OP
OP
GooseLR
FNG
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2023
- Messages
- 30
Sweet, I’ll check them out!
Feedback on backcountry elk loadout
- Thread starter GooseLR
- Start date
OP
OP
GooseLR
FNG
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2023
- Messages
- 30
I forgot that I had a pair of Patagonia level 5 flex pants until I dug them out today. They are also on the heavy side as well (25 oz) but they are nylon vs whatever my other ones are, they’re stretchy and seem to shed water fairly well. I may just run those and save myself the money.
Maverick1
WKR
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2013
- Messages
- 2,152
I’m impressed that someone actually read that far down into my post. LOL.There's some solid nuggets in here.
"shitting like a crippled goose"
"shitting like a pet coon"
"three pounds of stripper tits bouncing"
Did I miss anything?
The last one.... I'll get some use out of thatThere's some solid nuggets in here.
"shitting like a crippled goose"
"shitting like a pet coon"
"three pounds of stripper tits bouncing"
Did I miss anything?
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OP
OP
GooseLR
FNG
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2023
- Messages
- 30
I will post a longer debrief when I have time but very quickly: thanks for all the help refining my packing list. There are some minor tweaks I plan to make for future hunts but overall I think my setup was very effective. My buddy and I got into elk about three miles from our truck with some pretty good elevation change in between so pack out was definitely challenging but doable. I got this one opening morning, and my buddy got his the morning of day two. I’ll post some more pics and get into a little more detail at a later time. I’ve got some elk meat to process!
Attachments
trophyhill
WKR
I'd go with the Absaroka 4p tent. The 2p was to small for me by myself but the 4p will work for 2
steepike45
FNG
Didn't add anything to this thread, but followed it used a few of the tips. Newer to the backcountry thing myself. Good work man, fan of the hat creek shirt as well.
OP
OP
GooseLR
FNG
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2023
- Messages
- 30
It has been a long time since I last posted on this thread but I wanted to again thank everyone for their input. I'm going to provide a brief description of the hunt and touch on some learning experiences I had that may help someone else.
My buddy and I began this hunt with a pretty massive error. Months after we had put in for our tags, when we drew, we began planning the trip and initially thought to give ourselves two days on the front end to do some scouting and acclimatize a bit to the elevation. Long story short, my buddy was going off the dates of the previous season somehow so the day we had planned to begin driving was only two days before the season instead of four like we intended. Feels like a total bone-head move that I'm honestly embarrassed about sharing, but it may help someone in the future - trust but verify. So we drove about 36 hours total, stopping only for gas and arrived at our hunting location at 4:30am on opening morning. We stepped out of the truck, changed clothes and headed out.
Luckily, despite our massive blunder in reading a calendar, we were otherwise very prepared. We headed out to our planned destination but encountered a couple other hunters in the spots we wanted to be. We settled on our tertiary option and began scanning around the time it was shooting-light. I had never heard an elk bugle in person before this but we heard probably 15 before the sun came up (so cool!). After glassing for about 30 mins, my buddy noticed a couple elk about 850 meters to our left in a narrow opening between two large patches of timber moving right to left. When they were out of sight, we dumped our rucks and began running to another vantage point where we could hopefully get a shot. we eventually ended up at the mouth of that open patch where we initially saw them. Moving quietly now, with the wind in our face we started creeping along to gain a better view of the elk. We could see them only intermittently through the trees. finally, the elk moved back into the same clearing we spotted them in, only about 400 meters deeper into the narrow band. There were two cows and a smaller bull in front of the bull I shot. I had a 200m broadside shot on him and he went down instantly. I was very impressed with the 215 grain bergers I was using.
