Even if I had the money I wouldn't hunt like this in the US

[Stalker62]

Tell me exactly you would do either, I'm all ears?

Whilst I am sorry to hear of your physical disfigurements...

I would prefer to stalk. I do not think I have shot any animal over 300 yards and am fortunate enough to have hunted the world over.
I am happy to punch holes in paper at 1000 yards but have neither the skill, confidence nor inclination to do so on a sentient animal.

These are (clearly) my own views and I make no judgement on those with the skills, kit and desire to take animals at distance: it is just not for me.

 

[mchughcb]

Whilst I am sorry to hear of your physical disfigurements...

I would prefer to stalk. I do not think I have shot any animal over 300 yards and am fortunate enough to have hunted the world over.
I am happy to punch holes in paper at 1000 yards but have neither the skill, confidence nor inclination to do so on a sentient animal.

These are (clearly) my own views and I make no judgement on those with the skills, kit and desire to take animals at distance: it is just not for me.

Thanks for your reply. I did however ask for a strategy and you said you would stalk it which i would consider a tactic, not a strategy. You say you have hunted all over the world, does that include elk in sub alpine deserts?

 

[levigsp]

I always shocks me how some people think. I have shot all over the world and I always try to get as close as possible to my chosen animal. I've shot duiker and muntjac at 5 yards! A lynx at 10 yard but last year I took my longest kill shot. A Tur at a very long range and I did get as close as possible.
My hunting last year ended with me receiving a broken hip, broken ankle and a very sore arse, so I certainly earned it.
I honestly believe that MOST people in the UK are kidding themselves about what they could do. I am an old man now, but I still out walk most stalkers that come out with me! and I know I would find a lot of elk hunts nigh on impossible.
Some of the hunts in the States and Russia are so difficult most people will never comprehend the difficulty.
I found SA and Namibia a breeze at the side of Russia.

 

[Stalker62]

I did however ask for a strategy and you said you would stalk it which i would consider a tactic, not a strategy. You say you have hunted all over the world, does that include elk in sub alpine deserts?

Forgive me if I have given you the impression that I am some international Hunting God.
I am not.
For the avoidance of doubt I have never even seen an elk (although I did at least watch the video).
You have asked a very particular question and I have given you a very general answer and for that I must apologise.

Whilst avoiding the semantics of tactics versus strategy....

I would stalk your bloody elk to within an inch of its life.

Actually to within about 700 yards, when it would scent/see/sense me and then "do one" over to the next mountain.
This pointless exercise would be repeated ad nauseum until either the elk or I died of old age.

The point (for me) is that if the beast requires a long shot (for me over 300 yards) then it is simply not for me.
It matters not what that beast is or on what continent it lives - whilst repetition does not make the point - I was just trying to demonstrate that I have experienced some hunting outside of the British Isles and the 300 yards gag holds good for me wherever I am.

For those that can pull off long-range on animals great. I am a good enough Hunter to know that I am not a good enough Hunter.

 

[devon deer stalker]

I have travelled through Arizona and Nevada.

Ask yourself this question. How would you hunt the elk? You are at probably 7000 ft elevation where the trees grow. You are not going to see more than 100 yards through the pines. The best chance of seeing an elk without calling it in is to glass the opposite face which maybe several hundred yards away.


I'm all ears about what the english hunting strategy would be?

Ah you have travelled through, but not hunted?
Strategy, first off get off your fat back side (sorry a generalisation not aimed at you) and do months of fitness preparation so you can deal with distance and altitude, 7000' is a breeze, above that it gets a little difficult (I hunted up to 10,000' in Montana) and some people can't deal with it.
Tactics, no different really, be careful of the wind direction, which can change in an instant, beware of morning and evening thermals, glass and more glassing, find elk, if you can't find Elk stalk into the bedding area's generally on the north face of the mountain.
Use other hunters if they are around to scare Elk in your direction.
My bulls, one shot coming out of the timber, the other one across a valley in it's bed.
Don't forget a bear might beat you to the kill!
I hope that helps.
One final thing, I didn't use a guide, the only help I had was my mate to help with extraction.

I honestly believe that MOST people in the UK are kidding themselves about what they could do. I am an old man now, but I still out walk most stalkers that come out with me! and I know I would find a lot of elk hunts nigh on impossible.
Some of the hunts in the States and Russia are so difficult most people will never comprehend the difficulty.
I found SA and Namibia a breeze at the side of Russia.

