7west semi live

The Frugal Hunter · Nov 14, 2020

Arrived at camp around midnight and got things setup, woke with the sun and spend most of Friday morning on the sxs pulling trail cams and glassing the larger mountains in the area. Very very little elk sign up high in the ponderosas and large burns. Friday night we headed to lower elevation and turned up a few cows and calves ( about 10). Relocated a few cameras into lower country as well. This morning we headed lower as well. Turned up more cows and one bull... bull was a ways out but didn’t appear to be of the quality we are after.

Wapitiwilly · Nov 14, 2020

Keep it coming???

elkhunterUT · Nov 14, 2020

Looking forward to more updates! Good luck!

elkchaserreturns · Nov 14, 2020

Hello FrugalHunter, Keep at it. Trust me, there are some exceptional Bulls in 7w. Get up on the high points & use the glass. Good luck and thanks for the updates. Keep em coming.

Elkchaser

bonepicker · Nov 14, 2020

Good luck!

The Frugal Hunter · Nov 14, 2020

UPDATE: (Saturday night) spent mid day trying to locate water in the cedar flats of the unit with no luck, even the man made steel water catches with storage are dry. Spent the evening hours behind the glass and turned up 4 bulls and 5 cows. Only one bull was with cows and in a different area so it appears we are headed in the right direction of locating a bigger bull. Will spend some time relocating camp to where most of the bulls have been found, will start breaking down the country in hopes of finding the ONE!

The Frugal Hunter · Nov 14, 2020

The Frugal Hunter · Nov 16, 2020

Update: Sunday morning was spent moving camp closer to the area we’ve found elk. Mid day water searching turned up nothing. Sunday evening we located more cows and one small bull. Monday morning elk activity was slower with only one bull and one cow. Was noticeably warmer earlier in the day. Did finally locate 4 solid water sources that are being used by elk. Tonight will be spent sitting water by the tag holder and I will climb high andglass all the flats around the water areas. Finding water feels like a giant win in this country. The bigger bulls may only hit it after dark but it’s a starting point.. better days to come

tkjwonta · Nov 16, 2020

Sounds like you are making progress in the right direction, keep up the good work and thanks for the updates!

AaronS · Nov 16, 2020

Sounds like you're onto them. Good luck, keep the updates coming!

The Frugal Hunter · Nov 18, 2020

Update: Tuesday morning we located a bull that earned a stalk, he was hanging with another up in some steep north facing country. The bulls didn’t bed tell near 1230 in the afternoon. Once on the stalk the lava rock and dry ground made it obvious getting close was gonna be hard. My buddy snuck within 80 but a bad wind swirl sent them down the mountain. After regrouping we glassed up a group of cows that still had a few bulls hanging around, one pretty nice 6. Leaving them for the night we relocated them on another hill about 2 miles away (these elk travel!) putting them to bed we moved in where we thought they would feed out. After hours of sitting we snuck out and glassed, found them East of us, went right over the top

The Frugal Hunter · Nov 22, 2020

Update: Thursday morning we located a good group of elk with a nice bull. I stayed back and guided my buddy in while the elk fed in the timber. He got a shot but his arrow found a limb before it found the bull. Thursday night we located a group of 5 bulls on a north slope. One ok 5 point probably 280 class was in the group. He wasn’t giant but was cool and time was running out. We made a play but the wind won once again. Friday morning only turned up 2 cows and a lot of windshield time back to Colorado. All in all the hunt was a success. We turned up elk everyday in country we’ve never seen. We got in on elk often and had a chance. In the end our inexperience left us with a tag instead of a bull. This is a tough hunt and we didn’t see one bull come off the mountain. Until next time!

tkjwonta · Nov 22, 2020

Thanks for the updates, sounds like a typical late archery elk hunt from what I've heard. You guys did well and sounds like you put in the effort, just tough to get close and beat the wind after they've been chased for a couple months already.