Hey you dirt bag, that's "MY" elk!

[WapitiTalk1]

Has anybody had a bear (or even another predator) lay claim to their elk kill before you had completely packed all the meat back to camp? Were you able to get the slime bag off your kill, or, did you have to just call it a day and sacrifice the rest of the meat to the predator?

[KFhunter]

Better to suspend the meat in bags well away from the gut pile or carcass if gutless method.  I carry bags and rope for that.

had a black bear claim my deer once, but by the time I got to it most of the deer was gone, thought it would be safe over night, shot at last light, I kept hunting, bear kept what was left.


Elk should be different story, bear wouldn't be able to eat 3/4 of it in one night.

[lamrith]

Sounds like a great way to fill your bear/cougar tag...   

You all carry your predator tags too right.....

[Bob33]

I had coyotes chewing on an elk's gut pile last fall when I came back to retrieve another load. I also had a golden eagle eat a portion of a deer that I shot.

[WSU]

I had coyotes eat part of a deer that someone in my group shot.  It was not a great shot and right at dark in the rain/snow mix.  Rather than push it, we came back at first light and found the deer partly eaten.  Most was still good though.

[wadu1]

Had a cougar drag my deer down a road about 50 yards.  All it ate was the heart and liver that I had stashed in the body cavity. It all happened in an hour or so. I was hunting Vancouver Island with cousins with two more tags in my pocket. We were looking for the other 3X3 that was running with the one I tagged.

[NOCK NOCK]

Not an elk, but we had a deer that we gave 2 hours to before tracking, mid morning time. Deer only made it 60yards on its own, bear drug it another 50 before having a butt snack. Nephew almost got a shot on the bear.

[ljsommer]

I like this thread.

[jennabug]

I like this thread.

Me too. Following.

[Timberdog]

Killed the bear that had my elk quarters scattered all over after leaving it over night.

[wa_archer]

Had a deer that I shot at last light came back in next morning and butt eaten out of it.  Figured Coyotes or Bear never saw anything they were gone before i got to it in the AM.  Still got it but lost a decent amount of meat.

[big wood]

Had a pine marten chewing on some elk meat but he didn't eat much

[yorketransport]

Sounds like a great way to fill your bear/cougar tag...   

You all carry your predator tags too right.....

That was my first thought!

I got called out one moring to help my father in law retrieve a deer he shot late in the evening the night before. I had already filled my deer tag so I didn't bring a rifle, just a little 10" 30 Herrett Contender in a shoulder holster. When we got to his deer there was a bear shuffling away from the carcass. I couldn't have made the shot off hand with the pistol and my father in law was behind me about 15 yards with his rifle. If I would have had a rifle in my hands though it would have been a dead bear!

[bkaech]

I’ve had ravens pick a little on 1/2 a bear that was left overnight after packing out 1/2 of it. But I’ve never had problems with anything touching the meat and we’ve left plenty of quarters out overnight. If anything comes that night they usually eat the gut pile, lungs, soft tissue stuff.

[71Shovelhead]

Lost an entire deer to the profanity peak pack near Malo Wa. Shot it at last light was back at first light. Head, four legs and a chunk of hide were left. They really drug that thing around. The ground was torn up with paw prints. This was before I even knew of the pack.

[j_h_nimrod]

Had a friend arrow one at last light out of Manson and bumped it once so backed off n went back first light. Coyotes had eaten ~90%of the animal.  He took the horns and they were even gnawed.

My Weimaraner pup was able to stand on her hind legs and eat ~2lbs of rump in about 5 minutes, but that is the closest I can recall.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

My brother shot a moose in Alaska at last light and got it gutted. Came back the next day with an airboat to haul it out and it was gone but there was a well defined drag mark in the moss. They followed it a few hundred yards and came upon a brownie that was laying next to a big pile of dirt and brush. They ran the brownie off with the airboat and went back to the pile and could see an antler sticking out. They got the moose out and salvaged most of it. The bear had drug it about 300 yards.

Another time I took a friend deer hunting on Kodiak and he shot his first deer and was tickled to say the least. We brought it to town where we were staying with a friend about three blocks from the Kodiak Post Office. He had a wooden shed in his back yard and we skinned the deer and hung it to age until the day we flew out. The friend we were staying with went out to quarter it and box it the morning we were leaving and came running back in the house to tell us a bear had chewed the deer in half and taken the hind quarters. We went out and sure enough the door had been busted in. It had scartch marks all around it. Then it had evidently closed behind the bear when it was chewing on the deer, as it had busted out one of the walls on the shed to get out with the goods. Darn bears never seem to leave the same way the come in. Anyway, we called fish and game and a trooper came over to investigate and he found what was left of the hind quarters a couple hundred yards behind the house. They were in no shape to salvage, so we went home with only half of that deer.

[wapitislayer]

Our hunting group in Idaho had elk quarters scattered a couple different times so we started leaving a can or two of kodiak chew opened around the meat and we have had no animals messing around with the meat

[shallowforks]

Coyotes demolished a doe i shot with my recurve. Waited 1 hr before tracking and tracking took 45 min. I started seeing coyote tracks following the blood trail and it appeared that the doe started running again so im pretty sure they were on it before it expired. Less than 2 hours from shot to recovery and it wasnt salvageable.

[JWEBB]

Has anybody had a bear (or even another predator) lay claim to their elk kill before you had completely packed all the meat back to camp? Were you able to get the slime bag off your kill, or, did you have to just call it a day and sacrifice the rest of the meat to the predator?

Have had this happen 2 times. No matter what the situation, I would absolutely never let a predator keep me from getting my kill. I’m always packing heat even when I have my packboard on.

