tatonka

That's a tough one. Like most folks, I love hunting whitetails and that's still what I mostly hunt. I've killed elk, antelope, caribou, and moose. From those I've hunted I'd have to give the not to moose with caribou a close second. Why? Mostly because where they live. Hunting moose and caribou is an adventure. It's an adventure just getting to where you hunt them (talking Canada). I love being in the wilderness and the further from a town, the better. I'd love to hunt sheep, but can't seem to draw a tag here in Montana and I can't afford a sheep hunt in Canada, Alaska, etc.

As far as killing a mature animal, there is no doubt that killing a mature whitetail is more difficult than a moose or caribou but that's just part of the reason I like to hunt. If you've never hunted a place where you are totally cut off from the outside world (no phone, no tv, no radio, etc.) for 10 days or so, you owe it to yourself to have that experience. Warning: It's addictive.

I didn't know a turkey was considered a big game animal.

Oldtimr

I would have thought with a screen name of Tatonka, one of those you listed would have been an American Bison.

flags

I can relate to that!

Bob H in NH

I hunt mostly whitetails, being from NH they are the only game in town, other than Turkey or the long odds moose tag.

Whitetails are my LEAST favorite game to hunt. To much sitting and waiting.

I'd much rather chase elk, mulie and antelope. Antelope are a blast, but nothing beats a bugling bull elk coming into bow range.

younggun308

When I first began hunting, my answer would have unequivocally been "turkey." I had hunted whitetail deer, but hated sitting in a tree stand all day. I'd hunted mule deer in open country, too, but the lack of cover in Northwest Nebraska makes them very much herd animals that may be on your property one day, but never return the rest of the week. Plus, they aren't difficult to spot. Turkeys, meanwhile, speak to you while you're waiting on them to show up.

But since I began still hunting 3 years ago, I have come to love hunting whitetail deer more than anything else. There is no dull moment. Each step is a strategic move; each sound is a new possibility; and each kill is the result of improvising to get to the right place at the right time, despite the fact that wasn't where you started out or maybe where you planned to end up.

Alsatian

Elk in mid-October at 11500 feet in Colorado. Sleeping in a canvas wall tent heated by a wood burning stove.

younggun308

Pardon me if it is a dumb question, but how do you haul all that into the backcountry? Is it feasible to get it and an elk out on foot, or do you only bring a stove and large tent when you have pack animals?

flags

In many of the areas in the west you can get pretty far back in with a good 4x4 pickup. What we do is go in by vehicle as far as we can and set up a main camp that consists of a couple of wall tents, stoves etc... That's the base. Then we go farther back in and set some smaller spike camps and rotate between them. The base camp usually stays up for about 3 weeks unless the weather goes south. One year we had to pull out and the camp stayed until the next summer when we could get back in. This happened when a 40 inch blizzard blew through in early Oct and effectively shut down the high country for the winter.

As to getting it out, I've packed a number of elk out on my back. I bone them where they hit the ground and only bring out edible meat (and antlers if the law requires it) and I leave the guts, bones, skin etc... for the coyotes. An average mature bull elk will weigh about 600 lbs and an average mature cow will go about 400. Only about 42% of that weight is edible meat. So I can get a bull out in 4 trips and a cow in 3. I carry a packframe with me so the first load comes out right after the kill. The farthest I've packed an elk was 6 miles one way. That was a really big 5x5 and it took me 4 trips and 2 full days. Of the 25 elk I've shot I've only been able to drive to 2 of them and the rest came out via packframe and ankle express. It is a lot different than just skidding a 150 whitetail out of a wood lot.

Alsatian

Pretty much what Flags said. We drive in with 4x4 trucks (my partner uses a F-150; I use a Chevy Suburban with a 4x4 package). We park at the end of the road and pitch our tent about 50 feet from our vehicles. We walk in 1 mile - 3 miles to find and hunt the elk.

If we kill an elk, we cut it up on the spot and pack out the pieces. Different people do this in different ways. I cut the lower legs off where they meet the thigh/shoulder and throw then away. I have found that lower leg meat is not very fun to deal with -- it is full of tendons and tough. I skin the up-side of the elk, remove the thigh in one piece, remove the shoulder in one piece, remove the up-side backstrap, remove the two tenderloins. If it is a cow, I roll the carcass over. If it is a bull, I remove the antlers, and then roll it over. I then do the same thing on the opposite side. It can be challenging to roll an elk over on your own, by the way. The meat is cut off the up-side, but it all remains on the underside, and you are having to lift that one way or the other to roll the elk over. It may be desirable to spin the elk around 180 degrees where it lies to make it easier to roll it over. I remember I cut up my partner's elk for him one year by myself, it was a biggish 6x6, and I had a very hard time rolling it over because of its size. Possibly this is partly difficult because it can be awkward to grab something to turn it over.

Some people debone the meat to remove the femur bone and shoulder bone to make the carry out of the elk meat easier. I prefer to leave these bones in to make the lives of my hunting partners more miserable when helping to carry my meat out. Just jokin there! I prefer to leave the bones in because I think the meat stays fresher that way (the part of the meat that is next to the bone and the meat that you cut through to get at the bone can be exposed to the air after you remove the bone). Also, I make a considerable quantity of elk broth with the bones and waste pieces of meat back home when I butcher my elk. A thigh with bone in it weights about 60 LBS to 70 LBS. A shoulder with bone in it weights about 30 LBS to 35 LBS. These weights are based on my experience. Hauling out a 60 LBS pack isn't too bad, but it does let you know you have carried a load. One of my partners hauled his elk out on his own in two trips in 2016. That was impressive. He is considerably younger than I am and lives at 6500 feet. Even so . . . very impressive. He may have done this in one day, I don't remember.

Muley Hunter

Without a second thought. Colorado elk.