A lady at the boarding check-in once asked me if I wanted to have my kifaru backpack checked in rather than carry it on. She did it for free but I was a little worried what shape it would be once I picked it up in Anchorage.
My backpack plus camera case weighed over 70 lbs which was somewhat...
I've hunted Alaska many times over the years and carry the biggest Kifaru pack I have on Alaska Airlines and United. Just make sure that your pack meets the standards for fitting in the overhead bin. I also carry on a giant camera case with all of my optics...spotter, binos, cameras, etc. A...
Either have horses or some buddies lined up to help with the pack out.
On my Wyo hunt I was alone and it took 7 trips to pack boned meat plus antlers/cape out. It was 1.7 miles one way.
My Colo hunt was also alone but a buddy with 2 mules and a horse packed out my bull in 1 hefty trip. It was...
I had a Wyo moose tag quite a few years ago. The bull I ended up getting about a week into archery season was around 15 miles from where I saw him every day during scouting trips.
In Wyoming where I hunted the cows moved after the first hard frost. Bulls were wandering around searching for...
Cooler weather definitely helps. Also bulls start moving once they shed their velvet. I often found bulls all summer in the same small area but once they shed velvet they move. Early in the rut bulls can be seen in a particular location one day and 10 to 15 miles away the next searching for a...
We had goats grazing several of our properties last year. They did a great job with woody browse fire suppression around homes. They browsed the shrubs and trees down well. Goats prefer browsing broadleaf over grass species.
It ended up costing around $1,000/acre. The goats also had to get...
Most of the denser cheatgrass areas in Colorado produce 700 to 1,200 lbs/acre of cheatgrass. Remnant native grass biomass is generally around 200 to 300 lbs/A under dense cheatgrass on the Front Range in Colorado. Once cheatgrass is controlled, remnant perennial native grass increases to...
If you want to do it on your own I would advise getting in touch with a flight service that can drop you off. I drew a Chugach tag several years ago and it was nice getting dropped off where there were rams rather than hiking miles to get to them. I'm not sure where the SW unit is located but...
I live in 20 and get frustrated every time I hike miles upon miles without seeing elk. There are a lot of elk but they know the private boundaries.
Take a look at the length of the season. Elk are hunted hard on public land from archery season through January. There also are a gob of cow...
A lot of guys tend to forget small items that really make a difference. Neck gator, beanie hat, insulated socks, mittens, etc. If I lived and hunted extreme cold I likely would invest in warm power packs of some kind.
Extreme cold weather garment materials have come a long ways in recent...
I understand completely how young’ns must feel. Especially those young’ns that don’t live in a Western state with a wide range of big game species that aren’t available in the state where they live.
I think you are right that there wasn’t a whole lot of long-term fore-thought for some of...
The tough part is predicting what happens in the future. Colo’s glory days for producing mega bucks was relatively short-lived…as a prime example. There are a fraction of the muley tags issued with a fraction of mega bucks available.
It really would be nice predicting the future. Things...
The trick is to figure out a strategy to draw high demand tags with ever-decreasing draw odds. It isn't getting any easier to draw these tags! Those that are just starting out applying may need a different strategy than those with medium to high preference/bonus pts. The days of applying for...
Considerations that are overlooked include regulation changes that may almost eliminate your chances of drawing a high demand limited tag in your lifetime.
How many nonres saw the writing on the wall years ago for sheep and moose in Wyo and have ultimately end up tossing their hard earned cash...
It's obviously up to your budget and feast/famine mentality of drawing high demand tags. If $ tossed to the wind doesn't matter, apply in every state and game critter in the West. Obviously these charges will never decrease and it's hard to say if 20 years from today what states will charge...
Suppressors are a fad!!!
Who really cares about noise when shooting with earplugs/muffs. A muzzle break will actually make a recoil difference.
Recoil differences will make it possible for kids to use larger calibers for big game. Most suppressors do almost nothing for recoil while all...
Put ear plugs or ear muffs on and shoot, watch game drop with 1 shot....end of story!
If you have kids that like to shoot....buy a muzzle break that will actually result in less kick. Obviously have your kids wear ear protection.
I always thought it was only legal to use a rifle on turkeys in Wyoming during the fall season. I guess I was wrong. I would be all in favor of getting rid of rifle hunting turkeys in both Wyo and Colorado! Not only the safety but ethics factor.
“From my experience, I've watched elk turn and burn at 600 yards as the thermals shift from a glassing spot when the elk were on my side of the canyon instead of across the way.”
I’ve had this same experience with moose. Moose have probably the best nose of any North American big game animal...