Ran into a man who lives north of Hutchinson, KS who raises elk. He brings in hunters every year. This year he has an over abundance of bulls. No license is required since they are privately owned. This would not be as challenging of a hunt as would would get in the high country, but it would be great for a family hunt, youth and anyone who has difficulty mobility wise. There would be limited cow hunting but only in conjunction with hunting a bull. If interested you can contact Ernie Bishop
ernie33 @ sbcglobal.net (remove spaces for e-mail to work)
You can also post here and I will reply as soon as possible.

Concerning bulls:
7x8 (non-typical) bull scoring 330-350 range $4,000 7x8 scoring 340-360 for $4,200, Uniform 7x7 (320-340) $3900, 7x6 $3,800 (315-330), Wide 6x6 (320-340) $3800, 6x6 (340-360) $3900, small bodied 7x6 (315-335) $3500, 2-6x5's $1600, 6x6 $2000, and 2-5x5's $1500, 2-Raghorn bulls (5x4 $1100 & 4x4 $1000)

Are the price tags tied on the antlers so you don't get confused? Do the bulls have names? I'd hate to shell out 4 grand and find out I killed a bull named Buttermilk.

Jeff

Jeff,
No names, but they are numbered with ear tags for ID purposes. And the tags would be removed if you so desired for pictures. Keith will let you know what price range bull you are glassing.
This will not be as challenging/difficult of a hunt as what you would find in the mountains and it is not intended to be.
I hunt every year in SW CO for elk with a handgun on public land. We hunt in an area that cannot be accessed by trucks or four wheelers. You are either on horse or on foot. Since we don't own livestock we go in on foot and the pack out with frame packs the deboned quarters. This is one of the hardest ways to hunt elk, but it is not for everyone either.
Plans are for my 15 year old daughter to be able to hunt her first elk this year with a handgun without having to leave the state. She has taken two whitetail deer with a handgun the past two years and she enjoys hunting. Besides not having the time to be away from school for a week, there is no way she could handle the physical demands of where I typically hunt.

Let me see if I've got this figured right. I can shoot one of the 6X6 bulls for $2,000.00. Not spend $400.00 in travel expenses back and forth from where I live. Won't freeze my butt off in some outfitters tent for five nights. Taking a crap in the middle of the nite when it's so cold the logs break when they hit the bottom of the hole. Remembering of course I'm paying BIG bucks to have all this fun. I won't have to suck air as if I needed to be on an oxygen bottle. No more smelling gas from your new tent mate. Sleeping outside in the snow after the first night was a long considered thought. Four more nights. Lordy!! I shouldn't have to worrying about getting the meat to my freezer without spoilage. I wouldn't have to worry about being snowed in when I finally do make it back on horseback to the trailhead. I'll have to eat hot meals in a nice cosy resturant before and after the hunt. And do you mean, I'll also could be home in my own, snug, warm bed before midnight. Hummmmmmm...let me think about it for a minute. Does this include two free tickets to the Cosmosphere in Hutchison, KS also?

Fourtails,
I don't think Cosmophere Tickets are included--but you never know unti you ask.

Fourtails,

Your hunt sounds better, especially for a young hunter. I am not sure I would want my children on a hunt like that.

Doug

Well Brad, to call it hunting is a bit of a stretch. Sounds more like killing to me.

Anytime the outcome is guaranteed, how can you call it hunting? Let's call it what it is: killing. It is like comparing fly fishing on a blue ribbon stream to going to a trout pond where you pay by the inch. One is fishing, and the other is catching. Who wants to mount a fish from the later?

Good point DR! No one makes anyone go and kill one. If you don't like it you don't have to go!

I also prefer to shoot or grow my food. If I had a choice of walking out in a pasture and humanely killing an animal with one shot, versus going to a grocery store to buy a processed steak that was forced fed, raised in a feedlot, and ran through an assembly line to die in a pool of blood, I to would do the elk!

Not sure what you're saying there partner... never said it was anything like hunting...



I WAS AGREEING WITH JEFF'S VERY FUNNY STATEMENT ABOUT THE IDIOCY OF THIS SO-CALLED HUNT... there, I feel better...



Appartently remedial reading skills are in order here.

Sorry Jeff; I read your statement the other way. The word "drivel" referred to Jeff's statement, not to the original post.

I should have known a guy from Montana wouldn't be too keen on pen raised elk.

