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Thread: Last Hunt

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Kamloops
    Posts
    119

    Re: Last Hunt

    Thanks for the great story. Already have a new plan for next year, that's awesome

  2. #32
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Kootenays
    Posts
    4,570

    Re: Last Hunt

    Great photos Bugle. That is a nice area to hunt. The steepness of the terrain does make you work for it. I hear your frustration. I don't think in the East Kootenay, we've ever had a solid handle on population numbers. In the 90's, population numbers were picked (at random) and we've been managing on trends of adult male harvest ever since. We do have a more recent study done which cited 14,500 elk in the trench. This study was more detailed.

    I agree with you, with low numbers in the back country, elk calves are really at risk due to predators. That's where the population is impacted. Calf mortality.

    Whatever the number of elk there is, when Gov now says, the have 5,000, and they want 8500, that number of elk is going to leave a lot of good habitat void of elk. Elk are a path of least resistance animal. If there is plenty of food and water in the front country, and it's probably got less predators (generally) and close to ranchers fields (if they can get in), elk will remain in the front country. Many won't establish the habit of migrating into the back country. And with human intervention, highways, railways, settlement, we interrupt their movement. We have to work toward higher numbers in the front country so that some of them will move to the back country. JMHO.

    For me, 8500 elk as a target population really says, Government is listening to the ranching community. The high fencers. I want 30,000 elk in the R4. Relative to the land and it's ability to support that many, I don't think it's unreasonable.

    Thanks for the story and details.

  3. #33
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,515

    Re: Last Hunt

    Great thoughts J-T.^^^^^
    I hope if anything, people (hunters of BC and elk nuts) take the time to read and digest your post!
    I know my stories and posts can get long winded, but if everyone can just read your post, it is the first step in everyone understanding the situation as it is right now, and worse, what is in store for us hunting elk, if the government heads on the plans they have set, unless we do
    everything to start pushing back.

    As for my thoughts on the area I hunt and it's issues, it is speculation on my part for sure, but it is a place I have learned to become very
    familiar with over many years, and also the included time my father had before I joined him.
    It also includes the general consensus of the hunters I run into in the area, that have also spent many hours with boots on the ground.
    Please understand everyone that each area is different and has it's own nuisances, but I don't think I am too far off (like J-T states) on where
    the elk are hanging, those that still exist.

    Here's to the future of EK elk hunting in BC for future generations, and I hope a post like mine helps get people "more involved".
    And thanks for the kind words folks, much appreciated.
    And a thanks to my dad, because without him, I wouldn't be posting this stuff to begin with.

  4. #34
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Now in Onterrible
    Posts
    884

    Re: Last Hunt

    Great recount of your trip BMI, and thanks for the photos.

    Your thoughts and opinions on the current locations of the elk, and reasons why, are similar to those I experienced while on an elk LEH in 1-10 a few years ago. The elk seemed to be hanging around closer to civilization than I would have expected, or thought. But the deeper we pushed into the valley, all sign of elk disappeared. Actually, all sign of everything disappeared, except for wolves. For the week we were in there, we cut across only one set of mule deer tracks in the snow, and that was it. It was actually quite unreal how much wolf sign was present.
    Drinking rum before 10 a.m. does not mean you are an alcoholic, it means you are a pirate.

  5. #35
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    347

    Re: Last Hunt

    Great read, thanks for the story and the pics

  6. #36
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Posts
    2,478

    Re: Last Hunt

    Awesome pics and write up.
    Too many people let black bears walk because they have a “ they mostly eat grass “ mentality. All ungulates in the area would benefit if you guys would have taken 2-5 more bears. The black bear population, where I hunt in the elk valley is down compared to 10yrs ago but that’s because we have way too many grizzlies. I also need to start shooting bears again.....maybe next spring I’ll take a couple.

  7. #37
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,515

    Re: Last Hunt

    Quote Originally Posted by j270wsm View Post
    Awesome pics and write up.
    Too many people let black bears walk because they have a “ they mostly eat grass “ mentality. All ungulates in the area would benefit if you guys would have taken 2-5 more bears. The black bear population, where I hunt in the elk valley is down compared to 10yrs ago but that’s because we have way too many grizzlies. I also need to start shooting bears again.....maybe next spring I’ll take a couple.
    I would recommend anybody wanting to hunt Black Bear, to definitely think about next spring.
    Speaking to the butcher in Invermere, bears are all over the place right now he says, and I also agree on another point of his, this will lead
    to sickly bears if say the berry crop is terrible next summer!
    Then it is going to get interesting during the fall for those bears and human interactions for sure.

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