Free Republic

Seven miles in to our do-it-yourself wilderness elk hunt, I was growing discouraged with the number of hunters my buddies and I were seeing. Then, at about the 13-mile mark, camps began to dwindle. Leading our pack string of horses five more miles, we found the isolation we desired. That night – two days before opening day of Wyoming's archery season – the mountains were alive with bugling bulls. On opening morning, the three of us hiked four more miles, to over 9,000 feet in elevation. By 9 a.m., two of us had big bulls down, with the third member...

"You sound like a human when you walk," he whispered as we hiked away from camp and onto a snow-covered trail in the predawn darkness. “KA-runch, KA-runch – no animal sounds like that.” It was the first of countless insights Jim Kujala shared when we started hunting together years ago. The Montana native and Spokane Valley resident has well-honed ways about the woods, including walking with a “clop, clop,” like an elk. Classically clad from head to toe in wool – pants, hat, gloves and plaid shirt and jacket (no camo) – he’s quiet as a cougar slipping through the...

This giant elk takes epic tumble down the side of steep mountain. It’s rough country. That’s no secret. The hunters who successfully hunt elk are typically well-prepared for the fact that they will face some interesting terrain throughout their endeavors. That may involve spotting and stalking up and down the mountains of Colorado. It may involve spotting scopes and long-range shots in big sky of Montana. Heck, it could mean 20 degrees with a foot of snow one day and 70 degrees the next. Likely, it’ll fall somewhere in between all of those. For these hunters, it meant a long-range...

This hunter nailed an 875-yard elk killer shot with a rifle chambered in .308 Winchester on day two of their hunt. These hunters noticed a herd of elk feeding on a hillside two canyons away. After observing the herd for a little bit, the hunter selected a yearling cow out of the herd to shoot. He passed on the larger cows because he knew they would have a heck of a hike to get the meat out of the woods afterwards. In any case, they settled in, and he squeezed off his shot, which resulted in an 875-yard elk kill....

A story about a young man named Chase Dellwo from Montana was out elk hunting, he comes across a bear. It's unknown if the bear was asleep, irregardless the bear was pissed and attacked the man. You can read the rest of the story here, along with other more conventional bear survival tactics.

Doing some additional homework and traveling the extra distance can often yield private-land results to public-land whitetail huntersHunting public land can be very frustrating when it comes to deer hunting. It's difficult to be cruising social media and see private-land hunters talk about how many deer they saw during a recent hunt. On public land, you're sometimes lucky to even see a deer over a week's period of time. With all the frustrations and challenges, it is not impossible to harvest a buck on public land. In fact, I've had opportunities to take a legal buck every season for the...

Before you read this story I would like to put emphasis on a couple of points. First and foremost, if you go hunting (especially in a remote area) always go with a partner. If something happens to you, the chances of getting out of trouble increase by having a buddy go with you. I would never go hunting alone, it's just too darn dangerous. Secondly, if you do hunt alone, always take a satellite phone, or a GPS locator with you. If you are hurt and cannot get back to civilization, at least you can let someone know exactly where...

Here's a clip from WildTV Hunter Troy and Jack Link of Jack Links Beef Jerky, They're in northern California hunting down this monster Tule elk. Key takeaways from the Link boys is that thinking ahead and waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger, patience and precision was the key for a successful hunt. See the video here.

This video highlights a hunter not being careful while dressing this bull elk. Tip is, always guide the blade with your fingers so as to push the gut bag away, and make sure that the knife point isn't close to the bag. Anyone have this problem or accident before? Watch the video here.