Late Unit 9 elk hunt

fullcurl74 · Jan 20, 2011

How did everyone else do? We got our azzes kicked. Some tough weather, hunters EVERYWHERE, and couldn't turn up many bulls at all, much less big bulls.

Seemed a lot tougher than previous times I've hunted it. I didn't have the tag, but my brother and a buddy had tags and we went 0 for 2.

Was it just us? How 'bout everyone else? Didn't see many elk hanging in other camps.

YukonDall · Jan 20, 2011

THOSE LATE NOVEMBER HUNTS MUST BE A LOT HARDER THAN I THOUGHT, EVEN IN UNIT NINE. SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF THE GUYS I KNOW HAVE NOT DONE WELL THERE IN THE LATE SEASON .......SEEMS ODD....BUT THEN AGAIN CONDITIONS WILL CONTROL A LOT OF HUNTS.........YD.

mike111 · Jan 20, 2011

The late 9 elk hunt is pretty tough. Flat country that's hard to glass, and the elk are spread out all over.

HullinPhx · Jan 20, 2011

All the Elk head into the Park at the first sign of snow. Some years if there are no snow there are elk everywhere.. This last year the early snow drove all in the park early

John

CAelknuts · Jan 21, 2011

The unit 9 late hunt is definitely a tough hunt. I was told that two types of conditions can make it excellent, and that is warm and dry or a lot of snow on the ground. Otherwise, a very tough hunt. I hunted it once, and we had 7 hunters in camp with tags. The first 3 days it was warm and very dry, and we killed 5 different bulls that were all 6x6s, with the biggest being a 336 bull. The 4th day, a masive cold front decsended from Canada and temps dropped to around zero, and we hardly saw an elk the rest of the trip. Guess who had not filled his tag in those first three days?

I expect to hunt unit 9 in the next year or two, but it'll be on the archery hunt in September.

fullcurl74 · Jan 21, 2011

Yeah, we only had a couple inches of snow on the ground, but morning lows were at or near zero most of the days. Now that you mention it, in past years when we killed bulls there, the temps were pretty mild.

AZMZHunter · Jan 21, 2011

My dad had this tag in 2010 and we didnt even see an elk, after opening day, other than in the Park. I got some game camera photos of elk a week or so before the hunt near water, but once the cold temps came and the water froze we couldnt find them.

muleybull · Jan 23, 2011

Mike111 hit it right on the head. Its flat, thick, and the elk arent making noise any more. Gotta step on them...

www.muleybulloutfitters.com

TreeEM · Jan 25, 2011

I even had the 53 Late cow permit and did not fill. I had to go to my old archery hunting spot which was 11,000 feet to find them!! And not only did I find them I found a ton of them. The problem was it was the last day and I could not get a good enough shot at one. Did not snow at all up there. It was terrible. If I had known that I had to hike that far up I would have been doing from the get go!