runnin' n gunnin'

[timberland]

How many miles do guys plan on travelling when running n gunning in a morning hunt? If you have a "milk run", how long is it?

[Fridaythe13th]

We hunted all day with a long lunch break (nap) Close to 10 miles a day. over the 6 day we hunted 50-60 miles and 12 pound lighter. lots of cold calling after lunch to see if we could get something fired up.

[timberland]

WOW. Did you hunt the whole zone?

[ElkNut1]

A lot depends on that days hunt but very common to hunt 5-12 miles everyday out. This pretty common in these parts. This is a running & gunning style, you go all out until elk are located, 95% of the locations are achieved through calling not seeing them!

ElkNut1

[Fridaythe13th]

It was 2 miles as the crow fly's to start hunting which is more like 3 miles on the trail down to a old spike camp. from there it was 3/4 of a mile to the bottom of the valley where the bulls were and a slow walk up hunting and calling on the way. 3 1/2 - 4 miles 1 way. We might open up that spike camp and save us 5-6 mile a day. But we have a really good cook at base camp. hard to know, I keep telling myself it a vacation right.

[Toby]

5-10 miles or maybe more. I am at my peek during the mid hunt days. It takes a day or two to get accustomed to altitude and a twenty plus hour truck ride, then the last few days I am usually wore out, but push myself to get to the elk no matter how far.

[Swede]

Timberland: Running and gunning is a hunting technique. It works in some areas. Just like a claw hammer or a combination wrench will work for certain jobs, neither is universally the best tool for every task. Just because someone says that R&G works great for them, doesn't mean it is the right tool for every area or situation. My concern is that we read about a technique and believe all I have to do is learn it and I will have the success of Elknut. Every year I hear people running & gunning in the area I hunt. It has been a longggg time since I have found a successful one.

[elkmtngear]

I've done many 10 mile days...but I probably average more like 5 these days. I tend to hunt a lot slower than I used to.

[timberland]

Swede~
I was trying to get a spacial concept of what's doable in a morning hunt. The mountains I hunt are set apart from other areas, and to be honest to go ten miles in a day I would cover the whole area in a day. Where I hunt there is a fairly high elk density so we sneak and peak and cover travel areas in the morning and evening, but if I cut loose in some runnin/gunnin/scouting in a new area I don't want to be walking by or spooking elk by just trying to cover ground. There are areas I would like to investigate more and I feel if I move to fast through them I'll be bypassing elk.

[Swede]

I consider R&G as similar to scouting. If you don't know if you have elk around, then it makes sense to keep moving until you get into them. Maybe pushing elk out of the area is just part of the price of determining that you are close to them. If you know you are near elk and just keep on running it seems counterproductive to me. Timberland: The area I hunt is very similar to where you hunt. My area may even be smaller. By R&G you can quickly go from elk hunter to squirrel hunter as the elk are on the ranch.