One of these days I am going to get it together to hunt elk on a traditional horseback into back country style hunt. I am looking for reccomendations from those who have done it and had a good experience( or those who didn't and want to prevent another from having a similar experience). I am not looking for booking agents but hunters who have done this type of hunt. Thanks. "D"

D Hunter, I did my first horseback elk hunt in 89 and immediately fell in love with the whole spectrum of what it entails.
It was in the Alberta Rockies and was in a wilderness area which allows no motorized vehicles, so it was as close to traditional as possible. Granted, the ride to the trailhead was in a truck hauling the horse trailer and wagon, but once at the trailhead, things seemed to go back about 100 years. There was about a 12 or 14 mile ride into the campsite, following the buckboard, which was driven by the cook and her bear dogs (grizzly country). I know I was fooling myself, but riding thru the mountains, on a good saddle horse with my rifle in a scabbard, and an outfitter who not only talked the talk but walked the walk, and lived here 365 days a year was just like re-living some of the stories I had read. Camp was on a moutain ledge with a creek runnin in front of it, could scope from the tent, horses corralled just below us, good food smells coming from the cook tent-traditional cooking done in old fashioned methods. Small stove in my tent to keep frost off me if I wanted. Up long before dawn, coffee in an enamel cup that burned your lips, breakfast that would feed three men: bacon, flapjacks, eggs, hash brown potatoes etc. While eating breakfast, the horses were being saddled and readied. Mount up in darkness, ride anywhere from 2 to 10 miles before daylight, tying off in timber, and climbing to timberline for glasssing in the early morning alpenglow where everything is golden tinted and sparkling. Working way into position to close check out herd, watch a grizzly, see eagles soaring overhead, watch a mule deer pick it's way across a mountain meadow-you can really believe you are the first person to ever sit in that spot or to see that mountain or meadow.

I have been out several times since then, and have seen many mountain ranges, each one more beautiful or breathtaking than the one you saw two days ago, I have seen Chinooks come in and melt away a weeks snow in a couple hours, I have also seen a storm catch us and turn a bluebird day into -35 degrees and two feet of snow within a couple hours.
We have had grizzlies in the camp and tussle with the dogs, have had a bull moose fall in love with my horse while I'm in the saddle and it's pitch black dark--that gets interesting! Have caught cutthroat trout at elevations that make you wonder how there is enought oxygen for them to breath.
All this without ever running into another hunter or hiker, and the only mechanical sound you ever hear is that of the odd plane flying overhead.
City live sucks after a couple weeks of this.

Go ahead and make your plans-a traditional hunt is the only way to sooth your sould.

Wow, Tom that was the kind of post I was looking for . How many times have you been back? Who did you go with? Sounds like you had a great time. "D"

D Hunter, have been out 3 more times, and each time gets better than the last.
I've been with Dewy Matthews, out of Black Diamond Alberta. I've had nothing but great times (except for some personal medical setbacks) while I was there. He and his crew, horses and gear are all top notch. Here is his website-his wife is quite modern and up to date technically, while he still lives the old way.

http://www.anchord.com/

I truely believe the traditional horseback hunt is something every hunter should at least try once in their life. I have heard of some excellent horseback hunts in your western Rockies as well, but can't comment personally on them.

Tom

I have to second every word Tom describes.I wouldnt consider wasting my time and money on a road hunt or other "efficient" way to get to the quarry.Yes I like to be successful but years after the hunt I carry in my mind the experience surrounding or of the hunt,not the kill or the steaks.I can still hunt in a "wilderness" away from TV etc,never miss it.Love the ride every day,enjoy the sights- makes you feel live is worth living.I had 3 horse hunts in Idaho in the Frank Church Wilderness for elk,I think the area is somewhat overhunted,meaning trophies are hard to come by,but the experiences and camps are super.I had also successsful elk/deer hunts in Colorado and New Mexico,They were so-so,horses were used as transportation but we were not in the vast unspoiled areas ,used rented ranch land so to speak.Didnt like it.

