Please make it stop!!!!

[Hunt41]

I am new to the elk hunting game. The plan is to go out for the first time this year. Reading these posts could turn somebody off. We have no idea who is asking the question. For example. Is it a future politician who can benefit the elk hunter in the future? I do know. That all the locals are going to need us non-residents to fight with them to keep hunting and public lands open for all. How about we all just be respectful.

 

[cnelk]

I read a book by a successful whitetail hunter and he talked about how he taught his two sons. If they asked to go hunting, and only if they asked, the condition was they had to sit in a stand with him until noon. He would purposely take them to a spot where there was 0 chance of seeing a deer for their entire first season.

Wow. Did he get any Father’s Day cards?

That’s some stupid reasoning right there.
I brought my 2 kids up to work hard, put yourself in the best situation to succeed and the rewards will come.

 

[mwebs]

I am new to the elk hunting game. The plan is to go out for the first time this year. Reading these posts could turn somebody off. We have no idea who is asking the question. For example. Is it a future politician who can benefit the elk hunter in the future? I do know. That all the locals are going to need us non-residents to fight with them to keep hunting and public lands open for all. How about we all just be respectful.

This is quite the stretch, yea I’ll give a future senator from Minnesota my unit info in the interest of preserving public land and hunting in Idaho hahaha. The hunter recruitment argument has been beat to death let’s not go there. If someone gets that hurt from some posts on a forum that they would stop hunting that’s says all I need to know about them.

 

[rtkbowhunter]

She I see these, i always think “you need to teach your kid some Lessons of reality (reality of hunting, reality of life), not do all of the work to drop a trophy in their lap just so they’ll share the same hobby as dad.”

I read a book by a successful whitetail hunter and he talked about how he taught his two sons. If they asked to go hunting, and only if they asked, the condition was they had to sit in a stand with him until noon. He would purposely take them to a spot where there was 0 chance of seeing a deer for their entire first season.

Not sure I agree with that rationale. When my son first started trout fishing I took him to the kids stretch on a local creek. Great stretch of water that the local sportman's club stocks very well. Every time we went the first year he would just hammer the trout. By the second year, he was fishing different parts of that stretch that were more difficult. Didn't catch as many, but it was fun watching him working the water like I taught him. By the third year, he wasn't having it. He wanted to fish the "real" water as he called it. That was 11 years ago. He's now 20 and I can't keep him off the streams. Same with bowhunting. I set up ground blinds and ladder stands in my best spots. He saw a ton of deer. Took a while before he was able to drop the string on one. Killed his first buck with a rifle when he was 12, again in one of my best spots. But he's hooked. He knows hunting and fishing isn't like his first year(s) where dad did the work. He scouts, hangs his own stands, calls me a pussy for sleeping in when it windy, cold and rainy. I'd rather they start with a ton of action, then be bored and possibly lose interest.

 

[mtjimbo]

Not sure I agree with that rationale. When my son first started trout fishing I took him to the kids stretch on a local creek. Great stretch of water that the local sportman's club stocks very well. Every time we went the first year he would just hammer the trout. By the second year, he was fishing different parts of that stretch that were more difficult. Didn't catch as many, but it was fun watching him working the water like I taught him. By the third year, he wasn't having it. He wanted to fish the "real" water as he called it. That was 11 years ago. He's now 20 and I can't keep him off the streams. Same with bowhunting. I set up ground blinds and ladder stands in my best spots. He saw a ton of deer. Took a while before he was able to drop the string on one. Killed his first buck with a rifle when he was 12, again in one of my best spots. But he's hooked. He knows hunting and fishing isn't like his first year(s) where dad did the work. He scouts, hangs his own stands, calls me a pussy for sleeping in when it windy, cold and rainy. I'd rather they start with a ton of action, then be bored and possibly lose interest.

Amen.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Carr5vols]

You're not worried that Carson fella is going to keep hunting that "honeyhole"? Or worse, bring some of his friends or girlfriend to it and then they make that their honeyhole? And now your honeyhole is just another hole with 50 dudes stomping around in it wondering where the hell the animals went and Carson is going to be bitching about "5 years ago this spot was awesome and now it's shit." That's what worries me.

He can keep hunting it, and really hope he has great success each year, and he did bring his gf to hunt it. I am ok with it. I trust him not to share the intel and has been more than appreciative of the information. I even invited him to my elk and turkey honey holes..you can meet some great people on this site and I am willing to help those people out.

Besides if it gets overran with people makes me go find more animals in different area and get to see new country. Thats what all this is about is seeing God's country killing an animal is just a bonus.

 

[Cahunter805]

So is this the wrong time to post if anyone has info on NM Unit 34 Elk?

