elk success

elk in the freezer is success. I love being in the woods, but it takes a toll on my family and our finances for me to be gone as long as I am without coming home with an elk. I could easily raise a beef annually for the amount of money I put into elk hunting, which is meat in the freezer. Don\'t get me wrong, I love being in the woods and enjoy that time immensely, but if I don\'t bring home meat, our freezer sits empty.

For us, in the past three years, success has been achieved, but it took changing our tactics entirely. We have hunted the same area for many years. After several years of no meat in the freezer, we knew we needed to either change areas or change tactics. Not wanting to give up on the area we have spent many years figuring out, we (my dad and I) picked up a copy (one for each of us) of Swede\'s book and decided to go all in with tree standing hunting as we had already known about several good water holes. Making the switch from running and gunning in our area to tree standing hunting has been a success.
 
I think the cool part of any outdoor adventure is that it is subjective. For some, the experience of being in the Rockies is a big thing. For others an animal down is where\'s \"it\'s\" at.

For me, I will adapt until I have an animal down. If I don\'t get an animal down this year then I will regroup during the off season and have a better plan for next season. At this level of my hunting (or lack of) experience is to have an animal down. Otherwise we\'re just armed hiking.
 
Armed hiking, and hunting are miles apart. If it was easy anybody could do it, and it wouldn\'t be worth doing.

Sometimes the animal should win.
 
\"Still Hunter\" said:
What the hell is running and gunning?
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LOL: That is interesting. Running and Gunning is almost always100% running. Forget the gunning, because in the running part you just ran off all of the elk. The whole cockamamie idea that we can hike, hike, hike, run and run, and close in on weary elk makes great propaganda. The problem is that it just does not work. Still Hunter, relax, your hunting style works, do not worry, us old codgers will do a lot more gunning than the youthful runners will. :D
 
\"Swede\" said:
\"Still Hunter\" said:
What the hell is running and gunning?
Click to expand...

LOL: That is interesting. Running and Gunning is almost always100% running. Forget the gunning, because in the running part you just ran off all of the elk. The whole cockamamie idea that we can hike, hike, hike, run and run, and close in on weary elk makes great propaganda. The problem is that it just does not work.
Click to expand...

Running and gunning is just a way of saying that you are being mobile. You are taking it way to literally, unless you were just joking.
 
SGH31: My answer was slightly tongue in cheek as I understood Still Hunter\'s question to be. That said, what I have seen of \"running and gunning\" often borders, or crosses the line on ridiculous. I had a runner stop by camp one early afternoon, just after I had finished lunch. He was beat. He claimed he had hiked/called for 17 miles that 1/2 day. He could easily have known for certain with mileage markers along the trail and or with a GPS. He said he saw several herds of elk, but was never able to get close. Duh! I sometimes hear runners moving down the canyon past my stand. They rarely wait more than a couple of minutes before running off. Sometimes they are a group of several hunters spread out calling and constantly moving. I can guarantee you that after several days of this type of activity there are very few elk left in that area. There were too many runners & gunners, and not one dead elk.
What I see with many runners & gunners is too much running and very little patience. I believe it comes from Western rifle deer hunting tactics often used by young men. I won\'t argue that it is an effective way to get Mule deer in open or semi-open country. As a bow hunting tactic, it is sorely abused. I know what I am describing is not what you had in mind when you wrote about with your running and gunning, but it is what happens on the ground with many hunters. It is also what I believe many hunters think of when they hear the term. The hunter was running & gunning for 17 miles on a morning hunt. Just think, he could have taken pictures of a lot of elk butts, if he had a good telephoto lens.
 
\"SGH31\" said:
Running and gunning is just a way of saying that you are being mobile.
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That is how I have always viewed the term as well. Never thought of it in a negative context.

Swede, what you describe is insane! I can\'t imagine someone covering that much ground in the high country. I would be dead after running for 4 at that altitude, lol!. I have luckily never come across anyone like that in my hunting excursions...
 
Not that crazy.

I hunted with guy a few years ago that could literally walk faster than I could run, all day.

