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Hunting scenario

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Hunting scenario

Postby NorthIDTLH » 08 12, 2017 •  [Post 1]

So, you're hunting along minding your own damn business. You look down at your watch and realize there's one hour of shooting light remaining. Now you hear the bugle you've been yearning for all day long...in the opposite direction of camp....

My own personal decision this year is to go for the bugle. My question is this, those of you who are like minded, what do you do after you make that decision? What do you carry in your pack for scenarios such as this?
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby Swede » 08 12, 2017 •  [Post 2]

As you size up the situation you decide if one hour is enough considering what you are up against. If you decide to go for it, then you will be back to camp late. No big problem. I will shoot an elk as long as I have good enough light to see it and my sights. I don't carry anything special for this type of situation.
If I get to shoot the elk, I will mark the location of the elk and my shooting location. I will stay very close just long enough to look for some blood. I won't follow it. Then I go back to camp, have dinner, grab my freighter pack, get help if there is any and go back to where I made the shot. In that time I gave the elk time to die. I had a dinner as I anticipate a long night. I will throw in some snack and plenty of water before I leave camp. If I am hunting a long way from camp, then I am close enough to my pickup, and I have everything there I will need. At night I will go back for help if there is any in camp.
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby Indian Summer » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 3]

Depends on lots of things. Weather. Where I think the bull is heading and my odds of getting on him in the morning. How wore out I am. What I killed last year. Etc etc
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby saddlesore » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 4]

I'd go back to camp and be in the same location next morning way before light and find the same bull again.He probably won't move far, your chances are greatly enhance by having all day to find him and. If you get to him later than anticipated the night before there is a chance you spook him out of the area and then you are screwed. In daylight,you have more of a chance of finding him again if you do bust him.
Lack of patience and careful planning has been a common problem for going home with an unpunched tag
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby >>>---WW----> » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 5]

I may have misread your question but as I understand it, you are already out for an evening hunt when you decide to go after the elk you have heard.

Anyhow, if this is true, you should already have everything you need in your pack. If not, you should have! So go for the elk! If you get him, be prepared to handle your kill properly by field dressing, quartering, going boneless, or however you choose. You should have everything you need in your pack including game bags and a sharp knife. If you get caught after dark, you should have a light of some sort in your pack anyway. That's all you need to handle an elk after dark.

Just be prepared to go hungry and be aware that you have a long night ahead of you. You have an animal to take care of. I would never even consider leaving an animal lay over night and go find him the next morning. Yes, sometimes you may get lucky but I have heard way to many horror stories of spoiled meat. And I even had it happen to me once when I though it would be save to leave it. A lesson learned the hard way! Why take the chance?
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby Charina » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 6]

>>>---WW----> wrote:Anyhow, if this is true, you should already have everything you need in your pack. If not, you should have!

Exactly! Headlamp(s), spare batteries, kill kit, game bags should all be with you already from how I see it. Only choice is what is the most advantageous option (go after now, or in am).
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby Timber » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 7]

I always have a light with spare batteries, 8x10 tarp, knives, lighter/matches and compass with maps in my pack, a light weight hatchet, game bags and some small snacks. I never leave without it. Therefore I would go after that elk unless I was completely exhausted and the action has been good!
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby Roosiebull » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 8]

saddlesore wrote:I'd go back to camp and be in the same location next morning way before light and find the same bull again.He probably won't move far, your chances are greatly enhance by having all day to find him and. If you get to him later than anticipated the night before there is a chance you spook him out of the area and then you are screwed. In daylight,you have more of a chance of finding him again if you do bust him.
Lack of patience and careful planning has been a common problem for going home with an unpunched tag

this seems like the most likely choice I would make, it's fun crashing out for the night with a solid plan for the next day. unless the bugle came from a place I am very familiar with, I am likely getting out of the woods and planning on the next morning.

I have killed about half of my elk in the evenings, but they are generally an ambush scenario, when I am set up waiting for elk I think will be coming into to feed for the evening, I generally am not going to chase down a distant elk in the evening.
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby Lefty » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 9]

My opportunities have faded or plain disappeared waiting. I have yet to experience elk being anywhere near in the morning where they were the night before
Unless there are extenuating circumstances Im following the bugle. Most often my pack is ready to spend the night,.. no sleeping bag but a couple of lights shelter emergency blanket good clothes, matches. I have one place that could be 6 hours back to camp but a straight walk Im generally less than 3 hours of humping it, double or more with a loaded pack.
So if I kill an elk alone, breaking the elk down for packing and cooling I should be able to get a couple hours of sleep before first light and the next trip.

However my only experience is with deer and I was home by 1 am and packed out the rest the next afternoon.
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 08 13, 2017 •  [Post 10]

Roosiebull wrote:
saddlesore wrote:I'd go back to camp and be in the same location next morning way before light and find the same bull again.He probably won't move far, your chances are greatly enhance by having all day to find him and. If you get to him later than anticipated the night before there is a chance you spook him out of the area and then you are screwed. In daylight,you have more of a chance of finding him again if you do bust him. Lack of patience and careful planning has been a common problem for going home with an unpunched tag
this seems like the most likely choice I would make, it's fun crashing out for the night with a solid plan for the next day. unless the bugle came from a place I am very familiar with, I am likely getting out of the woods and planning on the next morning. /quote]

X3..... Probably backing out and maybe coming back in the AM (but not for just one singer, there has to be more going on than that).
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby Indian Summer » 08 14, 2017 •  [Post 11]

Hunting under pressure or being in a hurry is never a good thing. So most likely I would move in closer just to get a really good idea of exactly where the bull is heading. The idea would be to come up with the best plan possible for the next morning. The only exception to that would be if I was in country I knew like the back of my hand and had a really good idea of where he was going and even knew the trail he was using to get there. In that case I'd be thinking like Roosibull: Ambush! I'd get ahead of him and wait for a nice clean close up shot at a bull who wasn't coming in head on and looking for me after I called. In that scenario I'd also have a pretty good idea of which way he'd run after the shot and I'd know the area so well that looking for him in the dark wouldn't be as big of a deal as if I was searching in unfamiliar territory.

I'm never desperate so I don't force things. Ever! Patience is golden.
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Re: Hunting scenario

Postby NorthIDTLH » 08 17, 2017 •  [Post 12]

Thanks for the input fellas
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