High Buck - Some Observations

[Karl Blanchard]

Ice axe and crampons 

lol... until you need em. Been on a few snow trips and never really needed them but they would have been nice. 

I've been hard-core backpack hunting for 20 years. I've needed crampons once and that was in February in Alaska    Hell the last time I did Adam's I didn't even use them. I've glassed thousands of deer and I've never once seen one in September that would require an ice age. Stuff like that is thrown out there to try and get yourself cool guy points. How's that saying go? If you have to tell everyone how awesome you are, you may not be that awesome.....

[Maybach Outdoors]

Ice axe and crampons 

lol... until you need em. Been on a few snow trips and never really needed them but they would have been nice. 

I've been hard-core backpack hunting for 20 years. I've needed crampons once and that was in February in Alaska    Hell the last time I did Adam's I didn't even use them. I've glassed thousands of deer and I've never once seen one in September that would require an ice age. Stuff like that is thrown out there to try and get yourself cool guy points. How's that saying go? If you have to tell everyone how awesome you are, you may not be that awesome.....

I think so too. I mostly see them in the backpacking community...

[cbond3318]

You can literally hunt the high hunt while camped out of the back of your car.

Pro Tip: an ice axe will open a 2lb can of Pork and Beans right now.

[Karl Blanchard]

Another pro tip, if you don't have crampons and an ice axe you won't put yourself in an unnecessarily dangerous position where you would need an ice axe or crampons.



Great big secret here guys but the high hunt is no different than any other backpack hunt. LITERALLY NO DIFFERENT.  Ssme gear. Same tactics. Don't over think it and have fun. Too many people? Move. No deer? Move. Don't tag out? Wipe the dust off your stuff and get ready for Oct General season and look forward to next years high hunt.

[ctwiggs1]

Another pro tip, if you don't have crampons and an ice axe you won't put yourself in an unnecessarily dangerous position where you would need an ice axe or crampons.



Great big secret here guys but the high hunt is no different than any other backpack hunt. LITERALLY NO DIFFERENT.  Ssme gear. Same tactics. Don't over think it and have fun. Too many people? Move. No deer? Move. Don't tag out? Wipe the dust off your stuff and get ready for Oct General season and look forward to next years high hunt.

Whoa, stop the bus. That's not true.

It's not the same as every other backpack hunt.  Not at all.

It's in September.

[Bill W]

If you are in an area that has a fair amount of other hunters you can always use the other hunters as dogs.  Just hunt smarter than they are and anticipate where the deer will flush from. Shot a 5x6 one time that others got moving.

[Bushcraft]

Ice axe and crampons 

lol... until you need em. Been on a few snow trips and never really needed them but they would have been nice. 

I've been hard-core backpack hunting for 20 years. I've needed crampons once and that was in February in Alaska    Hell the last time I did Adam's I didn't even use them. I've glassed thousands of deer and I've never once seen one in September that would require an ice age. Stuff like that is thrown out there to try and get yourself cool guy points. How's that saying go? If you have to tell everyone how awesome you are, you may not be that awesome.....

Ironic.

[Skyvalhunter]

A little too ironic. It's like rain on a sunny day.

[Colville]

The point about the difficulty of the high hunt is really directed at those saying.... I'm going to give it a go, and it's their first pack in hunt.  Lots and lots of guys have hunted the high hunt, once.  It's ordinary for the very experienced guys to say, have your poop in a group and go get em.  Most of the new crowd doesn't have the poop, or it's too heavy, or won't keep em dry..... etc.  Anyone who is a backpacking hunter already, won't be put off by this thread.

I was that guy.  No experienced guy schooling me in the beginning.  I learned, HARD.   Hamlet was right.

[Mtnwalker]

The point about the difficulty of the high hunt is really directed at those saying.... I'm going to give it a go, and it's their first pack in hunt.  Lots and lots of guys have hunted the high hunt, once.  It's ordinary for the very experienced guys to say, have your poop in a group and go get em.  Most of the new crowd doesn't have the poop, or it's too heavy, or won't keep em dry..... etc.  Anyone who is a backpacking hunter already, won't be put off by this thread.

I was that guy.  No experienced guy schooling me in the beginning.  I learned, HARD.   Hamlet was right.