He would cover 6+ miles a day without even blinking an eye. Heck he\'d do that before sunrise at times to get to his hunting spot.

AB
 
\"Swede\" said:
SGH31: My answer was slightly tongue in cheek as I understood Still Hunter\'s question to be. That said, what I have seen of \"running and gunning\" often borders, or crosses the line on ridiculous. I had a runner stop by camp one early afternoon, just after I had finished lunch. He was beat. He claimed he had hiked/called for 17 miles that 1/2 day. He could easily have known for certain with mileage markers along the trail and or with a GPS. He said he saw several herds of elk, but was never able to get close. Duh! I sometimes hear runners moving down the canyon past my stand. They rarely wait more than a couple of minutes before running off. Sometimes they are a group of several hunters spread out calling and constantly moving. I can guarantee you that after several days of this type of activity there are very few elk left in that area. There were too many runners & gunners, and not one dead elk.
What I see with many runners & gunners is too much running and very little patience. I believe it comes from Western rifle deer hunting tactics often used by young men. I won\'t argue that it is an effective way to get Mule deer in open or semi-open country. As a bow hunting tactic, it is sorely abused. I know what I am describing is not what you had in mind when you wrote about with your running and gunning, but it is what happens on the ground with many hunters. It is also what I believe many hunters think of when they hear the term. The hunter was running & gunning for 17 miles on a morning hunt. Just think, he could have taken pictures of a lot of elk butts, if he had a good telephoto lens.
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Wow, I had no clue that someone would hunt like that.

I don\'t think that is what most people do when they say they are running and gunning. I don\'t think they run at all. It just means they are not sitting in one spot/ tree stand / blind hunting.

Saying you are running and gunning is like an abbreviation for what cnelk posted on the your elk hunting style thread

\"My typical archery day is leaving the truck no less than an hour before daylight to get into the area I want to hunt.
We will listen and once it\'s light, we set up and call.
What happens next all depends on what the elk do.
We will continue on doing calling set ups / chasing elk that sometimes takes us 5 miles from the truck.\"
 
\"AmericanBwana\" said:
Not that crazy.

I hunted with guy a few years ago that could literally walk faster than I could run, all day.

He would cover 6+ miles a day without even blinking an eye. Heck he\'d do that before sunrise at times to get to his hunting spot.

AB
Click to expand...

Did he kill a lot of elk?
 
Something to remember is that where I hunt is under 6,000 feet elevation. The marathon man I wrote about, I offered to give him lunch. He declined since he needed to get back to camp, but wanted a soda pop to drink.
I hunt in a canyon a lot. At the bottom of the canyon is a Forest Service trail. Above me is an open ridge with a road. I can hear the callers going by on a regular basis at times. Sometimes it is quiet all day, then there are days when I think they must have opened the gates of Portland and let all of the nuts go on vacation. :D
SGH31 I am glad you explained what running & gunning is meant to be. Not every runner & gunner has the idea that covering the maximum amount of ground is the way to hunt elk. I am sure many don\'t just call, listen for a minute then charge off, but many do. Forums like this hopefully can encourage and inform interested serious hunters that they actually improve their chance to kill an elk by being patient and cunning. I think it was Still Hunter that made the comparison with of a cougar hunting. Over the years I have seen about 10 of them in the wild and have about that many on trail camera pictures. Never did I see one that was running & gunning like marathon man must have.
 
The reason I use the cat to compare my hunting is my dad.

When I was 10 years old he said to me.............\"Son, i\'m going to teach you to hunt like a cat.\"

He did, and those words have always stayed with me. I\'m always telling myself when hunting in the mountains.........\"Slow down Pete. Hunt like a cat.\"

Just remember that elk, and all animals expect humans to be on two feet. Fool them by getting down low. Crawl on hands and feet. Crawl on your belly if you have to. You\'ll be amazed how close you can get on your belly. Move when they aren\'t looking. Freeze when they are. They won\'t know what you are, and won\'t flee. Providing they don\'t get a sniff of you.
 
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