Worst thing to ever happen to elk hunting

[Fatcamp]

With the lack of requirements for landowners to mark their property boundaries yet still hold me liable for trespassing I couldn't disagree more. OnX and phone GPS allow me to confidently move around public land. And yes, I know how to read a map, but in the deserts I hunt there is no reasonable way to be sure.

 

[Artanis95]

What's happening with western hunting now is the same thing that happened to duck hunting when Duck Dynasty came out.....

The trend seems to be dying down, so maybe there's hope for western hunting???

This years fad

With the lack of requirements for landowners to mark their property boundaries yet still hold me liable for trespassing I couldn't disagree more. OnX and phone GPS allow me to confidently move around public land. And yes, I know how to read a map, but in the deserts I hunt there is no reasonable way to be sure.

And the feds.

 

[Apollo117]

I'm glad to help.....but there's a reason why I don't post pictures on the internet.

One friend had Metadata enabled and posted some pics. A week later he's got two dead bulls in his place with two guys who've never been in the area.

I'm not savvy enough to prevent that, nor vain enough to need it.

Some phones and apps allow you to remove the metadata. There's also some free/open source programs for removing metadata. Lastly, some websites, like Facebook, remove the metadata at the time of upload.

Great post by the way. People can find the exact location a picture was taken if the metadata is still in the image file. Heck, there's even apps to identify specific mountain peaks from an image file.

 

[mwebs]

Some phones and apps allow you to remove the metadata. There's also some free/open source programs for removing metadata. Lastly, some websites, like Facebook, remove the metadata at the time of upload.

Great post by the way. People can find the exact location a picture was taken if the metadata is still in the image file. Heck, there's even apps to identify specific mountain peaks from an image file.

Yup, this is why I don’t post pics where there is a panorama. I can get a good idea of where guys are in ID when they post pics, not that I care.

 

[Ross]

No need to worry about slow moving humans who hunt a few days a yr worst thing you can have happen to your elk. area

 

[come2elmo]

I blame:
Homo erectus and his friggin boat that brought
The Spaniards and their damn horses. - Now anyone can pack their crap as far back in as they want to.
The Iron Horse - Bringing all those people who cant swin or ride a horse coming out here that couldn't before.
Henry Ford and his Tin Lissy, noisey damn thing scaring my horses...
Then is was the Wright Brothers - and their flying machine bringing even more people faster.
Ma Bell and her phones
NASA and their satellites and space flight mumbo jumbo - who cares about space everyone would do better if they spent more time outdoors. Just not in my outdoors.
Computers...who needs computers I have a typewriter that works JUST fine.
Al Gore and his interwebs...
Texans.
Can't leave out the Texans.

Very rarely can your "problems" be just because of one thing.

On second thought

Damn Texans.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

Get off my lawn!!!

Checking out that lawn right now on onX for elk.

 

[wapitibob]

Based on the questions I get, I doubt many are finding your spots by looking at onx. Where They get them is asking on rokslide for “a place to start” since “I’ll never draw it again” people fall over themselves pm’ing all their hotspots. That guy tells 2 more because “they’ll never draw again” so on and so on.

 

[Conrad101st]

I kind of have the same observation about the stock market. It was more stable when people in the know were the core investors. (Institutional investors, old money, MBAs, Etc.)

Now that all the regular folks are in the game it’s way too volatile. But it’s the way of the world now. Internet has a tendency to hype everything.

 

[PurpleDriver]

Thank you for sharing. I am rolling

View attachment 211716

oh my...

 

[njdoxie]

Seams reasonable. I'm not one to analyze statistics regularly but I'm seeing the same thing your seeing and it doesnt make sense to me that hunter numbers are down.

Agreed, hunter numbers keep trending up where I hunt, making the elk that much harder to hunt, I see fewer elk every year starting 7-8 years ago and many more hunters. I don't understand where there are fewer hunters, but I don't research it either. I don't enjoy hunting elk based on where they're being chased to.

 

[Elktaco]

Geewhiz what is your rebuttal??

 

[3darcher2]

Somewhere, there's a guy thinking if they just didn't have maps and cars, no one would have found my spot.

"Why, if we were just hunting with a bedroll and a horse and maybe a longbow, then maybe this geewhiz guy from two counties over would have never found this spot. Really grinds my gears."