As a lifelong whitetail hunter who's had the dream of harvesting a bull elk for 15 years, it was so surreal standing over my bull. Thankful for my friend's selflessness in giving me the first shot opportunity, and for such a great first bull, we moved back to grab our rucks before coming back to the bull to begin skinning and quartering. All told, that day we spent about 40 minutes hunting and 13 hours getting the bull back to our truck. It struck me how lucky we are that so many things happened exactly as they did in order for us to kill that bull. If we had began driving at the "correct' time, if we hadn't encountered other hunters in the first couple spots we wanted to sit, if we just hadn't seen the elk while they were in the open, we would not have gotten the chance at this bull. Counting the heart and liver, we took 302lbs of meat from my bull (weighed everything back home while processing). It took my buddy and I two trips each. I (stupidly) did not have my crib load panel with me on the first trip which is one of my lessons learned this trip. That fact, coupled with carrying the skull out just on my shoulders and not strapped in (so I wasn't able to use my trekking poles) and the 10,000 feet of elevation gain in the last two days from home to CO made the first trip a doozy haha. I had carried that kind of weight before but it is MUCH harder at such a high elevation, which I know is not news to anyone, but it was interesting experiencing it firsthand.
After a good night's sleep, we started the morning of day two by hiking into the same general area that we had the previous day. After glassing for a few hours, we decided to move into the thick timber where we were confident the elk were bedding. The whole area was absolutely littered with elk sign so we moved to a spot where we had decent shooting lanes and good wind. We sat for about a half hour just watching and listening, fairly confident of the direction an elk would come from when I heard my friend whisper my name urgently. Not wanting to make any large, sudden movements, I strained to look as far to my right as possible without turning my head. That was was when I caught the last step of a bull before he noticed me at just over ten meters away. My friend had seen the bull just a moment before me but had no shot due to brush in the way. It was so tense being in a staring contest with this bull but it worked out beautifully as the bull's attention was on me giving my buddy the opportunity to "pie" around a tree blocking his view of the bull's vitals. My friend cracked off his 30-06 at ten meters with the bull nearly broadside. He took off running through the woods as my buddy scrambled to get a second shot off. We gave the bull about 45 minutes before we started following his trail. I actually heard the bull crash in the minutes following the shot but we wanted to make sure to give him adequate time to die so we didn't inadvertently push him. He went just over 100 meters from where my buddy shot him. He was a smaller bull but still a trophy to us. While getting this bull quartered, we actually had another bull run up to the kill site and begin raking a tree, it was incredible! We managed to pack his bull out in one trip but the first several hundred meters were hellacious since we were constantly stepping over down trees and dodging the thick brambles.
With two bulls down in two days, we spent the remaining days of the season trying to help our other friends who we met at camp get bulls. Ultimately, our party of six ended the season with three bulls. We had a phenomenal experience, from hunting, to packing meat, to sitting around a campfire with new friends, it was one of my most memorable experiences.
Lessons Learned:
- Based on attending course after course in the military I am a big believer in packing lists. Not everyone is and that's fine, but it works for me. I had everything that I needed in the field because I double and triple checked that my packing list matched my actual gear.
- If you have a crib load panel (Exo MTN Gear) or similar apparatus to aid in packing meat, It would behoove you to have it on you when you kill a bull. Dumb.
- I love trekking poles, idc if it makes me a sissy.
- tripods are excellent tools for shooting a rifle in open areas, but cumbersome in thick timber
- Altitude sucks I guess? My buddy and I are in excellent shape but the altitude still kicked our butts when packing meat out. A ruck that would be no problem at sea level was, in fact, a rather large problem at 10,000+ feet. We had to force ourselves to eat because we were feeling very nauseous and had pretty bad headaches.
- I would have liked to have a small tarp or something to have a clean place to set quarters down as we pulled them off the body. We made due, but a few ounces would have been well worth it in terms of ease in keeping the meat clean.
- Double check everything. Dates of the season, torque specs of all rifle components (my buddy has a scope base come loose before season), packing list, weather report
- elk are extremely, almost impossibly quiet moving through timber that you have a hard time moving through
- personally, I worried too much about saving weight with my packing list. I ultimately brought a pretty heavy tent and sleeping bag because it's what I had and my pack with everything including food, water, and rifle strapped to it weighed a little over 60lbs. Moving with my pack was not an issue in the slightest. Packing meat was the harder part. This may sound crazy to some but I am actually planning to add a bit of weight to my rifle because I just shoot a heavier gun better and the weight of my rifle was in no way a limiting factor for me in this hunt. Since this hunt I've added a heavier scope and a suppressor and will likely add a few ounces of weight in the internal portion of my XLR Chassis.
