[IDShooter]

Hi everyone,
       I just read Trackdog's tale about moose hunting in the Alaska hunting section and it reminds me a lot of elk hunting in North Idaho. You better have a way to get 'em out! Lots of people use horses, mules, ATV's etc. to get their elk out. Some people, in much better shape than myself, simply pack out the quarters from wherever they shoot 'em. The rest of us make sure the elk are on the upper side of a road and hope they don't run down any hidy holes!
       Truthfully, one of the reasons I moved west was for elk hunting. The first year I hunted here my buddy shot a beautiful bull WAAAYYY DOOWWN the mountain from the camp, on the steep south facing slopes on the opposite side of the mountain from the road, which came up a ridge from the north. First elk for any of us. It took three guys ALL DAY to pack that elk out, and at that the pieces kept getting cut into smaller and smaller chunks. Having just moved the previous year from sea-level farmland I could barely make it up that slope with my rifle and pack, worse yet packing meat! It dampened my elk-hunting enthusiasm considerably, I'll tell you. I still go, mind you, but these days I hunt with my father-in-law and we are mighty careful about where we shoot anything. The upside is you get to watch animals that you know you ain't gonna shoot. When I see a 7x7, then I'll consider a shot down in one of those holes! I always heard elk hunting was tough, but I always thought they meant it was tough to GET an elk. What they really meant was it's tough ONCE you get an elk!                    IDShooter

 

[dclark]

idshooter,

A local judge told this story as true:

Three hunters from, I believe, Michigan showed up locally to hunt elk for the first time.  They went South from Rawlins to a area know a McCarty Canyon, which is about 1,000 to 1,200 feet deep and fairly steep, but not unreasonable.  One of them shot a 6 X 6 on the first day or so of the hunt and it went to the bottom of the canyon, where it expired.  He dutifully went down and gutted it.  He climbed out of the canyon and got his buddies.  They went down and worked for the rest of the day and only moved that elk about 100 yards.  They climbed out of the canyon, exhausted.  The next day they rested and gathered equipment.  The following day they went back down the canyon with ropes and pulleys and other assorted gear and worked most all day.  In the afternoon they gave up and climbed out of the canyon.

At the top of the canyon they met the game warden who said they could not give up on that elk, or he would cite all of them for waste of game.  They said he could give them all tickets, because no judge would convict them after all of their effort to retrieve the elk.  They were all cited and brought before the local County Judge.

The judge listened to their story very carefully, which agreed with the story of the game warden.  He then gave the following rulling:

"I can appreciate the fact that you gentlemen have come on your first elk hunt and have found that this animal is much larger than anything you have ever encountered before.  And I can appreciate the fact that you shot this animal in country that is considerably tougher and more rugged than any you have hunted before, but, if you had come to town and ask me what you should do, I would have sent MY WIFE out to show you how to quarter the damned elk and pack it out!  Guilty!"

Know what you are getting into.  My hunting group has packed elk as far as 2 1/2 miles in quarters on our pack frames to get it out.  It can be done, but it is HARD work!

dclark

 

[MAINER]

ID Shooter - One of my deceased neighbors, who made 3 fortunes catching sardines, once told me to "catch fish 1st, and dicker price later". i have transposed this advice to many other facets of my life, and let me tell you, it's gotten me into some awful fracases with regards to dead moose in nasty places. I think there's something sadistic going on w/ moose hunters, Or w/ elk as you described, I guess they are about as big aren't they? To make matters worse, the area I hunt in maine the landowner doesn't allow ATV's or horses or anything. that cuts down on the competition.