 

[Lowg08]

I work out of town all week and I’m only home on the weekends. So if I don’t have places found I want to look at by using digital maps I spend more time looking than with my wife and kids. I lay in a hotel and digital scout for the terrain that works at my place. I wish more people would want to go into the mountains I hunt. I have all these spots passed down from older gentleman because none of there kids or grand kids are interested in hunting hard to reach places. I’m all for digital maps and scouting. It’s really no different than a cork board and paper map. Just on a phone.

 

[Lowg08]

To clarify I have not elk hunted before. I only responded to give an example of why some one might find online maps useful. I am digital scouting for a future trip though.

 

[Ktm500]

I live in the Midwest and when rifle season starts you wouldn’t think the hunter numbers are down when it gets daylight and the shooting starts. The problem where I am from is a lot of people from the city are moving out of the city and by a few acres and bring there city mentality to the country. The first time a hound trees close to their house in the dark they think your the devil. I think they are all scared of the dark.

 

[wyosam]

It is public land, and most of what onx does could be accomplished with maps and correlating with other data, it just takes a heck of a lot longer. I think what is frustrating about it for a lot of people is that currently by downloading a phone app and listening to a few podcasts, average joe can do a pretty good job of narrowing which parts of a unit will tend to hold elk. For many who didn’t have a really good mentor, gaining that knowledge took a lot of time, and wore out a bunch of boots. All the technology and knowledge sharing is great, but it is the “I want it now” attitude of this country manifested in hunting.

For people who don’t live in elk country, it makes a DIY elk hunt out west a real option, with a chance of success beyond dumb luck. That is great, but it also crowds that small portion of a unit that actually holds elk. When there is a smaller percentage of the hunters in an area wandering around in places very unlikely to hold elk, the good spots tend to feel more crowded. I think that elk-less wandering is good for the soul, and makes eventual success that much sweeter.

Its not just the apps and YouTube, people go zero to a hundred in one season. Never hunted before, bought a custom “long range” rifle, high end optics, and a full kit from Sitka or Kuiu. They have never set foot in elk country yet, and they’ve probably spent more I did in my first 20 years of chasing elk, combined.

Its just a very different approach. The people who had been hunting elk forever when I started 30 years ago probably thought the same thing.


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[Dave_]

I think one thing is people losing hunting access closer to home. I deer hunt public land close to home but the quality of deer and experience are generally crap. It's ok to put some meat in the freezer. I lost my "affordable" hunting lease in 2012 and it's near impossible to find a comparable replacement that family and friends can enjoy also.

For me it's way cheaper and more enjoyable to go out west every year than it is to find a decent place closer to home.

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[Dave_]

And with every podcast/YouTube and hunting industry/marketing yahoo encouraging anyone and everyone to go out west and giving step by step instructions how easy it is....

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[BuzzH]

No not necessarily, just my observations though. I think it is just more of the technology that frustrates me and the lack of effort it takes nowadays. I am a relatively young guy but i think I have more of an old timers mindset about some things.

Something to think about how do you think people felt about technology advancing that hunted elk in the 60's, 70's. 80's and so on?

When I started elk hunting, there wasn't the clothing available that there is now, we wore Malone wool pants, wool shirts. My sleeping bag that I backpacked with then, weighed more than my sleeping bag, tent, sleeping pad, and cookstove that I use now...COMBINED. A long shot back then was 300 yards and a rifle that weighed 9lbs loaded was a "feather-weight". Boots sucked major ass back then too, cant tell you how many miles I've hiked in sorels elk hunting.

Whining about technology seems to be a favorite past-time of every generation...but what you're stating here, is really just a fraction of what makes all hunting so much easier today. Lighter, better gear, easier access to information, books, websites, better shooting rifles, more disposable income, ability to travel farther, faster in better vehicles, better optics at cheaper prices,....the list goes on and on.

Plus, there's just this bullchit that many want others to believe that elk hunting and hunting out west is just so difficult, that you need to be some super-athlete to do it. That myth is rapidly dying because that's all just crap, it isn't that tough...and don't tell anyone, but it never has been. Anyone with a even a modest amount of ambition can find elk, hunt elk, and kill elk...just a fact.