Back from the hunt

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ABert
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Back from the hunt

Post by ABert » Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:04 pm

Well, actually got back home a couple of days ago from our annual CO elk hunt. Tag draws were a bit mixed up this year as my brother and his wife drew 3rd season and the other four of us drew 4th season, though in two different units. All cow tags this year, no deer tags. My dad and I went up early to help my brother and his wife out on their hunt. Good thing we did, they both got their elk. I was up front on both elk with my drag. First one was about a mile and a half drag, all down hill thankfully. The second one I was able to get about 30 feet from it with the Blazer.

Come to find out the other two hunters cancelled out on us do to work cancelling their vacation time. Good thing my brother took the time off to help out as my dad is 78 and not much help when it comes to getting critters out of the woods. I ended up getting my elk on the 3rd day and my dad didn't want to go down to his unit to hunt. His hip was hurting him pretty much the whole time we were up there.

If I posted these up correctly, the first pic is of me with my cow and the second pic is of my brother's elk in the back of my Blazer. I've had some folks tell me there is no way you can fit an elk in the back so thought I'd take a pic to prove them wrong. Best guess is both elk fall somewhere between 450-550 lbs on the hoof, probably around 350-400 lbs field dressed. We use a sled to get them out so the dragging isn't bad, particularly when down hill with snow. Getting one of these critters into the back of a slightly lifted Blazer with only two people is a major PITA, though.

Dropped the elk of at my processor yesterday and should have the meat in the freezer no later than Monday evening. Good thing as we are down to one last pack of ground and two packs of backstrap.
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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by m gardner » Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:19 pm

Nice elk. Good hunt. I love my sled too!!
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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by derekp1999 » Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:44 pm

Clever use of the SUV, if I were to do that to the wife's Explorer... I'd be single. I just filled my antlerless tag as well & filled the freezer. :))
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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by AGCHAWK » Sun Nov 28, 2010 1:32 pm

VERY NICE ABERT!!! CONGRATS

FYI: I had a Blazer for years and LOVED that rig. Although I never threw a whole elk in it, I've had some big bucks in there...and one year we stuffed two in at the same time. Great little hunting rigs and I could go places in it that full-sized trucked could not.

Never should have gotten rid of that rig!
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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by speedgoat » Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:31 am

Dragging? Have you read about the gutless method? You barely break a sweat. sled or no sled I am never interested in moving another entire elk around on the ground.

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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by pistelme » Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:04 pm

Great job on putting a bunch of meat in the freezer!

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ABert
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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by ABert » Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:09 pm

Picked up the meat yesterday and the freezer is happy once again.

Funny thing happened at the processors. Another guy was there to pick up, I assume, a deer with his 10-12 year old daughter in tow. He grabbed his little 48 quart cooler and just happened to see the amount of meat I had in my two coolers, one a 140 quart and the other a 160 quart (or around those sizes, forget the exact measurements). I was going through the different bags with the butcher and this guy was surprised to find out it all came from one animal.

I told him no, this all came from just one animal. He asked what it was and I told him a medium sized cow elk. Without missing a beat his daughter stated quite firmly, "Daddy, I want to shoot an elk."

I had to chuckle under my breath as my son and I loaded the coolers up and drove off.


As for why do we drag? Well, I kind of like to skin the animal as a whole. I have in the past kept the hides and had them tanned. I've got probably around a dozen or more elk hides and probably half a dozen deer hides right now. Just need to figure out what to do with them one of these days. Plus, using a sled makes getting an elk out pretty easy, comparatively. We also keep a good portion of the bones for the dogs. I like to use as much of the animal as I can with as little waste as possible. I've seen too many elk and deer remains that have had the quarters cut off along with the backstrap, leaving the neck, ribs and spine. Plenty of waste right there IMHO. I respect these animals too much to leave that much meat behind.
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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by BIG R » Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:15 pm

Lots of good eat'n right there :thumb

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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by fatrooster » Thu Dec 02, 2010 11:35 pm

Congratulations on a great hunt. Love all of the pockets you have on the back of your SUV seats. You truley know how to use space. fatrooster.

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Re: Back from the hunt

Post by ABert » Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:44 am

fatrooster wrote:Congratulations on a great hunt. Love all of the pockets you have on the back of your SUV seats. You truley know how to use space. fatrooster.
They are Smittybilt G.E.A.R. seat covers and I love them! The two cubby holes in the back are inaccessible when the back seats are down and I tend to keep them down most of the time. Plus, not a lot of storage space in the entire vehicle, these seat covers were pretty much a no brainer. I've got all kinds of stuff packed into the pockets from first aid gear to winch control to CB radio plus more.
It ain't the size of the gun but the placement of the bullet.

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