Hobble Creek Elk?

Wapiti

Member
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8
To preface my question let me state for the record that I'm very familiar with the area between The right and left fork of Hobble Creek, I'm not looking for a new hunting area. This year happens to be my 6th year hunting this area, however, my time in this area has been either during the L.E. Rifle elk hunt or general archery elk season. This year I drew a Wasatch West cow rifle tag. I figured since I'm familiar with the Hobble Creek area and I know a few places where I can always find elk, the choice made good sense. I don't think this area has any more elk than other areas along strawberry ridge, in fact, from what I've seen, the elk numbers in Hobble Creek have steadily declined in the past 5 years. My biggest advantage for hunting this area is I know it quite well.

So I arrived on Friday Oct 2nd and spent the day scouting to locate a few groups to hunt in the morning. Well to my dismay there are almost no elk anywhere, we only found one small band of elk. The mountain was very quiet with the only bugle coming from the small (310 tops) herd bull in that single group.

So after all that here's my question:
Does anyone out there have experience hunting this area during general spike rifle elk hunt, and if so, is the low elk numbers in this area typical for this late in the year? Do the elk move lower after the peak rut, or is this just a case of the elk being scattered from the previous hunts (ie, archery, L.E. rifle, L.E. Muzzy) I was expecting to see a few more elk than we saw. I'm looking for past years to compare this year to. What's typical for that area post rut, although there should still be some rut activity going on. I want to determine if it's worth hunting that area next year or look elsewhere.

On a positive note, I was fortunate and filled my tag on a nice cow from that same small band. Did not hear many other shots fired. A few far away but that's about it. I guess there's not going to be shots fired if theres no elk around.

Feel free to P.M. me.

Thanks,
Wapiti
 

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