Whatever you do, get out of your truck as little as possible. That end justifies all means.

[Sagebrush1]

It’s 8:15. I’m back from my morning elk hunt. I gotta admit I kinda lost my cool this morning…my poor wife and son had to listen to my overly emotional rant decrying the slob-Hunter culture. Ha!

Three years back we moved here to what some would say is the hunting capital of CO. Today was the culmination of my three-year lesson on how lazy, entitled, and poorly thought-out the average hunter is in this part of the world.

People here always complain about out-of-staters ruining hunting (particularly those native to CA…of which I am one). Man, it ain’t just Californians.

Our hunting culture is broken. I’m trying to raise my son to be an ethical, hard-working, dedicated hunter. It seems that is a rare combination of qualities in the hunting community.

It really bums me out. It’s sad. The thing that continues to blow my mind is that the behavior is ruining mornings like this not only for people like me, but that behavior also almost guarantees they aren’t going to see anything during their own “hunt”.

 

[Oak]

The biggest goat ropes I’ve seen have been in NW Colorado (Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco). They usually involve:

Local hunters
Large herds of elk
Intermixed public and private land

 

[Bambistew]

The biggest goat ropes I’ve seen have been in NW Colorado (Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco). They usually involve:

Local hunters
Large herds of elk
Intermixed public and private land

In SW MT it's similar but "locals" are usually from 2 -5 counties away. Rarely any NR.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Same in Eastern MT, and I hear the same stories from landowners I work with in North Dakota. I think it has more to do with hunters these days as a group and less to do with any individual state.

 

[Schaaf]

I’ve lost all patience with people. I confronted a couple boomers this year on an elk hunt that were driving illegally. I started the conversation by asking if they were aware they were illegally driving, they rambled something on about “yes but there is nothing they can do about it anyways.” I asked the fellas if they thought the reason there were no elk around was because they were driving everywhere and that maybe they couldn’t see through the windows from the heavy mouth breathing.

We went our separate ways and as he pulled away I stepped behind the pickup and took a picture of his plate with the gps location. That was the moment when he got real worked up.

Last I heard, their citation was mailed last week.

 

[rwc101]

It was kind of funny watching four fat dudes lean against their jeep while playing elk calls through their speakers.

 

[elkduds]

I’ve lost all patience with people. I confronted a couple boomers this year on an elk hunt that were driving illegally. I started the conversation by asking if they were aware they were illegally driving, they rambled something on about “yes but there is nothing they can do about it anyways.” I asked the fellas if they thought the reason there were no elk around was because they were driving everywhere and that maybe they couldn’t see through the windows from the heavy mouth breathing.

We went our separate ways and as he pulled away I stepped behind the pickup and took a picture of his plate with the gps location. That was the moment when he got real worked up.

Last I heard, their citation was mailed last week.

Note to management agencies: enforcement works.

(Repost)I spent nearly every day this summer and fall along a 5 mile stretch of forest service road in CO's Mosquito mountain range. When I recorded and notified the local Forest Service office of a particularly egregious case of dickfors making a road by driving off the FS road to where they wanted to hunt, I received no reply to my phone call nor my email giving the particulars necessary for law enforcement. As you would expect, other morons followed the 2 tracks that had never been there before. The FS HQ is only 18 miles from the spot. I saw one FS truck on that road in the 100+ days I was on it. Without enforcement, what good did it do me to confront those bozos about their illegal camp?

These are the rules for this particular NF:

• Camping is allowed throughout the districts in both developed and undeveloped sites.
• There is a 14-day stay limit anywhere in the Forest.
• Vehicles MUST be parked in established sites.
• You may camp outside of developed campgrounds if you do not cause any resource damage and keep your vehicle within one vehicle length of main roads.

If you know these scofflaws, show this to them. They'll remember me.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Well, I am 2500 vertical feet and 11/2 miles from the truck currently. No elk up here yet. Trying to figure out if we have enough juice to lose 500’ and gain another 800’ to try the next ridge over… Getting there isn’t the problem. How we will get one out is.

 

[Dsnow9]

The biggest goat ropes I’ve seen have been in NW Colorado (Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco). They usually involve:

Local hunters
Large herds of elk
Intermixed public and private land

We had to call in a local this fall on the antelope hunt up there that thought you could drive anywhere on public you wanted and shoot off the hood of their truck.

 

[Addicting]

fat

You know skinny people are just jealous of how well insulated we are in the fall.

 

[rwc101]

You know skinny people are just jealous of how well insulated we are in the fall.

