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Deleted member 28227
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100% agree, I would add that sometimes absolute distance isn’t the only factor, if you kill the bull at the bottom of the hill or it’s downed timber or thick brush etc then that distance might be 2 miles or less.Lot's of good info on how to cool down elk meat.
Now i'll tell you what I've seen as being reasonable distance for hauling elk out on your back...because 10 plus miles IN ELK COUNTRY is asking for trouble.
Anyone who has killed an elk over 5 miles from the trailhead will tell you it is going to take 5 guys to pack a boned out elk in one trip. Because if it was 5 guys hauling 300# of boned out elk and antlers, not only do you have to haul out 65# of meat but your camp as well. You are looking at 100# plus pack (see the deer hauling thread)
I can make a 10 mile meat run on horseback in 3.0 hours one way and I have turned and burned back in to camp with horse feed with about 10,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. It takes a recreational backpacker (40-50 # pack) 4.5 hours to make that one way trip. I've done it.
3 guys hauling a bull elk and camp out 10 miles without a pack animal assist is not a reasonable goal. I've got guys who finished 100 mile races under 24 hours, and they know to have a packer to get elk out more than 3 miles in. emember you are going to have been hiking in the mountains before you get that bull down. Your legs will most likely be shot.
10 mile pack out? Reasonable for 2 guys hunting Mule deer, where if one guy kills both haul meat and camp. But on Elk with 3 guys, better shrink your radius, or have Uncle Joe with the packstring on standby.
Also it pays to be smart about your pack out and do the math. Example we killed a 5x5 ~5 miles in, boned out + skinned out head was around 250lb. Everyone had 40lbs of gear. We all packed out 2 miles (the steepest part) with 40 lbs of elk + our camps so ~90lbs. My two buddies hung their meat in a tree and dropped their camps and I went all the way to the truck. I dropped off my load walked back in three miles got the two camps and went back to the truck. My two buddies went back to the kill site with empty packs got the last ~100lbs of meat, the stopped at the tree, loaded up to ~100lb each and marched out.
Basically we just maximized our trips so we all did 1.5 trips instead of 2.