How far would you pack out an elk

[EastHumboldt]

I didn’t have time earlier for the full story. Ive packed lotsa mulies but only one elk.

I had a tag in a very steep wilderness area. We were drop camped by a packer about six miles in. We had hunted hard for six days with no results. Finally at about 9 in the am on the last day I put a bull on the ground about five miles above our camp and a total of 11 miles from the truck at an elavation of about 9000 ft. We had spike camped the night before. I was fortunate to have three other Guys with me who watched the stalk from about a mile away, my two brothers and my son. after the shot I started quartering him while I waited for help to arrive. Elk are literally the size of a smallish horse.

We were able to pack him down to an outfitter high camp which was about a one hour walk downhill from the kill. It was on the main trail out but not the way we had come in. We had all our day gear and the spike camp in our packs so we each took a quarter, and my son (who is an animal) had taken the first hindquarter down to the high camp and got back with an empty pack in time for the back straps just as I was loading up my pack with the last shoulder. He also took my rifle. I was sixty years old then and have some missing miniscus in my left knee, so I took my sweet time getting down to the high camp.

we spent the night there and the next day I walked all the way down to the truck and told the packer we had an elk hanging at the high camp. It cost me 600 to have him pack it out but by then I had walked about 80-90 miles in very rough country, an I would have paid him 2000 if he had insisted.. just kidding... don’t get any ideas you packers. i Still had to go back up the hill and get our main camp ready to pack out the next day. If you can afford a packer to do a drop camp and take your elk out it’s a great way to go. Spendy though. And you’re still gonna have sore feet.

 

[5MilesBack]

No further than 400 yards thru deadfalls.

On trail probably 5-6 miles.

My buddy hates it when we're all loaded up ready to head to the truck and I turn on my GPS and find the direct line shortest distance between those two points, and head out. But that's just who I am. It helps that I'm 6'6" with long legs to get over most of the deadfall, but my buddy with short legs is only 5'10" and prefers a trail. But he can always go find a trail if he wants.

As for "how far".......I generally never think of it that way. I just go where the elk take me and when I put one down I break them down.......and THEN consider how far it is. The farther it is, the less trips I want to take, so I consider that with my loads. My farthest.......6 miles........for a cow....SMH. But that was a long time ago, no way I'm shooting a cow that far back these days. On average I'd probably say about 2 miles. But "how far would I"........as far as I have one down. Once it's down, it's getting packed out regardless how far it is.

 

[Brendan]

My longest is ~6 miles for the first load (half of that with my camp too), relocated to a different trailhead the next morning for the next two loads to chop it down to ~4 miles. That was solo, three trips, total ground covered to get the Elk out was ~21 miles with 2/3 of it loaded. 90% of it was on trail though. But, that also doesn't count the previous 10 days of hunting and all the ground covered to get to the point that Elk hit the ground.

I had one "Easy Packout" this year that was a 3 easy miles by trail for 15 total miles solo. I had another that was 3/4 mile for 2-3 miles total.

Fortunately, none have been nasty, difficult pack outs. I've had to walk through areas without an Elk on my back that have sucked way worse.

 

[WCB]

Way to many variables. Used to guide in a spot where killing and elk with rifle opening week was basically a lock. We had horses, general public hiked down in from the top. Rode by a few guys packing elk out and every single one said the same thing...never again. At most it was a mile from the very bottom to the top but most of it was straight up hill and the last 300 yards was crawling up hill with hands.

#1 Thing to consider is how fast can you get the animal broken down and cooled.

#2 How much time do you have (is it day one or two of a 5 day hunt or is it evening of day 4?) If you have 2 or 3 days of good temps you can get away with a longer pack out.

#3 Once an animal is down all hunting is done until the animal is taken care of.

#4 balance the distance vs the opportunity to kill...meaning you have to kill it first before you worry about a pack out and at the same time don't hunt in an area you are unwilling to pack something out from

 

[3forks]

I don’t see it mentioned too often, but just getting your elk quartered can be pretty fatiguing.

I know I’m not the only person to have elk die on steep hills or tangled up in brush.

Starting your pack out after your lower back and hamstrings have been strained while you break down an animal is another variable that can add to experience of the pack out.

 

[Billy Goat]

My buddy hates it when we're all loaded up ready to head to the truck and I turn on my GPS and find the direct line shortest distance between those two points, and head out. But that's just who I am. It helps that I'm 6'6" with long legs to get over most of the deadfall, but my buddy with short legs is only 5'10" and prefers a trail. But he can always go find a trail if he wants.

