Epic pack out thread...

[Robert]

Ok, couple of things. The story of your hike out in the blizzard after shooting the goat is, in my opinion, better than shooting the goat. Seriously, lesser men or those unprepared for high mountain hunting would have died.

If you ever write a book you have to include the great dragon fly hunt. But please don't have me die on EVERY page...

 

[H&Hhunter]

H&H, I'm not sure what you do for a living....but I want in lol. Sadly enough, I highly doubt I'll ever be able to have the financial freedom to hunt the way that you do. So thank you for allowing all of us to hunt vicariously through you via pictures and stories!

The moderators here make the big bucks.

Moderator doesn't pay all that well. But the stock options and bonuses are killer!

 

[H&Hhunter]

Ok, couple of things. The story of your hike out in the blizzard after shooting the goat is, in my opinion, better than shooting the goat. Seriously, lesser men or those unprepared for high mountain hunting would have died.

If you ever write a book you have to include the great dragon fly hunt. But please don't have me die on EVERY page...

Sorry dude but you have to die in all stories.

 

[Armored farmer]

Sorry dude but you have to die in all stories

...and H&H gets the girl, no doubt.

 

[wankerjake]

Couple of them maybe. Who's writing these stories, after all

 

[H&Hhunter]

...and H&H gets the girl, no doubt.

Well.....YEAH!

 

[Captcurt]

...and H&H gets the girl, no doubt.

Now why mess up a prefect story with a bunch of mush? If I want romance I will read Romeo and Juliet.

 

[Armored farmer]

I want romance I will read Romeo and Juliet.

Good point

 

[Captcurt]

The worst pack outs that I have had, beside one last week, were in Colorado. Both mulies that I have taken were on steep hillsides where you could hardly stand. One rolled head over heels down the mountain for about a hundred yards before hanging up. I had to quarter it and pack it to where I could get the mule to it. The other was different only that it was dead in it's bed. I still had to quarter and pack. I was in my prime then but swore that the next one would be in the middle of the road. Last week I put an arrow thru a whitetail buck that went 200 yards down a 30 degree grade. One of the farmhands helped me drag it out but it was a chore for this 66 year old fat boy.

 

[Kingcreek]

Reminds me of a Wyoming rancher I met. When I asked him if he ever hunted the elk on his ranch he said, "Nah, I was always afraid if I did I might shoot one."

 

[H&Hhunter]

As an old time Alaskan friend of mine once told me. The first rule of Moose hunting is just don't shoot one!

 

[double bogey]

Was that the nanny hunt that you rode the blizzard out at a lower altitude, then walked to the highway and called the wife to pick you up. That was an epic hunt. A less knowledgeable hunter may not have made it out. Keep bringing them, most enjoyable.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

As an old time Alaskan friend of mine once told me. The first rule of Moose hunting is just don't shoot one!

I can do that! Also don't shoot a bear and a moose at the same time. It's tempting when a bear comes to the moose carcass, but you just buried yourself up to your eyeballs in work.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Was that the nanny hunt that you rode the blizzard out at a lower altitude, then walked to the highway and called the wife to pick you up. That was an epic hunt. A less knowledgeable hunter may not have made it out. Keep bringing them, most enjoyable.

The very same. And of course the blizzard became a driving rain at lower altitude. Not a fun night.

 

[Armored farmer]

I just remembered a particular hunt when my oldest son was only 13 or so.
We had a flood the night before opening day of gun season. The river that we hunt near was out all over the bottom making it treacherous just getting to the stand.
I walked my son to his ladder stand beside a flooded slough. The last thing I told him was, "do NOT shoot a deer on the other side of the slough unless he's a GIANT"
So anyway, I had to borrow a boat from a friend to recover the little basket rack 7 pointer from the other side of the slough.

 

[WestKentucky]

H, your stories make mine seem like child's play....but here goes.