[mountainman]

Not an elk, but we had a deer that we gave 2 hours to before tracking, mid morning time. Deer only made it 60yards on its own, bear drug it another 50 before having a butt snack. Nephew almost got a shot on the bear.

Brett needs to be quicker👍

[Axle]

Lost half a moose to a grizz and her two young ones in Alaska one year.

[WA hunter14]

My dad had a badger lay claim to a mule deer

[Jonathan_S]

Has anybody had a bear (or even another predator) lay claim to their elk kill before you had completely packed all the meat back to camp? Were you able to get the slime bag off your kill, or, did you have to just call it a day and sacrifice the rest of the meat to the predator?

Have had this happen 2 times. No matter what the situation, I would absolutely never let a predator keep me from getting my kill. I’m always packing heat even when I have my packboard on.

Imagine those guys who've been bushwhacked by a grizz while breaking down an elk or deer  even with a gun my first instinct would probably be to run 

[baldopepper]

Came back to camp a few years back to find a couple of great white pyrenees dogs munching a deer I had hanging.  Sheep herders imbed those dogs with their sheep herds and they can be kinda nasty to deal with (they're about the size of a Saint Bernard dog). Ran those two off but had to find a higher tree to hang deer in as they kept coming back.  Twice I've come back to find a weasel making a home inside a hanging deer, they're nasty little buggars also as they keep going back inside the gutted carcass and don't want to come out.

[KFhunter]

Came back to camp a few years back to find a couple of great white pyrenees dogs munching a deer I had hanging.  Sheep herders imbed those dogs with their sheep herds and they can be kinda nasty to deal with (they're about the size of a Saint Bernard dog). Ran those two off but had to find a higher tree to hang deer in as they kept coming back.  Twice I've come back to find a weasel making a home inside a hanging deer, they're nasty little buggars also as they keep going back inside the gutted carcass and don't want to come out.

guess I'll add a welding glove to my kill kit 

[Jonathan_S]

Came back to camp a few years back to find a couple of great white pyrenees dogs munching a deer I had hanging.  Sheep herders imbed those dogs with their sheep herds and they can be kinda nasty to deal with (they're about the size of a Saint Bernard dog). Ran those two off but had to find a higher tree to hang deer in as they kept coming back.  Twice I've come back to find a weasel making a home inside a hanging deer, they're nasty little buggars also as they keep going back inside the gutted carcass and don't want to come out.

guess I'll add a welding glove to my kill kit 

Still not sure I'd grab one  those guys are a tiny ball of fury, muscle, and razor sharp teeth

[KFhunter]

always wanted a pet weasel to send down gopher holes.  You ever watch "the mink man" on youtube?  Trains minks to chase muskrats, kinda cool 

I think somewhere in the video series he talks about weasels being too difficult to train and make a mink look tame 

[theleo]

I've had a bear help themselves to elk before. I'm usually safe leaving an animal over night if shot at last light, but not always.

[j_h_nimrod]

I forgot about the marten eating my buddies backstrap. We hung it on the cabin porch so nothing could reach it, but apparently marten are into aerial acrobatics and had jumped from somewhere and was hanging there eating on it at about 4 in the morning. I stepped out to take a leak and noticed something different with the backstrap and on closer look spotted the marten.  No good sticks or weapons were handy until I spied the empty 1/2 rack of Alaska Amber bottles. I hucked one from about 4’ knocking it off and then proceeded to punt it off the porch. 

[CedarPants]

My wife shot a small buck several years back at last light on a cold October evening.  We got him gutted and strung him up by his back legs about 6 feet off the ground on our meat pole just outside of camp.  Skinned him and covered him in a full body game bag, with our plan being to take care of butchering him in the morning when we had better light.

When we were walking back to him early the next morning, something looked odd about the game bag from a distance.  It looked tattered and was blowing in the wind toward the portion of the deer nearest the ground.  As we got closer, it became clear that both front legs had been ripped off and were nowhere to be found.  You could also see scratch marks on the torso and head where something had been trying to pull the rest of it down.  We were able to salvage the back half of the deer.

A week later, something savagly mauled my neighbor's St. Bernard and he had to be put down.

This was between Springdale and Chewelah, probably 7 years ago.

[JWEBB]

Has anybody had a bear (or even another predator) lay claim to their elk kill before you had completely packed all the meat back to camp? Were you able to get the slime bag off your kill, or, did you have to just call it a day and sacrifice the rest of the meat to the predator?

Have had this happen 2 times. No matter what the situation, I would absolutely never let a predator keep me from getting my kill. I’m always packing heat even when I have my packboard on.

Imagine those guys who've been bushwhacked by a grizz while breaking down an elk or deer  even with a gun my first instinct would probably be to run 

Good point! 

[Dan-o]

Has anybody had a bear (or even another predator) lay claim to their elk kill before you had completely packed all the meat back to camp? Were you able to get the slime bag off your kill, or, did you have to just call it a day and sacrifice the rest of the meat to the predator?

Have had this happen 2 times. No matter what the situation, I would absolutely never let a predator keep me from getting my kill. I’m always packing heat even when I have my packboard on.

IF I'm right, it's illegal to push a Grizz off a kill in Montana.

Anyone know if I'm remembering correctly?

[KFhunter]

Dunno about legality, regs say " do not to haze a bear off a kill, especially a grizz"

[Bucks2Ducks]

[/quote]

IF I'm right, it's illegal to push a Grizz off a kill in Montana.

Anyone know if I'm remembering correctly?
[/quote]
I've heard that in Wyoming too. Also heard they wont replace your tag.

[Calvin Rayborn]

I had coyotes chewing on an elk's gut pile last fall when I came back to retrieve another load. I also had a golden eagle eat a portion of a deer that I shot.

  Coyotes and raptors on my gut pile trail cam. Always interesting to watch.