Quitters

[SwaggyD]

I have a buddy that also had the 680 tag and killed a bruiser. Hunted a ton.

 

[elevatorman]

I quit junior high football when they told me there was practice every afternoon and Saturday during the season. That didn't leave any time to hunt.
Never quit on a tag or a planned hunt. I don't go out as much as I did in my youth, but I sure do enjoy when I am out.

I played football from middle school till jr year. Jr year I played on varsity did the whole Friday night lights thing. Senior year I said I wasn't playing because I wasn't spending hunting season running in circles around a field anymore. My dad and coach were pissed. It paid off too. Sr year got my biggest buck ever with my bow, while everyone else was at football practice..

 

[TheTone]

I know a guy that ate an Idaho elk super tag a few years ago. Spent the majority of his time hunting a north Idaho controlled area that was on a huge down swing at the time and then basically gave up. I was living in east Idaho at the time and snow made the area near me fantastic that year. Huge herds of elk and lots of big bulls around. Probably a once in every 10 years type of quality. I told him how good and easy it would be but he wasn’t interested in the drive or cold

 

[375H&H]

Talked to an older guy at the trailhead on my elk hunt this year. He states he had drawn an elk tag for the same area but no desire to shoot an elk. I asked him why he put in for the hunt and he said so he could ride horses with his son.

I guess he didn’t realize that he could have ridden his horse without taking an elk hunting opportunity away from someone else?

 

[cgasner1]

Talked to an older guy at the trailhead on my elk hunt this year. He states he had drawn an elk tag for the same area but no desire to shoot an elk. I asked him why he put in for the hunt and he said so he could ride horses with his son.

I guess he didn’t realize that he could have ridden his horse without taking an elk hunting opportunity away from someone else?

Kid might not have come with out having an elk tag. If I told my wife dad and I where just gonna go camping for a week somewhere with no elk tag it wouldn’t go over to well

 

[Nick87]

The guy I use for a taxidermist had a guy (NR) drop off a ram from the breaks one time. A damn nice one. Full body not gutted or anything. At first the guy really didn't know what to do with it, mount wise or processing wise. How they even saved the meat is beyond me im sure he lost some. He didn't even have the ram plugged.

His original thought was just cut the horns off. and donate the ram meat. My buddy talks him into a full body mount, explains how rare these tags are And the opportunity he has. None of that seem to resonate with the guy. He just didn't really care he had killed a Breaks Big Horn.He says I'll be back up in a few months for it.

The guy never came back for the ram. After a couple years he told my buddy just to keep it. Pretty wild shit

And these are the people you're competing against...for tags, access all that. Just about all of them seem to have a lot more money than brains., and for everyone of them that drop out or step aside there's 100 more idiots waiting to take there place.

 

[375H&H]

Kid might not have come with out having an elk tag. If I told my wife dad and I where just gonna go camping for a week somewhere with no elk tag it wouldn’t go over to well

I should have clarified, the gentleman I talked to was in his 70s, son was in his 40s, and grandson was in his 20s. Plenty of OTC opportunities to justify a family camping trip without burning an opportunity from someone else to harvest a bull.

 

[Nick87]

Talked to an older guy at the trailhead on my elk hunt this year. He states he had drawn an elk tag for the same area but no desire to shoot an elk. I asked him why he put in for the hunt and he said so he could ride horses with his son.

I guess he didn’t realize that he could have ridden his horse without taking an elk hunting opportunity away from someone else?

Could of saved some money to boot.

 

[gouch]

An old friend of mine, many years ago had been applying for a hard-to-get elk tag. One year he decided to apply for his wife, who didn't hunt. With zero points she drew a tag but had no interest in going elk hunting so nobody hunted that tag. Then several years later, on a whim, he decided to apply for a Desert big horn tag for the very first time. In a unit with 3 tags and over 2500 applicants he drew the tag. He never went because he really wasn't that interested in sheep hunting and never dreamed he would actually get the tag.

 

[338win]

Knew a guy who drew DCUA sheep on his first time applying and never hunted. He never saw a ram somehow. Probably never left the road

 

[CPAjeff]

A few years ago, I was invited on a mountain goat hunt. The tag holder’s son has a medical condition which has limited his mobility. As we saddled the horses I witnessed the father lift his near-adult-son up on the horse and then proceeded to tie him in the saddle.

For the next 12 hours, that father dutifully kept an eye on his son while the rest of us looked for goats. A good billy was found and killed. I lost most of the pictures, except this one.



Whenever I think about quitting, I think of the tag holders son, whose pants were soaked in blood after being rubbed raw from the saddle. When questioned about the saddle sores, he replied happily with “The blood will wash off and the sores will heal. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.”

 

[BackofBeyond]

I was just discussing that with a buddy who has a late season archery tag, it took him 15 years of applying to draw. He shot the second biggest buck he saw in a week (biggest was all broken up), it's ~145". By that metric an eastern MT tag might be better. I know I'd rather have several ID elk tags than most of the special draw elk tags in WA.

Ix-na on the Daho-Ia Dam-Aa!

 

[cbat]

Yep ! On a Valle Vidal OIL archery elk tag. Tried a couple days to long trying to tough out altitude sickness. Now have permanent optic nerve pain from the pressure. Lucky I did not kill myself.

 

[Irrelevant]

Ix-na on the Daho-Ia Dam-Aa!

Doesn't matter no one can realistically draw any more

 

[BackofBeyond]

Doesn't matter no one can realistically draw any more

Probably better odds for a draw tag than for OTC. That would be fun to see the probability numbers in getting a tag 12/1.

 

[Irrelevant]

Probably better odds for a draw tag than for OTC. That would be fun to see the probability numbers in getting a tag 12/1.

My # was 47k, so 0/47k?

 

[BackofBeyond]

My # was 47k, so 0/47k?

Yet, some how exponentially better than the draw odds for anything in WA.

 

[Dinkshooter]

One morning at a trailhead in the dark (5am or so) I ran into a guy coming out with an elk rack hanging off his pack. He was literally taking steps that were 3 inches apart, I figured he was just super tired. He had dropped down a good 1000, 1200 ft the day before and killed a rag bull in the evening. After getting it broke down(with help) he hike back up hill ALL NIGHT LONG. I told him he was tougher than me!

Later I talked to someone in his camp. They told me he had MS that had been getting worse and still made the round trip to go kill an elk. I told myself right there never to be a pussy again and complain about that hike out of there.

 

[Shangobango]

I quit bull riding in college because it was interfering with bow hunting.

I quit going to class in college because it was interfering with bow hunting, drinking, and chasing brunette buckle bunnies.

I quit chasing buckle bunnies because my son came along due directly to chasing buckle bunnies.

Never was the sharpest tool in the shed…

 

[The Hedgehog]

Great night on the gallatin. I hit trees upside down and 15 ft in the air and landed gracefully on my tires in the river. Didn’t make it to the trailhead, but I’m not quitting.