I sweat like Rosie O'Donnell in a Cheesecake Factory regardless.

 

[BRI]

Opening day this year I drove in on an open road, hiked to my destination to sit and wait two hours before shooting light. At shooting light, glassed the road and saw 18 vehicles lined up on a stretch of the road waiting/hoping elk would come off some private land. Several guys leaning against their truck, gun slung over shoulders at the ready. It was a wow moment.

 

[Sagebrush1]

Yah the enforcement piece is really frustrating. The lack of consequences could lead me to think “Well heck, I’ll just drive over that guy’s field too. Nobody is going to catch me.”

But I just can’t. Every time I saw a picture or mount of that buck, I’d feel like I cheated.

Plus around here if you’re “one of the boys” who’s connected in town you can do whatever the hell you want no matter how illegal.

 

[flatcoat]

Drove Rangely to Junction one evening to pick up family from the airport. Must have been 100 cars pulled off on the pass with folks leaned on them glassing through their riflescopes waiting for critters. Weird part of the world.

 

[Oak]

Plus around here if you’re “one of the boys” who’s connected in town you can do whatever the hell you want no matter how illegal.

These are the ones.

 

[huntin24/7]

Just last night in NE MT, my wife and I were trying to sneak in to find a good whitetail we’d spotted when we saw a truck pull up and stop on the road. One guy shot from the road into a small thicket toward the landowners house a 1/2 mile away. They turned their lights off, dropped a couple guys off to find the deer. As soon as they found it, they quickly drug it to the truck and drove away. Definitely didn’t tag or gut it on the spot. Local warden was notified. We thought they poached the good buck, but we relocated him today and trying to get my wife who’s sick as shit today on him to hopefully get him.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Note to management agencies: enforcement works.

(Repost)I spent nearly every day this summer and fall along a 5 mile stretch of forest service road in CO's Mosquito mountain range. When I recorded and notified the local Forest Service office of a particularly egregious case of dickfors making a road by driving off the FS road to where they wanted to hunt, I received no reply to my phone call nor my email giving the particulars necessary for law enforcement. As you would expect, other morons followed the 2 tracks that had never been there before. The FS HQ is only 18 miles from the spot. I saw one FS truck on that road in the 100+ days I was on it. Without enforcement, what good did it do me to confront those bozos about their illegal camp?

These are the rules for this particular NF:

• Camping is allowed throughout the districts in both developed and undeveloped sites.
• There is a 14-day stay limit anywhere in the Forest.
• Vehicles MUST be parked in established sites.
• You may camp outside of developed campgrounds if you do not cause any resource damage and keep your vehicle within one vehicle length of main roads.

If you know these scofflaws, show this to them. They'll remember me.

When you have 1 officer for 1 million acres (and yes, that’s a true statistic for one real-life area), the simple fact is most people aren’t going to be caught.

 

[theat]

Well, I am 2500 vertical feet and 11/2 miles from the truck currently. No elk up here yet. Trying to figure out if we have enough juice to lose 500’ and gain another 800’ to try the next ridge over… Getting there isn’t the problem. How we will get one out is.

Watch out for the grizzlies! I still vividly remember what happened the last time I was up there with you.

 

[MTLabrador]

Well, I am 2500 vertical feet and 11/2 miles from the truck currently. No elk up here yet. Trying to figure out if we have enough juice to lose 500’ and gain another 800’ to try the next ridge over… Getting there isn’t the problem. How we will get one out is.

I’d take advantage of the free labor you have and pack a bull out of there tonight.

 

[Panda Bear]

We have family and friends who think we are one sandwich short of a picnic for living up here. Cold, Dark, Expensive, Isolated, no roads ( very few )

183000 sq miles, 43000 people ( half of that in one town ) 200000 Caribou

But, we can hike, sled, canoe for days and never see another human .

Same in Eastern MT, and I hear the same stories from landowners I work with in North Dakota. I think it has more to do with hunters these days as a group and less to do with any individual state.

However, when they do arrive, to live or to hunt, approx 50% dont have a clue about hunting .

50 % do and are very good at hunting, as well as obeying the laws.

The 50% that dont and can get very agitated when the animal they came to shoot doesn't present itself quickly. We have different tribal lands that you can not hunt without permission from that tribe. I can not count the times I have heard "oh for christ sakes they will never know"

I agree with the post made by Hunting Wife. Some have read a hunting magazine, bought a gun and are ready ( in their mind ) to go hunt.

I am not joking when I say, I feel your pain, frustration, irritation, anger.