LAST EDITED ON Sep-26-19 AT 03:33AM (MST)[p]I feel very fortunate to have harvested a good bull. However, if I had it all to do over again, hands down I would pick up the phone and call outfitters to shop for a drop camp deep into some canyon like Fiddler's Hell or similar. This to escape the obscene spike hunter pressure. Their intense pressure pushed the biggest bulls off the easy access tops very quickly. Then began a game of musical chairs with all the other big bull tag holders to scrounge up any unpolluted areas. My first two weeks of dedicated scouting turned out to be wasted time. Wolves also had the bugling to a bare minimum. In 25 years I've never witnessed so much competition on an elk hunt, save for one OTC Montana hunt. Success rates on top were dismal. Success rates in the inaccessible bottoms seemed near 100% from the feedback I got. So this makes a drop camp the best option for a DIYer after waiting for 21 years.
Also, for anyone planning a hunt here, I highly recommend taking your meat home and processing it yourself or at least having it done in your locale. Seems like Hines Meats is the only game in town, so their prices are grossly inflated. Can you say $593.00 for one elk? That's what they charged me for very basic processing, including a $75 "expediting fee" to process my elk in a full week (7 days). I've never waited so long in my life, and it was not even frozen solid as I requested. Add to that 3 days to drive back to Indiana = 10 days. Is the meat even any good after so long??? Plus they failed to return any of my game bags. So add another $60 to that = $653 to process one elk. Are you kidding me? Zero star rating. I feel they just took advantage of me being so far from home. I did my job. Took responsible shot. Found bull immediately. Field dressed same day. Drove it to their locker the next day. And they let it rot for 10 days, and charge an obscene fee? Really? I'm not happy. I like my elk meat.
