Elk down. So this year I was the horse.

[GJgo]

I've been hunting elk in the same spot for 7 years now. I usually have decent luck for public land, and more importantly I rarely have to deal with other hunters. (When other hunters show up in the area they generally start walking around, and this blows out any elk in the area which screws us all.) In the past we've always had access to or rented horses to do all the packing, which is really great since our camp is a little more than 3 miles in from the road, if I'm only carrying a day pack & I hustle I can walk to camp in 1 hour. Carrying a loaded frame pack slows that down a bit.



This year however for financial reasons the horses weren't available. Everything else was all set & ready to go so I decided that I'll still hunt, and if I filled my tag I would just take my time & pack it out myself. Now, in the past I've humped the quarters back to camp from where the animal was shot if it wasn't too far away & let me tell you covering steep terrain with an elk hind quarter on my back is hard on the hips for me, and I'm 6'2" & pretty stout.

Opening night 6 cows & 2 spike bulls walked out in front of me. A well placed 150gr TTSX later from my 300 WSM I filled my cow tag with an average sized girl. (I'm a meat hunter, BTW. I'll take a cow tag any day.) "Now it gets difficult", I thought to myself.



With ibuprofen in hand I packed out one quarter per day, with the backstraps & tenderloins in the front shoulder bags. It was a lot for me but I did it without any permanent injury haha.. I probably could have done two trips in a day but I had time on my side, and I didn't want to hurt myself when I still had packing to do. (When I did end up getting it all to the butcher the hanging weight was right about 185 lbs.) Those hind quarters are a brute, here's one compared to my rifle.



The whole time I'm walking here's what I'm thinking. I read all these stories of guys who shoot an elk in the back country and talk about hiking it out like it's no big deal. "Didn't get done till after midnight!" "Took me all day!" "I was 5 miles up the mountain!" ... Really? I mean, I'm a pretty strong guy and packing 185lbs of meat for a round trip total of about 25 miles was rough- and this was a cow! I don't think I could have done the same with a bull without boning out the meat, not to mention the extra trip for the head & antlers. I've shot bulls too, a fresh caped head & rack is not light. So am I less tough than I thought? Are these guys not packing out all of the meat? Are they full of crap??

Fortunately I did catch a break later in the week. I had a doe tag for a different unit, and I managed to bag one oh about 45 seconds after I started walking into the spot, less than 150 yds from the road. Deer hunting is so much easier.. I can tell you that I carried the entire doe out in one pack, felt slightly lighter than one elk hind quarter. I was so close to the truck it kind of felt like cheating though!

 

[Pilot]

Nice! Great shots. Are you out near GJ?

 

[CoRoMo]

I killed two cows this year. One huge and one medium sized. The big girl is the largest cow that I've ever killed or seen. We hunt in the backcountry where only feet and hooves are allowed, but we don't bring the horses. We keep agreeing that these cows were between 3.5 and 4 miles in from the trailhead. I shot them both out of the same herd, one right after the other. It was nice to be done hunting, filling both my tags right then and there.

But like you said, right after the final shot, I thought, "Dang. Now begins the hard part.". It took us three days to get both cows out, but we get them out whole rather than quartering them up. the only part we leave in the field is the gut pile, sometimes the lower legs too though.

By the end of the first day, we had the smaller cow dollied up and hiked just a bit back from where the shooting happened. The second day we spent getting her out. Hiking in to where she was and then rolling her out probably took all of 6-8 hours. The third day we took the dolly back in, mounted up the big gal and rolled her all the way out. I think the hike out alone with her was 4-6 hours. The deep snow was brutal.

It was -physically- the most difficult thing I've ever done. But it's done!

 

[Patocazador]

I killed a 5x6 bull across a canyon in Wyoming years ago. I got it to the bottom of the canyon (easy part) but my wife and I had to set up a pup tent and bone out the elk except for the head and cape. It took us 6 round trips each to pack it out of the canyon to the truck .. not very far in miles (about 3/4 mile) but very hard in difficulty.
We offered an outfitter $500 to use a horse for a day. He laughed and rode away.

 

[GJgo]

Pilot yes, in the vicinity. I hunt to the south though, too many hunters crawling these woods for my taste. Kind of funny really, so many people come to my neck of the woods to hunt that I go somewhere else!

CoRoMo I was thinking this year that a dolly & a partner would be a legit replacement for horses. Good to hear that others are doing this- I might consider it further. I used a dolly once to get a guy from the site of a jeep accident in Moab to the Life Flight LZ, up Moab Rim Trail, it was the right tool for the job.

 

[wankerjake]

Awesome, well done. I'm heading out for antlerless elk in a few weeks. Can't wait to fill the freezer.

 

[Lennyjoe]

I packed out a decent size cow elk one year about 1.5 miles from the truck and it pretty much wore me out. Took 2 trips to get her out.

Congrats on the harvest.

