If you are uncomfortable with hiking a long way back to camp in the dark (sometimes very understandable) that’s why you hire an outfitter. Great interview and content Cliff.
I have seen a hunter who left a hour early because he was afraid of the dark. And he was with a guide and they had horses to ride back on. He didn’t get a elk even though he was with a great guide and they had the elk located
I’m always hiking in the dark . Sometimes for a couple of hours before daylight . I live in northern bc where we have loads of grizzly bears . It’s just par for the course and if you want to be a successful elk hunter you can’t be afraid to be out there .
I find flipping the head lamp over then pulling it down around my neck works the best. Out of the way and pointing at the ground. You bend over it highlights what you are working on. You don’t blind your buddy. No buggs in the mouth. Your side vision is way better and you can set it on the lowest setting and travel faster. This taught to me by my military son in law.
The lack of managing predators is the "sneaky" approach of the anti-hunting community to stop hunting. If the predators remove the hunting resource, then there will be no hunting. It sucks, this is where we are headed in my opinion...
It's also a possible Segway to what is "trophy hunting" which could eventually lead to elk & deer hunting being on the ballot box in CO because of the way trophy hunting could be defined
@@hisnameisiam808 When I was in my teens, there were no deer or turkey. So, we hunted squirrels, rabbits, and quail. I learned to be an opportunist. We got bird dogs and got into the quail pretty hard in those days. Habitat has changed, farmers have pushed and mowed all the brush that held the quail. In recent times deer populations have exploded. Now I’m a deer hunter.
One other thing I learned is I carry a pack saw . I’ll saw dead tree branches in the timber . Believe it or not if a bull is in the area he’ll come to the sound . It mimics an elk raking a small pine tree . Also I lather up in elk piss as I hunt the timber . I never go by a pile of elk piss in the snow without wiping the piss all over my cloths !
The western states have had cwd since the 1950s-1960s and we had a huge study in Michigan in the last 8 years and our biologist have followed the Wisconsin model where they wiped out the deer with snipers and out of all of the deer killed and checked it was less than 1.00% of all deer tested that had cwd and we have one of the highest deer populations in the U.S…the more you look he more you find. And yet the deer populations are thriving…Darwinism at its finest. Survival of the fittest, and it doesn’t transfer to humans. Government overreach or social media scare tactics?
He thinks it is a possible that it does, so he doesn't risk it. Scott is the type of guy that even if it's questionable, he will deal with a minor inconvenience to improve his potential opportunity.
Hey Cliff why don’t you get an elk hunter that’s never hired an outfitter and hunted on foot in grizzly country his entire hunting career killing more than his fair share of elk and ask his perspective of these outfitters and the shit they pull out there . I’m only saying this cause he got my dander up when he made mention of over the counter tags needing to go away . Maybe from just an elk hunters perspective we think guys who make their living hunting public land elk need to go away . I’m in my 43 rd year of hunting elk here in southwest Montana and my opinion is we need less outfitters and their thinking that the system needs to be constantly tweeked to enhance their business of hunting public land elk is just sickening.
I’m not convinced that guides are just “paid friends.” I’ve seen outfitters do things to get elk herds to move from public land to private land. Shady tactics, legal, but shady! And the guys i have seen hire guides have been overweight, and the typical office worker that would never harvest on his own, they are literally led around in side by sides till they come across the game animal. Honestly, I don’t think hiring a guide is hunting, it’s the lazy man’s way of hunting. There may be experienced hunters that hire guides for various reasons, but they are the exception.