As for "how far".......I generally never think of it that way. I just go where the elk take me and when I put one down I break them down.......and THEN consider how far it is. The farther it is, the less trips I want to take, so I consider that with my loads. My farthest.......6 miles........for a cow....SMH. But that was a long time ago, no way I'm shooting a cow that far back these days. On average I'd probably say about 2 miles. But "how far would I"........as far as I have one down. Once it's down, it's getting packed out regardless how far it is.

I don't mix with deadfalls.

5'10 with 29"inseam. With now bad knees.

Open ground I'm alright, it's when I gotta pick my feet up I get pissy.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

As has been mentioned, how far in I'm willing to shoot an elk depends on the terrain and weather. My longest elk packout was in early archery season and consisted of ½ mi through a jumble of fire-killed deadfall (satellite image of kill site below) followed by 3½ mi on an established trail. Though it was a much shorter distance, the off-trail portion was worse than the on-trail portion. I carried 3 of the 5 off-trail loads (4 quarters + 1 head/backstraps/scraps) from the kill site to camp, and we did the on-trail portion back to the truck in one trip with the meat split roughly equal amongst 4 guys.

If there's a willing outfitter in your area, paying them to retrieve your elk with pack animals would likely be worth every penny spent. The outfitters I've worked with have a stated policy that they won't take their pack animals off an established trail, so you still need to be prepared to pack your elk from the kill site to the nearest trail. They'll likely bend the "no off-trail" policy a bit depending on the terrain, but don't bank on them being able to get right to the kill site. Contact the local outfitter(s) ahead of time to discuss packout cost, field communication method, and exactly where they can/will go.

 

[S.Clancy]

The farthest we've ever packed an elk out it between 6.5-7 miles (tracked by GPS) and it was a cow. This was no trail for prob 4 miles. I'd say average is 3 ish miles. The worst packout was an old bull, opener of archery season. It was 5 miles and 1400ft of gain, prob 4 miles on a trail. 315lbs of elk (weighed afterward) plus camp. It sucked real bad.

My advice, go with 2 other guys, you can get almost any elk in 1 trip that way. Going back for seconds, God forbid third, trips wears you down.

You can pack farther if it's all downhill and on trail. Uphill and or no trail, less far. First time, I wouldn't want to do more than 2-3 miles cause you don't understand the pain of elk weight yet. And believe me, every elk is pain.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Some of you guys are beasts. I've never packed an elk more than 2 miles. Last fall I shot one 1.5 miles back, first thing in the morning, on a steep hillside. It took me from 7 am till 10:30 to just get all the quarters off the carcass, and until 3pm to have all the boned out meat staged to a hanging tree 400 yards down the mountain (I was on my own). My bull was a young raghorn and I was able to handle half the elk in that first load, but it was all downhill, with the last half mile on a trail. I weighed the meat the next day and that first load with gear and gun weighed about a hundred pounds. Sometimes you get lucky and the elk is a small one!

That elk was a two trip deal, and I had good weather to hang the other half over night. The rack was small enough I just grabbed the antlers with a saw. But that's ideal conditions, and a small bull, and it still whupped me good. You need to count on 3-4 trips minimum for any elk you shoot.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

And believe me, every elk is pain.

That's a signature line in the making right there!

 

[Mustang06]

Like most have said there are lots of variables. Elevation gain being one of the biggest, then temperature and time.

This past fall my 2 hunting pals and I packed in to a wilderness area for rifle elk hunting the first week of October. We intended to be about 4 miles in, but down over 2,000' from the truck. Good horse trail and we are in good shape, so we figured that would be ok. Because of other hunters in the area, we ended up 6.5 miles in from the truck. Still, not horrible. On the second day (Sunday) we killed 2 bulls (luckily they dropped within 100 yards of each other). We were another 1.5 miles from our camp. So now the kill site is 8 miles from the truck. Luckily the temps were in the 30s and overnight even colder. After getting the bulls deboned and bagged and hung we took the first load of meat 1.5 miles back to camp.

