Youth Cow Elk hunt 16D Help

[hjbuys]

My 11 year old daughter has her first elk hunt starting Dec 26th in 16D. Unfortunately my friend who is familiar with the area won't be able to join us as originally planned and I don't know the area well having only hunted in 16E. As any father does, I'd really like to help make it a fun and hopefully successful hunt for my daughter and would appreciate any advice on areas to concentrate on. Many thanks in advance.

 

[bowelk]

I took a couple of kids up there at the beginning of December and had a tough hunt. I have archery hunted 16 d many times and have never had a hard time finding elk. I thought a rifle cow hunt would be easy pickings. I either had really bad luck or something but I had a hard time finding elk. We went 1 for 3 and shot the only elk we saw. I would love to be able to help out anyone hunting with a kid but I have nothing good to tell you. I hunted around Collins park and was surprised with the amount of pressure and lack of elk Good luck and hope you have better luck than us. Awsome unit and great country

 

[hjbuys]

I appreciate the note. Good job at getting one of the tags filled. I'm sure that it was still exciting for the kids. Hopefully we'll have better luck getting into animals. Thanks.

 

[sicnm]

Sent you a pm. I'm taking my buddy's kids out there as well

 

[hjbuys]

Thanks. PM sent back.

 

[sicnm]

Found a small heard got one still have one more to go

 

[sicnm]

Just got back from apache creek no elk ANYWHERE we traveled twice to Collins park and around must of drove over 200 hundred miles with fresh snow on the ground no elk sign expect off the main highway by the continental divide that were we hit one and missed another but 8 more hunters were able to connect haven't been down there in some years but it's terrible alot of wolf sign this morning we ran into a fresh wolf elk kill on forest road 94. just north of Collins park maybe that's the reason for no elk sign.

 

[bowelk]

I understand. I was shocked at the lack of elk. I thought maybe I was just unlucky and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I also put a lot of miles on my truck the day before the hunt trying to cover lots of ground and scout. During the hunt we walked our buts off to try to get away from all the road hunters. I did see a lot of sign that was a few months old. Lots of this years scrapes, just not any elk. Saw 6 cows in 5 days 3 tags 1 elk

 

[jamaro]

We had better luck... I will be putting a video together BUT We started hunting Friday at 10 and we glassed up a group right away but on the stalk they busted us... so we left them then we glassed up another group later in the day and you guessed it they busted us too... Both groups of elk were hanging with the cattle which was strange... We saw a few people cruising around but nobody really glassing or walking... I think that after 4 months of hunts these elk are super skittish.. Saturday morning was kind of a bust because the country that we wanted to get into was buggered up by a houndsman looking for his dogs... We glassed the same areas but we couldn't find anything. BUT I was able to glass up some tracks in some snow so we jump in the truck to see if we could get ahead of them... SOOOO.. We dropped into the canyon that the tracks were leading into and started walking..About a mile from the truck on the road we heard some shots... Sooo... We jumped off the road and got ready... WELL... I will take being lucky anyday... We had about 40 head fly by us and I was able to stop one with a cow call and Buddy nailed her... The rest is HISTORY..

We were in a Maroon Duramax... I wonder if I saw any of you guys???

I think people drove past a ton of elk on there way to Collins park....

 

[hjbuys]

We saw elk on our first day. Watched a group bed down and had a nice stalk to 130 yards. I was getting my daughter set up on the bipod when a big buck chased some does right into the elk that were bedded. The elk stood up and got out before my daughter could get off a shot. The deer stuck around and fed where the elk were bedded. Turned out to be our only opportunity. Walked a lot of miles and glassed even more. Never could get into elk again. Had a great time with my daughter though. Thanks to all who helped.

 

[leftturnabq]

I don't want to sound egotsitical, but I've never had a problem finding elk in 16D.

It's been a few years since I've hunted it myself, but just last year a buddy called me up the week of his early December cow hunt. My wife gave me the green light to join him, and despite a few hiccups getting out on opening morning (some unprepared fools in 2WD pickups held up traffic getting up the hill out of Apache Creek) we finally got up to an old spot and hiked into an area where I've found elk during the September bow hunts. Long story short; the elk were there, we took our time picking a mature cow, and his tag was punched at 8:00 that morning.

Wish I had more time to join people on these hunts, especially youth, but I can hardly get time away to go hunting myself. Hopefully it will be a lot easier to find the time when my boy is old enough to hunt...hopefully they'll still have these great youth opportunities.

 

[ixsolracxi]

I thought finding elk would be easy in this unit but it was tougher than i thought...took my 11 year old daughter on the late november/early december youth hunt...first morning we were there put in about 9 miles and found 5 elk, unfortunately no shot which was partly my fault for falling...later that evening we had a heard coming in to a water hole but one cow busted us, she had a chance to shoot one but took too long to squeeze the trigger...saw nothing on sunday then had to come back for work and school...still had a blast, she is hooked, she did get an antelope earlier in the year...
went again this past weekend to take my 14 year old nephew on his first elk hunt and had vehicle problems the two days there however we did get into a herd sunday around noon and was able to get one, there were 20-30 in the herd, didn't count them all with the excite we had getting one...
introduced two kids to hunting this year, both made kills, and are hooked...