Wrapping up, we made some silly, new-guy mistakes but we also did some things right and had luck on our side this time I think. I've made a list of gear to add to my packing list that I wished I had while I was out there and also identified some things I could do without. I am hooked on this type of hunting and this was a great learning experience for me. I know this is all pretty basic stuff but hopefully it can help someone in the future like posts like this helped me. Appreciate you guys.
My buddy and I began this hunt with a pretty massive error. Months after we had put in for our tags, when we drew, we began planning the trip and initially thought to give ourselves two days on the front end to do some scouting and acclimatize a bit to the elevation. Long story short, my buddy was going off the dates of the previous season somehow so the day we had planned to begin driving was only two days before the season instead of four like we intended. Feels like a total bone-head move that I'm honestly embarrassed about sharing, but it may help someone in the future - trust but verify. So we drove about 36 hours total, stopping only for gas and arrived at our hunting location at 4:30am on opening morning. We stepped out of the truck, changed clothes and headed out.
Luckily, despite our massive blunder in reading a calendar, we were otherwise very prepared. We headed out to our planned destination but encountered a couple other hunters in the spots we wanted to be. We settled on our tertiary option and began scanning around the time it was shooting-light. I had never heard an elk bugle in person before this but we heard probably 15 before the sun came up (so cool!). After glassing for about 30 mins, my buddy noticed a couple elk about 850 meters to our left in a narrow opening between two large patches of timber moving right to left. When they were out of sight, we dumped our rucks and began running to another vantage point where we could hopefully get a shot. we eventually ended up at the mouth of that open patch where we initially saw them. Moving quietly now, with the wind in our face we started creeping along to gain a better view of the elk. We could see them only intermittently through the trees. finally, the elk moved back into the same clearing we spotted them in, only about 400 meters deeper into the narrow band. There were two cows and a smaller bull in front of the bull I shot. I had a 200m broadside shot on him and he went down instantly. I was very impressed with the 215 grain bergers I was using.
As a lifelong whitetail hunter who's had the dream of harvesting a bull elk for 15 years, it was so surreal standing over my bull. Thankful for my friend's selflessness in giving me the first shot opportunity, and for such a great first bull, we moved back to grab our rucks before coming back to the bull to begin skinning and quartering. All told, that day we spent about 40 minutes hunting and 13 hours getting the bull back to our truck. It struck me how lucky we are that so many things happened exactly as they did in order for us to kill that bull. If we had began driving at the "correct' time, if we hadn't encountered other hunters in the first couple spots we wanted to sit, if we just hadn't seen the elk while they were in the open, we would not have gotten the chance at this bull. Counting the heart and liver, we took 302lbs of meat from my bull (weighed everything back home while processing). It took my buddy and I two trips each. I (stupidly) did not have my crib load panel with me on the first trip which is one of my lessons learned this trip. That fact, coupled with carrying the skull out just on my shoulders and not strapped in (so I wasn't able to use my trekking poles) and the 10,000 feet of elevation gain in the last two days from home to CO made the first trip a doozy haha. I had carried that kind of weight before but it is MUCH harder at such a high elevation, which I know is not news to anyone, but it was interesting experiencing it firsthand.