Monday morning we went back to the kill site (1.5 miles out, 1,5 back to camp), got a second heavy load each, and hiked it all the way out to the truck (6.5 more miles). We slept at the truck that night, dropped off unneeded gear, got up Tuesday morning and hiked all the way back to the kill site for the next load (8 miles). We were able to shuttle meat to the lowest elevation on the trail out and stage it in a cool shady spot and get back to camp right at dark. Wednesday we loaded up in the morning after packing up our camp and hiked out to the truck (6.5 miles and 2,000' up), and then returned down to the staging area for the last load and made it back out to the truck in the dark Wednesday.

So, 3 and a half days of hard hiking and hauling. 58 miles total from Thursday to Wednesday, and about 33 of that loaded heavy with either camp or meat or both. And about 10,000' total elevation gain. A couple take aways from that adventure:

1. Pick your hunting partners wisely. I've been friends with these guys for over 30 years. They go at it just as hard, if not harder than I do. Each one of us hit our breaking point mentally (let alone physically) during that grueling task, but we were able to keep each other motivated in a positive way and support each other. That was so tremendously important it cannot be over stated.

2. Take care of your feet...take care of your feet...take care of your feet. I learned this lesson in the Army Infantry for over 15 years. I trained pretty hard all summer hiking on rocky hills with weight. My feet were hardened because of that. And my boots were well broken in. But I STILL had some minor hot spots that I IMMEDIATELY tended to before they became blisters. (leukotape is pure gold) I put on dry socks every day and changed them at least once each day. We crashed at a hotel Wednesday night, and when I got up Thursday morning for the drive home my feet were so swollen that I had to loosen up my sneakers to get them on. I was fine a day later, but it was definitely a little torture for my feet.

3. Trekking poles are the best investment I ever made for carrying heavy loads. Several times I lost traction on loose ground, or lost my balance going over an obstacle and saved myself with the trekking poles. When you have 75+ pounds on your back, and you get that weight out side your footing base it is very dangerous for your back and hips. And going uphill its like having 4WD.

4. Pack quality. I packed out an elk with and army issue ALICE pack several years ago. Then I upgraded 2 years ago to an EXO pack. The difference was immeasurable. I used an ALICE pack in the army for years and carried some stupid heavy loads with it. With this new pack the same amount of weight is less than half as difficult to manage. Get whatever HIGH QUALITY pack fits you best (EXO, MR, Stone Glacier, etc.)...you will never regret spending that $$$.

5. We couldn't have done this in archery season in warm temps. Too much meat, too far, and took too long. If we would have had warmer temps we would have called in a guy with horses. Luckily we didn't have to worry about meat spoilage, and only had a little loss because of drying out. But nothing more than if you would have hung the meat to age it for a few days.

Don't let long pack outs scare you off from hunting somewhere...but definitely get prepared and be thinking about all of the variables. Temperature and time available, elevation, terrain (trails or not), and equipment. If those variables add up to a NO-GO decision...hire a packing service or rent some llamas and go!

 

[elkbowhuntr]

Seems like if your solo one of the hardest things is just getting the damn pack on your back once its loaded.

 

[Steelhead]

You can’t plan on where the elk will die, so just go hunting and be prepared physically for the pain and mentally for the suck. Because the pack-out pretty much always sucks.

As others have said, a lot depends on the terrain your hunting. If you have time, and the temperatures cooperate, you can just plan on making meat-packing trips until the job is done. …could take days depending on the terrain, distance and number of people packing…

Last season I shot my bull up a ridge and it rolled 30 yards down into a deep, narrow, nasty gully at the bottom of the draw. Choked with alders, thorns and nettles and we basically had to stand in 6 inches of running water the entire time we were cutting it up. Getting the quarters up to where I could actually stand took a straight 20 minutes of tantrum-inducing effort to make it like 20 yards up and through deadfall and aforementioned alders and brambles. Then it was steep side-hilling down to the bottom of the draw, around 2 miles and about 1500 – 2k feet in elevation loss. 2 people butchered and packed it to camp over 2 days. I paced myself. It sucked regardless.
From spike camp I packed the entire bull out myself while the others kept hunting. 2 miles of well-defined rolling trail from camp to the trucks. Took me most of the day with zero breaks, just hauling.

Other trips have all had their highs and lows, challenges and “that wasn’t so bad” times. Like shooting a bull 300 yards from spike camp on a flat surface at 8:30am.

So again, all depends on about a dozen factors and how much you want it. …do lots of squats and core work…and shoulder work…and lung work…and it will still suck

 

[fmyth]

Seems like if your solo one of the hardest things is just getting the damn pack on your back once its loaded.

