High country elk in September!

[Pat B]

I will definately have my camera with me.
  Kenneth, I'm not a basket case yet!    I will carry my share. Going in is the easy part!    I had no trouble getting around out there either. I got up and down those hills pretty well. I was rather pleased at how well I did...until I sprained my foot!       I don't have the stamina I did back in '06 but I can still cut the mustard. 
 Joe, it's already a successful hunt! I get to go!!!  Everything else is gravy.
  This weekend Kenneth and Kathie(his wife) rode in the area we will be hunting on horseback just to check it out. Preliminary reports are positive. 
  Keenan tell me about black pepper for hornets. I've used it on deer carcuses to keep the flies off. With a sinsetivity to stinging insects and alergic to paper wasp stings I'm always interested in anything to deter them.

[hawkbow]

september 2 should be awesome brother. great time for calling mature bulls , before they get cowed up... best of luck to you brother i cant wait to see the harvest pics and pics of the bloodied shafts. Happy hunting Hawk a/ho

[Pat B]

Thanks Mike. I'll take your medicine with me on the hunt! 

[Keenan]

Pat, if the hornets are around the black pepper really helps. You'll need about three large cans of pepper to do an elk but alt least one will help. I always do the gutless skin and quarter method. Just have your helper sprinkle pepper right on the meat as the skin comes off.  You always peel the outer casing off your meet when trimming up so pepper doesn't effect the meat.
 Up here I have seen the yellow jackets eat right through the bags to get to the meat if you don't have it peppered.  Thats when I started making my bags from better material and using pepper.
 If you don't know the gutless method just give me a call and I'll walk you through it. It's by far the best way for back country packing, very easy to bone out while keeping the meat clean.

[Little John]

   Pat, you  know I would never worry about you pullling your share and a bit more, but we will still try to take it as easy on our selves as we can  even tho we are far from basket cases.

   Keenan, we will for shure use the pepper on the meat but I think Pat thought that the pepper would protect the hunter from an angry swarm of hornets, another huntingg buddie once got into a nest of them with a horse and it wasn't pretty for my buddie or the horse.
 
   Joe, too bad you live so far away it would be an honor to have you  in our camp any  time. I bet good medicine travels with you.

[hawkbow]

Pat .. Josiah and i both drew high country bull tags again this year ... for the same area where my bow broke on the giant old warrior. i may get a chance at him again if he is still alive and breathing or better yet Josiah get a chance to loose feathered death at an old warrior bull..that would be the icing on the cake. i can tell you brother that early or pre rut bulls respond well to aggressive cow calling. but go easy on the bugling except to locate bulls. happy huntin brothers.     

[Little John]

Mike,best of luck to you and Josiah on your upcoming hunt. Sounds like you have an awsome area gain. I can't remember but wasn't you hunting a private ranch on that hunt and wasn't it for sale? If I remember corectly also it was more typical of Wyoming rolling hills and scattered pockets of timber, lots of sagebrush. A lot different terrain than we have here in the San Juan. I am excited for you you and Josiah.             Kenneth

[hawkbow]

same area but the ranch has since sold...we are hunting the higher ground this year lodgepole timber and rocky crags on national forest. hoping for enough time off to get some serious hunting in. I hope you guys get some old warrior bulls to fall in love with your calls, and cant wait for the harvest pics after the hunt.

[razorsharptokill]

Good luck Pat! Be safe, and have a great hunt!

[nclonghunter]

A short video is on this site for the gutless skinning method. They leave the bone in on the video, but I remove the bone. A guy told us to leave the bone in and the meat would be better. I disagreed and suspected the heat in the bone would cause spoilage quicker. We removed the bone from all the meat except one hind quarter. It was warm weather when we got the elk down. Guess what, the only meat that spoiled was the quarter with the bone in.

Check out the video at elk101.com

[Pat B]

Thanks for the link, NC. It was very interesting. 
  I had to disable the link however because of it's commercial values. Folks that are interested can still find it the way I changed it. 

[PeteC]

Where abouts are y'all going to be huntin' Pat?     When my wife and I were up there week before last, we passed thru Units 26 and 27,and they had a sign posted,"Limited Elk" .Do y'all know if that means what it sounds like it means? Just wondrin' . God bless

[Pat B]

Pete, we'll be north of Durango in the San Juan Mountains. This is only my second trip out so I'm not the one to ask. Maybe Kenneth knows or someone else. You might also check the Colorado Wildlife website.

[venisonburger]

I envy you Pat, I also respect the fact that you're able to do that type of physically demanding hunt. Due to health problems I accepted the fact that I'll never be able to experience hunts like I see on TV hunting shows and the type you're doing. What a great memory you'll have to tell others and to remember in your old age. I wish you the best on your hunt, I hope you're blessed with success. Be careful. Can't wait to hear of your adventures.
VB

[nclonghunter]

PeteC, I believe that means a "limited number of elk tags are issued in that unit"...I have not seen that sign before, but I know some units are called limited elk units, referring to the number of tags available for that unit...?