Not travel-related but advice just the same.
by BeijingIrish (2019-02-12 13:11:47)

In reply to: Travel Advice - Elk Hunting Guides in Wyoming?  posted by ConnorMacManus


Have you ever killed an elk? Or any large animal? If you are a normal person, there is a psychological dimension to hunting for large animals. Be ready so you are not surprised.

I grew up in the Rocky Mountain West, and I was an avid hunter in my youth. Then, I went to Vietnam. I did not pick up a gun again for 40 years until I began to hunt birds again. A few years ago, a lifelong friend asked me to join him on an elk hunt in the San Luis Valley. I won't go into detail, but I just could not pull the trigger. I just didn't see the point. Even the thought of a nice backstrap of elk roasting in the oven didn't do it for me.

My father was never a keen outdoorsman, and I could not share my enthusiasm for hunting with him. I think this is an important element for you, and I fully appreciate your desire to have a special father-son experience.

If you have hunted extensively, all this might be gratuitous. Have fun. The scenery alone will be worth it.


You raise a handful of interesting questions...
by ConnorMacManus  (2019-02-12 19:08:12)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

And I certainly don't read your reply as gratuitous at all. The short, direct answer is no - I have not killed anything the size of an elk. And if we're being honest, while I'd like to think I have the fortitude to pull the trigger, I suppose I won't know until the moment of truth.

I've shot plenty of birds and small animals, been around plenty of farm animals during slaughter, but always had shitty luck deer hunting (I just sat in the treestand freezing my ass off, and never had a deer come closer than 40 yards - too far for a clean bow kill). I went bear hunting when I was 13, but missed him - almost certainly due to nerves (as would any normal 13 year old I suppose).

But your point stands - there is a psychological element to large game that simply doesn't exist with smaller prey. Even my father, with probably over 40 deer taken in his lifetime, would tell you his heart still races every time. That's why he goes...

Despite growing up hunting with my father, in my adult life I've had little opportunity to go hunting at all, even less so with my father. My career has taken me all over the USA, and abroad (France) for the last four years, as you've heard before. As such, hunting has taken a back seat for the better part of two decades.

Having moved back stateside only two months ago, this was one of the first things I wanted to plan with my father. It's certainly one of his dreams, not just the hunt itself - but to do it and share it with me. I certainly want to do it with him, because the window of time where he will still be capable of it, it is closing quickly.

So even if I hike around the Bighorns for a week and never come within sight of an elk, it would still be time well spent with my father. But a tenderloin roasting over a campfire would probably make it better...

Museums and great halls all over Europe are filled with paintings and stories of hunting. Hell, the caves are too for that matter. Hunting as a rite of passage has existed for millenia. There's something elemental about it - inside all of us.

I'm hoping to share just a slice of that with the old man while he's still around...


I struggle with this.
by R2D2isAMeanDrunk  (2019-02-12 16:15:13)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

My father is an avid hunter and still wants to shoot stuff as he gets older. Many animals I don't mind - deer, birds, other things that are plentiful to the point they can be a nuisance.

Big game, I just can't bring myself to shoot. Life's hard for elk and bears. I derive more satisfaction from conserving truly wild areas and animals than I would from hunting them.


I don't disagree with your sentiments but
by IdahoLeahy  (2019-02-14 18:00:41)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

some elk herds still need to be culled by someone. Re-introducing wolves into Idaho has had an affect on elk populations in some hunt zones but in other zones elk will overrun a ranchers crop. I've seen 100+ elk feeding in a ranchers field in the fall and summer. Then you have to look at winter range. You need enough forage on the winter range to support the herds. There often isn't enough and the elk starve. Most years Idaho has to set up feed stations for elk and deer in the winter.

I'm not sure that an elk has it any tougher than a deer (at least out west). I actually think it's the other way around. Elk can better tolerate the cold and deep snow, and have fewer predators.

But again...I don't disagree with you...in my mind there's no grander animal than a bull elk. I view and photograph elk much more often than I hunt them.

RMEF is a great organization to help support elk and elk habitat.


Yes, there's a balance.
by R2D2isAMeanDrunk  (2019-02-15 11:34:25)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Just like deer can become a pestilence, there's some management required. Many populations like theirs strike me as super volatile, because their predators lose habitat and die out, then the prey populations grow and grow until the next cycle. The cycle is natural, but the variation is what gives me pause. I don't pretend we can fully control nature in that way, but we can certainly influence it by preserving habitats, culling populations, managing disease, etc.


Interesting you mention that life is hard for big game out
by steez_nutz  (2019-02-14 12:43:25)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

west. I saw this pop up in my news feed over the last few days (it's an elk herd being hunted by a pack of wolves in Yellowstone). It doesn't reveal a conclusion, but reveals the struggles of both animals.