woodruffhunter
Long Time Member
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I hope this thread doesn't get too ?long winded?, but I am sure it probably will?..
This hunt started last year when my dad unexpectedly drew an Expo tag for the Nebo Early Rifle unit. Like many, we put in for a lot of elk units and had zero knowledge
of the unit. We were in for a BIG surprise.
After talking to others that new and/or hunted the unit, we came to the conclusion that a 320? bull would be a great goal with a bigger bull a bonus. My dad wasn?t too concerned with numbers and felt that any ?good six point? would be great.
We finally made our first scouting trip back in July. We did nothing more than drive the boundaries of the unit and travel over the Nebo Loop. The first thing that came to mind as we were looking things over was how STEEP it was. We didn't accomplish too much but the scouting trip was a decent start.
Thanks to some great help, we narrowed an area for our next scouting trip. It was about a 3 mile hike in. After hiking in about 2 miles on a good trail, we saw our first elk. They were far away but we could tell that they were 2 good bulls. The first bull was probably a decent 5X5 (too far to tell). However, the other bull was really good and definitely a ?shooter?. Next to the antlers, the first thing I noticed about the elk on this unit was their capes. They were very light colored and looked amazing with their large velvet racks. Seeing these bulls, caused us to shift a gear and really get excited about the upcoming hunt.
We ended up making a few more scouting trips down to this general area and each time we would see elk. The last weekend before the hunt, there were at least six bulls bugling in the area. We had seen a few people on horses, but we were the only ones that we had seen on foot scouting this area. Therefore we had high expectations before the start of the hunt. As I said earlier, it was the weekend before the opener so we were confident that we would be into bulls on opening morning.
To be continued...
This hunt started last year when my dad unexpectedly drew an Expo tag for the Nebo Early Rifle unit. Like many, we put in for a lot of elk units and had zero knowledge
of the unit. We were in for a BIG surprise.
After talking to others that new and/or hunted the unit, we came to the conclusion that a 320? bull would be a great goal with a bigger bull a bonus. My dad wasn?t too concerned with numbers and felt that any ?good six point? would be great.
We finally made our first scouting trip back in July. We did nothing more than drive the boundaries of the unit and travel over the Nebo Loop. The first thing that came to mind as we were looking things over was how STEEP it was. We didn't accomplish too much but the scouting trip was a decent start.
Thanks to some great help, we narrowed an area for our next scouting trip. It was about a 3 mile hike in. After hiking in about 2 miles on a good trail, we saw our first elk. They were far away but we could tell that they were 2 good bulls. The first bull was probably a decent 5X5 (too far to tell). However, the other bull was really good and definitely a ?shooter?. Next to the antlers, the first thing I noticed about the elk on this unit was their capes. They were very light colored and looked amazing with their large velvet racks. Seeing these bulls, caused us to shift a gear and really get excited about the upcoming hunt.
We ended up making a few more scouting trips down to this general area and each time we would see elk. The last weekend before the hunt, there were at least six bulls bugling in the area. We had seen a few people on horses, but we were the only ones that we had seen on foot scouting this area. Therefore we had high expectations before the start of the hunt. As I said earlier, it was the weekend before the opener so we were confident that we would be into bulls on opening morning.
To be continued...