A Common Denominator In Success

[cohunter14]

One of our newest members, porkchop401, posted this question on another forum. One of his thoughts was the use of horses seems to be a common denominator with the folks he knows who seem to constantly find success. What about you all? Do you think elk hunters that use horses are typically more successful? What are some other common denominators that you all see in folks who punch their tag frequently?

 

[elky McElkerson]

for me it boils down to:

An elk rich area.

i dont care what pack you\'re carrying, the rifle, the bow..your guide, horses. whatever. bottom line if you cut out all the fat, there HAS to be elk.

now having said that, if you can use horses to get you to such a wonderful area, then i agree. horses can help you get \"back there\", away from horse-less hunters and to where the elk are.

 

[Deertick]

Horses are not directly related to success. They\'re an indirect marker for two things: hunting undisturbed elk, and resident hunters hunting grounds they know well.

Common denominator: How much time (over the years, not per year) they have spent chasing elk.

Old retired guys seem to do pretty well, too.

 

[Swede]

The link I see with horse use, is that the folks that have them are often dedicated hunters. They are usually not weekenders and out just for a day here and there. They have horses to scout and hunt with, and use them as much as possible.
I do not think the horses make a significant difference. You can do as well without them. The key is learning to hunt the area, finding elk, and putting in the time.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

I agree with Elky,Tick, and Swede.

Two items increase your chance of success.....time out in the woods and elk rich habitat.

This is why I think every elk hunter(bow) should at the very least learn the Contact Bugle. Example, Swede if you had two tree stands and you were able to bugle into both from a distance. One produced many return bugles and the other you didn\'t hear anything. Which stand would you hunt in the morning?

Horses can take you into area\'s rich with elk. But, they can also give you false sense of hope. One year we spike camped 3 miles and then went another 3 miles in during the hunt. We thought we\'d just be covered with elk. Nope.....hardly anything. We did take a spike at the 6 mile mark and the pack animals made it an easy job. But it was a long 6 days with hardly any elk in the area.

Last year we hunted with horses.....but we never forgot about the animals close to the main road. Out of the three bulls my team took, 2 were less than a mile in. The third was just under the 2 mile mark. The farthest we hunted in was 8 miles.

 

[otcWill]

I don\'t disagree. Those things are neccessarry.

That said, I know guys that camp near me and hunt all the same spots and haven\'t killed an elk in 6-8 years. What separates me from them is year-long dedication, passion and extremely hard work.

 

[elky McElkerson]

Do you have to spend time each day to tend to horses?

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Do you have to spend time each day to tend to horses?

Yes.

 

[Scot320]

Plus worry about them all day, wondering if they will be on the high-line when you get back to camp...or if your going to owe $1500.00 dollars per horse for a horse/horses gone rouge.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Plus worry about them all day, wondering if they will be on the high-line when you get back to camp...or if your going to owe $1500.00 dollars per horse for a horse/horses gone rouge.

True that!

Animal care morning and night. After a long day of hunting, dinner must wait until the animals are taken care of. So if you have a very elky spot that requires a long ride in, yes bring them.

Now a good mule train, completely different story. :upthumb:

 

[cnelk]

I used my horses to get to know my elk country for several years.
We would take them up camping during the summer and ride all weekend.

Its amazing what you can see when youre not having to watch where to step, or go.
Just sit up there and look around!

Even when I had horses, we didnt ride in to hunt. We hiked in and only used them to pack out elk

Im not sure having/using horses increases success

 

[cnelk]

Mules?
Eh...

I shot this bull 15 years ago and a guy camped near me had a couple mules.
We went in to get my bull the next day, loaded them up and the mule in pic below decided to take off with meat and antlers.
We tried to catch that *&^%(&^$(&^$ mule for about 4 hours and finally it just stopped and stood there.

Almost filled my mule tag that day

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Dang Brad, you were a youngen!

I would have filled my mule tag if it did that to me.

I\'ve hunted with a mule train that came out of Montana. Best animals I\'ve ever used for packing. Easy to take care of as we\'ll. Stake em down next to water, feed bag morning at night. Simple!!!!

Here\'s the horse and mule I used for a couple days last year and a picture of our second bull of the season. You can see the down fall we have....and this is spot is actually half decent. No chance of using the pack animals to haul the quarters out.

 

[cohunter14]

Almost filled my mule tag that day

:haha: I just about spit coffee all over my computer reading that one!

I don\'t disagree. Those things are neccessarry.

That said, I know guys that camp near me and hunt all the same spots and haven\'t killed an elk in 6-8 years. What separates me from them is year-long dedication, passion and extremely hard work.

Will, you bring up a good point. To me, the common denominator of successful elk hunters is typically that they have hunted the same area year after year and know it like the back of their hands. But to Will\'s point, you also have to be knowledgeable about what you are doing and put in the work.

There is probably some scientific method to determine how consistently successful someone is and it would have to do with knowledge of the area they hunt and overall knowledge of hunting elk. For example, the most knowledgeable elk hunters could probably hunt new areas each year and find success. I think we will see that this year with cnelk and swede. But as has been mentioned in other threads, it takes multiple years to get to know an area really well and understand what the elk do in those areas. And it also takes some knowledge to know where to initially look in those areas as well