 

[nmlongbow]

I shot a decent sized cow last year at about 7am hunting solo, 2 miles from the truck. I did the gutless method and boned everything out, 160lbs on the hook.
It took me 4 trips with the meat plus an extra trip to take my bow back and get the frame pack, total of 13 hours without a break or lunch. Camp was at 10,200 ft and the elk was at 9600 ft.

After the last trip I broke down camp and made the 3 hour drive home. It was tough but not too terrible. The weather was getting bad with a storm coming in so I wanted to get out asap. The next day I felt like I'd been in a car crash, not a place on my body that didn't hurt and the following day was even worse. I'm 47 and have decent endurance but if it would have been a big bull or another mile in I would have been in trouble. There's no way I could have had a 2nd day packout like the 1st.

 

[35 Whelen]

I've been hunting elk in the same spot for 7 years now. I usually have decent luck for public land, and more importantly I rarely have to deal with other hunters. (When other hunters show up in the area they generally start walking around, and this blows out any elk in the area which screws us all.) In the past we've always had access to or rented horses to do all the packing, which is really great since our camp is a little more than 3 miles in from the road, if I'm only carrying a day pack & I hustle I can walk to camp in 1 hour. Carrying a loaded frame pack slows that down a bit.



This year however for financial reasons the horses weren't available. Everything else was all set & ready to go so I decided that I'll still hunt, and if I filled my tag I would just take my time & pack it out myself. Now, in the past I've humped the quarters back to camp from where the animal was shot if it wasn't too far away & let me tell you covering steep terrain with an elk hind quarter on my back is hard on the hips for me, and I'm 6'2" & pretty stout.

Opening night 6 cows & 2 spike bulls walked out in front of me. A well placed 150gr TTSX later from my 300 WSM I filled my cow tag with an average sized girl. (I'm a meat hunter, BTW. I'll take a cow tag any day.) "Now it gets difficult", I thought to myself.



With ibuprofen in hand I packed out one quarter per day, with the backstraps & tenderloins in the front shoulder bags. It was a lot for me but I did it without any permanent injury haha.. I probably could have done two trips in a day but I had time on my side, and I didn't want to hurt myself when I still had packing to do. (When I did end up getting it all to the butcher the hanging weight was right about 185 lbs.) Those hind quarters are a brute, here's one compared to my rifle.



The whole time I'm walking here's what I'm thinking. I read all these stories of guys who shoot an elk in the back country and talk about hiking it out like it's no big deal. "Didn't get done till after midnight!" "Took me all day!" "I was 5 miles up the mountain!" ... Really? I mean, I'm a pretty strong guy and packing 185lbs of meat for a round trip total of about 25 miles was rough- and this was a cow! I don't think I could have done the same with a bull without boning out the meat, not to mention the extra trip for the head & antlers. I've shot bulls too, a fresh caped head & rack is not light. So am I less tough than I thought? Are these guys not packing out all of the meat? Are they full of crap??

Fortunately I did catch a break later in the week. I had a doe tag for a different unit, and I managed to bag one oh about 45 seconds after I started walking into the spot, less than 150 yds from the road. Deer hunting is so much easier.. I can tell you that I carried the entire doe out in one pack, felt slightly lighter than one elk hind quarter. I was so close to the truck it kind of felt like cheating though!

You hit the nail on the head. Folks who haven't elk hunted have no idea what's involved. To get to good elk hunting country you have to get far from roads and people. Walking to these places may not be a big deal, finding and killing a bull or cow may not be a big deal, but getting the meat, head and hide out of them IS. One hindquarter from a mature bull can easily weigh as much as a small southern field dressed whitetail.

35W

 

[Pilot]

Pilot yes, in the vicinity. I hunt to the south though, too many hunters crawling these woods for my taste. Kind of funny really, so many people come to my neck of the woods to hunt that I go somewhere else!

Obviously from your screen name, but I should have asked if that is near where you were hunting. Thanks for confirming it was south, maybe near Durango or Telluride. That is beautiful country. I am a former Front Ranger.

 

[X-Rap]

A couple years ago all my buddys had things to do so I went up the mountain myself. The 5pt bull I shot took me 4 trips at what the GPS said was 3/8 of a mile. We routinely shoot a half dozen a year and have packed as far as 1 1/2 miles but it isn't so bad if everyone in the party is on board to help pack out. We all carry good game bags and if there are enough of us we can get the elk out packing a 1/4 over our shoulders. If it takes more than one trip a pack frame makes the second turn much easier.
I unfortunately am working out of state this year and missed the BG season but my buds have been sending pictures of their fun.

 

[GJgo]

Pilot, yep, down by Durango. I have a soft spot for hunting the Ponderosa pine forest.

I think I've been able to fill my cow tags about 50-60% of the time which aren't bad stats for CO public land, and I hunt every day of the season. I attribute this to learning an area very well & having a strategy. In the last 7 years however I've had exactly 2 opportunities to shoot a legal bull, and only one of those times did I have a bull tag in my pocket- here he is. Legal bulls are not easy to come by on public land. I hunt 3rd season and by then the elk have all gone silent which makes it even more challenging. While stalking & calling may work during the rut, in my experience that is the wrong strategy for late season.