's father. leaving at 12 noon on the 7 hour sno mobile ride ( ska dew) to the father; the couple harvested 19 caribou , a wolf and a wolverine. skinned/cleaned and had everything done by 12midnight.

You can't live long enough to draw 40 antelope tags in Idaho. The drawing odds are some of the worst in the state. I've applied annually for many years and have only managed to draw twice, and one of those was a muzzleloader hunt.

However in Wyoming, you can usually get a pronghorn tag every year, and often can add two or three additional doe tags at minimal expense. A fellow intent on so doing could rack up 40 pronghorn in Wyoming, in 10 - 20 years.

I guess one could hunt WY and kill four doe antelope each year.
Buck antelope tags in CO are about every three years. So since I like the meat, I hunt does in the December hunts. I have shot some nice bucks so I don't need the horns, and those bucks are stinky critters anyways. I never kept track of the antelope I have killed. More than a few, but less than a bunch.

BTW - was impressed when I learned that my elk hunting mentor had taken over 20 elk, hunting from his same camp, for over 20 years... The guy knew that country, and knew his elk. He could also shoot!

Impressive.

He's probably taken at least 10 or 12 since then...

Guy

Not tough to rack up a lot of elk, deer, and pronghorn in Wyoming right quick.

The last 10 years or so, each hunter could take up to 6 pronghorns (2 bucks and 4 does), 2 buck deer (one has to be a whitetail) at least 4 does, 3 elk only one of which can be a bull, 2 lions, and a bear.

To the OP I too in the past have scratched my head about some of the claims I have seen be it deer elk or whatever. In a lot of cases it is just as some of the folks have claimed here. They live in the middle of an area that opportunities abound and they also have careers that allow them the time off to pursue it. . Remember the sample represented here is a very small sample of the population at large. I may be wrong but I don't get the impression that the guys talking about hunting 4-5 states each year for multiple species are guys that get just 1 - 2 wks of vacation a year from a 9-5 job and have to decide to go hunting or to Disneyland with the family.
Like they said there are people that have the opportunity and time to do it. I also know several fellows that seem to kill numerous deer every year here where I live. Often they are guys that are shooting deer on their kids quota tags haven't been to one of their kids ball games ever & don't hesitate to use every sick day they have each year and so on and one in piticular has been thru about 4 wives. It has to be to each their own, but I will admit that sometimes I have felt a bit of jealousy into the past but in my heart I know it's largely been my choice to hunt just a weekend maybe two a year and I'm OK with that as I have a lot of trophy pictures of my wife smiling on the beach in Hawaii or on the golf course in a number of nice resorts.

Everyone makes decisions, including where to live and how to spend their time and money.

My advice is to invest wisely in life...this isn't a dress rehearsal.

These women have all killed elk. My wife don't care if I have to go back to work during the week, she's there for 10 days of elk camp.

Not everyone gets a tag every year but camp averages 6 to 10 dead elk per year.

We've been to Hawaii... I worked there for awhile on a construction project, Mexico beaches, have family next to California beaches and disneyland 6 hrs away we visit often... but elk camp would be last to eliminate if required... according to my wife.

Yep! I'm working on improving the wisdom of my investment. I live a long way from elk country and managed to get two in two different states last year.

Unless I move I'll never hit 40 elk, but either way it wouldn't bee too many. I love hunting them and the country to do so.
Rock Chuck- Can't you hunt pronghorns in ID every year with archery?

Yes, but several years ago they changed the rules to reduce the number of applicants in controlled hunts. They made archery a controlled hunt with unlimited tags. It used to be that guys would apply for a rifle controlled hunt. If they didn't draw, they'd grab the bow and go.
Now, by having archery as a controlled hunt, they made antelope hunting a 'choose your weapon' deal. You have to decide whether to apply for a rifle or an archery hunt. Since archery tags are unlimited, nobody got cut out. It just doesn't allow them to apply for the rifle hunt, too.