Best advice: if you like to live,do it-
who knows whether next year is too late
I work all year - waiting for the few weeks in the fall to ride in the mountains.The pain does not last,the money is gone,the experience lives forever.

sheephunter

Get ahold of Dallas Ferrier of Hotchkiss or Paonia, CO. He's in the white pages. Note the last name is FE not FA.

His father ran horseback elk hunts into West Elk Wilderness Area for many, many years and Dallis took over maybe twenty years ago.

The hunts usually last a week. You won't see or hear an engine for that week. You might see one other hunting party.

It's well worth the cost, but he's usually booked well ahead. I went with my brothers and nephews - an unforgetttable experience.

Don

Sheephunter, know where you're coming from. The outfitter I mentioned hunts approx. 1200 square miles of his territory, which backs right up onto the continental divide, so that tells you it's pretty remote. He only has 4 elk hunters in a year, so hunting pressure is almost nil. It's strickly trophy hunting: 6 point bulls or better, which weeds out the wannabees.
You are absoulutely right on when you speak of memories, I have some photos that all it takes is a look at, and I can re-live the hunt. I have one picture taken up on the Sheep River range where I had been watching a small herd of sheep with a full-curl ram in it.
You can't see the sheep in the picture, but I know exactly where they are and can visualize them again as I watched them thru a 40x scope, feeding away without a care in the world.

Things like that don't come easy, but are well worth the price. I still want to go back one more time and have a go at the 360+ bull that out foxed me, I really don't want to settle for less than him-not an ego thing, just magnificence personified.
If I wanted to road hunt, I can stay home and do it.

Tom

I did the horse back elk hunt back in 86..went in the Sellway Bitterroot Wilderness Area out of Darby Montana.
We were going to be smart and get by a little cheaper by letting a guide from previous hunt set everything up for us during the summer...probably ended up costing twice as much as if we had gone in with an outfitter....but the experience was well worth it.
We rented 10 horses for a month (could only get 9 to load) and I know we bought enough equipment to outfit and outfitter...Cook tent, 2 spike tents, main tent, stoves, pack saddles, cots, the whole works...anyway except for riding through a yellow jacket nest on a trail way to narrow to turn around, and the pack horses trampling over the guide who was leading them and breaking one of his ribs...it was a good hunt, and some very beautiful country.

D Hunter,

I live in western MT and have hunted elk on horseback for 30 years. The replies you received are spot on for the "adventure" of the trip. Please don't expect to see lots of game and your chances of harvesting an elk are less than 30%.

Your money would be better spent on a summer back-country fishing trip. These trips are the best medicine for families.

Ski+3

Tom,
You couldn't be more right!!! Your recollections bring back wonderful memories of similar hunts in Montana, Wyoming and BC.The best of all was a goat hunt in southeast BC....just me and my guide with horses and gear....10 days in the wilderness.The memories alone are worth many times the cost of the hunt.

Phil, yep, been there done that, and it is pretty great isn't it? If you hunted the southeast corner of B.C., you would be just across the border from where I've hunted in south west Alberta. I've had the honour of hunting right up onto the continental divide, matter of fact, I've walked over into B.C.
I get these mixed feeling about these high-mountain horseback hunts, selfishly, I'd like to keep them all to myself,(I think of them as spiritual trophies) but yet I really wish all hunters could share and enjoy the experience--kind of a delima.

Anyway it's good to share experiences and feelings with other hunters who have the same appreciations.

Tom

Hello D

I went once with Jack Hooker in Ovando, MT. Excellent trip, worth doing again if the money's ever there. We spent a week in the back country, no distractions, hunted every day from can't-see to can't-see. It got chilly, wash the oil out of your rifle before you go so the bolt doesn't freeze up; one fellow had an elk in his sights and the firing pin wouldn't move.

Tom

Tom B.,
The last one I did was a horseback elk hunt in the Bridger Wilderness area of Wyoming and the next one hopefully is going to be a 10 day mixed bag in the Yukon. I'm not antisocial but I much prefer the company of my guide and our horses and nobody else on these wilderness trips. Nothing spoils the "religous" feeling like a crowd.

------------------
Phil- Life Member NRA & SCI