% of elk hunters…methods

[D_wit22]

Calling all the experts! I was pondering this today so I thought I would post the question. What percentage of elk hunters are backpacking(3+ days in)for the hunt with minimal gear?
What percentage of Elk hunters are doing day trip hunts from their house or hotel/air bnb?
What percentage of Elk hunters hire an outfitter for their hunts(Drop camp/full guided)?

I’m from Pa so I don’t have the slightest clue….all my buddy’s here are the backpacking type, but wanted to see what everyone thought based on their experience.

 

[wytx]

Wall tent base camp right where we hunt, walk to hunt from camp every day until we need to go down the road a bit, then we take a vehicle and walk in.
We don't hunt where you need to backpack in.

 

[KHNC]

Backpack hunting was just a fad. Dont need to do it 95% of the time for elk. Usually end up committed to an area for too long if it doesnt have elk.

 

[LongWayAround]

I'm not sure you can break it into percentages that easily.

I have never hired an outfitter, but I might employ your other two options over the course of a season.

Early in the year, there's a good chance of short backpack trips, day hunts from the truck, or multiple days out of a static base camp.

Late in the year, I'm probably not backpacking. Day hunts out of the truck, day trips from a hotel, and day trips from a base camp are all possible.

 

[fatlander]

Backpacking into an area is a great way to waste time if there aren’t elk there. A few years ago we hunted a new area. Hiked in the day before the season and spotted 5 rag horns crossing one saddle. A couple days later we deduced that we had witnessed them coming to the conclusion there were no cows in the area 48 hours before we did. Ended up being into elk all day long, every day, within a mile of the main forest service road in the unit at every place we stopped.

Anymore, we don’t set camp until we know we’re in lots of elk. It took a whole heck of a lot of hiking into drainages without elk to find a handful that produce every year.


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[Ross]

99% of my 45 years hunting elk has been base camp hunting, whether September, October or November. Have taken 2 backpacking in.

 

[BuckRut]

I've done about everything you can aside from hire an outfitter. Big thing is don't get yourself stuck on absolutes of one or the other. If you are heading in on a backpack hunt and find elk a mile from the road don't walk by them for sure.

 

[D_wit22]

I've done about everything you can aside from hire an outfitter. Big thing is don't get yourself stuck on absolutes of one or the other. If you are heading in on a backpack hunt and find elk a mile from the road don't walk by them for sure.

Don’t leave elk to find elk. Good advice

 

[justinspicher]

All the times I backpacked in for elk I didn’t see anything. Now I hunt from home and I’m always in critters.

 

[Dakota Dude]

I used to backpack. Now I'm strictly day hunts.

 

[Skerhunter]

I would say a large majority base camp/day hunt when factoring in the entire hunting population. Number who hire guides 100% of the hunts they go on has to be a very low percentage, based on cost.

People who want to backpack/hunt with stock will be attracted to and concentrated in areas where day access is limited. Focus on those areas and it will seem like everyone packs in. Most units backpacking in is pointless because if you hike in 5-6 miles you are probably already within a few miles of one or many access points.

 

[S.Clancy]

We kill elk camping at the truck (camping is a strong word, I sleep under the topper, that is about all there is in terms of a camp) and we kill elk backpacking in every year. I've killed a lot of elk backpacked in.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

Most of the places we hunt you'd be hard pressed to draw a 2 mile straight line and not cross a road, not much point in packing in. I usually have spike camp gear with us (in the truck I mean) because I'd like to, but it's never come up and we always end up at base camp.

 

[Gerbdog]

Adjust to the situation your in based off the tag you draw, location your in, and where you think the elk are located. Done both, will do both, im prepared to do both at any given time in September.

 

[Maxhunter]

I do some backpacking in at times. My one area I don’t need to since I can walk out in less than an hour most times. I feel if you’re walking in 2-3 miles and want to on the elk right at daybreak then I would do it. Just please don’t camp we’re you’ll bump the elk. Unfortunately I see this a lot especially with nonresidents. Here’s a real example. A friend and myself backpacked in about 4 miles. We’d been seeing probably 100 plus elk in this one little meadow every evening. One night we put them to bed and were going to get after them in the morning. We woke up and waited tell daylight and no elk and two tents right in the middle of the meadow they’d been hanging out in. I ran into the two hunters from Minnesota and they had hiked in during the night. Those elk went about 3 or so miles from there to a big drainage. We got a bull outta of the herd but we had a longer pack out. What can you do it’s public land hunting and you just have to adapt.

 

[5MilesBack]

Don’t leave elk to find elk. Good advice

I leave elk all the time during archery. I don't hunt the same elk in consecutive days. I like to give them a break in their areas, and come back to them after a few days of hunting elsewhere. A few years ago I was working this bull on a Monday morning. After a bit of time and cat and mouse and unsteady winds, I backed out and hunted elsewhere that evening, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and went back after that bull on Thursday morning and shot him within 50 yards of where I left him and his cows on Monday.

I normally hunt from my base camp, but I always have my packing setup ready to go if I want to pack in for a few days somewhere. But I generally don't need to do that.

 

[Indian Summer]

I hunt from a base camp at the truck. No problem finding and killing elk.

But I also use a spike camp. It’s about an hour and a half hike. Also about a 2000 foot elevation gain. If I didn’t have a wood stove and some other items cached in the mountains, I would not do that.

I mainly use it on weekends when the local weekend warriors are out and about. I will hunt from base camp Friday morning. Friday afternoon I make my move. Friday evening until Monday morning I hunt from the high camp.

But…. I hunted that place for many years before I decided it was worth my time and effort to use a spike camp. And if it wasn’t comfortable, I wouldn’t bother. “Backpacking” for elk is for backpackers. For people who do a lot of reading and watch television too much. If you enjoy backpacking then that’s different. But if it’s about the hunting and it’s your first hunt set up a base camp with all the comforts of home and hunt hard from there.

Hunt your area for a while. Then decide if you need to be 5 miles from the truck when you wake up.

 

[roadrunner]

Been so long since I've had an elk tag I've forgotten how to even hunt them let alone what method I prefer to use.

Probably either a permanent camp or the house.

 

[Jon Boy]

Just quickly added it up in my head and something like 70% of the elk I’ve killed were on day 0 of a back pack hunt after I hiked into my zone.. never even stayed the night. I’ve killed one after one day and one night in. And the rest day hunts. I’ve killed exactly zero on any backpack hunt over 2 days. And now that really has me re considering my life now that I’ve quantified that I do enjoy a long back pack hunt but over the years it seems you either get into country and the elk are there and you kill or they just aren’t there. Or maybe I’m not patient enough? Would love to hear from some long mission style hunters that find success in that.

 

[spike camp]

The last 25 years of elk hunting, I can count on one hand, the times that I wasn’t hunting out of a tent.

Something like 15 elk later, I think it works…if you know your area.