Bear hunters during elk season....Is it just me?

Agar426

Member
Messages
78
Is it just me, or are there a ton of bear hunters out these days? My elk hunt was in unit 5B the first weekend of October, and my uncle is currently out in unit 51 (both in NM), and we have run across more bear hunters than anything else! It seems like everybody and their brother has a dog box in the back of their trucks these days. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy bear hunting as well, I just don't care for it while I'm closing in on the bugle I've been hearing, only to hear a pack of hounds closing in on a bear. I'm no expert, but I tend to believe that any elk that were in the immediate vicinity are long gone after hearing those hounds come through, with hunters/guides on their tail. They've got as much right to be in the woods chasing bears as I do lookin for elk....it just gets frustrating sometimes. All this damn heat isn't helping either! I'm just venting...sorry guys and gals. Good luck to anyone who's got hunting left to do.
 
At least you were running into hunters. come to Durango there was nothing but freaking bicyclers. I run them stuupid baastards off the road if possible. There were also a bunch of motorcycle riders up there. Give me a break and have respect for others!
 
2 years ago we were up on the boulders hunting Elk / Deer during the archery season. Me / my dad/ his buddy lance / uncle / and aunt. Every single day no matter what hill we went to, Canyon we dropped into you would hear the barking of those stupid dogs.
But what got me was one day a guy came up and asked if we had lost 2 dogs. We said no and asked why. Apparently those guys just let em run away and let other hunters find them.



-Cass
 
Well at least you know it wasn't one of the hound guys from this website because none of their dogs will chase bears. I hear some of them have some damned nice elk runners though :p!!!

Bret M.
 
Just like deer hunters, elk hunters, bear hunters, whatever are choice of game is, we all await for are seasons to come in so we can hunt, thinking as to one person has more right to be on the mnt then the other is crazy. Elk don't run off the mnt at the sound of hounds neither, this yr while bear hunting I had my dogs tree a few canyons over from where I struck at, its about an 30 minute drive around the mnt to come into a lower rd that puts me in the same drainage. Before I came around the last switch back in the rd I ran into 2 bowhunters flagging me down. They stopped to inform me where my dogs were etc which was nice of them but I already knew there position, after leaving them I pulled out on the last switch back that overlooks this canyon.....it was a relative short race and my dogs had only been treed for half an hr, so I just wanted to sit there for awhile and let them settle in to the tree good for awhile. Anyways while I sit there listening to my dogs tree, about 300 yds up from them out come a bunch of feeding elk in the same basin, ahh ha, perfect I thought, I just got a new video cammera with 700X digital zoom and was wanting to play with it....so there I sat and filmed the elk, and listened to the dogs tree. Later that afternoon, I ran into the same guys still looking for elk....LOL. Not only did I show them the video of the elk but my audio was good enough it picked up the sound of my dogs treed in the background also. The sound of hounds has no effect on running all the game off the mnt, this is just an example I used cause it just recently happened but its not the first time. Matter of fact a man credits my dogs for the harvest of an elk one time, he told me until them dogs trailed through above these elk he was stalking all morning they were almost non-talkative at all, but once them dogs came right around them it fired the bull up almost like getting a turkey to shock gobble at you.
 
I was trying to hunt bear, and all I ran into was those freaking Elk hunters. Blowing their stupid bugles all freaking day!
 
WalkerDawgs, it looks like the bowhunters were nice enough to help you (even though you didn't need it.) Why didn't you drive back down the road and help them? I would have put them on the elk. One good deed deserves another. We hunters need to stick together.

MarlinMark

"When there's lead in the air, there's hope."
 
LAST EDITED ON Oct-21-03 AT 10:45PM (MST)[p]My post may have lead you to believe they was actually in the feild bowhunting...they were'nt they was road hunting and the only reason they knew where my dogs was cause the guy told me they stopped to take a leak on the switchback and heard my dogs.....it was a good 20-30 minutes after talking to him I seen the elk....I'm not going to turn around a chase down a pickup thats been gone 30 minutes, I rather look for needles in a haystack. I did show them the video latter that afternoon when I ran into them again....Roadhunting as before and they was going in after them, but somehow I doubt they left the pickup.
 
