How far????.......

GoatT

Active Member
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389
Just curious to see how many of you MMer's go off trail for the hunt? How many of you go off more than a mile from any road or main trail? I try to get a few miles back into an area to get away from the traffic of other hunters and ususally find a few good bucks to boot. What is the furthest any of you have gone in after your trophy animal?
 
24 miles into the Frank Church one time. Too old for that now. We saw very few deer but the ones we saw were good, good bucks.



"My sickle has a boattail"
"hidden soles leave .308 holes"
 
I've gone in 8-9 miles twice and both times have seen some great bucks. I'll be going in 4-5 miles this season
 
I packed a mule deer out with my brother one time 6 miles. A heavy pack like that will make you think twice about how far you want to pack something out. In that instance, that's simply where the deer were; it was a bachelor herd of 11 bucks, and there were very few deer anywhere else closer to the road. I like to look for areas just a few miles from the road that might be initially hard to access from the road or otherwise overlooked. Guys with horses might waltz on by these areas. I used to not worry about long difficult packouts, but now I wonder how long my knees are going to hold out to that kind of abuse. A hundred pound pack is nothing to sneeze at over rough terrain. I will say this though: The bigger the buck, the dumber I get.
 
how do you get that far off the trail without running into another trail around here, there everywhere the furthest we go is about two or three miles. alot of the times i see more deer around the trails because there used to maintain the water around here. weatherbys rule
 
My longest walk (going in) was 15 miles....also into the Frank Church Wilderness area. I often go 5 to 7 miles....almost every year.


Within the shadows, go quietly.
 
I usually pack up and leave my house in Arizona to Montana around the last week of August. If it werent for the Grand Canyon, I could probably make it there in a little under a week, but thats one heck of a canyon to have to cross, not to mention trying to figure out how to keep my gun dry while I cross the river at the bottom.

I figure I pack in about 1100 miles (one way) a year.

Is that ethical?
 
Three of us hiked 12 miles last year from a trail head into the Weminuche wilderness in CO on an archery elk hunt.

____________________________________________________________________
"Now we come to the most important pre-season question. Do you just want to go elk hunting, or do you want to bring one back? If you desire the latter, there is no substitute for hard work. The bigger your goal, the harder the work required to get there. Good luck!" - Cameron R. Hanes
 
I always try to get at least a mile or more from any road, and the steeper and more rugged, the better. The farthest I've gone afoot by myself is 7-8 miles in western Wyoming. I killed a pretty big buck there one year and it was a long, tough hike out carrying the buck. This year, I'll be sheep hunting farther than that from the road, but we're using horses. I'll likely go no more than 2-3 miles from the road other than that.
 
I just go where the animals are.

I killed a 205" deer in a average unit less than 100 yards off a county maintained road.

Hike your arses off!!!!

Is that ethical?
 
Hiked 15+ miles into the Weminuche Wilderness last year on a archery muley hunt. As you can expect I had the place to myself and never saw a soul for four days.
 
I hate to bring this up amongst all you Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, explorer types.

Has anyone on here NOT seen a trophy animal grazing alongside some ROAD, somewhere?

Has anyone not seen the trophy quality animals dead alongside roads?

Does the term "Deer in the headlights" escape your notice?

Are the little whistles that you stick on your bumper, made for cattle?

Are the statistics on automobile repairs caused by collisions with deer unavailable to you?

And how about human fatalaties from collisions with deer and elk?

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, roads don't mean CHIT to game animals. They don't avoid them, try to go around them or have any fear of them whatsoever. If you believe otherwise, you have had WAY too much "Walt Disney" in your upbringing.

Now, if you WANT to hike 10 or 15 miles into some gloriously beautiful area to hunt, say so, more power to you. I applaud your efforts. But to say animals are not found around roads or trails is simply foolish.

The answer to the original post is; go as far as you are comfortable with.
 
Depends on what you mean by good! Did I kill one - no. Did I see some fantastic country and some nice bucks and bull elk - yes. In fact, I had a 180ish buck give me the slip several times and had opportunities at several smaller bucks (150ish) which I wisely passed on. I also had a 320ish bull in a very killable spot, but with no tag he was safe. Plus, even if I had a tag the fact he was 12 miles from the truck put any thoughts of killing him out of my mind.
 
> Now, if you WANT to
>hike 10 or 15 miles
>into some gloriously beautiful area
>to hunt, say so, more
>power to you. I applaud
>your efforts. But to say
>animals are not found around
>roads or trails is simply
>foolish.

