CBranch
New member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2012
- Messages
- 35
Last year, after my 5th year elk hunting WY, I was tired of the limitation WY puts on NR's, not allowing big game hunting in Wilderness Areas without a guide, EVERYONE's Federal Wilderness Areas. After a year of planning and a scouting trip from Ohio this summer, a friend and I hiked 11 miles, two mules in tow, into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in MT; general elk and deer tags in hand.
After hunting a drainage we had initially concentrated on for a couple days, it was apparent the elk had moved after the early snow storm a few weeks ago. We did spot 2 bulls and 4 cows on the opposite side of the canyon, a couple miles away, so we decided to make a move and hunt the elk we could see.
When we moved down to the main canyon, still 8 miles from the trailhead, (1.5 miles upstream of the Outfitter camp) we were almost immediately met by two guides and their each two clients on horseback, along the main forest trail. They were riding up and down the canyon on horseback spotting for elk , and admittedly were not having much luck so far, down in the canyon.
I told them we planned to hike up and hunt high the next morning in the drainage above where we were setting up camp . As I started my ascent well before daylight toward where we had spotted elk the day before, I noticed 5 horses and a person parked 100 yrds north of our camp, at the mouth of the drainage I wad heading up. At first I thought, "Well, they must be trying the same thing we are with their clients, not having much luck lower in elevation." I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG.
Once I got up there, the tracks in the snow told a different story. There were boot tracks all through the bedding areas and where we had spotted elk. My partner ended up staying near camp that morning and took a nice whitetail buck early. He talked to one of the guides as his 4 colleagues returned from the mountain side. Four young men, hired hands, without guns OR orange returned to the horses and guide about 11AM.
My friend asked the guide, who seemed pretty nice, if they had a problem with us hunting in the area since they had clients. (His question, not mine). The guide said he didn't mind, after all it is public land, although he added the outfitter was not happy. he then said, as the young men returned to the horses, "It doesn't matter though, you can go up in there all you want now, won't make a difference."
Once I returned, finding the elk had been well run out of that specific area, we put all the pieces together. They sent some young guys up there to run off the elk we planned to hunt, so we did not have a chance at them.
We saw the guides and clients up and down the canyon all week, rarely getting off their horses, much less doing any hiking up. It was clear the Outfitter just wanted to try to run off the elk we were hunting, because he didn't want us there or killing elk in front of his clients.
POOR SHOW OUTFITTER. As a person that is licensed in my profession, like an outfitter or guide must be, my profession has an ethics committee; too bad the Outfitter and Guide profession does not. I was aggravated at their antics to say the least. I understand the outfitter didn't technically do anything illegal, but I was sorely disappointed in the approach they took. I hope this doesn't happen often but fear its probably more common than I would like to think. I wondered if anyone else has run into this?
We ended up 8 days in, bagged a couple deer, 60 miles on the boots, 12,000 ft total elevation gain on the GPS altimeter, and a good learning experience, but did not get our elk this year.
Good luck out there.
After hunting a drainage we had initially concentrated on for a couple days, it was apparent the elk had moved after the early snow storm a few weeks ago. We did spot 2 bulls and 4 cows on the opposite side of the canyon, a couple miles away, so we decided to make a move and hunt the elk we could see.
When we moved down to the main canyon, still 8 miles from the trailhead, (1.5 miles upstream of the Outfitter camp) we were almost immediately met by two guides and their each two clients on horseback, along the main forest trail. They were riding up and down the canyon on horseback spotting for elk , and admittedly were not having much luck so far, down in the canyon.
I told them we planned to hike up and hunt high the next morning in the drainage above where we were setting up camp . As I started my ascent well before daylight toward where we had spotted elk the day before, I noticed 5 horses and a person parked 100 yrds north of our camp, at the mouth of the drainage I wad heading up. At first I thought, "Well, they must be trying the same thing we are with their clients, not having much luck lower in elevation." I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG.
Once I got up there, the tracks in the snow told a different story. There were boot tracks all through the bedding areas and where we had spotted elk. My partner ended up staying near camp that morning and took a nice whitetail buck early. He talked to one of the guides as his 4 colleagues returned from the mountain side. Four young men, hired hands, without guns OR orange returned to the horses and guide about 11AM.
My friend asked the guide, who seemed pretty nice, if they had a problem with us hunting in the area since they had clients. (His question, not mine). The guide said he didn't mind, after all it is public land, although he added the outfitter was not happy. he then said, as the young men returned to the horses, "It doesn't matter though, you can go up in there all you want now, won't make a difference."
Once I returned, finding the elk had been well run out of that specific area, we put all the pieces together. They sent some young guys up there to run off the elk we planned to hunt, so we did not have a chance at them.
We saw the guides and clients up and down the canyon all week, rarely getting off their horses, much less doing any hiking up. It was clear the Outfitter just wanted to try to run off the elk we were hunting, because he didn't want us there or killing elk in front of his clients.
POOR SHOW OUTFITTER. As a person that is licensed in my profession, like an outfitter or guide must be, my profession has an ethics committee; too bad the Outfitter and Guide profession does not. I was aggravated at their antics to say the least. I understand the outfitter didn't technically do anything illegal, but I was sorely disappointed in the approach they took. I hope this doesn't happen often but fear its probably more common than I would like to think. I wondered if anyone else has run into this?
We ended up 8 days in, bagged a couple deer, 60 miles on the boots, 12,000 ft total elevation gain on the GPS altimeter, and a good learning experience, but did not get our elk this year.
Good luck out there.
