Wapiti

[rutjr]

That's awesome! Congratulations!

 

[philsanchez76]

Congrats man

 

[kyler1945]

Love this write-up!! Totally need to do this and absolutely love the chaos and randomness you completely describe. You'll never forget it and never not want to do it. The actual "nashing of teeth" parts of a hunting trip like that, although difficult at the time, are permanently burned into your head wires. Very cool. My greatest difficulty would be finding people in Elk country to help with all of the before and after logistics that you speak of. I have buds that would do it with me but none of us experienced with it at all downrange in elk country. How does one go about establishing this kind of network??

I just had a guy that helped line up processing and boiling a head.

you don’t need a network handed to you to elk hunt though. You just need a reliable hunting partner or five. And then you go make a network. I am as closed off to strangers as it gets - that’s the whole point of going in the woods - less of em. But it’s big country, and things can maim or kill you easy. You need to rely on your partners, and strangers to some extent. I make it a point to talk to almost everyone on the trail. And at the bar. And at the grocery. And the gas station. Anyone who looks like they may have the tiniest connection to elk hunting. Smile and be friendly. Also, as long as you’re not from Texas they’ll usually be quite nice.

 

[Maverick1]

How long does that last for a family of 4?

Depends on a lot of factors…..but, either way, the answer is a long time!
(A family of four with two youngsters? A long time. A family of four with two teenage sons? A lot shorter!).

I shot an elk one year and got something like 256 pounds of deboned meat. It was a fairly large bull, body-wise. I quartered it in the field, backpacked it out, and took it to be processed. After having it cut and wrapped - mostly for steaks and burger, but also some products where the net added weight is a bit higher (sausage, bacon, etc), I ended up with 336 pounds of meat.

Around Christmas time, someone asked me if I had any elk meat left, or if we had eaten it all.

My response was “let’s do the math: I got 336 pounds of meat, and there are 365 days in a year….I shot the bull in September and it’s almost the end of December…..so, that’s a NO…. “

So, from that standpoint, elk hunting really is feast or famine…..fill a tag and you can have feasts for days. It can be a challenge to finish an elk in a year (depending on the size of the elk - cow or bull) the amount of meat is equal to roughly 4-6 deer, again, that could vary, but get one down and you have a full meat wagon for a long time.

I have have had a couple of seasons where I’ve been holding out for a larger bull, and not filled my tag, which means I’ve “had” to make the elk meat last two years, which was a bit of a challenge as I ran out after about a year and a half. (Famine!)

On the other hand, I have also filled two elk tags in one season - three different times - (and that also happened to happen in consecutive years, in 2017 and 2018 I shot two elk with the bow.) and that is a LOT of meat! Fortunately it is super delicious and my favorite wild game, by far!

Good eating, OP!

 

[woodsdog2]

I just had a guy that helped line up processing and boiling a head.

you don’t need a network handed to you to elk hunt though. You just need a reliable hunting partner or five. And then you go make a network. I am as closed off to strangers as it gets - that’s the whole point of going in the woods - less of em. But it’s big country, and things can maim or kill you easy. You need to rely on your partners, and strangers to some extent. I make it a point to talk to almost everyone on the trail. And at the bar. And at the grocery. And the gas station. Anyone who looks like they may have the tiniest connection to elk hunting. Smile and be friendly. Also, as long as you’re not from Texas they’ll usually be quite nice.

Everything's bigger in Texas!!!