Well I just got back and no elk. My outfitte and guide did a very good job of everything except I'm not sure that my guide really knew how to hunt elk. Perhaps some of the more experienced elk hunters here can put in their two cents worth. My guide was pretty much a horseman. His idea of how to hunt elk was just to ride around until you bumped into them. The first day, our camp was at ten thousand feet, it was pretty foggy out, yet my guide wanted to take me up to a pass where believe it or not, we couldn't see anything. So that shot day one.
The second day was clearer and we came over a pass and say a group of elk about a mile away. My guide was completely stumped as to how to approach them as he said that we couldn't just ride the horses down as the elk would see us. After a long pause, I suggested that perhaps if I started out on foot, I could use the available terrain to stalk the elk. He thought that that was a pretty good idea so I started my stalk. Halfway to the elk I surprised another group of elk and got a quick, difficult shot which I missed. While I was checking to see if I hit the elk or not, my guide, sitting on his horse, tried to signal me by shooting his pistol in the air. His horse subsequently spooked, threw him, and dragged him for some distanced across rocky terrain. When I got back from searching for my missed elk, he had no horses and we had to hike back to camp, about 10-12 miles. The end of day two.
The next day my guide was too beat-up from being dragged to hunt.
The following day we went back up to where we initially saw the elk, but saw nothing.
The last day it was snowing, yet my guide insisted on talking me up to that high pass again, where believe it or not, we saw nothing again, because of the snow storm.
So in about a six day hunt, I only got about two days of real hunting. I've never hunted elk before, but, it seems to me that if you have fog or snow, that going up in altitutde into the worsening weather is not a real smart thing to do. My guide, although a very nice person, really didn't know how to stalk or find elk. He seemed perplexed about when the elk "would come down". Other then just ride the horses around until you bumped into them, he really didn't know any other technique to hunting and finding elk. So was this a reasonable way to hunt elk?? Or is there a better way to approach it. I've heard of some people who hunt well by walking. They have horse support for the camp and packing out the elk carcass.
So tell me, was this a reasonable hunt, or was I with someone who perhaps wasn't fully versed in all aspects of hunting elk?