Hadn't thought that one through before I killed my first elk. Only took a few minutes to realize that I'd need to set the loaded pack on something or sit, put pack on, roll over onto hands and knees and stand.

 

[canthitbombz]

Some of my best memories of elk hunting are actually the pack out " embracing the suck " if you will. It is hell while you are doing it, but that cold beer and the stories afterward are so worth it.

2 years ago i actually shot my bull with 60 pounds of my buddies elk on my back. 2 Elk to pack out and we did it in 2 days. It can be done but you have to have the right gear, the right fitness level and what i think is the most important thing THE RIGHT MINDSET.

 

[Scooter90254]

I realize this is Rokslide and guys hike 20 miles a day no problem everyday.

BUT....

I did a 5.1 mile up and down pack out with two guys so just two trips and it's long miserable hike. I don't care if you're Cam Hanes that's tough. I wouldn't do it again. I'll just keep hunting.

 

[orionsbrother]

I don’t see it mentioned too often, but just getting your elk quartered can be pretty fatiguing.

I know I’m not the only person to have elk die on steep hills or tangled up in brush.

Starting your pack out after your lower back and hamstrings have been strained while you break down an animal is another variable that can add to experience of the pack out.

I had a bull drop on some rocks in a mountain stream. I was solo and couldn’t move it. I was amazed at how much was sucked out of me breaking down that bull while knee deep in that cold water even though I pulled the quarters and worked on them outside of the stream and was then able to move the carcass to work on the rest.

 

[roosiebull]

I am about to adventure into the Elk woods for the first time. I am going with a friend and we are both predominantly whitetail hunters from down south so packouts usually arent that bad to non existent. I was just curious if anyone would be interested in telling some horror stories about packouts or packouts that turned out to be ideal. What to do what not to do and how far you'd ethically shoot an elk knowing you were going to have to pack the animal out. Looking forward to hearing some of your experiences and hoping to learn something from hunters that have been in this situation before. Thanks !

this is a very individual question to answer. what i'm able to do has nothing to do with what someone else is able to do... even at that, the terrain is more of a determining factor than distance. once you get on scene, you will have a better understanding of the shape you and your partner are in.

i wouldn't get too carried away until you get an understanding of what it's like to have to get a bull off of the mountain, stay realistic. i have become a little desensitized to packing critters out, i have done a lot of it including several bulls by myself, and a pile of whole deer/gear. i know it's gonna be hard, but i also know it's always doable even when it sucks.

my worst packouts have been from packs that don't fit well or haul weight well for me, or being in a serious calorie deficit before i started carrying the weight, with a lot of miles ahead of me with a heavy pack. now i have packs that fit me well and carry enough calories to be good, this was trial and error through the years.

stay aware of how far you get away, and what the terrain is like, and stay within your realistic means. if you are getting smoked walking 3-4 miles a day with an empty pack, you probably don't want to kill a bull 5 miles from your rig.

get used to hauling heavy packs, that helps a lot.... just a couple or 3 times a month with 60-70lbs with some elevation will help a lot

 

[roosiebull]

I don’t see it mentioned too often, but just getting your elk quartered can be pretty fatiguing.

I know I’m not the only person to have elk die on steep hills or tangled up in brush.

Starting your pack out after your lower back and hamstrings have been strained while you break down an animal is another variable that can add to experience of the pack out.

that's very true. especially solo, breaking down a bull is tiring. it's my least favorite part of the process i would say.

 

[Laramie]

It depends- are you 5'6" and 150 lbs or are you a bigger guy that can handle more weight for a longer distance? I realize not all small guys are weaker and not all big guys are stronger but, in general, I can handle more weight than my smaller hunting partners. I am 6'2" and 240lbs and am a former college athlete.

My 6x6 bull this year was just over 2.5 miles in and about 1500' below the truck in elevation. The 1500' was gained in a very short and super steep hill. Me and two of my hunting partners took him out in one load- all deboned. I took one hind quarter, both back straps, both tenderloins, and the heart. Another buddy had one hind quarter and one front quarter. Our third friend carried one front shoulder, all the trim (we take the neck and rib meat) and the head. We had the entire bull out and in the truck in about 3 hours. We honestly would have split it up and done two trips but none of us wanted to climb the steep hill a second time.

Another consideration, my 2 friends live at elevation and I had been at elevation off an on for over a month. I couldn't have done that in my first week at elevation. I would have had to take a lighter pack and then still would have really struggled up that hill.