Two new elk hunters, a breath of fresh air

[Mustangs Rule]

I’m so lucky to have found them. Two new elk hunters who want to be part of nature not at the center of it.

Close to 40, strong, lean with clean spirits. Have taken one cow elk each, neither would feed their kids meat seasoned with lead, or leave toxic gut piles in the field

Not gun nuts, family need$ come fir$t, one or two basic bolt rifles, a 30-06, 270, a 300 mag. They are busy, at the top of their child raising years. At 74, I have lots of time to scout for them, show them sweet spots. When we hunt alone, we can come to help carry meat out and share it. We live close by.

There is no scrap about basic field biology issues like, is Tropic cascade real? It is!

They have no desire to kill predators, knowing if you want good bird hunting you can’t kill bobcats or coyotes that kill the nest egg eaters like raccoons and foxes

They don’t see game as belonging to hunters. They don’t want trail cams, quads, designer camo, AR’s or long range hunting, preferring to learn to stalk and track in old plaid shirts.

When big predators engage in surplus killing they see it as natural food storage for all wildlife, birds too, not as wanton waste.

They want to be part of, not in charge of or rigging nature.

May their tribe increase!

 

[MTLabrador]

If I wear a flannel instead of a Sitka jacket and carry my old .270 am I allowed to shoot a wolf or bear?

 

[Rhcuam]

Toxic gut piles ……lol. I knew it was gonna be a weird one when I read this. Did not disappoint.

 

[mtmuley]

Are you sure they hunt and kill elk? Sounds like a couple hippies to me. mtmuley

 

[rogerthat]

Are you sure they hunt and kill elk? Sounds like a couple hippies to me. mtmuley

Well he did say they were both almost 40 and only a cow harvest a piece. Hell most hippies have probably hit those numbers with just the grill of their van by that age also.

 

[elkantlers]

After reading that I feel ashamed of myself. I'll try to do better though.

 

[The Hedgehog]

These guys clearly suck each others dongs. Not that I have anything against that.

Here’s an elk rifle..

 

[rogerthat]

These guys clearly suck each others dongs. Not that I have anything against that.

Here’s an elk rifle..
View attachment 247054

What happened to the barrel? Looks like it got caught in a pto shaft

 

[The Hedgehog]

What happened to the barrel? Looks like it got caught in a pto shaft

@Mustangs Rule ’s pals would like that barrel, but much fatter, made from purple latex, with big bulbs on each end.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I’m so lucky to have found them. Two new elk hunters who want to be part of nature not at the center of it.

Close to 40, strong, lean with clean spirits. Have taken one cow elk each, neither would feed their kids meat seasoned with lead, or leave toxic gut piles in the field

Not gun nuts, family need$ come fir$t, one or two basic bolt rifles, a 30-06, 270, a 300 mag. They are busy, at the top of their child raising years. At 74, I have lots of time to scout for them, show them sweet spots. When we hunt alone, we can come to help carry meat out and share it. We live close by.

There is no scrap about basic field biology issues like, is Tropic cascade real? It is!

They have no desire to kill predators, knowing if you want good bird hunting you can’t kill bobcats or coyotes that kill the nest egg eaters like raccoons and foxes

They don’t see game as belonging to hunters. They don’t want trail cams, quads, designer camo, AR’s or long range hunting, preferring to learn to stalk and track in old plaid shirts.

When big predators engage in surplus killing they see it as natural food storage for all wildlife, birds too, not as wanton waste.

They want to be part of, not in charge of or rigging nature.

May their tribe increase!

My your tribe of sharing each other’s meat and showing your sweet spots be kept to a minimum.

This post makes me want to buy a few more wolf tags.

@Mustangs Rule is really a hardcore Trump lover with a great sense of humor..

 

[The Hedgehog]

@Mustangs Rule

natural food storage for all wildlife, birds too, not as wanton waste

 

[Nickman123]

Can I leave the gut pile if I shoot it with copper ammo?

 

[Mustangs Rule]

If I wear a flannel instead of a Sitka jacket and carry my old .270 am I allowed to shoot a wolf or bear?