2005, LBL in western Ky. I had met my parents for lunch and after seeing several deer and catching a few bluegill on the way back to college I pulled in at my hunting spot just outside of the target range at LBL. I actually parked at the target range and walked in through the archery course and across a couple small creeks. I only went a quarter mile north of the range to a big open grass field which had some odd little cherry tomatoe looking plants growing all over. A big doe came in with her yearling fawns but blew at me and stayed out of range. The big doe got ran towards me by a spike buck, and from my nest under a cedar tree an arrow found its mark culminating in my first ever bow kill. As they say...now the fun begins. I took off my belt and used it to lash the 140ish pound doe up to where I could drag her the 200 yards east and make the hard part of carrying her back over the creeks and ridges as short as possible. So I am basically fireman carrying her through the woods and as it gets dark I stumble and she rides me into the creek. Being wet the deer and I each gained about 20 pounds...up a small ridge then down across the other creek into the archery range...with a second splashdown into the second creek. The second time I let her float and drug her downstream to a point where I was only 60 yards from my little chevy blazer. She rode back to Murray in the back on the rubber mat.

For most folks the story ends here...field dressed deer in the truck... we can call this point intermission.

Back in Murray I run by the dorms and grab a couple empty Rubbermaid totes and fill them with ice. I go over to a buddies apartment and do the main portion of butchering the meat, and make a phone call to one of the frats that I hung around. Struck a deal to basically swap a ham for them cooking the other 3 quarters on their pit, but they are having a closed party so I had to wait til morning. Back to the dorms I go after a quick trip out to discard the bones and hide at another buddies coyote hunting spot. So here I go bebopping into the dorms covered in blood with 2 big rubbermaid totes of meat on ice. I get up the elevator and to my room with the totes stacked in the shower before the knock on the door, which led to the first and only time in life where I was in cuffs. The report was that I had dragged a whole deer to the elevator and they thought I might be armed...and they had the dean of the residence hall there giving permission to search my room. They thought they would find the deer hanging from the shower head. I got a shower down the hall and got to bed around 3am.

 

[CoRoMo]

Once the rifle shot echoes down through the valley, the fun tends to be over and the pain begins. It's often flat-out torture.

This past fall, it took Dad and I 5 1/2 hours to pack out my elk, one brutal trip through the deadfall. The word 'brutal' doesn't even come close to the suffering that day had in store for us. It rained for an hour or two during that pack out, and we ran out of water around the time the day warmed up enough to be hot when you're laboring hard, made one wrong turn which added to our hike right when we were just about spent, got sunburnt, and on and on.

He's what, 66-years old? Rugged old man, Dad. His hip almost gave out. No, scratch that; his hip DID give out where he could only take 10 or 12 steps at a time before having to stop and rest it up. But he made it out, just walked it off. We were both hurting bad that day. Worst pack out ever for either of us. Worse by far, even worse than 2013 when I shot two elk and we got them both out whole in ~8" of snow. I thought one of us was going to go into cardiac arrest that day. Come to think of it, packing out elk, on foot, in the roughest country ever to be hunted, can be a real drag. You start flirting with the idea of finding a place to cover up the kill and just leaving it out there.

He called me yesterday morning and asked, "So, are we going to apply for muzzleloader this year or just do rifle?"

 

[H&Hhunter]

CoRoMo,

I have basically stopped hunting is areas of heavy,cross fallen,blow down, trees. Recovery from those areas can be impossible. That is absoloutley the most miserable place you can try and pull an elk out of.

The only effective way to do it is to have four or more people and to take it out via a "bucket line" one piece at a time. NO THANK YOU!

 

[CoRoMo]

Yep, it ain't a whole bunch of fun when they're in a bad spot like that. With meat in the freezer, and sore muscles only a memory, I can't say I regret it. We've gotten them out whole (not in pieces) the majority of times, just him and I. After last year's pack out, we both agreed to avoid that area of our hunting unit because there was no other way but to piece it up and pack it out over rough ground. In these future seasons though, I have a feeling we'll just end up a little too tempted to venture off in there if we don't fill our tags in the first couple days. Getting elk always seems better than not. I guess I'd do it again even though it was uncomfortable.