Hunting with pointers

[Pony Soldier]

I feel that many of you look at your horse as transportation. You aren't utilizing your steed to its capability. I have killed a large number of elk and deer that were pointed by my horse. Most were found by the horse who then stood like a decoy while I got off, pulled my rifle out of the boot, and took aim while the animals stood watching my horse and never even saw me.

Maybe its because I hunt heavy timber but my horses are every bit as valuable as my griffons in helping me kill elk.

Anybody else find this use of their ponies.

 

[WCB]

I'd tell clients all the time....If your horses head swings up, ears forwarded, and stays fixed towards a single point...use their ears like sights. Clients got chances and even killed a couple elk because of it.

 

[nickstone]

My llamas spot tons more game than I ever do.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Very cool... Reminds me of the scene on Jeremiah Johnson when he shoots an elk over top of his saddle and the horse goes ballistic

 

[PredatorSlayer]

I feel that many of you look at your horse as transportation. You aren't utilizing your steed to its capability. I have killed a large number of elk and deer that were pointed by my horse. Most were found by the horse who then stood like a decoy while I got off, pulled my rifle out of the boot, and took aim while the animals stood watching my horse and never even saw me.

Maybe its because I hunt heavy timber but my horses are every bit as valuable as my griffons in helping me kill elk.

Anybody else find this use of their ponies.

Same - horses are awesome at spotting and distracting game. I seem to see far more animals and have more opportunities when hunting on horseback.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I have found over the years that the horses don't go nuts at the shot as long as I shoot in front of them.

I did have a gelding that walked in front of me at my third miss. Sort of like asking why I was such a shitty shot.

 

[Hardtak]

It is funny you mention this, I was thinking this the other day while riding. If I pay attention to him, he tells me that something is out there. If I pay extra close attention to him, I can tell what is out there. He reacts differently and overtime I know if he senses a moose, deer, elk, bear or lion.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I was riding out tonight after cutting some of my trails and got to thinking about how good horses are at retracing their steps to get back to the truck or camp.

One of the earliest trips was during a mineral evaluation of a wilderness area in the southern bitterroots along the Idaho border. About 7 or 8 miles in the trail was narrow and on the face of a nasty scree slope. We went up in the morning but the trip out was about 11 pm in absolute darkness. The lights crapped out and it was up to the horses. After a long time the horses stopped and wouldn't move . I got off carefully and lit a match. The horses were right at the tent.

Many times I have just hung on and let my stock take me home. They have never failed yet - as good as a homing pigeon.

 

[wymtnpounder]

I was riding out tonight after cutting some of my trails and got to thinking about how good horses are at retracing their steps to get back to the truck or camp.

One of the earliest trips was during a mineral evaluation of a wilderness area in the southern bitterroots along the Idaho border. About 7 or 8 miles in the trail was narrow and on the face of a nasty scree slope. We went up in the morning but the trip out was about 11 pm in absolute darkness. The lights crapped out and it was up to the horses. After a long time the horses stopped and wouldn't move . I got off carefully and lit a match. The horses were right at the tent.

Many times I have just hung on and let my stock take me home. They have never failed yet - as good as a homing pigeon.

Yup a good pony is better than GPS

 

[WCB]

I was riding out tonight after cutting some of my trails and got to thinking about how good horses are at retracing their steps to get back to the truck or camp.

One of the earliest trips was during a mineral evaluation of a wilderness area in the southern bitterroots along the Idaho border. About 7 or 8 miles in the trail was narrow and on the face of a nasty scree slope. We went up in the morning but the trip out was about 11 pm in absolute darkness. The lights crapped out and it was up to the horses. After a long time the horses stopped and wouldn't move . I got off carefully and lit a match. The horses were right at the tent.

Many times I have just hung on and let my stock take me home. They have never failed yet - as good as a homing pigeon.

Did this once packing out an elk...Left camp right at dark to go pack a elk out since my clients shot 2 elk and another client in camp shot an elk. So we had 3 elk down and figured get one out tonight that is less work tomorrow for the animals. The camp cook (who by his own definition was well versed in packing and horsemanship) volunteered to go help me . After getting the elk on the mules, we turned down the trail back to camp all loaded up and just turned out the headlights and enjoyed the ride in the dark. Noticed the the horses were kind of weaving a bit more than normal in the darkness so I turned on my headlight on and we are "off" trial but headed in the right direction. Horse had taken an older trail they were familiar with but had not been maintained as well. I just shut the light off and let the horses do their thing...popped right out in the saddle we needed to.

Camp cook was cussing a bunch of the way saying "we are lost and should have turned around when we saw the Grizz tracks on the way in. Why the hell are we out here at 11:00pm... etc....blah blah blah." hahahaha some people are just scared of the dark and have trust issues I guess.