I agree, I have taken 4 guys with me on my hunts to Montana, the first friend struggled, in fact he couldn't cope, and in the end I just went out on my own, he gave up Elk hunting, the other 3, put in the effort and did well, one helped me extract my Elk, 14 miles that day at altitude with heavy packs.
I first went when I was 52, last time 58, I'm 60 now but already thinking about going back in 2021.

Cheers

Richard

 

[mereside]

Thanks for your reply. I did however ask for a strategy and you said you would stalk it which i would consider a tactic, not a strategy. You say you have hunted all over the world, does that include elk in sub alpine deserts?

I would take my bow study onX for water sources good areas for bedding/ open areas within forestry and thicker scrub check also other hunt maps for elk movements and get my boots on the ground working the wind. Keep moving till I find sign and in the next few years will be doing this for elk, regards Wayne

 

[john_little]

Whilst waiting for that Elk to die I found myself wishing Joe Kidd was the guide that day.
An amazing shot at that range, but I wonder if a closer shot would have resulted in less suffering. It’s not as if they were desperate to eat it.

 

[JabaliHunter]

I watched it and it didn’t seem that bad? I’ve seen worse, i.e. slower, on plenty of bow hunting films. Will watch again and see if I think differently...

 

[Fursty Ferret]

Nowt wrong with that

 

[User00033]

Come on @dodgyknees you can do better!

Do better at what? Bigger elk? Farther away? More helpers? Be fatter than the wobbly gut & man boobs that pulled the trigger? What you can’t see in the film is all those slaves were actually there to carry the litter on which Mr. Fat was reclining in splendiferous luxury, Maharajah style.

The whole thing would’ve been a lot more palatable if they just put Elektra Natchios in a ghillie suit and had her sneak up ninja style to within a short distance to dispatch the poor elk with her throwing knife. Actually forget the ghillie suit, I would prefer to watch her operate in her normal outfit... ppphhhrrroooaaarrr...

Anyway... I’m straying from the subject matter. Yes I do mostly respect the way the Americans manage their game considering that they did their best to eliminate the whole lot back in the day, and with American rednecks being the way they are, if they didn’t regulate it so stringently then they definitely wouldn’t have anything left. But for all intents and purposes this was a canned hunt and there’s lots not to like, but at the end of the day I don’t really give a shite either way.

I could’ve just replied with one word: Crass.

 

[mchughcb]

Having sp

Ah you have travelled through, but not hunted?
Strategy, first off get off your fat back side (sorry a generalisation not aimed at you) and do months of fitness preparation so you can deal with distance and altitude, 7000' is a breeze, above that it gets a little difficult (I hunted up to 10,000' in Montana) and some people can't deal with it.
Tactics, no different really, be careful of the wind direction, which can change in an instant, beware of morning and evening thermals, glass and more glassing, find elk, if you can't find Elk stalk into the bedding area's generally on the north face of the mountain.
Use other hunters if they are around to scare Elk in your direction.
My bulls, one shot coming out of the timber, the other one across a valley in it's bed.
Don't forget a bear might beat you to the kill!
I hope that helps.
One final thing, I didn't use a guide, the only help I had was my mate to help with extraction.

I agree, I have taken 4 guys with me on my hunts to Montana, the first friend struggled, in fact he couldn't cope, and in the end I just went out on my own, he gave up Elk hunting, the other 3, put in the effort and did well, one helped me extract my Elk, 14 miles that day at altitude with heavy packs.
I first went when I was 52, last time 58, I'm 60 now but already thinking about going back in 2021.

Cheers

Richard

Ah yes a strategy. Thankyou. I haven't hunted because god forbid I was working there but fingers crossed next year maybe different.

 

[mchughcb]

I would take my bow study onX for water sources good areas for bedding/ open areas within forestry and thicker scrub check also other hunt maps for elk movements and get my boots on the ground working the wind. Keep moving till I find sign and in the next few years will be doing this for elk, regards Wayne

Thankyou for a strategy.

Over a Basque dinner in Reno a fellow hunter recalled how he bow hunts mule deer. The pine trees don't grow below a certain elevation so the deer bed up in the bushes at lower elevations. He'll spend hours glassing where they are bedded up and then he'll start his approach down wind with his bow. But they have to bedded up or he has no chance.

 

[mchughcb]

Forgive me if I have given you the impression that I am some international Hunting God.
I am not.
For the avoidance of doubt I have never even seen an elk (although I did at least watch the video).
You have asked a very particular question and I have given you a very general answer and for that I must apologise.

