How far out will you kill an elk by yourself?

[BrentM]

That was part of my intention as far as letting him use them. Let him or his guides train them.That saves you time & frustration. You will only need the horse a few times a year. And who knows he may not want another horse to deal with. Just thought it was a option. My cousin boarders horses. I know there are always some ups & downs when dealing with other peoples animals. Or when someone else is caring for yours.

I trust him, I don't trust his guides, that's the rub. He let them use my tack, my Garcia custom made saddle, which should have been a pretty straight forward NO, but they tore it up and my bags. Not cool. I am still ****ed off about it. When people have skin in the game they have a different approach. Guides can sometimes be a little too western with stuff instead of using their brain. He's learned that lesson the hard way. Only he would be allowed to work the horses when I cannot. He's a good trainer and the only person I'd let work/train my stock besides me.

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

I trust him, I don't trust his guides, that's the rub. He let them use my tack, my Garcia custom made saddle, which should have been a pretty straight forward NO, but they tore it up and my bags. Not cool. I am still ****ed off about it. When people have skin in the game they have a different approach. Guides can sometimes be a little too western with stuff instead of using their brain. He's learned that lesson the hard way. Only he would be allowed to work the horses when I cannot. He's a good trainer and the only person I'd let work/train my stock besides me.

I get it 100%.

 

[ImBillT]

That is some work, ImbillT!.

I wish I had seen it done! Everyone I encountered asked me how I planned to get a moose back to my winchless Tacoma alone, and were baffled when I said "in pieces". The usual response was "but how will you know the weight?". They all described how they, or guides, would get them out with the winches and pulleys.

 

[Elkbigfoot]

Depends how close I can drive the rig. And depending if I have enough cable to reach it. No way I'm packing it

 

[Will.284]

I live in central Mt and hike with my hunt pack all yet. I routinely hunt 3-4 miles from the truck. I'm 57 years old work construction and in good shape. No matter how far away I shoot one I take my time . I hunt griz country a lot buy myself. Last year I shot a cow elk 1/4 mile from home drove to her and used the 4 wheeler winch in the back of my truck , it all kinda depends for me

 

[CogburnR]

After the second time of breaking my back and having titanium rods holding 5 vertebrae together...If I can't get a vehicle within winching distance it walks. The last one I took out of a cornfield a short 1/4 mile and that sucked but it weighed 800+ pounds. Carrying head and antlers over your head in 22" corn rows isn't as fun as it sounds and the whole thing had to be packed out-without crop damage.

 

[Big_Country]

Furthest I've personally packed a bull out on my back was a tad over 5 miles in mountains of NW Montana. Made for a very long day, put him down @ 9 am got the last pack to the truck just after 2 am the fallowing morning all the while packing out in a snow storm... Embrace the SUCK!!!

 

[tribb]

I had a cow elk tag, this season, and ended up not pulling the trigger because getting to them was so hard when I did the math, I just did not think I could get her out. What do everyone think? What's your worst pack outs? I know I would have made it happen for a bull. The people I talked to had an attitude of "don't work that hard for a cow". I don't know, seasons over and I'm kind of kicking myself. The best thing would have been to be in much better shape, and found some easier elk.

I would not shoot if I were by myself! Too old!!!!!

 

[tribb]

This!

My longest was 7 miles from our camp. We dropped 2 bulls. I put in 28 miles to haul my buddy's elk and had to return for mine the following day. I got bovine help from a friend to retrieve mine, but it still took us over 8 hours.

Antelope is one of my favorites to hunt.

Yep most times you can get a vehicle close to them !!

 

[tribb]

Being 78 I would only shoot a Elk on the up hill side of the road and 100 yards would be pushing it.

Yep and if the road is at bottom of the hill you may can get him to roll down in to the back of the truck!

 

[tribb]

Had a similar experience with my last tag, saw a nice male elk, and was in Mountain Lion territory and knew they were all around. I decided not to take the shot as he was lone adult male of a small herd of about 10 or eleven elk, a couple of youngsters in there and was about a 10 mile hike back to my truck at my age it wouldn't have been fun to shoot and haul him out and then dress him at my truck at my age. Also figured may have had to deal with a lion or two as well on the way back. So I walked back to my truck and did not notice but the whole herd followed me back to clearing where my truck was. So I took a few pictures of them a went home empty handed. Have Asthma and that was before the Covid made my lungs worse. But a recent x-ray showed my lungs are clearing now finally. Still on my bucket list for one more elk hunt.

You go buddy!! I understand how you feel! I pray that you will get it done!! Tribb

 

[FEENIX]

Yep most times you can get a vehicle close to them !!

Unfortunately, not where we were hunting. Beartooth WMA does not allow anything motorized to take you to/from hunting spot or retrieve a downed game.

 

[Tac-O]

Highly depends on the terrain, exactly where the animal is in relation to the nearest trail, what the weather is like currently and what it is supposed to be in the next few days, How many days do I have to get it out, how long can I take to get it out before it spoils. Finally, how good of shape am I in and is it ok if I injure myself getting it out.

The farthest I've done is about 9.5 miles one way solo. It was a raghorn bull. The terrain wasn't bad. It was cool enough I could have taken 2 days but there weren't any good trees to hang the meat and keep it away from predators. Took it out in about 17 hrs. Start to finish. That was the hardest I've done, mostly due to doing it in 1 day.

 

[memtb]

The wife and I took a pair of "rag horn" 5's about 3/4 mile from the truck. Not very steep terrain, downhill …..we were both in pretty good shape, and wasn't bad. We've quartered and backpacked several from 1/2 to 1 mile out from the truck.

In 2012, 7 months after a fusion in my lower back, I drug a whole young bull moose (about a 30" spread) downhill in a sled about 1/2 mile. I drug it down a little drainage/ditch on the hillside, which was about 20" to 30" wide, that had a little bit of snow in it. Not an easy task, the sled was wider than the drainage, the drainage had a lot of little tight switchbacks….rolling the moose and sled over more times than I care to think. That was actually the easy part.

I got to the very muddy road at the bottom where my wife was waiting with the Polaris Ranger….. I was pretty whipped. We tried to load it whole….very unsuccessfully! The mud was so bad, I didn't want to take the moose out of the sled to cut the moose in half. So we drug the sled about 3/4 mile down the road with the Ranger, until we found a deep hole to back the Ranger into, making the tailgate much lower….we still couldn't get it loaded whole.

Lifting the whole moose was an utter fail. At this point, to hell with the mud….we cut the moose in half. It still kicked our butts….but, we got him loaded.

Today…..I'd build a fire and eat the moose right where he fell! memtb