That is totally up to you to decide. But I would offer some quotes by Aldo Leopold first.

://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/43828.Aldo_Leopold

On another note, when I was about 15 I bought a subscription to Outdoor Life. I paid for it picking stones out of a just plowed field. I got $1 dollar for every tractor bucket load.

One issue was very disturbing. It showed a bear in snare being shot on timber company land. The title was "Is this any way to treat bears."?

The article went on to describe the tremendous damage bears do to a forest when they came out of hibernation in the spring, girthing/killing as many as 80 trees/day to eat sweet cambium layer.

From a lumber company perSpective this more than justified killing them, yet still this seemed wrong. Years even decades went by, I became a field biologist and studied bears.

From a big game hunter's perspective, each bear killing 80 tress/day is just opening up the forest to allow light to come the forest floor and create a place for photosynthesis to provide browse plants for deer and elk and moose. This is great news for hunters as the mature forest is pretty sterile of big game, save for burns,

Bears are doing hunters of deer, elk and moose even some woodland caribou a great service. I tend not to want to kill things that are providing me with a valuable service, like filling my freezer with hooved animals

Back to the lumber issues. Bears, especially black bears in the presence of Grizzles each carry about 700 pounds of salmon deep into the forest during salmon runs. This fertilizes the forest big time and causes huge growth spurts verified by tree rings analysis. Bears earn their keep even from a logging perspective too.

Again, I do not like to kill things that are working in my favor and especially when creating an economic benefit.

What makes being with these two young elk hunters such a breath of fresh air is that they are current in their overall outdoor/wildlife knowledge and not coming from ideas that are at least 75 years or even 100's of years,,,old ideas which could never stand up to current science or even economic evaluations

These old ideas only work when they are looked at through a "straw" and one chooses to ignore the big, bigger, and biggest pictures.

If you want to get medical, Yale Medical school did the best research ever on what has become the scourge of Lymes Disease.

Lymes has been around North America for about 60,000 years and it only exploded into an epidemic of humans when multiple conditions were met, one being a lack of predators.

In northern Europe the number of people who got Lymes there dropped significantly when the killing and trapping of small predators was banned. Mice, which they eat are also a major carrier of Lymes.

It is fun to hunt with guys who are not looking through a straw

 

[Mustangs Rule]

If I wear a flannel instead of a Sitka jacket and carry my old .270 am I allowed to shoot a wolf or bear?

hope this one opens

TOP 25 QUOTES BY ALDO LEOPOLD (of 211) | A-Z Quotes

Discover Aldo Leopold famous and rare quotes. Share Aldo Leopold quotations about wilderness, conservation and nature. "We abuse land because we regard it as..."

www.azquotes.com

 

[The Hedgehog]

 

[Deleted member 28227]

 

[Derek44]

Is it the off season again already??

 

[Nickman123]

Honestly, I think it is fantastic you are helping/mentoring newer, younger hunters. We are a dying breed. But maybe you're being a little too particular and judgemental about who you are willing to mentor? What difference does it make what they wear or shoot? As long as they show some courtesy and etiquette and follow the law, does it matter?
As far as "toxic gut piles", I'm assuming you're referring to the theory that lead ammo used to kill game animals leads to lead poisoning in predators and scavengers. I have never seen a study that supports this to my satisfaction. I've seen studies that claim to show elevated levels of lead in predators/scavengers but none that seem to show it is impacting their population numbers or causing lead poisoning in humans. Generally speaking, the population of coyotes, bears, wolves, eagles, etc.. has done nothing but increase the past 50 years. Only exception is the California Condor which has a declining wild population. Being from Commiefornia myself, I am very familiar with this. "Experts" claim the reason the population is dwindling is condors are being killed by lead ammo left in dead animals. So first they outlawed lead ammo for big game hunting. Had zero effect on condor numbers. Three years ago they banned lead ammo for ALL hunting. I'm still waiting to see the huge boom in wild condor numbers. If it happens, then maybe I'll believe.

BUT, if you want to scout for me and show me your sweet spots, I'll do whatever you want with the gut pile

 

[Stocker]

 

[JLS]