hard elk hunts

[coldboremiracle]

they sure build hunting character don't they, come along on this one, it was blast of cold air:

Hard Effort and Elk Hunting

Elk Hunting is an incredible challenge at times, but it is one that bring a great bounty as well, follow us on this adventure

coldboremiracle.com

 

[CaptainMal]

You da man.

I could not handle the first snow flurry let alone the major difficulties you had. One thing to remember it there are few memories when all goes well on any trip. You made memories.

 

[Lonny in ID]

From the pic in the story you were able to get the elk out whole?

 

[timeout]

You are a master of the English language and a writer extraordinary! Thanks for sharing your experience with us! Your write up about a hunt that culminates in a cow elk being harvested is refreshing in a modern day world where oftentimes only large trophy type game animals seem to matter. I admire your appreciation for the hunt and the comraderie above the size of the rack. Please continue to share your writings with us!

 

[slobhunter2]

From the pic in the story you were able to get the elk out whole?

Maybe his friends had a helicopter.

 

[JFrank]

Damn !

 

[coldboremiracle]

From the pic in the story you were able to get the elk out whole?

Thats correct, we were able to get it to within reach of a trail and snowmobiles.

 

[V509]

You are very lucky in the sense you moved the whole animal back to camp. Nothing harder than carrying a quarter out over terrain an ATV will not traverse!

 

[slm9s]

You are very lucky in the sense you moved the whole animal back to camp. Nothing harder than carrying a quarter out over terrain an ATV will not traverse!

Yes there is. Getting it back to camp and then GOING BACK to pack the next quarter out!

 

[V509]

Maybe his friends had a helicopter.

Well it was a hard hunt

 

[Skedaddle Shooter]

they sure build hunting character don't they, come along on this one, it was blast of cold air:

Hard Effort and Elk Hunting

Elk Hunting is an incredible challenge at times, but it is one that bring a great bounty as well, follow us on this adventure

coldboremiracle.com

The challenges of the terrain, weather, and availability of game is what makes hunting so appealing to many of us. I have friends that can afford to hunt private ranches and shoot there game from the truck or buggy. That wasn’t how my father in law wanted to hunt. He grew up in logging camps in a wall tent in Northern California and central Oregon in the thirties and forties. We hunted public ground and did our best. Some years we had tag soup. The best hunt of my life I didn’t even pull the trigger. We had a whole group of our friends draw the California Elk tag the same year my 86 year old father in law finally drew his tag. It was a group effort of a half dozen of us to get him on a decent bull. He refused to take a small bull even though it was getting very hard for him to cover country. With the help of our friends Reese and his dad Mac they were able to call a bull into him. We also had him back in Wyoming a few weeks later and he took a buck mule deer as well. Sadly we lost him to Covid in 2020, but having been able to spend 40 years in the woods with him was an incredible blessing for all of us. Unless you cover country with these kind of folks you can never appreciate the bond that you form. It is in our DNA.

 

[Roe]

Nice writeup!

 

[SBS]

Some elk hunts are memorable for the work required after the kill. Hunting for years on horseback, it was usually a simple matter of loading a half elk on a couple of horses and hanging them above the snow that was usually piled deep behind our camp in the Colorado Rockies. One year my hunting buddy and I trailed a wounded cow that ran by us (never saw the shooter) and foolishly tracked her into a beetle kill area where trees had grown up through large fallen ones. When a cow got to her feet about 20 ft. away, I made a neck shot with my .338 and all hell broke loose in the woods. We had come upon a herd bedded down, somewhere around 20-30 animals. They made a lot of noise, knocking wood as they made their getaway. Examining the cow I had shot, there was no other wound, and we never found the one we were trailing. We were a quarter mile into the beetle kill area, no way to use a horse, so we backpacked it out in quarters, making 2 trips each, much of the time walking on the large dead logs -- either that or get on and off the logs numerous times. Only consolation, it was a cow and not a large bull. Never hunted inside one of those areas again. In later years, had to quarter up a big bull and backpack them up a fairly steep mountain about 1/4 mile to get to a Jeep trail, having moved out of state and now without horses. That just about ended my elk fever; decided to leave such hunts to younger hunters, as I was getting a little long in the tooth and couldn't stand much more character building!

 

[V509]

This was a few years back.
One of the very few we did not have to quarter and pack out
I have never had the fortune of hunting with horses or mules

 

[Skedaddle Shooter]

This was a few years back.
One of the very few we did not have to quarter and pack out
I have never had the fortune of hunting with horses or mules

A horse is never prettier than when she’s standing beside a quartered bull

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

2 years ago a friend and I setup a 12x20 Cabelas tent at 9500 ft in Wyoming. First night 50+ mph winds. The tent has 2 interior 9' steel poles, at midnight the far pole fell. Stuck me on the left eyebrow. Split open, probably should have gotten stitches. I bled for a couple hours until I drove down the mountain to 8000' and it stop bleeding. 2nd night forecast was windier, with snow totaling 20+ inches over several days. I decided no way staying there. So we pulled camp apart, drove to another area our tags were good in. 2 days later we each had a cow. Not the trip we planned for but having a backup plan helped lessen the pain. I have hunted the first area before 3 times and tagged 2 bulls and 1 cow.