Uninvited Elk Camp Visitors

[WapitiTalk1]

Besides the pretty recurring pesky mouse invasions, what other four leg critters have you had visit your camp without a formal invite? . I’ve had a variety visit including a big sow and her cub in the spud state this year who took great pleasure in waking us up with their nocturnal pilfering of my cookshack/screen gazebo 3-4 times.

[Swede]

Except for some deer or elk, it is mostly Pine squirrels. Several times d decent buck would be hanging out around. I never stayed in camp to try and shoot one as it is a significant camp and recreation destination for visitors from Europe, Canada and many States. One opening day I came in from my hunt, and my brother informed two archery hunters drove by, saw the buck and jumped out and shot them. I instinctively knew that would happen and asked myself if I should have shot the larger one myself. It was legal and I know if it was a good bull I would have. The difference is that the deer hang out there all the time and the elk only travel through on rare occasions.

[six]

We had a moose sniff the tent at 3 a.m. Lesson learned we dont camp right next to the trail anymore.

[Elkhunttoo]

My dad has had a skunk and a porcupine in the wall tent with him

[Indian Summer]

In my main base camp in Montana, we had a pretty sneaky black bear. It would come into camp during the middle of the night and tear open alfalfa pellet bags. Instead of tearing one bag open and eating it…. it would tear little holes in five or six bags and just eat a little bit out of each one. We never heard a sound, but the tracks were always there. One night I had one of my guides bring his dog, a German shorthair into camp. We figured there was no way that bear could come into camp without that dog sounding off. The next morning sure enough half a dozen bags tore open.

If an elk was killed close to camp, a bear would be on the carcass by the next day. He was never very far.

Then one day I had this client tell us that he saw a bear go into a hole. Mind you, the guy was a heavy drinker and had some pretty interesting stories. He said that he also saw elk and wolves while he was sitting on the same rock. Quite the day. lol

The next day I went over to a rock pile vantage point with a different hunter and decided to go down below the rock pile and look. Sure enough there was a big hole going to a den. I got to within about 6 feet of the hole when a bear poked his head out from the left and looked me right in the eye. I about died. He didn’t come out. I ran. I went back a few weeks later, armed and ready, but he was nowhere to be found. I used to check that den all the time. I crawled all the way inside it once. But I never saw a bear in it again.