The young greens make a great salad or salad addition, and more than once I threw on cheeseburgers when I ran out of lettuce. Great food for animals and herbivore pets, you can make wine from the flowers, and the bees make honey.
Great story. If I could relive my first bull I would take that over most other hunting experiences. I was 22. 50 now. It was my 2nd elk hunt, having missed a bull the year before on an archery hunt.
Walking up to an elk on the ground for the first time is a memory that's hard to top. Got mine...
My point wasn't that anyone needs to prefer fishing over hunting, but just that I am sure that many many people are very vocally frustrated, if only amongst friends. It is not guaranteed that demand will always go up. To think otherwise is ignorance.
series of "normal" conversations, not forum posts, type of which I am having with virtually anyone I know associated with out of state hunting. My comments on the right. Some serious hunter friends I know getting fed up.
No objection. For my part sorry for fueling any flames. I do think this thread, differs from others, in that the original discussion about increased fees seems to have tapped a nerve about just how gratuitous and untethered this annual rite of passage has become from one state or another. "They...
Not sure how many resident elk hunters there are in Wyoming, maybe 50,000?
If each bought a tag for $400 (a STEAL all day long!) that's an additional 20,000,000 for conservation.
Probably 100,000 hunters in Colorado. A cool and easy extra 40 million in funding.
Buy land, install tanks...
If I were a forward thinking resident hunter, I'd be a little worried about what happens when the other 80+ percent of non-hunter residents say "I'm tired of paying $10/lb for ground. Or I am opposed to killing wildlife. Or I'd like to see more cougars. And where's my actual financial cut of...
I think the paradigm of residents (only the hunters) being unaffected is no longer very defensible in this age. Everyone pays taxes and lives somewhere. Presumably those taxes and other local contributions of time and engagement are put to good local and national use, regardless of the...
And thats why I started with "I am not pleased" to say anything disparaging about you. You are well researched. And typically polite. But the "factions" developing around out of state opportunities, of which only one aspect is cost, are troubling to many and for good reason. Count me among the...
I'm not pleased to say I can begin to see Treeshark in a former life as a railroad man justifying exterminating the bison, just to prove himself a "logical" man. Or someone trying to figure out how to stuff more passenger pigeons in a barrel to ship out to market. Progress, get with it or get...
Finished filing and then I made a mistake today and added up all the taxes (Federal/State/Local) we paid in 2025. It was eye opening and eye watering. It virtually eliminated the point of my wife working, and cost us twice as much in a year as it is costing to pay a year of our daughters private...
50 isn't so bad except it robs you of being able to say about yourself that you are "young" without sounding foolish to actual young people.
Only much older people will call you young now, which I think is just their wry sense of humor on display.
On the plus side, I got my shingles shot...
I plan some good ones but won't be too specific. Mostly I have no idea when any particular hunt will happen but I'm pretty sure all of these could happen if I have good enough health over the next 20 years.
Heading to AZ on a rut archery hunt this fall.
Probably CO 61, 76, or NW corner elk...
No kidding. My first deer was at 100 yards out of a spanish 20 ga double with a foster slug and a bead sight. False advertising.
Multiple hastings barrels and remington barrels later, rifled choke tubes, receiver mounts, cantilever mounts, 12 ga 870, 20 ga 870... finally a decent Savage...
Find a new spot. The path of 12ga slug gun hunter is littered with broken dreams, missed shots, and wasted time and money. I hunted with slug guns for over 30 years out of legal necessity. I have since sold all my rifled barrels, my Savage 220 even, and all my slugs. No more! Archery...
I killed my last muley buck in ID in the timber while still hunting and I see many muleys while stillhunting for elk during archery season. If you are trying to kill a trophy buck, glassing one up first is probably a better plan. But for just any buck, covering some distance slowly during the...
I was a little more encouraging in my first post of advice to you. But as things seem to be leading you down a realization that the time, effort, expense, driving, etc is not necessarily that appealing to you given your goals and alternatives, I am also in agreement with others encouraging you...
PITA to haul across country but sure can be handy when you arrive. I am currently contemplating if one is needed for my AZ hunt though, that's a long haul with the trailer and I want to be pretty flexible and mobile when I get there. So leaning towards no ATV, no trailer. But I can be convinced...