LAST EDITED ON Mar-11-11 AT 06:48PM (MST)[p]
LAST EDITED ON Mar-11-11 AT 06:45?PM (MST)
Hmmmmmm. This thread brings back some memories.
So this unit has been limited quota for many years. As a result....it has produced some 300+" bulls. Not many (but a few) over 320", tho. Good numbers of sixes. It is TOTALLY isolated and self-supporting in the breeding and genetic category. It's got everything from 9,000' thick conifer forests to middle juniper/shrub terrain to open sagebrush draws in the lower elevations. I used to spend my summer and fall weekends there. Great isolated country. Used to hunt one big ol 200" muley there......plus see some undisturbed bulls with their harems even after the rifle elk season ended on October 15. And these bulls were.......undisturbed.
I once saw a rack from this rifle hunt that was extremely heavy and dark colored from that bull rubbing on conifers. He was unbroken, and was a toad. REALLY heavy with ivory tips. Great bull. As I recall, he was whacked by a wife by total luck.
Elk in this country will stay in a herd until October 15+ if not disturbed to much. The rut is only half over as of Oct 1. Look for herds......
After some hunting pressure......bulls will either go thick or go waaaaaaaaayyyyyy open. I like open........particularly if I'm not able to scout for several days before the opener and be in just exactly the right right spot on opening day. After the opener......be prepared to hunt in THICK and be pretty sneaky. Or hunt unpressured bulls in the lower portions of the unit.
I like the fringe areas that most hunters drive past. Might you hang out there after a little bit-o-hunting pressure if you were a herd bull (or maybe even live there year-round/)?? I might hunt right in the THICK breadbasket of elk activity if I was there for the opener.......and maybe even the fringe areas if I wasn't cuz fringe areas often hold older animules.
What about Crooks Mtn in the western half of the unit? Is this area in that same Green Mtn unit?? What about down below the rim of Crooks in the juniper and sage gentler country where there is water and feed and isolation for disturbed elk as well as those that just looooove to live there year round? Gotta be some 300" bulls there......
The lower slopes of Whiskey Peak used to harbor great bulls. Great feed and water plus some thick bedding cover nearby. Used to see untouched 6x6 bulls rutting like lunatics there from September 15 to October 15. Once saw a 350" herd bull that had 15 cows/calfs pushing his harem out into the sage/gentle draws lower country on October 15. No one saw him but me......cuz I was the only one looking there. Used to pass several 300" bulls bugling their heads off on the lower slopes there during September. The east slope of Whiskey Peak is a bowl that always harbored a nice bull with his harem during October. The Bairoil lower side slopes of Whiskey Peak was always a hotbead of rutting bull activity. Great water and feed nearby. The north slopes and lower draws of Whiskey have some private to work around but are TERRIFIC country.
What else can I tell you?