I definitely think that many new members post and then most don’t return to even recap. I don’t have a problem with someone asking about a specific unit but it seems most tend to get more help when asking about specific locations such as a certain camp spot, trail, spring or tank. Do a little research about specifics then ask your questions.

 

[hobbes]

Wow. Did he get any Father’s Day cards?

That’s some stupid reasoning right there.
I brought my 2 kids up to work hard, put yourself in the best situation to succeed and the rewards will come.

I agree, sounds like the guy is a jackass. My kids have had to work, but I didn't intentionally make it miserable for them. That's got to be one of the dumbest ways of introducing someone to hunting that I've heard of. 'Sure, I'll take you hunting.......but it's gonna suck so bad you'll never go again...... you'll eventually love it as much as I do.'

 

[nphunter]

This is quite the stretch, yea I’ll give a future senator from Minnesota my unit info in the interest of preserving public land and hunting in Idaho hahaha. The hunter recruitment argument has been beat to death let’s not go there. If someone gets that hurt from some posts on a forum that they would stop hunting that’s says all I need to know about them.

I feel just to opposite I guess, I love helping other hunters out and hunter recruitment is more important than ever. I would say if you get your feelings hurt by someone asking for advice then you should probably delete your account on, Rokslide, Archerytalk, ifish, 24hr campfire, bowsite, monster muleys, etc. Most joined to either learn something about hunting or help others out or both. Why even come get on the forums if you don't want to give as well as receive info?

I have posted about some great hunts I've had and also asked about a lot of areas as well as given feedback to others on areas as well. I have more PM's on almost every forum than posts and half the friends in my contact list on my phone I met at one of the above sites. My buddy that comes out every year from PA to hunt with me I met on here and LRH when we were both researching a rifle hunt in the Frank Church, that was several years ago and we've hunted with each other almost every year since.

I've killed dozens of elk with both a bow and rifle as well as a pile of deer. I've given people some of my spots to hunt that I don't even know in hopes they would kill their first animal. My hunting partner or I have killed a 6 point bull in OTC units every year since 2013 in 5 different units and have only killed two of those in the same drainage. I find it laughable how mad people get about other people being on our public lands with us. A couple of of years ago on the last day of archery season, I had my wife set up calling for me and was working in on a big 6 point bull I'd been hunting all season, I finally had a plan that was working, she was set up across the drainage calling keeping him talking while I snuck in from above. When I started to get close I saw another hunter had posted up on the knob above the bull below me and was trying to call him out of the draw, I spent a lot of the season doing the same without success. Anyway, I walked over to them and offered to call for them if they wanted to get out in front of me and move in and I called for them. They ended up getting in range and when they nocked an arrow one of the cows spotted them and the elk blew out. That took up the last hunt of my season, while i was helping them my wife called in a nice broken off 6 point bull and sent me a picture of it. I have zero regrets trying to help the other hunter that I don't even know get a bull.

This year someone who also happens to be on this forum mentioned that they hunt the same general OTC unit that I hunt elk in here in Oregon. They mentioned they would love to be able to find and kill a big bull in that area. I thought about it for a minute and know that that person is always on the forums being helpful to others and offering good advice, because of this I decided to send them coordinates to 3 of my cameras on a ridge that I have 4 years of pictures on with a dozen six-point bulls, one which is at or above 350" on public OTC land. I also sent some video of the big bull I took and told the only stipulation is that if they kill the bull I want to see it.

I really enjoy helping others out and honestly, most people get so caught up on how bad hunting is due to all the people that they stop enjoying the hunt. Idaho is making a big push to minimize overcrowding and now Oregon is following suit by getting rid of OTC archery. All because of a bunch of belly aching just like this thread. To me losing any hunting opportunity is a huge loss that we will never get back, it takes very little effort to get away from people in almost every area I've ever hunted.

Here's a couple of pics from those cams I just gave away the location to, same as the bull in my Avitar from 2018. You help enough people out and you never know what you will get in return! I've also never gotten a single another hunter on any of these cameras in 4 years, all in an overcrowded, overhunted, OTC unit.

 

[Poser]

I agree, sounds like the guy is a jackass. My kids have had to work, but I didn't intentionally make it miserable for them. That's got to be one of the dumbest ways of introducing someone to hunting that I've heard of. 'Sure, I'll take you hunting.......but it's gonna suck so bad you'll never go again...... you'll eventually love it as much as I do.'

If I recall the details, both of his kids grew up hunting and became hunters on their own, though one of them was killed in a car wreck at a fairly young age.

 

[Bighorner]

Trust me when I say there are no new honey holes on public land there are only someone else's honey hole. You can say you will find a new and better spot, but the reality is in the lower 48 you will not be the first one to find it. It may have been left alone for a year or two, but it's not new.

