Do they really climb 1500' or 2000'

I don’t think that is unrealistic at all. My “easy” spot near the house is 14-1800 ft up to where the elk are, and not only do I day hunt that, but I’ll frequently do it twice (morning and evening) when I have stuff to get done around the house mid day. Other areas I hunt, particularly early in the season, my watch will tell me I did two to 3 times that in a day. Not everywhere takes that much climbing, but areas with the only road access at the bottom make it easy to get away from people and near elk pretty quickly.


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I always joke to my buddies that I try to eat at least 1k ft for breakfast to get the day started on the right foot to make sure they know what they're getting into. 😜

But as everyone here says, it's definitely realistic in most western states. If you work at it a lot and are at a certain level of fitness, more elevation or mileage, just becomes a factor of the time it takes to get there as much as anything.
 
at one camp I used to use they hung out about tree line constantly and we camped at 10400. this was 10 miles in from the truck. it was a brutal climb up to 11400 or so to hunt the fingers of trees and drainages

another camp that was a mile or so from the truck would have them feeding at my camp [8500 ft] all night and by daylight they would be at 95 and climbing. they bedded at 10000 to10500. 8 times we got up early enough to ambush them at 9500.
 
Love all the perspective. I think everyone's take reminds me there are many ways to gain 1500'. You can count every time you drop a little and come back up and then total your elevation gains or you can count the difference between start point and highest point. The latter is how I've been doing it. I think what I'm struggling to grasp is how much distance is happening during the elevation gain. We do some days where we gain 1500' but over multiple miles. We also have short climbs where we gained a foot of elevation for every foot of distance but I can't imagine people doing that for 1500' of climb. My dad just shakes his head at what we do, I guess it's likely I would shake my head at what others are capable of.

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My plan A spot is 1450 of gain in .73 miles per OnX. I tried to day hunt it the first year and it broke me from sucking eggs after the third day. LOL it converted me to a backpack hunter. If I was smarter, it probably should have prompted me to find something a tad easier to hunt.
 
My plan A spot is 1450 of gain in .73 miles per OnX. I tried to day hunt it the first year and it broke me from sucking eggs after the third day. LOL it converted me to a backpack hunter. If I was smarter, it probably should have prompted me to find something a tad easier to hunt.
What age and how good of shape were you in when you did that first year?

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48 and was in better shape than the year prior which was my first elk hunt. I'm in way better shape today than then though. Body weight probably hasnt changed 3 pounds but strength and conditioning is much improved. I still would not try to day hunt it though because the entire climb is off trail and just sucks for a flatlander coming from roughly 250 feet above sea level.
 
I gain 1100 on one spot in about a mile or so. Most others are 800

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I have a spot I deer hunt in good ole NC that is a 1890' elevation gain from parking to ridge top. Its a 2.96 mile hike. So if I can do it in NC, I know people do it out west all the time.

But my favorite public land spot in NC is 1100' LOWER than the truck. Everyone says hunt uphill from the truck. I didn't listen, I guess thats why I have never seen sign of another human in this spot in 5 years. Does make for a tough haul back to the truck, especially with a healthy mountain buck in your pack ;)
 
I keep hearing a bunch of elk hunting you tubers talk about climbing 1500 to 2000' on day hunts to get to elk or away from people. How many of you are getting a net gain of a 1500' on your day hunts?

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A couple spots I do 1950. It’s not that much a during an entire day. All I do is day hunts except for one 5 day trip a year in September. Good luck to everyone
 
No doubt. Hit the Topo button on OnX to double check. I did it last year about every day. That’s where the elk were. Camp at 10.5k and elk at 12.5k. Camp was in the bottom of the valley near the river and the elk were as high as could be. It’s not fun, but that’s what it took.

I remember being up there in the elk after those climbs and thinking “if I kill an elk, I’m going to climb to the top of this mountain (14k+), get cell service, and call a packer.”
 
Love all the perspective. I think everyone's take reminds me there are many ways to gain 1500'. You can count every time you drop a little and come back up and then total your elevation gains or you can count the difference between start point and highest point. The latter is how I've been doing it. I think what I'm struggling to grasp is how much distance is happening during the elevation gain. We do some days where we gain 1500' but over multiple miles. We also have short climbs where we gained a foot of elevation for every foot of distance but I can't imagine people doing that for 1500' of climb. My dad just shakes his head at what we do, I guess it's likely I would shake my head at what others are capable of.

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If you gain a foot in elevation for a foot of distance then that is 90deg vertical lol

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I keep hearing a bunch of elk hunting you tubers talk about climbing 1500 to 2000' on day hunts to get to elk or away from people. How many of you are getting a net gain of a 1500' on your day hunts?

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At least that
 
I did it as rise/ run x 100 which gives a 100% slope. If I had kept going a 100% slope is 45 degrees lol

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Isnt 1:1 is 45 degrees?
Sneaky had me feeling pretty good about the fact that I could climb 90 deg slopes, but I think you're right, one foot out and one foot up should be 45 degrees.

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