EKM

For the most part I am a meat hunter.I'd hunt the first day giving a bull opportunity a chance before taking a cow instead.... a lot depends on the action as I've seen as many as 500 in a day and as few as 15; one kind of has to play his hand accordingly. Elk hunting (for me) embodies so much more than just the killing partthat Iprefer to get that part taken care of promptly, that way Icanmove on to the packing out of the elk meat (horses) [my favorite], packing out the spike camp (horses) [not so much], doing thebutchering [runner up to packing outmeat], and then some partying thrown in (it takes a lot of beer to butcher an elk).

The season we hunt is a whopping5 days long andone's odds are by far the best the first day in this very high pressure public area, after that the elk get real scarce (smart). Since thehighest number ofhunters are out in the woods working for us thefirst day, it pays to take advantage of all that free labor and get while the getting is good. I've done the "full season" hunt to the last minute of the last hour of the last day and I've done the "get the job done on day one" hunt.I'll take the latter (kinda like the old "I've been rich and I've been poor and rich is better" line.)

For our group, elk hunting strategyis more military/tribal in nature, i.e."get 'er done" so we hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast, hit 'em often. We usually get our share of "five day folks" stopping by camp to check out the handiwork once the leg bones start piling up outside the front of the wall tent during the butchering process.

IMHO a hunt don't have to be a long hunt to be a good hunt. Different strokes for different folks I guess.