WalkerDawgs-- That makes sense. I wouldn't have chased them down either.

Cheers,

Mark

"When there's lead in the air, there's hope."
 
The best rule change ever was allowing other hunting during elk and javelina hunts. It was really sucking for us that like to get out to call coyotes, run hounds and luck into a bobcat to allow you premadonas with elk tags exclusive right to the forest. Hunting rutting elk isn't the most challenging sport in spite of all that's made of it. Last weeked in New Mexico I pulled out the AR-15 to do a little shooting and after 20 rounds there were three bulls sounding off all around me. I did put a hunter on them about 20 minutes later and his tag was filled. How hard is that?

Ed
 
If you get bothered running into bear hunters while out elk hunting you need to move to Utah amigo.

A couple of years ago three elk hunters complained cuz they heard a pack of dogs barking down a canyon while out elk hunting so our beloved DWR and our wonderful wildlife groups all agreed, "Why the hell do these hound guys need to be out in the hills?"

So they screwed us out of our fall bear hunting. Closed down fall pursuit on the three best units in the state.

Move to Utah amigo, cuz all hunters are not created equally here. The State and our favorite wildlife group will be on your side and do everything they can to keep hound guys off the mountain you are hunting.

Until they need lions killed and then hound guys are their best friends and they can't hug and kiss us enough.

I live in Utah and I drive down to New Mexico every fall to hunt bears cuz running bears in the fall in Utah is right above making Kiddie Porn movies on the list of No No's.

How about we make a trade? I'll come to New Mexico and hunt and you can come up here and deal with the Utah scene. If you start now, you may draw an elk tag in this state before you die of old age. May the force be with you.

Sorry, gotta go back into hiding. There is an APB out on my truck cuz I drove across the Lasal mountains last weekend and I have a hound doggers sticker on my bumper so there is a state wide man hunt out for me and the DWR has put up a $10,000 dollar bounty for my capture. ;-) :)
 
C'mon HoundDawg,

Who are you trying to fool? We all know the reason there is an APB out on your truck, and it has nothing to do with your hound dogger sticker. You were up at Hawn's again this weekend, weren't you?...

It'll all pass over soon enough, just lay low, stay away from home for a few weeks, and don't hang out with anyone reputable...wait a minute, you're a hound guy, you already do that. Just kidding...

Corey
 
Ed, HoundDawg,

I figured that I would raise a stink with my comments. First of all, I stated in my post that I was just frustrated at the way my hunt turned out, and was just venting. I also acknowledged that bear hunters have as much right to the woods as I do, or anyone else does for that matter. My post was actually meant to be somewhat in jest, although now that I read it again, I realize that it did not come off that way.

I would appreciate if you wouldn't include me in the group you consider ?prima donnas with elk tags.? Maybe if I gave some background on my particular situation, you may understand why I don't think I merit being included in that group. With the exception of a couple of years back in college when I couldn't take the time off, I have put in for an elk tag in NM for 18 years?.and have never drawn. I was fortunate this year to have a friend whose father owns some land and gets land owners permits. I saved since last year to be able to purchase this tag, which was not even for a unit considered to be great elk hunting. So given the fact that I have never even hunted elk, that should exclude me from being lumped into some stereotypical group of elk hunters. On opening day of the hunt, (which by the way, even though the date was Oct.4, the elk had stopped bugling in that particular unit a couple of days earlier?possibly due to the rain, who knows why), we had gotten into some elk and were close to getting a shot off, or so I thought, when we heard the elk take off like there was a lion on their tail, only to discover a pack of hounds chasing a bear. Maybe the other elk in the area stuck around, but the one I was trying to get a shot at was in the next county by the time the dust settled. The hunter missed the shot by the way (on the bear, so the resultant chase and gunfire was even more of a ruckus, but kinda funny though). I suppose I was just hoping that after 18 years of waiting, that It would be myself that screwed up my chance, and not someone else?at least in this particular case. I do believe that not all elk are spooked by bear hunters. Like I said?.I was just frustrated. To top it off, at the end of the first day, we actually saw a medium sized 4x4 bull standing broadside and sky lined at about 200 yards. It looked like something you would see on TV. I am almost convinced he was smiling at us, because he had just crossed the fence onto the Jicarilla side. I think he knew he was safe on that side!

