method opinion question

T

timwlarsen

Guest
The last 3 years we hunted as high as we could, packed in 4 miles and worked at tree line. Numbers weren't there according to tracks in the snow. Terribly crunchy snow so it wouldn't have mattered anyway, Last year we dropped down 1000 feet and saw better numbers opening morning until it snowed us out down the mountain (33") on the ground. Planning on going back. How do you hunt an area you can't get a high vantage on and see little but the tops of trees. There is water everywhere, lots of little grass openings. Do you just sit on known trails or just keep pushinig through different parts of the surrounding early october.

Thanks
 
Keep hiking till you find the sign...Elk can be here today and 12 miles away tomorrow. In Oct I would be looking in the nastiest darkest stuff because the bulls are trying to recuperate from the rut and may not be moving much..
 
? also as high. Are you always slowly walking mid morning through mid afternoon? I suppose my mind is spinning because it is so vast. I think we were camping last year at 9200. Last year we got to this spot a couple of days early. We stopped when it was camp or set up in the dark. I wanted to stay out of the area so I located a spot looking and mapping for opening morning. Climbed ~900 up into this opening and slowing start moving north about 3/4 mile around when I walk right through this outfitters wall camp. All the horses are lined up - little chit chat through the walls and I am like crap - some guy is going to be pissed. I quickly keep moving north though on a pace that was no good. I saw two cows. It destroyed my game plan for the morning and the snow finished the the trip by 2pm. I saw some great scraps, sign, trails along the creek on the steep sides in the aspens (that was mid Oct). The guys we parked next to said four wheel over to some canyon and hunt the migration down. Said they do well every year but that is not the type hunt that would suit me just yet.
 
What state?

How much snow was there? and how much did you get?
The snow probably wont move the bulls down until it reaches there bellies...

Outfitter camp? well there is probably the reason you didnt see much, that camp probably had been set up since August Archery season and they had run all the game out of the area..

You have to hike fast and cover alot of area until you find fresh sign and then slow down. If you can find a high spot to do some glassing stay there and glass the area at first light and then last light, if Elk are in the area you should see them. If you dont see any or see any sign move down the mtn... the elk may have moved down as the higher areas filled with hunters...probably drove right past them going up to timberline...Elk are smart, if all the hunters are up at timberline they will migrate downhill to excape the pressure.

In Oct you wont find the bulls with the cows, so if all you are seeing is cows look else where.
 
CO - When it stopped Sunday morning there was 33-36" in camp. We couldn't move well, couldn't risk getting too wet, and nights were at full moon. You could almost tan yourself at night so we pulled out. That's actually twice we have been snowed out in there. It dropped 50 the year before as we crawled out over the pass. There were 5 camps in there. One dropcamp from the East that rolled a pack train down the mountain and killed some horses. I felt bad for those guys. We met two of them who crawled out during the snow were packing 9-10 miles in from the west to retrieve their stuff.
I never dawned on me the outfitter camp sitting there that long. I will keep that in mind. I can't imagine they would want to be a whole lot lower as it was crawling in orange when we left. We passed a few guys leaving who were wearing so much orange we were placing bets whether or not they were sporting blaze orange drawers.
 
One of the places I hunt in Wyo the outfitters set up camp 2 weeks before the Archery opener and dont close it down till the snow makes them in Nov...
Not saying that that may be the reason for the lack of game, but they may have hunted the area out before you got there in Oct...? something to think about. and with 5 camps in there I would look for a less congested area, but then again if there were that many camps it must be a good area or they wouldn't be there...

Anyway.. welcome to the wild world of wily wapiti hunting...
 
Thanks. I don't no why it wouldn't occur to me there tents would be sitting there that long. One of these years we will find a place in this unit or have to move or start over in a new one. We keep sliding around 3-5 miles each year hoping to find that spot. Problem is you could have found it but the weather just made it a little off for that one time. Still a hell of a lot of fun.
 

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom