Captain Tred Barta - HUNTING: Slowing Down

[Fairchase]

I can't stress this enough....know your limits! Should you push your limits? Absolutely! But knowing how far to realistically push them is where common sense takes over. Don't plan a high altitude goat hunt in B.C. if you can't jog to the corner without exhausting yourself. I have heard too many sob stories of a "bad guide" or "overrated hunt" from people who shouldn't have even believed they could do the things that are required to do on some of these types of hunts. Naturally, they say the "guide was poor" or the hunt was "over-sold" as their reasoning for not collecting their game, when in reality the guide was great and the game was plentiful, you were not in good enough shape to get to where you had to be to score and the guide knew it by taking one look at your flabby physique. I chuckle every time I hear so-and-so telling these falsehoods while chewing on a cheeseburger and smoking a cigarette. 90% of the time it was the client who failed the guide more than the opposite.

Take it from me, I was a bodybuilder who also ran several miles per-day and decided to go to Colorado for an archery elk hunt. It kicked my butt! The altitude - you cannot prepare for it! It takes 3 or 4 days of being at high elevation for your body to acclimate itself to the lack of oxygen.

Get in shape and know your limitations and plan accordingly. See your doctor for a physical at least 6-months in advance of your hunt and inform him of the conditions and terrain. He will tell you what you need to do to get ready (and it honestly will maybe 60% prepare you - the rest is using quality hunting gear and mental preparation). Go get em.... you only live once!