So the point of this thread is to dissuade the new guys? Got it... the high hunt was my first backpack hunt as well. I read plenty of stuff like this, the “don’t do it, you can’t handle it” posts. Boy was I glad we didn’t listen to those guys as my buddy and I were packing our bucks out on opening day, blue jeans and all... 

[Bushcraft]

The point about the difficulty of the high hunt is really directed at those saying.... I'm going to give it a go, and it's their first pack in hunt.  Lots and lots of guys have hunted the high hunt, once.  It's ordinary for the very experienced guys to say, have your poop in a group and go get em.  Most of the new crowd doesn't have the poop, or it's too heavy, or won't keep em dry..... etc.  Anyone who is a backpacking hunter already, won't be put off by this thread.

I was that guy.  No experienced guy schooling me in the beginning.  I learned, HARD.   Hamlet was right.

Well, someone got the gist of it.  Now...get that knee fixed and get back to earning that PhD in High Buckery. 

[Bushcraft]

So the point of this thread is to dissuade the new guys? Got it... the high hunt was my first backpack hunt as well. I read plenty of stuff like this, the “don’t do it, you can’t handle it” posts. Boy was I glad we didn’t listen to those guys as my buddy and I were packing our bucks out on opening morning, blue jeans and all... 

Right on...Congrats!

And no, it wasn't to dissuade or pop anyone's High Buck dream bubble. Think of it more of a hard, cold, fact-based set of opinions born out of many, many years of successfully hunting in the high country that newbies are better off knowing than not.  I've seen happy hunters that crushed it, and I've seen dejected walking-dead hunters that had their bodies and souls crushed.  I've been both.  The latter is the tuition that a lot of people pay early on before they keep fighting and learning and eventually figure it out and get to the point where it's a foregone conclusion that they will tag out every year (if they want).

At this point, for me it's more of a 10+ day vacation in one of the most majestic places on Earth (and where I'll have my ashes spread) with good friends and finding and putting a tag on a really nice buck is just icing on the cake.  If all I wanted was the meat, doing it closer to the road later in the season or shooting a nice 4x4 Blacktail off my deck or on a giant Rayonier lease is a helluva lot easier.

And yes, blue jeans work just fine for blue bird days...but I'd be willing to bet that you've moved to synthetics. 

[jstone]

Last year’s weather was brutal

[Bushcraft]

Last year’s weather was brutal

Yep. Historically epic monsoon. Literally.

[Colville]

The point about the difficulty of the high hunt is really directed at those saying.... I'm going to give it a go, and it's their first pack in hunt.  Lots and lots of guys have hunted the high hunt, once.  It's ordinary for the very experienced guys to say, have your poop in a group and go get em.  Most of the new crowd doesn't have the poop, or it's too heavy, or won't keep em dry..... etc.  Anyone who is a backpacking hunter already, won't be put off by this thread.

I was that guy.  No experienced guy schooling me in the beginning.  I learned, HARD.   Hamlet was right.

So the point of this thread is to dissuade the new guys? Got it... the high hunt was my first backpack hunt as well. I read plenty of stuff like this, the “don’t do it, you can’t handle it” posts. Boy was I glad we didn’t listen to those guys as my buddy and I were packing our bucks out on opening day, blue jeans and all... 

I'm only a commenter not the OP.  I'm not dissuading anyone, unless pointing out the truth that the high hunt can be a misery to people who are going to just "give it a go" is dissuasion. It can be a misery. it's been that to me in the beginning. It would be a better experience for new guys and the experienced if people found out if their gear could survive a walk around their neighborhood for 5 miles, culminating in pitching in a downpour, sleeping there and remaining there for the next 36 hours of dumping rain and wind.  The capacity for people to envision pictures from an add to visit Montana as their high hunt experience is common.  On the right days it is!  I think I've hunted just one high hunt that didn't have a miserable weather component.   A short review of posts will find that I've offered lots of helpful thoughts to new guys looking at the high hunt (to dissuade them?).    And my opinion is that one should start at backpacking in some lousy conditions so that you can vet your gear, fitness, willingness to endure etc, rather than just "give it a go".   YMMV