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FishLake Archery 2010
I unexpectedly hit the Elk Lotto in 2010, drawing a FishLake Archery Elk tag with 5 NR points.
I have Bow hunted Elk in Eastern Oregon for 35 years in addition to Bow hunting NM the last 4. A lot of MonsterMuleys readers are skilled in the art of draw odds, scouting and hunting Elk in Utah but I'm not one of them. I have a good grasp on the odds but the "hunting methods" used by those that are successful in UT are different than the methods I have used up here in Oregon. From what I have seen and heard, scouting in Utah tends to be geared more towards locating individual Elk by glassing terrain versus finding a general location where the herd likes to congregate.
I don't really do much scouting for Elk in Oregon. We just go to a spot and hit the ground running. We have a rough idea where we think some animals might be but we usually don't spot them first. I started to do more scouting after my first year in NM though. The country was open enough to be able to spot the animals from a distance and when you did spot them, they didn't take off running and keep going for a half mile. The last few years I turned to the Satellite Imagery and GIS Data Sets that are available on the Internet for the majority of my long distance Scouting. Picking out likely spots, and then looking them over in person once I get down there. In addition, I have never spent much time behind glass spotting animals, other than Antelope. The terrain up here doesn't lend itself to glassing very well and none of my hunting mentors or partners ever employed that method.
I'll be doing a lot of Internet Scouting because of the 15 hour drive from home but plan on several trips to the unit where I'll scout on foot, getting a close look at promising areas. For this hunt I will also be doing a lot of glassing with the spotting scope. I have Paul Kendall?s ?Never Enough Glassing? so hopefully he can lead me thru the finer points of using my new spotter.
This will be a ?Do it with Friends? type hunt. I have a hunting buddy that will probably come down with me, and my Wife will come down for a week or so. I have also received some tips from a couple of internet friends I met here on MonsterMuleys and they'll be there in Spirit.
I'll bring you along, from the beginning of my adventure and hopefully those like me, who have limited Utah Elk experience, will learn what worked and what didn't, so when you get that Utah Bull tag, you'll have a better idea of what to expect. I'll also post a few videos showing how I scout from my PC, which will get you started "Internet Scouting" if you're interested and have a hunt coming up.
I'll do my best to convey what I experience as the preparation and hunt unfold. I hope you find it worthwhile.
FishLake Archery 2010
I unexpectedly hit the Elk Lotto in 2010, drawing a FishLake Archery Elk tag with 5 NR points.
I have Bow hunted Elk in Eastern Oregon for 35 years in addition to Bow hunting NM the last 4. A lot of MonsterMuleys readers are skilled in the art of draw odds, scouting and hunting Elk in Utah but I'm not one of them. I have a good grasp on the odds but the "hunting methods" used by those that are successful in UT are different than the methods I have used up here in Oregon. From what I have seen and heard, scouting in Utah tends to be geared more towards locating individual Elk by glassing terrain versus finding a general location where the herd likes to congregate.
I don't really do much scouting for Elk in Oregon. We just go to a spot and hit the ground running. We have a rough idea where we think some animals might be but we usually don't spot them first. I started to do more scouting after my first year in NM though. The country was open enough to be able to spot the animals from a distance and when you did spot them, they didn't take off running and keep going for a half mile. The last few years I turned to the Satellite Imagery and GIS Data Sets that are available on the Internet for the majority of my long distance Scouting. Picking out likely spots, and then looking them over in person once I get down there. In addition, I have never spent much time behind glass spotting animals, other than Antelope. The terrain up here doesn't lend itself to glassing very well and none of my hunting mentors or partners ever employed that method.
I'll be doing a lot of Internet Scouting because of the 15 hour drive from home but plan on several trips to the unit where I'll scout on foot, getting a close look at promising areas. For this hunt I will also be doing a lot of glassing with the spotting scope. I have Paul Kendall?s ?Never Enough Glassing? so hopefully he can lead me thru the finer points of using my new spotter.
This will be a ?Do it with Friends? type hunt. I have a hunting buddy that will probably come down with me, and my Wife will come down for a week or so. I have also received some tips from a couple of internet friends I met here on MonsterMuleys and they'll be there in Spirit.
I'll bring you along, from the beginning of my adventure and hopefully those like me, who have limited Utah Elk experience, will learn what worked and what didn't, so when you get that Utah Bull tag, you'll have a better idea of what to expect. I'll also post a few videos showing how I scout from my PC, which will get you started "Internet Scouting" if you're interested and have a hunt coming up.
I'll do my best to convey what I experience as the preparation and hunt unfold. I hope you find it worthwhile.