Is/was backcountry backpack hunting a trend and fading?

[Hnthrdr]

Throw 80lbs meat on your back and go for a long walk in the dark and you’ve basically covered any ruck based selection course lol

Exactly haha

 

[HighUintas]

I backpack hunt every time I can that it makes sense to do so, because I prefer it. I like the solitude, difficulty, logistics, etc. I only have a 50%ish success rate in my backpack hunt area, but I keep doing it and would even if it was a 10% success rate. I'd probably find a different area though.

And if the backpacking popularity is waning.... Yes that's because people learned how hard it is and how hard it is to get an animal out. I've run some extremely hard 100 miles and have packed a bull out several times by myself, 9-10mi one way, in no more than 2 days. Once I did the whole elk in 15ish hours. The terrain there is relatively easy and they weren't huge bulls, but it's hard.

It's harder than a hard 100 miler.

I see the timeline like this:

Gear getting lighter > social media > gear getting really light > social media > social media > social media > people realize it's hard so they quit backpacking > there's more hunters so the back and front country is filled up

 

[Smoke_Rutz]

Being a resident doesn’t really have its advantages anymore.

If it isn’t hunters, it’s trail runners, or horseback riders or mountain bikers. As the weather stays nicer longer, more of them are out longer as well.

Dirt bikes. f***ing dirt bikes in October


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cnelk]

30 years ago Colorado had the largest elk herd - ever.

The hunting was amazing

 

[Ross]

Many people the idea of what is portrayed for a backcountry elk hunt. It is all roses and screaming bulls 24 hours a day You then go and find out it is not, unless you see some people on social media who pay to go places where it is. Elk hunting for the average Joe is difficult, taxing, expensive (you have to have the latest and greatest to be successful), and you get your heart rate too high Once someone attempts this endeavor with limited success, a high percentage bow out, but another crop fills the void, because it looks so easy

 

[CMF]

I think that backpack hunting is an unwise approach for hunters new to Western hunting, particularly if they lack extensive and recent backpacking experience. Its not the solution that many seem think that it is, BUT, I'd wager it is more popular now than it was in the year 2000, both in total numbers and % of people hunting.

I agree, but coming from the east, I felt like it was what I was supposed to do. It's what you read about and saw on TV. Nobody wrote stories about road hunting, lol.
It only took my first trip, with the need to hike away from camp back towards the bugling elk in the direction of the truck, to realize it wasn't always the best method.