before commiting to an expensive ELK hunt...

[grumpyvette]

before committing to an expensive ELK hunt..take the time to hunt with any potential new hunting partners to find out how willing they are to help with chores, kick in with expenses and generally get a feel for their, firearms skill and safety, and general compatibility as a hunt partner.

http://wildlife.state.co.us/NR/rdonlyre ... fleElk.pdf


one hunter posted this about a trip he took
"I once some 10 years ago had the opportunity to kill a 370 bull or better with my bolt action, .338 Win mag and 225 grain bullets. Now there were 2 hunters and a young elk guide, the other hunter used a Browning Bar in the .300 mag caliber. We were some 500 yards from the main herd bull and around 350 from some satellite bulls and 40 head of cows. We were above them in a line of timber over looking the herd. I tell the guide that it is far to far to shoot and we must back off into the timber and work our way up closer."

Now while this discussion is going on between the guide and myself, this other hunter stands up and walks out into the clear with this rifle. All those cows got drift of him in less than 30 seconds. He is wearing a cheap blue rains suit also. He stood out like a sore thumb. However, the real problem is when he reached into his jacket and took out live cartridge and placed it into the chamber of his rifle, then "slams" the action shut!!! You could hear that noise the action closing made for a 1/2 mile away. Now needless to say my attempted stalk on the big bull was fruitless. No more 2 on 1 guided hunts for this elk hunter period.

we all have found that the guy next to us at one time turned out to be someone we never want to hunt with again for a dozen reasons..
theres always been and there always will be a few IDIOTS that have access to firearms
that, one experience you may have doesn,t have any effect on that particular rifle they use, or action type, other than in that single circumstance that particular idiot happened to have access to it at that time. but your spending a great deal of time and money youll never recover if your teamed up with an idiot on any elk hunt, the point about the advantage of having a single guide per hunter is obviously a good valid point, because one guide can,t really watch two or more hunters 100% of the time.
SO is the advice of always hunt locally on, at least one or better yet two over night camping/hunting trips before committing to spending the time and money on a 2 week hunt out of state with any new hunter in your camp.
many of us have had similar experiences, one guy I got teamed up with INSISTED on constantly smoking huge stinky cigars even when the guide insisted he leave all of them in camp, another guy I got teamed with actually believed his rem 700,7mm rem mag, that was bore sighted at the gun shop required no further range sighting work and required zero hold over at 500-700 yard ranges, and blamed the ammo when he missed shooting off hand at 100 yard mule deer.
that's one reason our elk hunt group hunts deer locally, and meets at the range once a month, it tends to weed out the morons BEFORE out of state hunts

 

[grumpyvette]

think drugs are bad for you

ELK HUNTING has you beat badly

when hunting ELK you pay THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for EQUIPMENT, so you can PAY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in things like licenses fees, and travel costs, spend days or at least hours, and usually pay guide fees so you can spend 7-14 days sleeping in a tent with at least one guy who snores, and you get to spend most of the year avoiding getting into physical shape you KNOW you need to be in to function, then spend several months both forcing yourself to exercise , knowing that NOTHING you can do at sea level helps much to prepare you, for the mountains, and worrying about if you've selected the correct location so you can spend your time learning to run or crawl up mountain slopes at 7000-11,000 feet altitude while you puke and have migraine headaches as altitude sickness kicks your butt, I get sick as can be with bad mygrain style headaches from altitude sickness the first or second or sometimes both days, of each hunt, it helps to take several aspirin and ibuprofen and drink hot tea,(not beer or coffee)and not do much thats stressful for the first 24-36 hours ,talk to your physician about other prescription medications (nifedipine, frusemide and acetazolamide) that can combat the onset and symptoms of altitude sickness, and have those with you.
that 24-36 hours acclimation time requires you get to where youll hunt a few days prior to opening day,obviously,and spend a couple days at a medium altitude like 5K-6K before going higher,If your in a hotel/motel, hot showers help as they tend to reduce blood pressure slightly, which is a minor help, youll generally feel ok after 36-48 hours if you don,t push hard and try to sleep several thousand feet lower than you hunt, it helps
--Drink water- and gator aid , force yourself even if not thirsty,-Start several days or a week BEFORE you arrive at altitude. Most folks--especially those who work at more sedentary professions--don't drink enough water/liquids to begin with.

--Don't drink alcohol.

--Start taking 2-3 aspirin each day several days before you arrive at altitude.

--As mentioned, bring Rolaids. At the first sign of feeling just a tiny bit queasy, take some.

--Try to avoid heavy exertion for the first day or two at altitude.

--Folks with high blood pressure are more likely to get altitude sickness, so keep that in mind for you and your partners.

--Drink water.......

https://www.altituderx.com/

http://www.bing.com/health/article/natu ... e+sickness
you spend dawn to dusk either over heated or freezing your butt off, in the hope that you can shoot a damn 450lb-700lb elk, and carry his body out in several 70 lb back packs, on several trips into and out of a canyon,(usually covered in mud loose shale, thick brush or snow) loaded with meat , for the 2-5 miles hike out of some steep canyon, (ELK ALWAYS seem to live in the next canyon, never above your camp) where you slip and fall on your face at least every 1/2 hour , while you try hard to give yourself a heart attack , while asking your freinds if your having fun yet?
and do it year after year, and even look forward to it, in fact you feel cheated if you miss a season.

I get it every trip,I drive out a few days early knowing it takes time for the body to adjust,constantly drinking lots of water, Gatorade ,take an aspirin every 4 hours and staying where its warm during the first two-to-three days tends to help a good deal, so I usually stay at a motel or a friends home during the 3 days before the season
symptoms generally include killer migraine headache, sinus hurt and you feel like you've got the flu, but it passes, and if you know what to expect and basically rest the first 3 days you'll adjust.
yeah! IM that obsessed with hunting ELK!
ALTITUDE SICKNESS SUCKS
carry lots of water and aspirin, Excedrin etc. as altitude sickness is common and a real P.I.T.A., head aches , nausea ,are real and common youll feel like crap for the first 24-36 hours, you likely to have a killer headache, but drink lots of liquids and take pain killers and it slowly passes so don,t let it end your hunt, don,t let altitude sickness ruin your hunt, its a problem for almost all new hunters that don,t live at similar altitudes,symptoms are a killer head ache and nausea, that usually takes 8-12 hours to start after moving to higher altitude and it can last 12-48 hours making life miserable , its cure is drinking lots of liquids like gator aid and water and taking aspirin and Excedrin and resting while your body adapts , if possible spend the first couple nights at a slightly lower altitude, example where I normally hunt the altitude is about 8K-11K , if I spend a couple nights in a motel at lets say 5K-7K it tends to REDUCE but not eliminate the problem and DON,T GET STUPID and push yourself hard at those altitudes, just find a decent place to sit and watch a narrow canyon, or a natural travel choke point and glass the area if you feel out of breath or overly tired, once your in a good area,many guys find that sitting and glassing every 15-30 minutes for an hour or so,is more effective than constantly still hunting because its hard to carefully inspect an area if your having a difficult time just breathing and your exhausted
my wife thinks I,m addicted to this insane obsessive addictive,masochistic behavior that kicks in any time it snows more than a few days,and I'm in the Rocky mountains in sept-nov......I told her shes wrong ...it rarely snows in sept.