I don't know if you can put down the archery application as a 2d choice. If you can, that would negate what I just said because that would give you an automatic archery tag if you didn't draw for your 1st choice rifle hunt.

BTW, if you can get 40 antelope with a bow, you're a far better bowhunter than I am.

Don't let these guys rag on you too much. To be frank a lot of hunting is not much different if you are hunting a high fenced area of substantial size. Especially guided hunts on some of the ranches and reservations or some of the texas whitetail ranch hunts for whitetails. Sure the game may be more or less free roaming but those guys watch the herds and know where they are going to be and even have a good idea about the size of the bulls/ bucks. Face it with all of the ranching and gas and oil production etc people are everywhere and its a rare elk that hasn't become somewhat accustomed to humans. That doesn't mean they can't be cagy. They have us patterned too and once they see a change in our activities or we wander too far out of our place they figure it 's time to hide out. However you shot a great bull and had a nice trip with your buddies that's what's important.

Some years ago, an eastern university had a square mile fenced and was doing research on whitetails inside it. After a few years, they had too many deer so they had a special hunt to thin them out. There were lots of deer but they were so good at hiding that it took 2 weeks of hunting for the 1st deer to come out. I didn't hear if they got the quota killed.

Thanks Bangeye, I won't get raged. If there is one thing I've learned after 62 years and 3 divorces is to pick a fight worth fighting and this aint one of those. LOL. But you are right, I had a great time with my buddies. I didn't have a wall big enough so I mounted him on a Cypress stump.

Back in the 80's when they were really thick, you could get 9 antelope tags a year in Wyoming. Now most years the max you can get is 3-5 goat tags.

oxforddictionaries.com

hunt
Syllabification: hunt
Pronunciation: /hənt/
Definition of hunt in English:
verb

1 [WITH OBJECT] Pursue and kill (a wild animal) for sport or food:

game 1
Top 1000 frequently used words
Syllabification: game
Pronunciation: /ɡām/

3Wild mammals or birds hunted for sport or food.

Kent

Actually sounds rather "responsible"
and completely ethical to me.

What a STUPID and JUDGEMENTAL topic to start a thread about!

GOOD for your relatives BigSwede who apparently took good care of their families! Even if done in a rural, WESTERN way!

If you hunt the right areas, killing 40-60 elk in a lifetime isn't hard. I've taken 13 Colorado elk in the last 15 years with resident tags which cost under $50 each (and less as you go back in time). Had I figured out elk hunting sooner, my total would be much higher as I've only missed one or two years since I started hunting Colorado elk in 1982. By then some people my age had been hunting elk for 17 years or more.

Lots of people can afford to hunt with guides and hunt multiple states. How they afford it is none of my business and being jealous is a waste of time and energy.

Covet a trophy tag? No thanks. I'm a meat hunter the usually hunts a single season (or overlapping seasons which gives me an extra 2 days). Most years I have both a bull and a cow tag. I've only filled both tags two or three times and have turned down far more shots than I've taken, sometimes coming home empty-handed as a result.

When is it someone else's turn? When they decide to send the time and resources required to do so. I give up quite a bit to hunt elk every year, even with resident tags. When I first started I hunted opening weekend and maybe Monday, 2-3 days tops. These days I hunt the 7-10 days and have a much higher success rate.

Instead of being jealous, figure out how to be successful with your hunts and have more of them.

I'm never jealous of someone elses success but I sure am envious sometimes.

This cracks me up.... Does the OP want us to stop hunting in hopes that it will leave more elk for him or does he want a red x marks the spot kind of help? We can shoot three elk a year in Wyoming. This will be my 31st year of elk hunting. Do the math....

To be honest, we have only been able to shoot three for about the last three years or so. We have been able to shoot two for over ten years. The last two years, I have thrown three tags in the garbage can during open elk seasons. One can only eat so much elk meat.