Some of my elk hunting buddies stopped by and we had a long discussion last night. The conversation turned, to how much of the difference some of the little things that we carry making the success of a hunt. Things like a properly fitting sling on the rifle(everyone of us uses a 1 in. or 1 1/4 inch quick adjustable nylon sling) or HAT, on several occasions I am foolishly left my hat in camp, and without fail I would always find myself overlooking some ridge with the sun directly in my eyes without it. There is a quite a wide variation hats in camp,I vastly prefer the aussie style
but many of the guys get along just fine with a baseball style cap but everyone of us agrees, that you need some kind of the cap with a brim to shade your eyes while hunting.
Boots, I can't tell you the number of times, I seen and Elk hunt ruined because somebody scrimped and got some crummy Boots or bought a brand new set and didn't break them in correctly before the Elk hunt. It was even guilty of this on one of my first Elk hunts, for most of us, it's really hard to come up with, $100- $150 for a set of Boots that you'll probably only use to each other every year, but in some of the territory that we hunt, footwear like sneakers, or rubber boots, are likely get you hurt.. steep slopes covered with ice and snow in the terrible place to try new smooth bottom hiking shoes yet I see this almost every year. Without fail, somebody usually one of the newer guys, a will arrive at camp with low-cut hiking shoes there will be a short conversation about how he really gotta go in to town to get some boots , followed by the statement, no! Ive been using them for years these will be fine, and two days later that same guys sitting in camp with the blistered toes, or a twisted ankle, orhaving sustained a remarkable series of falling down injuries from, when his feet shot out from under them on the slopes. By then it's too late!
Backpacks there is a huge assortment of styles and types there, most will work fairly well, but one thing you don't want to have is one of those cheap aluminum frames that has riveted joints, or joins that are eproxy glued together, because within 1000 yd.s of you sticking at ham from a large ELK on to one of those frames that joints will start fail, within several miles, it normally falls to pieces. Make sure your backpack can handle 70lbs-100 lb. load for hours at a time because it may have to especially if you're trying to backpack out your Elk, from some canyon deep in the timber.and make damn sure that you can hook your rifle sling over the corner or in some other manor carry your rifle easily while you wear that backpack WITHOUT it banging and scraping on the backpack frame! youll need both hands free when your packing out that ELK, yet youll have a small chance youll need to get too that rifle durring the trip out too!
knives again,lots of variation here, but I can tell you blades longer than 9 1/2 inches or shorter than 4 in., rarely can handle both the small and the big jobs, you'll find around camp, and the folding style rarely have the strength or weight to get the larger jobs done. Most of the guys I hunt with in ELK CAMP carry two knives, a smaller 3-5 in. blade, for dressing out game,plus a larger knife or in some cases a small ax or saw, for cutting wood, and other camp chores
block&tackle
I honestly can't see how anybody dresses on a large Elk, without a dependable block in tackle to pull them up in the tree, or tripod, that they make from three or four stout poles, that they cut and bring to the ELK , if they happen to drop him too far from a convenient tree. I bought two years ago, I wish I could find some more, but all the ones I seen listed lately are very poor quality. The ones I have had four sheeves(wheels) per block, and use parachute cord. They easily lift 1000 lbs. each
BTW my BLOCK AND TACKLE that IVE carried for over 25 years now in my day pack,weighs about 1 lb, I sure wish I could still find a place to buy similar block and tackle setups, the one I see for sale now are cheap trash
any other helpful ideas/info/experiances guys
but many of the guys get along just fine with a baseball style cap but everyone of us agrees, that you need some kind of the cap with a brim to shade your eyes while hunting.
Boots, I can't tell you the number of times, I seen and Elk hunt ruined because somebody scrimped and got some crummy Boots or bought a brand new set and didn't break them in correctly before the Elk hunt. It was even guilty of this on one of my first Elk hunts, for most of us, it's really hard to come up with, $100- $150 for a set of Boots that you'll probably only use to each other every year, but in some of the territory that we hunt, footwear like sneakers, or rubber boots, are likely get you hurt.. steep slopes covered with ice and snow in the terrible place to try new smooth bottom hiking shoes yet I see this almost every year. Without fail, somebody usually one of the newer guys, a will arrive at camp with low-cut hiking shoes there will be a short conversation about how he really gotta go in to town to get some boots , followed by the statement, no! Ive been using them for years these will be fine, and two days later that same guys sitting in camp with the blistered toes, or a twisted ankle, orhaving sustained a remarkable series of falling down injuries from, when his feet shot out from under them on the slopes. By then it's too late!
Backpacks there is a huge assortment of styles and types there, most will work fairly well, but one thing you don't want to have is one of those cheap aluminum frames that has riveted joints, or joins that are eproxy glued together, because within 1000 yd.s of you sticking at ham from a large ELK on to one of those frames that joints will start fail, within several miles, it normally falls to pieces. Make sure your backpack can handle 70lbs-100 lb. load for hours at a time because it may have to especially if you're trying to backpack out your Elk, from some canyon deep in the timber.and make damn sure that you can hook your rifle sling over the corner or in some other manor carry your rifle easily while you wear that backpack WITHOUT it banging and scraping on the backpack frame! youll need both hands free when your packing out that ELK, yet youll have a small chance youll need to get too that rifle durring the trip out too!
knives again,lots of variation here, but I can tell you blades longer than 9 1/2 inches or shorter than 4 in., rarely can handle both the small and the big jobs, you'll find around camp, and the folding style rarely have the strength or weight to get the larger jobs done. Most of the guys I hunt with in ELK CAMP carry two knives, a smaller 3-5 in. blade, for dressing out game,plus a larger knife or in some cases a small ax or saw, for cutting wood, and other camp chores
block&tackle
I honestly can't see how anybody dresses on a large Elk, without a dependable block in tackle to pull them up in the tree, or tripod, that they make from three or four stout poles, that they cut and bring to the ELK , if they happen to drop him too far from a convenient tree. I bought two years ago, I wish I could find some more, but all the ones I seen listed lately are very poor quality. The ones I have had four sheeves(wheels) per block, and use parachute cord. They easily lift 1000 lbs. each
BTW my BLOCK AND TACKLE that IVE carried for over 25 years now in my day pack,weighs about 1 lb, I sure wish I could still find a place to buy similar block and tackle setups, the one I see for sale now are cheap trash
any other helpful ideas/info/experiances guys