[Concerning bulls:
7x8 (non-typical) bull scoring 330-350 range $4,000 7x8 scoring 340-360 for $4,200, Uniform 7x7 (320-340) $3900, 7x6 $3,800 (315-330), Wide 6x6 (320-340) $3800, 6x6 (340-360) $3900, small bodied 7x6 (315-335) $3500, 2-6x5's $1600, 6x6 $2000, and 2-5x5's $1500, 2-Raghorn bulls (5x4 $1100 & 4x4 $1000)


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It is clearly evident by the price structure that this is a "trophy hunt" ,else it would be priced by the pound.
So relax all you rabid outdorsmen,this is a clear improvement.Convenience,no wasted time and effort,you can talk tough afterwards,you've done it,you got an elk on the wall

I remember when I considered any hunting out of stand, especially if it was by a feeder, not real hunting but shooting or harvesting, since I all I knew was mountain hunting for elk and mulies and plains hunting for antelope. Even in the mountains, anyone who used a four-wheeler or horses was basically cheating (even though they were using them in legal ways) because they were not willing to earn it. Real men, who hunt, packed in on frame-packs and packed their animals out on their own backs (with the exception of those who had physical limitations or age hindered them). Spot-n-stalk or still-hunting was the real way. Anyone could plop themselves on a trail and set-up with a good rest and it becomes about as easy as a prairie dog shoot. And people who relied on guides (where it wasn�t required by law) just were not committed and or lazy. They were just paying someone else to find the animals, lead it to them so they can shoot it.
Maybe I have gone soft, but I�m not that narrow minded or judgmental today. I understand those who feel that way though. I still hunt on public land, without a guide, pack my elk out on my back, but I sure don�t condemn those who use horses, 4-wheelers or stand-hunt. In fact, there are times where it would really be nice to have or horse. But there are a lot of people who for one reason or another whether it is time, health, age, or physical limitations cannot hunt the way many of you do. The reward I feel is the challenge and the experiences I have in prepping for a hunt and in the hunt itself and being with friends of like mind. Fenced in hunting (you may say shooting) is easier most of the time, than non-fenced hunting. I don�t deny that. But those who want to make hunting / shooting raised animals challenging, there are ways to make it more difficult than shooting a fish in a barrel.
BTW when my daughter hunts her cow elk this year (if it all works out where she can) it will be in a multi-section non-high fenced area. Will it still be as challenging as a wild animal on public land that has been pushed around for a month by hunters? No. But she will have to hunt to find it, make a stalk, and set up for the shot, and the put the bullet where it belongs. You may just call it shooting or killing and you are entitled to your opinion / definition of what hunting is or is not. But I believe before it is over that she will put as much effort into it as many people do stand hunting. And I will be proud of her in that although it is not necessarily cool to all of her friends that she hunts, she chooses to do so regardless and enjoys herself.

well written xphunter,
I find nothing to disagree with in your attitude.After all success and satisfaction in a hunt is a self imposed definition or hurdle,We have to and want to live with ourselves.If we "cheat" we cheat nobody but ourselves.

XP:

I hate quads myself, but I have noticed that owning one does not increase the chances of success.

There may be ways to make this plains elk hunt a bit more challenging, but at the end of the day there is little doubt in the outcome. That is why I call it shooting.

AZ,
I understand where you are coming from.

Where are the rules that say taking a legal weapon and harvisting an animal humanely, has to be a test of man hood? I am yet to read that rule anywhere. If I walk out in my back yard in the brush and shoot a rabbit is that hunting or shooting? Or do I need to walk in 3 feet of snow, in below zero temps all day, fight a bear hand to hand, wade a frozen river, climb to 10,000 feet then back to find the same rabbit to call it hunting?

Wow! You guys are going way overboard IMO. You never know, that game farm experience might just be the spark to light a fire for real hunting. I was raised road �hunting� and poaching but was able to find out for myself what hunting really was and would consider myself a benefit to the hunting community today. While I wouldn�t recommend the same start for everyone, that was the �crack of light� that led to the true outdoor/hunting/shooting experiences I value today, many of which don�t even revolve around a kill.

This offer doesn�t appeal to me either but if somebody wants to do something like that, give them a break!! After all, who would you rather walk in to the voting box next too, somebody who enjoys taking game on game farms or somebody who�s fallen away from outdoor activities due to all the opinionated jerks?

Tony: You took the words out of my mouth. If success is 100%, it isn't hunting. It is shooting. Is it legal? I guess so. So what?

Nebraska: Your logic is a bit hard to swallow...so if a guy can't shoot pen raised elk he will vote anti-hunting? That is a pretty big jump.