I wish there were more friendliness

[noharleyyet]

My first elk hunt was SW CO on public & was facilitated by a gentleman and his family group. Myself and two other men joined them months preseason here at home for logistics, gear school, and finally in country camp. Lack of interference was easy because they (8 of em) had horses.

They were very generous with intel and methodology as we three were pure rookies. I stay in touch with the patriarch of their Texas posse to this day, and remain most grateful.

It was a blast and I personally learned a wealth of knowledge from countless mistakes, ran into some fine people from everywhere, and got hopelessly hooked on hiking the Rockies with a rifle.

Being friendly and courteous begets courtesy the majority of the time.

 

[gouch]

I only let someone tag along once. I was in my twenties before I ever tried elk hunting. I didn't know anyone to help so I would just go out by myself and try to learn by trial and error. Mostly error. Then one day my wife told me her brother wanted to tag along with me on a hunt. I knew it was a bad idea, I really didn't care too much for the guy. He was annoying as hell, in terrible physical condition and had never even been camping before. But to avoid trouble with the wife, I agreed to take him along. It was worse than expected. When he said "tag along" it meant staying withing a couple of feet of me at all times and talking continuously. The only elk we saw was when I stopped at a spot overlooking a small meadow and immediately a herd of ten cows and calves entered the far end of the meadow. My BIL promptly yelled "THERE'S SOME ELK!" On the last day of the hunt however, I lucked out and found a vast expanse of crisscross lodgepole blowdown. I told him we had to hunt beyond that blowdown. I was in great shape, and it wore my butt out crawling through that miserable stuff but being afraid to lose sight of me, my out of shape BIL managed to keep up. We didn't find any elk, so I told him we had to go back the way we came. He didn't say anything at the time but when we got back, he would badmouth me to anyone who would listen. He would use very colorful language telling them about how stupid I was, for crawling over every bleeping log in the bleeping forest. But he never asked to go with me again. Thinking about it, I can be a real ass sometimes.

Funny thing is, now he is big time into hunting, and I can even tolerate him for short periods of time.

 

[DFS]

Boy do you make me feel better about myself, it took me 7 seasons to kill my first elk because I wanted to kill a bull with my bow...you sucked twice as bad as I did

Social media has diminished how hard it is to be successful elk hunting. Elk hunting is hard.

 

[Farmerj]

As to @Farmerj's comments regarding our extremely hazardous sport? I disagree. Unforgiving? Certainly. But I don't think it's exceptionally dangerous if you have minimal common sense

I’d say “great bodily harm or death” ranks it right up there with extremely hazardous. Especially in the blink of an eye even when trying to be safe.

 

[WyoDoug]

I look at it this way. I have been deer hunting since I was 14 and antelope and elk sinice I was 16. I got good expertise in the first two but not with elk and workng on learning to hunt bear with higher success rates.

There is no one here that is totally the one and only to follow when hunting. Many have a wealth of knowledge and some share it which is good. I like hearing different ideas and methods from many different people and then build my own. I am 66 now and still learning how to hunt right.

I shot several elk in Colorado over my lifetime and about 6 bears, but none in Wyoming. Seems them critters behave different but hope to change that this year. I have yet to shoot a Wyoming muley mostly due to health issues, but hope to fix that this year.

Good hunters get their knowledge through experience and by looking and evaluation methods of other hunters that fit their needs and they adapt as needed. Inconsistent success hunters stay stubborn and refuse to bring in new hunters or listen to their ways. I like having new hunters join my groups mainly so I can see how they do it and learn from them. I am by far no expert in anything so I am always open to other hunters. I am at the age where honey holes have little value to me so I just don't care if new hunters figure out where I hunt. Some in here know where I hunt so it's no secret. I think it benefits everyone if they shared more of their knowledge without trying to shame new people asking for help and guidance. Everyone starts somewhere.

 

[Farmerj]

Everyone starts somewhere.

Think too many forget that.

 

[WyoDoug]

Social media has diminished how hard it is to be successful elk hunting. Elk hunting is hard.

It don't have to be. My observations of people that do not consistently get elk is lack of preparation and unwillingness to go where the elk actually are. So many rely on SxS, ATVs and that and don't spend much time on the leather personel carriers (LPCs). I have trouble now due to my physical condition which slows me down and balance issues limit where I dare stand on steep hillsides. However, it's more what you are willing to do to prepare and physical work you are willing to put into finding where the elk are. Persistence and time pays off, especially with early scouting.

 

[Farmerj]

Persistence and time pays off, especially with early scouting.

How is one to do that when the ground you want to hunt is 1400-1600 miles away…

 

[WyoDoug]

How is one to do that when the ground you want to hunt is 1400-1600 miles away…

Randy would be a better expert to answer that. You can increase your success with e-scouting learning where elk are likely to be and eliminating areas they are likely not. I have never done much NR hunting so I am not the right person to answer your question completely. When I go hunting, I go for 7-10 days. First 3-4 days are spent scouting. I am also a meat hunter, so I hunt different than most in here. If I saw a 5x5 or 6x6 I would probably shoot him even though he is not a trophy least not B&C grade. I spend day 4-6 typically looking for a nice bull/buck/boar with my general tags (us resident types get those OTC) then after that object is to put meat in the freezer so I hunt accordingly following whatever the game regs prescribe. The bulls you NRs are typically after are in different terraint by time I do my rifle hunts which are typically in lower elevation around the cows. Best experts I think on that are people like Randy and Corey Jacobsen and others in here. I am retired so I can go as long as my funding will support me, but I know you have a limited number of days you can invest in each hunt.

 

[Farmerj]

Randy would be a better expert to answer that. You can increase your success with e-scouting learning where elk are likely to be and eliminating areas they are likely not. I have never done much NR hunting so I am not the right person to answer your question completely. When I go hunting, I go for 7-10 days. First 3-4 days are spent scouting. I am also a meat hunter, so I hunt different than most in here. If I saw a 5x5 or 6x6 I would probably shoot him even though he is not a trophy least not B&C grade. I spend day 4-6 typically looking for a nice bull/buck/boar with my general tags (us resident types get those OTC) then after that object is to put meat in the freezer so I hunt accordingly following whatever the game regs prescribe. The bulls you NRs are typically after are in different terraint by time I do my rifle hunts which are typically in lower elevation around the cows. Best experts I think on that are people like Randy and Corey Jacobsen and others in here. I am retired so I can go as long as my funding will support me, but I know you have a limited number of days you can invest in each hunt.

I’d be happy just for meat hunting. Antler soup just hasn’t been too impressive for me.

 

[JLS]

How is one to do that when the ground you want to hunt is 1400-1600 miles away…

Time in the field. My success as an elk hunter went up markedly when I started going on longer hunts.

Once you figure out how to find elk, then it’s just a matter of time and effort.

 

[WyoDoug]

I’d be happy just for meat hunting. Antler soup just hasn’t been too impressive for me.

My recommendation is allot as many days as you can so you can do some scouting. And doing scouting, I put in a lot of miles primarily driving from one area to the next and scoping out slopes and that where I think they are likely to be based on e-scouting I do before I get there. I don't like to tag out early because then my hunt is over. I also do a bunch of fishing in between things mainly when I get bored and want to do something else and not yet ready to shoot one or haven't seen a meateater type I want.

 

[JLS]

If I have my choice of one week scouting and one week hunting vs two weeks hunting, I’m taking the latter every time. The only exception would be if I’m trying to kill a bull on opening day.