Ive hunted ELK and mule deer out of state on at least 4 states and at least 43 hunts over 43 years, now theres been some hunts where I combined two different states on consecutive hunts when the dates and my wallet allowed me too, but anyone who's hunted extensively will tell you that you usually spend far more time locating herds, driving to different locations, getting exhausted climbing to ridges and spending hours glassing canyons and sneaking around and failing to get into a good location than you do being successful, at getting into range and making a decent shot.
why don,t we ever seem to post about days we don,t connect?
Id bet Ive spent a minimum of 5-7 days hunting hard, driving into town for supplies,gas, food, dry ice, or packing out meat for every day I spent actually shooting and killing game.
Ive had good days out in the mountains where I never had a chance to fire a rifle or use my bow, Ive spent lots of days helping friends pack out meat, or just helping glass and locate the ELK for other members of my camp .
hunts in Colorado generally last 7-9 days,
Ive spent several elk hunts where the main goal as far as I was concerned was not to get an ELK personally (not that ID pass up anything that was truly impressive if given a chance) but where I spent the vast majority of my time helping new guys in camp get their first or at least their first decent elk or mule deer!
maybe I'm in the minority but I really enjoy walking thru the steep canyon country of Wyoming and California, Colorado, Idaho,where Ive hunted mule deer or ELK, and to me its not the kill that's important, its the hunt, the back packing, the camping, the planing, overcoming the problems, the experience as a whole and watching the younger guys learn the skills that's much of the fun,more than a few times Ive turned to fellow elk hunters while we were trudging up a steep slope miles into some canyon, with a 60 lb pack, dead tired, thirsty, and said " we paid how much to do this?" and the results usually two old geezers laughing and trying to catch their breath while contemplating the absurd circumstance that paying thousands of dollars to abuse your mind and body entails while hunting the canyon country, its addictive if your a bit masochistic, but then any true elk hunter has to be a bit masochistic.
In 43 years of elk/mule deer hunting Ive NEVER come back without having the opportunity to get game, but as I got older and wiser, I think thru the consequences of dropping some elk at times, Ive failed to fill my personal elk tag for various reasons on 11 trips.
some years I failed to find anything I felt was worth hauling out of some deep canyon, and experience doing so in past years made me reluctant to spend several days doing that for a less than impressive elk 4 miles from camp, and several thousand feet down in some step canyon. some years I was much more concerned with helping my sons connect on an elk, on other hunts,weather conditions or health issues of various members in the hunt party, made shooting an elk personally ,and the work retrieving one, with several other tags in camp already filled, seem like more work than I wanted to go thru unless I saw something exceptional.
and a couple years I was happy with getting a decent mule deer.
why don,t we ever seem to post about days we don,t connect?
Id bet Ive spent a minimum of 5-7 days hunting hard, driving into town for supplies,gas, food, dry ice, or packing out meat for every day I spent actually shooting and killing game.
Ive had good days out in the mountains where I never had a chance to fire a rifle or use my bow, Ive spent lots of days helping friends pack out meat, or just helping glass and locate the ELK for other members of my camp .
hunts in Colorado generally last 7-9 days,
Ive spent several elk hunts where the main goal as far as I was concerned was not to get an ELK personally (not that ID pass up anything that was truly impressive if given a chance) but where I spent the vast majority of my time helping new guys in camp get their first or at least their first decent elk or mule deer!
maybe I'm in the minority but I really enjoy walking thru the steep canyon country of Wyoming and California, Colorado, Idaho,where Ive hunted mule deer or ELK, and to me its not the kill that's important, its the hunt, the back packing, the camping, the planing, overcoming the problems, the experience as a whole and watching the younger guys learn the skills that's much of the fun,more than a few times Ive turned to fellow elk hunters while we were trudging up a steep slope miles into some canyon, with a 60 lb pack, dead tired, thirsty, and said " we paid how much to do this?" and the results usually two old geezers laughing and trying to catch their breath while contemplating the absurd circumstance that paying thousands of dollars to abuse your mind and body entails while hunting the canyon country, its addictive if your a bit masochistic, but then any true elk hunter has to be a bit masochistic.
In 43 years of elk/mule deer hunting Ive NEVER come back without having the opportunity to get game, but as I got older and wiser, I think thru the consequences of dropping some elk at times, Ive failed to fill my personal elk tag for various reasons on 11 trips.
some years I failed to find anything I felt was worth hauling out of some deep canyon, and experience doing so in past years made me reluctant to spend several days doing that for a less than impressive elk 4 miles from camp, and several thousand feet down in some step canyon. some years I was much more concerned with helping my sons connect on an elk, on other hunts,weather conditions or health issues of various members in the hunt party, made shooting an elk personally ,and the work retrieving one, with several other tags in camp already filled, seem like more work than I wanted to go thru unless I saw something exceptional.
and a couple years I was happy with getting a decent mule deer.