Whilst avoiding the semantics of tactics versus strategy....

I would stalk your bloody elk to within an inch of its life.

Actually to within about 700 yards, when it would scent/see/sense me and then "do one" over to the next mountain.
This pointless exercise would be repeated ad nauseum until either the elk or I died of old age.

The point (for me) is that if the beast requires a long shot (for me over 300 yards) then it is simply not for me.
It matters not what that beast is or on what continent it lives - whilst repetition does not make the point - I was just trying to demonstrate that I have experienced some hunting outside of the British Isles and the 300 yards gag holds good for me wherever I am.

For those that can pull off long-range on animals great. I am a good enough Hunter to know that I am not a good enough Hunter.

Thankyou for commenting. I never thought you were a hunting god. That's a very odd statement.

 

[nick.308]

I agree Its not for me. Rather a slow death and likley to do the shooting community harm in the wrong hands.
Personally I dont get trophy hunting because the way I was brought up was to value each life you take and out of respect to the animal it should only be shot for a reason i.e food/pest/suffering etc.
I didn't watch it all because it was rather boring and didnt show much skill in my eyes. I appreciate it was a decent long range shot by someone on the video who was probably too overweight to walk more than 100yds from their vehicle??
I suspect thats why they do that type of "hunting" because they can shoot their trophy then spend the rest of the day getting to it
True skill would be stalking in close to one of these beasts. But in my opinion not many hunters really have it. And im not suggesting I could because Ive never tried.

 

[Heym SR20]

I grew up reading American hunting literature and three things strike me:

1) they have a long tradition of hunting and it is accessible to all. Get your hunting licence, draw a tag in the lottery and go and find your animal.

2) they generally have a well funded and well educated game, fish and wIldlife advisory service that monitor and control the health of the herd, as well as hunters. With a tag, you can only shoot what is on the tag. Once its shot you have recover all the meat, and usually show this to the ranger. You usually can’t sell game meat So it for your own families consumption.

3) and most hunters only shoot perhaps two or three deer a year, and they work hard to get each one - often several days in the backcountry per beast.

Yes there are outfitters and guides who know the country and know where The animals are. Thats no different ti stalking on a guided stalk in the UK.

There are also those who shoot much further than many of us are comfortable with. That’s their choice and their conscience.

A lot of the challenges we have in the UK are to the lack of access to land and shooting. And in particular our public lands - ie Forestry Commission etc.

We are moving towards only government servants being paid by the tax payer to shoot wild deer, with very little of meat getting back to the tax payer other than via expensive shop bought meat.

Instead imagine a situation where any body with say DSC2 could apply for a tag. The tag could state a sixpoint stag within a certain block on 3 to 6 september inclusive. And no other tags for those days are issued. No moderators allowed either, so any ranger can easily tell number of shots fired and from what direction.

And for those who don’t have DSC2 they can do a good traIning and go out with experienced hunters to build up skills and act as ghillies.

 

[palmer_mike]

Fantastic shot. The first one seemed right ‘on the money’. amazing feat at that range really.

I don’t believe he was asking for extra bullets, it sounded to me like he was asking if the guide thought he should shoot it again.

yep he was pretty tubby, but certainly no where near as fat as many Americans I’ve seen.

the elk took a similar time to die as many others (And moose) I have seen in videos, probably quicker to die than many I’ve seen in archery videos

not really something I’d do (I’d deffo miss or wound at that range) he clearly has the skill and equipment to pull it off though

 

[mchughcb]

I'm not sure why there are so many people on this forum who have shot nothing bigger than a fallow deer assume that shooting an Elk must die by some particular time?

 

[mereside]

I'm not sure why there are so many people on this forum who have shot nothing bigger than a fallow deer assume that shooting an Elk must die by some particular time?

People have no idea why an animal dies they think they just drop on the spot or it hasn’t been shot right, it takes time to lose blood and a bigger animal has more to lose, either archery or rifle, one is not better than another full stop, you take your shot and your chances, regards Wayne

 

[nick.308]

just watched it again and his shot seems a little low considering hes shooting downhill. I always aim a bit higher when shooting downhill as the exit hole is going to be lower than you think. This shot was a hell of a range I get that so cant be perfect. Yeah I get you that bigger stuff usually takes a bit more taking down but a good engine room shot shouldnt take 1.25 mins to take a beast down. Where I come from a deer can run a long way in that time

 

[mchughcb]

Why are there so many comments on the love handles of the hunter? Is this some requirement to be a good hunter or a good shot?