ELK 63-64 Where's the elk?

wyomingsako · Sep 5, 2023

So I had the late unit in '07, '16, '18 and '19 and the hunting was great. Bow season you would encounter elk just about anywhere in Grass creek, Little grass, Gooseberry and Enos drainages. Rifle season was about the same come Nov 1st opener. Last year two of my buddies had both the early and late season tags. Bamm the elk where very hard to find in both seasons. One buddy put lots of miles on horse back, no avail! Talking to a biologist from up there, he said the elk went to the low country early in the season(last year). I just got back from a 5 day trip up there, I put about 20 miles on foot looking at all mentioned drainages, sat on high ridges for hours behind a spotter. Nothing even the private in Cottonwood , very little elk! What's going on?

junior · Sep 5, 2023

Some awesome forage on the bottom?

DaveD · Sep 5, 2023

wyomingsako said:
So I had the late unit in '07, '16, '18 and '19 and the hunting was great. Bow season you would encounter elk just about anywhere in Grass creek, Little grass, Gooseberry and Enos drainages. Rifle season was about the same come Nov 1st opener. Last year two of my buddies had both the early and late season tags. Bamm the elk where very hard to find in both seasons. One buddy put lots of miles on horse back, no avail! Talking to a biologist from up there, he said the elk went to the low country early in the season(last year). I just got back from a 5 day trip up there, I put about 20 miles on foot looking at all mentioned drainages, sat on high ridges for hours behind a spotter. Nothing even the private in Cottonwood , very little elk! What's going on?

Different area completely but we experienced similar last year. Large herds of elk were down very low in the sage brush with zero snow in early October. We were guessing it was just a reaction to high hunting pressure but maybe something else was going on?

wyomingsako · Sep 5, 2023

junior said:
Some awesome forage on the bottom?

I cant speak for '20-'22. This year the grass is between knee to waist high! Incredibly lush just about every elevation. Water in every drainage also. Sooo maybe?

junior · Sep 5, 2023

Just a thought, but we compare them to migratory birds that get shoved around via hunting pressure /predators/weather, or what ever. Once they find safer with more food they will most likely return the next year.
I some times wonder if the lead cow gets hammerd, if that's not what causes the migration shift the next year?
We definitely seen it happen the big horns.

hardcore · Sep 29, 2023

wyomingsako said:
So I had the late unit in '07, '16, '18 and '19 and the hunting was great. Bow season you would encounter elk just about anywhere in Grass creek, Little grass, Gooseberry and Enos drainages. Rifle season was about the same come Nov 1st opener. Last year two of my buddies had both the early and late season tags. Bamm the elk where very hard to find in both seasons. One buddy put lots of miles on horse back, no avail! Talking to a biologist from up there, he said the elk went to the low country early in the season(last year). I just got back from a 5 day trip up there, I put about 20 miles on foot looking at all mentioned drainages, sat on high ridges for hours behind a spotter. Nothing even the private in Cottonwood , very little elk! What's going on?

We just got back from a 9 day hunt in that area and definitely agree with you that there is less elk in that country! We had the tag in 20 as well and it was great archery hunt…way more elk. We still seen a few good bulls on this hunt and was super close on putting an arrow in a few of them. The feed up there is unreal this year and we were starting to think the the same thing as far as the elk being lower. We also talked to another guy that said there is a big pack of wolves that were harassing the elk in one of the drainages and if that’s the case maybe a lot of them did move lower especially with the feed being good down low. We never seen any wolves but did hear them one night, so I don’t for sure but definitely agree with you!