 

[CJohnson]

If you're asking for details on a unit, I feel like you're asking the wrong questions. Just scroll back to previous years around the end of September through November and you can get all kinds of nuggets reading the lesson's learned that other people put up. IMO, that knowledge is much better than coordinates to where someone saw a huge bull two years ago.

 

[Hunt41]

This is quite the stretch, yea I’ll give a future senator from Minnesota my unit info in the interest of preserving public land and hunting in Idaho hahaha. The hunter recruitment argument has been beat to death let’s not go there. If someone gets that hurt from some posts on a forum that they would stop hunting that’s says all I need to know about them.

I’m not saying to give up your secrets. I’m saying, help a guy out. I get asked a ton about fishing Lake Erie. I always manage to help people out without giving up a honey hole.

 

[Ratbeetle]

I’m not saying to give up your secrets. I’m saying, help a guy out. I get asked a ton about fishing Lake Erie. I always manage to help people out without giving up a honey hole.

Just from a numbers perspective alone...fish and elk aren't even in the same zip code. How many spots on lake erie hold fish vs. how many spots in unit "X" hold elk.

We won't even get in to the amount of sweat equity required for each pursuit...by those standards it's not even the same galaxy.

This is the internet where things live on in perpetuity. You're not just giving info out to one guy, you're giving it to anyone who can google. And it's not just "your" spot...as has already been mentioned, you'd be burning locations for other guys too.

 

[nphunter]

I will say to everyone on here talking about their spots. The sooner you learn to not get caught up on spots the more successful you will be as a hunter. We used to hunt "spots" and wasted a lot of vacation and time I'll never get back hunting areas instead of elk.

Once we started hunting elk realtime our success went through the roof, sure there are spots that have sentimental value due to past experiences but that doesn't make them better spots. There are spots that we check for elk but we don't get caught up on any one particular spot ever.

 

[Elkdreamer]

I will say to everyone on here talking about their spots. The sooner you learn to not get caught up on spots the more successful you will be as a hunter. We used to hunt "spots" and wasted a lot of vacation and time I'll never get back hunting areas instead of elk.

Once we started hunting elk realtime our success went through the roof, sure there are spots that have sentimental value due to past experiences but that doesn't make them better spots. There are spots that we check for elk but we don't get caught up on any one particular spot ever.

This may be true. However, there are "spots" that produce every year.

 

[cnelk]

I have an email dedicated just to help people that send me a PM asking questions about a particular unit or area.
That email account has several hundred emails that I’ve sent to individuals.
Last count I’ve helped 18 guys take their first elk.

But I will never, Or will not, respond to an open forum with specifics about an area

 

[spike camp]

Very true. I think my post yesterday asking for access information to the Flat Tops may have motivated this thread. I wasn’t trying to get anybody’s “honeyhole” so to speak, but more or less what areas of unit 24 should I target for on foot access. I can understand the frustrations behind a post like that, but being I’m completely new to hunting that area of Colorado I wanted to get a better understanding of which area of the unit I should target when I fly out a few months early to scout. Essentially I wanted to make the most of the limited scouting time that I will have. I didn’t mean to piss in anyone’s Cheerios. I guess I’m doing it all wrong over here in Ky, I need to be more stingy with my Smallmouth fishing and Whitetail access info

I think what a lot of new comers to the west don’t quite realize, is that even mentioning a unit...let alone best access points into that unit, is basically asking for a honey hole.

Yeah, it’s not X creek to Y mountain...but it’s really close.
Plus, as already mentioned, just asking about a particular unit creates hits for the hundreds of guys out there looking for the same info.

 

[CBKY97]

I think what a lot of new comers to the west don’t quite realize, is that even mentioning a unit...let alone best access points into that unit, is basically asking for a honey hole.

Yeah, it’s not X creek to Y mountain...but it’s really close.
Plus, as already mentioned, just asking about a particular unit creates hits for the hundreds of guys out there looking for the same info.

Maybe I worded my question wrong. It wasn’t to be read as “where are good spots to access to find elk” but rather “where could one feasibly access this wilderness area on foot”. Maybe that answer is the whole damn thing, but I don’t know that. I don’t want to get to an area to scout and run into terrain that is rough even on horseback. I’m sure it came across as “give me your gps coordinates for elk locations and your favorite tree to shit behind” but that wasn’t what I was going for, and that probably was an error on my behalf.

 

[njdoxie]

Buddy of mine has harvested elk on his first 2 (and only 2) trips so not sure if this is 100% accurate. but i would tend to agree, there is a learning curve, for sure.

It's 99.9% accurate, your buddy is in that 0.1%, it's very uncommon for a novice hunter to get an elk without going with an experienced hunter.