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Elk Hunting 2013 - IdahoNancy - 02-15-2014
Most of you have seen this story before. Elk hunting 2013. This was my husband's elk. It was a great week long hunt. The Ober boys were beat tired as they were on the trail alot. The weather got tough as the week wore on. I'll post pictures of the meat packing out. It was nasty.
The truth of training goats to go with you hunting is train them to pack, they love hunting. In archery hunting we may move quickly, stalk an elk at an extremely slow pace when in close, or stand still for 2 hours in the snow as in the case of this elk. Goats don't have a agenda. They just figure it is their job to stand by or keep up for what ever you are doing. When my goats got beat up I tried taking one goat and left 2 resting at base camp (no wolves or griz in the Crazy Mtns). They loved to be the goat that got the pack. They hated to stay in camp. This was not light duty hiking. There was nearly a 1000 foot of elevation, snow, wind, rain, mud, and creek crossings. They were always willing to go at the crack of dawn the next morning. The elk don't seem to mind the goats. The elk stand still and stare at the goats. It does not seem to bother the goats, they feed, sleep, or stand around quite relaxed. The goats are use to hearing us blow on an elk bugle and do not seem to mind if the bull makes a similar sound. The goats do seem to pay attention when the bull gets real close but by that time with luck some real hunting is playing out.
This was the nastiest weather I have ever had the goats in. It was snowing about 2 inches an hour, blowing sideways, cold and wet. These pictures were at the creek bottom after after we climbed down the slippery hill side. I kept pushing the snow off their saddles as it was sticky and would pile up. I can't say the goats liked the weather but they never stopped. They looked miserable as we all did. They had about 40 to 50 lb pack of meat.
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - Dave-Trinity-Farms - 02-16-2014
Am so jealous!!!
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - Phil-O-Rama - 02-16-2014
Great pics, thanks!
-Phil
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - nebs - 02-16-2014
Thanks for sharing this adventure Nancy. This will be my first year archery hunting and it is very inspiring to see success stories like this! You have the biggest, best, looking obers I have ever seen. How many trips did it take to pack all that elk meat?
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - Huckleberry - 02-16-2014
I love seeing pictures of your boys and hearing about your adventures! Up until now we've left the goats out of hunting since last year was their first year of really packing. We plan to do a lot of pack in hunting trips this year and this really inspires me! I can only hope to get to this point with my goats and hope they have the drive your boys do!
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - deschutes dawn - 02-16-2014
What time of fall is your archery season? In Oregon we're usually dodging fires during bowhunts. The snow and ratty weather would be a nice change for us instead of 90+ degrees.
Great pictures.
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - IdahoNancy - 02-16-2014
We have archery hunted in Montana in last few years in late September early October. We are out for 2 weeks with a base camp wall tent at 6,000 feet often getting an elk at nearly 8,000 ft elevation. We have had our share of 85 degree weather dodging forest fires and hiking many miles in smoke. This usually happens earlier in September.
At times we use the goats to set up a spike camp for a few days in a more remote location then return to base camp. As for how many packs a bull is 7 and a cow is 6, that is boned out meat. With 3 people and 3 goats that is usually one trip with everyone packing or 2 if just the goats are packing. Alternatively you'd 6 goats.
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - deschutes dawn - 02-17-2014
You know, in the early 80's I got a chance to hunt Montana. We got a Pope and Young bull (318 pts) from the Reservoir Lake area. 400# of meat we packed out during a massive snowstorm at around 7500'. It took 4 men and me carrying that sucker out at 11 pm. Luckily us bowhunters are warped enough to call that "fun".
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - Huckleberry - 02-17-2014
It's those kind of insane packs out where your cursing the whole situation that are the best memories looking back. I try to remind myself of that when in the moment
RE: Elk Hunting 2013 - deschutes dawn - 02-17-2014
Each pack out certainly presents it's own unique tales. The easiest one was an elk that went down right on the edge of the trail. We were using saddle panniers, rode up to the dressed out elk, unfolded panniers, loaded up and walked the 3 miles back to camp. Fate makes sure you pay for that easy hunt dozens of times over!