All of this has been very good for the hunting, as evidenced by some big bulls Carry's clients took home with them last year. One of them, take note, gross-scored 372! He conducts his elk hunts in the old mountain style with horses. A 10-day wilderness hunt runs $5,700, plus the usual extras associated with these types of hunts.
Other outfitters having good success with elk include Anna and Bob Fontana of Elk Valley Bighorn Outfitters, who say clients with them nowadays have a 75 percent chance of taking a six-point bull. Their combination hunts run 10 days and cost $6,850.
Anna Fontana is a biologist, and she put me in touch with the man responsible for the new regulations, Regional Wildlife Biologist Bob Forbes. Forbes says elk in the Kootenays are almost at carrying capacity again, with 23,000 animals in the area. About 15 percent of those will be six-point bulls of varying ages. He confirmed that there are both migratory and homesteader (resident) elk present and that the backcountry elk have returned. Some of the outfitters from this area told me that the homesteader elk in the valleys are plentiful enough to keep the........(continued)