Nickman,
I was hunting in MT a few years ago with a party of five. Two of us hunted restricted areas (foot travel) only, we were staying in a ranch house and we were hiking 4-6 miles per day. The other three stayed around roads / trails and places they could ride 4 wheelers and they left MT and never saw an elk the entire hunt! We saw them everyday, except for the days we were busy packing out meat :)


____________________________________________________________________
"Now we come to the most important pre-season question. Do you just want to go elk hunting, or do you want to bring one back? If you desire the latter, there is no substitute for hard work. The bigger your goal, the harder the work required to get there. Good luck!" - Cameron R. Hanes
 
35-40 mile loop dall sheep hunting, packed my sheep down the middle of a creek(only way out) about 5 miles and another 4 or 5 to the lake where we were picked up
 
I DO believe there are more mature animals away from people and things MADE by people.....beyond that, Nickman is basically right. HOWEVER (for Grant, at least) getting away from the road means getting away from ATVs, other hunters and getting to "play" with undisturbed nature ('cause I'm way too sneaky to disturb them).

I do other hunts "closer in" but the ones I truly enjoy are those far enough away that I can enjoy the entire experience ALL BY MYSELF.

Success? Fairly similar.


Within the shadows, go quietly.
 
>I hate to bring this up
>amongst all you Daniel Boone,
>Kit Carson, explorer types.
>
>Has anyone on here NOT seen
>a trophy animal grazing alongside
>some ROAD, somewhere?
>
>Has anyone not seen the trophy
>quality animals dead alongside roads?
>
>
> Does the term "Deer in
>the headlights" escape your notice?
>
>
>Are the little whistles that you
>stick on your bumper, made
>for cattle?
>
> Are the statistics on automobile
>repairs caused by collisions with
>deer unavailable to you?
>
> And how about human fatalaties
>from collisions with deer and
>elk?
>
>I could go on and on,
>but the bottom line is,
>roads don't mean CHIT to
>game animals. They don't avoid
>them, try to go around
>them or have any fear
>of them whatsoever. If you
>believe otherwise, you have had
>WAY too much "Walt Disney"
>in your upbringing.
>
> Now, if you WANT to
>hike 10 or 15 miles
>into some gloriously beautiful area
>to hunt, say so, more
>power to you. I applaud
>your efforts. But to say
>animals are not found around
>roads or trails is simply
>foolish.
>
> The answer to the original
>post is; go as far
>as you are comfortable with.
>



Not saying the bucks aren't around the roads, but the other billion hunters are too. I like to glass across a canyon and not see orange, quads, camps, roads, etc. I see better bucks on average away from the roads on a consistant basis
 
>the bottom line is, roads don't mean CHIT
>to game animals. They don't avoid them, try
>to go around them or have any fear of them
>whatsoever. If you believe otherwise, you
>have had WAY too much "Walt Disney" in your
>upbringing.

nickman:

According to recently published study results from "The Starkey Project" (Google it, if you haven't heard of it), you are dead wrong when it comes to elk. That study found that elk are extremely sensitive to humans and to vehicular traffic. They even found that elk will bail for the next drainage if they even hear a mountain bike rider. Deer are far more tolerant of humans than elk, though.

Regards,
Scott
 
I would say that the bigger bucks I've seen have, with a few exceptions during the off season, tended to be off the beaten path and where one has to cover some steep terrain with their feet and legs.

Elk are iffier in my areas. I've found elk close to roads, but they tend to be on steep hillsides and in thick timber. Places hunters don't want to "walk." I also find that as hunters start moving "further back" that they start to overlook good areas closer to the main drag. Elk figure it out. That being said, I don't trophy hunt elk. Strictly meat hunting here.

I suppose I'm not really a trophy deer hunter either as I will, at the end of the season, take a small buck rather than sacrifice the steaks I love so dearly. Maybe I'm a trophy deer hunter wanna be. I've not interest in pursuing big bulls, though will of course take one if I am "lucky" enough to get the shot.
 
Sorry to revive this post but I thinks it's a good topic.

I killed my two biggest bucks 5-6 miles into a wilderness area.In my experience, when I put distance between me and the nearest road I see and kill bigger animals. Unfortunately, you don't always find the biggest bucks the further you are from a road, but when you do find one you usually don't have any competetion. That is what I like most about getting off the beaten path a few miles.In contrast, I have a good friend who has killed many whopper bucks less than a mile from an oiled road. Many hunters assume that the higher up the mountain you go the bigger the bucks are. The guys who have learned to hunt the low country usually have it all to their self and often times kill exceptional animals. Big bucks don't reach maturity by grazing near a heavily used ATV trail. You have to find the pockets were there is good feed, a water source, and very little pressure. If an area is easily accessible, it will get pressure. Those are the areas I like to avoid.

In short, the Big bucks are where you find them and ultimately that is where you need to hunt to put one on the wall
 
I don't know where everyone hunts but in my hunting area it's tuff to find a place where there is more then 5-6 miles between one road and the next. I guess you could say that I hike in 2 1/2 - 3 miles. I do try to find spots where there are not roads all over, but that does not happen that oven.

400bull
 
I spotted a Booner Buck the other day and at my age the first thought was....Sum-##### that is gonna be a long ass horseback ride...still trying to get psyched up...have a month to go...
 

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