I don't actually mind the bear hunters or bear hunting itself. I go out on occasion myself without dogs, because I don't have access to them. Still trying to get my cousin to get me out there with his dogs. He took me out for a lion once, and it was a thrill. The thing is that the bear and lion seasons are pretty long, and coyote hunting isn't even regulated in NM. I actually enjoy hunting coyotes more than anything else, and I spend most of the winter doing that. I actually bagged a coyote during my deer hunt, and one during my uncles elk hunt. Great way to pass the time during the day! The elk hunt was only good for 5 days, and it was a good five days. It was my poor hunting skills that kept me from bagging an elk over the 5 day period?.not the bear hunter(s). However, that one bull was my best chance, and I feel that it was a poor set of circumstances that had the dogs/bear and the elk in the same vicinity at the same time. That's just my opinion, and we all know how opinions are. I didn't go up to the guys and tell them off?they were just doing their thing, like I was trying to do mine. Remember, I'm just venting due to frustration. I do feel for you HoundDawg, Utah definitely seems to have some nimrods running the DWR (based on yours and other posts I've read here).

Bottom line, I agree that we all have a right to be in the woods, no hunters are more equal than others, and I do resent being lumped into a group of so called ?primadonnas with elk tags? who feel we need exclusive access to the forest. I'm just a frustrated rookie elk hunter who is trying to find an excuse for coming home empty handed. Maybe I should have singled out the excessive heat we've been getting lately, and not the hounds that I ran into. I apologize if I have offended any hound runners.

Once again, good luck to any and all who still have hunting left to do. I'll be looking for coyotes from here on out.

Agar426
 
You had a landowner elk tag? I don't know about NM but up here you have to stay on the landowners property, sounds like either the bearhunter was tresspassing or you were out of your boundry?? The bear hunter missed the bear? Was he trying to shot it on the ground running in front of the dogs, next time you run into him tell him to get some better dogs.....LMAO.
 
WalkerDawgs,

Here in NM, landowners are alotted either "Ranch Only" or "Unit Wide" tags. The one I had was "unit wide." I discovered after the hunt (my fault for not looking up the regs!)that this permit gives me acces to other private land ranches that are also alotted "unit wide" permits. Of course the NMDoGF recommends (doesn't require, oddly enough) that you contact the land owner, which makes sense. On the last two days of the hunt we lost a couple of bulls who kept eluding us by running into a private ranch. Now I don't know if that ranch was "unit wide," but if I had done my homework, it may have made a big difference, since that was the only area that had elk sign. They seemed to be feeding on forest land at night, and wandering back into the private side to hang out for the day. Maybe next year I'll break my dry spell of not drawing....at least that way my poor hunting skills will only cost me the cost of the license.

Agar426
 
IC, strange enough....they do things different down there. Do you have to stay on there deeded private or can you go onto there alotments also that are BLM or Forest Service. Up here we have landowner tags and you have to stay on the landowners deeded private ground, thats it.....no unit wide type tags.
 
WalkerDawgs,

Are you talking Utah or Idaho? In Idaho, you are able to hunt unit wide with a Landowner tag.

Corey
 
WalkerDawgs,

The tag I had was a "unit wide" tag, so I could hunt the entire unit, including any private land whose owners were alotted "unit wide" tags, and any and all BLM or national forest land. These tags are assigned specific hunt dates that are in alignment with the standard draw hunts. Basically, a unit wide tag mimics the draw system exactly as far as the hunt dates go, but the land owners permit allows the hunter to choose which hunt to go on. I had three choices.

The "ranch only" tags mean exactly that. You can only hunt on that particular ranch. These tags, however, allow you to choose any 5 day period from the (I believe) the start of the first rifle hunt in that particular unit and the end of the license year, which in NM is March 31. You can only hunt that 5 day period, but it is any 5 day period you and the landowner agree upon. So yes, you can hunt the elk while they are all huddled up in gigantic herds along side major dirt roads during Jan and Feb, but only on that ranch, so if it is a small ranch, you're stuck with that piece of land.
 

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom