waisting game

[powderhogg01]

just got back in from the first trip out. got full draw on a dandy mule deer, but he was smart and waiting to step out of the cover and the wind busted me. While making a push up and over a saddle I came across an elk carcass. the head, back straps and hind quarters were all these punks took. it makes me pretty sick in the stomach seeing so much good meat go to waist from such a magnificent animal. congrats to whomever brought it down, but I feel as though you owe it to the animal to take every last bit.
upon reaching the summit I assume I found their camp, trash everywhere, human crap all over the woods toilet paper blowing around, oh.. and 2 elk legs, one of the with more then a few pounds of meat.
I am in unit 38 in colorado, if this sounds like your party... please do not come back. Some of us actually live up in these mountains and watching the forest become a trash can for a bunch of people who do not care because they are not here all year makes me upset.
now for the elk... heard some good bugle opening night when the moon came out, then nothing since.. probably going to go back over the hill and work my mule deer another week or so. I found a great spot, active wallow way up on top of the mountain above any water I have found yet, which evidently had been found by someone else who set a tree stand and a game camera. I took the opportunity to grab some antler like sticks and strike a quick pose for the camera. I sat and pondered on the morals of sitting in a tree stand you found. I would never take anything that did not belong to me, as I have had plenty stolen myself, but if you found a treestand in a perfect spot, unoccupied... would you sit in it?

[ak32]

"Colorado law requires that you bring out, at a bare minimum, the two hind quarters, the two front quarters (shoulders), the back straps, and the tenderloins."

So yes, they were illegal and people wasting game meat should be reported. People like that make me sick, especially when I think about all the deserving people who never get an elk during the season.

[mjblowers]

You'd be amazed what F&G can figure out - I'd recommend reporting where you saw this camp (didn't read whether you did that or not in your post.)

[powderhogg01]

by this time I would be willing to bet the coyotes have taken the carcass off, and being that there was a wildfire crew in the area putting out a lightning blaze, I would think maybe they said something... Not that I think any of our members did this.. just a message for those lurkers.. bright orange D-90 land rover.. camping with a jeep rubicon... yeah I saw that... not impressed and please do not bother coming back...
I know a lot of us on here do not have the luxury of living in the mountains we hunt, and thus we must travel to the mountains.. it is most imperative we all treat the mountain with the respect it deserves.. every year there are just tons of crap left in the woods... I get tired of picking it up all the time, and im sure a few out there do the same. just remember even if its not your home, its still someones home turf.. so lets just keep it respectful out there people.
now.. from the negative to the positive... im writing this while looking through some glass at a dandy muley buck.. I just a tag with his name on it, just got to put him to bed. sorry for the negative post but dang if it didnt get me fired up and need to vent.

[Lefty]

Sometimes things do go bad,and sometime so will some meat

Some fellows were ahead of me in the dark one morning so I slipped over to the next canyon. Later in the day I head a single shot. As I was coming out at mid day a couple of guys had a head and a pack of meat. We meet at our trucks.I congratulated then on the deer and asked about them getting the rest of the meat. The one fellow stated it was all shot up. I walked over to my truck, grabbed my camera took a pic of them , the head and their truck plate. The guy asked "whats are you doing". I told them when I found the rest of the deer I was giving the pics to the local CO who lived at the bottom of the road we were on. .

The next day they had a younger fellow packing the rest of the meat out.

[zpd307]

there are a lot of disgusting people out there..... I cry like the indian in that old commercial when I see all the trash left on the mtns....

[Elkduds]

I'm w Lefty on this. I take pictures, get names, descriptions of people breaking game and access laws, and give them to authorities. Last year it was a black Toyota truck w dayglo orange bumpers, CO tags, parked a mile past the No Vehicles sign on Nat'l forest in CO GMU 581. It sucks that we have to do that, but there is so much wrong stuff done by "hunters" in this state that we have to fight back. Also, if I ever have a hand in busting a poacher, I might get rewarded w a premium tag the next year. Nothing wrong w that.

[ElkNut1]

As long as a hunter abides by the laws in a given area & takes legal meat he's good to go. It's a personal choice to remove scrap & burger meat. In this case he did break the law!

I would not sit a treestand that was not put there by myself.

ElKNut1

[elkstalker]

I'll get licenses plate #'s and pictures and lat the CO know of illegal activity I find, I love the mountains and the woods, and try to leave them cleaner and in better shape than I found them. There is no place for people like this in the elk woods, report 'em! I think I would have a hard time sitting in someone else's tree stand, if it's a good wallow I'd probably find a good spot to set up a little ground blind and sit on it.

[chiledog]

Not quite on the subject of waste but breaking the law and being disrespectful of the area --- Last year I was just getting out of my truck at a gate (closed road with signs) when 2 guys go flying by me on a 4 wheeler, over to one side and around the gate. Hauling butt. They took the lower road so I went up the higher road. Hunted for 3 or 4 hours and then later that morning about 3 miles out I was going up into a thick area, and here come the same 2 guys on the 4 wheeler. I stepped down the hill waving my arm (no no fashion) as they slowed and stopped. The driver was packing a big pistol (Taurus Judge) across his belly, decked out in all new Badlands gear and proceeded to tell me that the road was not closed. I assured him that it was and had been for several years. Then I asked where their camp was but they gave me a vague answer. In the end, even though they tried to intimidate me, I showed them (on their ATV map) that they were on the wrong road, they wheeled it around and went back.
Informed a local game cop but I should have taken pics. My goof up but dang I was po'd.

[powderhogg01]

I get the to each his own, and burger meat is not worth it to some but dang if i have not spent a lot of time and energy in this area to see it get squandered... I do not carry a phone or camera with me in the woods on any given day.. however I could have taken lic plates and such.
As far as the stand goes, it is in the wrong place IMO, and is set up for too steep of a shot.. its nearly straight over the wallow.. when I go back into the area I will likely set up a ways back and up the hill a bit.. I have never really been a wallow sitter though.. my legs want to move after a few hours... and im really not sure when they show up to wallows.
no big muley today, though I did get full draw, he just refused to step out from this tree blocking the vitals. another deer busted us and he left with em.

[zpd307]

Not quite on the subject of waste but breaking the law and being disrespectful of the area --- Last year I was just getting out of my truck at a gate (closed road with signs) when 2 guys go flying by me on a 4 wheeler, over to one side and around the gate. Hauling butt. They took the lower road so I went up the higher road. Hunted for 3 or 4 hours and then later that morning about 3 miles out I was going up into a thick area, and here come the same 2 guys on the 4 wheeler. I stepped down the hill waving my arm (no no fashion) as they slowed and stopped. The driver was packing a big pistol (Taurus Judge) across his belly, decked out in all new Badlands gear and proceeded to tell me that the road was not closed. I assured him that it was and had been for several years. Then I asked where their camp was but they gave me a vague answer. In the end, even though they tried to intimidate me, I showed them (on their ATV map) that they were on the wrong road, they wheeled it around and went back.
Informed a local game cop but I should have taken pics. My goof up but dang I was po'd.

this irritates me to no end also.... I stopped a guy last year in Idaho, on his atv going down a closed to motorized vehicle trail.... he argued with me as well. especially when I spent a year finding the spot in which supposedly people would have the same equal chance to get in and find elk, using our legs....

[powderhogg01]

And another one.. this poor deer got hit a bit back and opened the guts from the looks. this got reported .
[img][IMG]http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab298/powderhogg01/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-09-03%2012.52.29_zpsfwtvz9j0.jpg[/img] [/img]

[Stick]

Beyond the ethics, it cost too much and we enjoy eating elk to much to waste it. I don't like cheaters! That's what people are that go places on ATVs that are closed to motorized vehicles. I DON'T LIKE EM!

[powderhogg01]

some reason the picture did not work... basically I found this deer last night on my way out, looked like he was hit far back with a 2 blade mechanical(large 2" clean cut) and I figured perhaps the shooters just backed out fearing the worst and would return today for the kill. today I found the kill moved and roughed up from coyotes.. I snapped a few pics and contacted operations game thief. turns out the same black jeep I saw was seen elsewhere in the area and has been reported before.. if only I would have had the camera last night I could have snapped a pic of the jeep and the kill before it got chewed on...

[Lefty]

Like many of us ATV abuse really makes me mad.

Last April my daughter and I hauled in a bear barrels and baits on a dolly, up hill, nearly a mile from the trail head, A lot of work( a bit of fun too) ,.. only to have guys drive past on ATVs,.. . We never got a decent pic on the trail cams. But the new CO in the area wants any good pics

My problem will be the --SI-L of a rancher on the lease,.. he will be checking cows and fence with a rifle , early mornings on an ATV

[pointysticks]

sad.

i try not to judge (it's a new thing i'm trying on for size), but that much waste is illegal. at least where i hunt.

i try my best to honor the animal. i'd argue the some of the most wasted meat is wild turkey. i see breasted out birds carcasses all the time. i skin the beast and take the breast to eat, and make stock (a great stock) out of the carcass. it takes more time to process,but i think the soup made is worth it.

[Trophyhill]

If the deer was hit too far back, it's quite possible it ran off without much of a blood trail and lost. Not making excuse but those things do happen. I know if I lost an animal I hit, I'd feel horrible.

[powderhogg01]

If the deer was hit too far back, it's quite possible it ran off without much of a blood trail and lost. Not making excuse but those things do happen. I know if I lost an animal I hit, I'd feel horrible.

being that the arrow passed completely through, I feel like thats not what happened.. it also was not the most hidden animal in the world... very clear trail of where it stumbled through.. even the next morning..
my first thought was that if it got hit far back maybe the people backed out to give him time, but sadly they did not return soon enough to retrieve or they did but the coyotes had their way first, so they left it..