Horseback Elk Hunting

[buffybr]

"It’s amazing how stupid people are."

Years ago two of my friends and I were hunting elk in the early season in the AB Wilderness just north of Yellowstone Park and east of Gardiner, MT. The Park boundary in that area is just a cleared line through the woods with a blaze cut into a tree or a small yellow boundary sign on a tree every 100 yards or so. Walking through the woods, it was sometimes hard to know if you cross that boundary line, so we would often walk the boundary line, then hunt north into the forest.

One day one of my partners heard a large animal walking through the brush. The first thing that my partner saw was a buckskin animal with dark brown legs walking toward him. My partner was all ready to shoot his elk when the animal turned into a horse with a rider in full camo. The rider turned out to be a Park Ranger out patrolling the Park Boundary.

My partner let the Ranger know how stupid he was and then he tied A LOT of orange flagging on the horse's bridle, saddle, and tail.

 

[mthorseaddict]

I’m probably getting ahead of myself, but I’m looking into hunting elk on horseback this upcoming fall. My problem is my horse looks dangerously close to an elk and I’m afraid he’s gonna get shot.
If anyone has any advice on how I can attach orange to him and have it on him 24/7 for a week and the different ways to do so, or how I can keep him with me in camp way out in the mountains, I would greatly appreciate it!

If you have to ask that question, then you shouldn't be hunting. An elk does not look like a horse at all. We owned and operated an outfitting company for many years and used horses for all aspects of hunting. Not once did any of our clients or other hunters in the same region mistake our horses for an elk or any other animal except a horse. Please make sure you let us know where you will be hunting this fall so we can make sure we are not in the area.

 

[Muley_Stalker]

If you have to ask that question, then you shouldn't be hunting. An elk does not look like a horse at all. We owned and operated an outfitting company for many years and used horses for all aspects of hunting. Not once did any of our clients or other hunters in the same region mistake our horses for an elk or any other animal except a horse. Please make sure you let us know where you will be hunting this fall so we can make sure we are not in the area.

Your small world doesn't represent the whole hunting world. Here's one example and I can show you many more. Horses do get shot and i'd be concerned if I owned a horse too.

Deer hunter shoots horse by mistake

Virginia horse owner finds horse bleeding

www.gohunt.com

 

[406dn]

Before blaze orange rules became largely universal,, people looked or sounded enough like a deer to get shot on occasion.

It is only prudent to try minimize the chance that some one will do something stupid. When I have horses highlined in the trees,,, I don't want another hunter seeing their legs thru the trees,,thinking they have spotted some elk.