After a good night's sleep, we started the morning of day two by hiking into the same general area that we had the previous day. After glassing for a few hours, we decided to move into the thick timber where we were confident the elk were bedding. The whole area was absolutely littered with elk sign so we moved to a spot where we had decent shooting lanes and good wind. We sat for about a half hour just watching and listening, fairly confident of the direction an elk would come from when I heard my friend whisper my name urgently. Not wanting to make any large, sudden movements, I strained to look as far to my right as possible without turning my head. That was was when I caught the last step of a bull before he noticed me at just over ten meters away. My friend had seen the bull just a moment before me but had no shot due to brush in the way. It was so tense being in a staring contest with this bull but it worked out beautifully as the bull's attention was on me giving my buddy the opportunity to "pie" around a tree blocking his view of the bull's vitals. My friend cracked off his 30-06 at ten meters with the bull nearly broadside. He took off running through the woods as my buddy scrambled to get a second shot off. We gave the bull about 45 minutes before we started following his trail. I actually heard the bull crash in the minutes following the shot but we wanted to make sure to give him adequate time to die so we didn't inadvertently push him. He went just over 100 meters from where my buddy shot him. He was a smaller bull but still a trophy to us. While getting this bull quartered, we actually had another bull run up to the kill site and begin raking a tree, it was incredible! We managed to pack his bull out in one trip but the first several hundred meters were hellacious since we were constantly stepping over down trees and dodging the thick brambles.
With two bulls down in two days, we spent the remaining days of the season trying to help our other friends who we met at camp get bulls. Ultimately, our party of six ended the season with three bulls. We had a phenomenal experience, from hunting, to packing meat, to sitting around a campfire with new friends, it was one of my most memorable experiences.
Lessons Learned:
- Based on attending course after course in the military I am a big believer in packing lists. Not everyone is and that's fine, but it works for me. I had everything that I needed in the field because I double and triple checked that my packing list matched my actual gear.
- If you have a crib load panel (Exo MTN Gear) or similar apparatus to aid in packing meat, It would behoove you to have it on you when you kill a bull. Dumb.
- I love trekking poles, idc if it makes me a sissy.
- tripods are excellent tools for shooting a rifle in open areas, but cumbersome in thick timber
- Altitude sucks I guess? My buddy and I are in excellent shape but the altitude still kicked our butts when packing meat out. A ruck that would be no problem at sea level was, in fact, a rather large problem at 10,000+ feet. We had to force ourselves to eat because we were feeling very nauseous and had pretty bad headaches.
- I would have liked to have a small tarp or something to have a clean place to set quarters down as we pulled them off the body. We made due, but a few ounces would have been well worth it in terms of ease in keeping the meat clean.
- Double check everything. Dates of the season, torque specs of all rifle components (my buddy has a scope base come loose before season), packing list, weather report
- elk are extremely, almost impossibly quiet moving through timber that you have a hard time moving through
- personally, I worried too much about saving weight with my packing list. I ultimately brought a pretty heavy tent and sleeping bag because it's what I had and my pack with everything including food, water, and rifle strapped to it weighed a little over 60lbs. Moving with my pack was not an issue in the slightest. Packing meat was the harder part. This may sound crazy to some but I am actually planning to add a bit of weight to my rifle because I just shoot a heavier gun better and the weight of my rifle was in no way a limiting factor for me in this hunt. Since this hunt I've added a heavier scope and a suppressor and will likely add a few ounces of weight in the internal portion of my XLR Chassis.
Wrapping up, we made some silly, new-guy mistakes but we also did some things right and had luck on our side this time I think. I've made a list of gear to add to my packing list that I wished I had while I was out there and also identified some things I could do without. I am hooked on this type of hunting and this was a great learning experience for me. I know this is all pretty basic stuff but hopefully it can help someone in the future like posts like this helped me. Appreciate you guys.
ScreamingPotato
WKR
Nice write up and congrats. I enjoyed reading along. Sounds like you pinpointed the right area and we're right on top of them.
OP
OP
GooseLR
FNG
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2023
- Messages
- 30
Thanks! Yeah it ended up being a great area and worked out well for us.
OP
OP
GooseLR
FNG
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2023
- Messages
- 30
Couple more pics
We all just appreciate the fact that you came back for your AAR. There's a ton of guys come on here and ask these questions and have us critique their gear lists and then... nothing. Now you know what you need to drill down on. I'm a fan of a lighter bag and a puffy and down pants. Multi use out of the puffy gear during the day, and at night. Saves you from carrying a bulkier bag AND puffy clothes. Now you know why it costs so much to live like a homeless person lol.
Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk
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