cohunter14
Administrator
- Jul 10, 2017
- 5,345
Well, back from the 2014 hunt. I\'ll preface this by saying that I will put the shortened version of this in the \'things learned\' thread for anyone who doesn\'t want the full story.
Unfortunately we came back empty handed without any punched tags from our group. One of our guys got pnemonia, so he only hunted opening day and the other four of us struck out, but struck out swinging at least.
The first thing I will say is 2.5 days of hunting is simply not enough. I am also learning more and more that experience in an area makes a huge difference. As I have mentioned in other threads, we left our hunting area a few years back after some things had changed there, and I have yet to find a place to call \'home\'. We have bounced between a couple of areas over the last few years and just have not been able to pattern the elk well to where we can find them freqently enough. Add to that the area is 5+ hours away, and that makes scouting trips less and less frequent. I know, out of state guys are probably thinking this right now :agg: Unfortunately, it is the reality of the situation. Even being \'only\' that far away makes it difficult to find time to learn the area.
So, a few details before the story: this area is a spot one of the guys in our camp hunted back in the day before joining our camp. It is a unit that typically requires one preference point to draw a tag, making it even more difficult to learn the area because you can\'t hunt it every year (this was our second time here). The group he hunted with hunted and still hunts this unit during third season, so we don\'t do that out of respect for them. Last time here, we hunted second season and this time, we decided to give first season a shot. The group my buddy used to hunt with would go with 10-12 guys and they would push fingers of north facing dark timber that is surrounded by open space. Some guys would push the timber, others would post up. They would do this every morning and then hunt a few other locations in the afternoon, or push more fingers. Inevitably, they would fill damn near every tag each year they would go.
So, opening morning found us at shooting light pushing the first of many fingers that day. There was a TON of sign in a couple of them, mostly from the previous few days, but some steaming piles of fresh stuff as well. However, we were never able to get an elk to chase out of one of these fingers. The first one we pushed opening morning had an elk crashing through it, but somehow it never came out. Later that day, someone caught a glimpse of the elk, so we pushed the finger two more times, but were outsmarted each go around. Only a brief lunch was taken that day and we continued pushing fingers. That evening, I hiked in a mile and a half or so to a valley and sat until dark. Great looking valley, but not a whole lot of fresh sign in there.
Day two found us pushing fingers yet again. This time, the same finger we heard and saw an elk in the first morning had a new story: someone hunting a nearby group of trees pushed out eight cows and a 6x6 bull and they ran into the same finger we were hunting. Although we never saw this happen, we trusted the guy and tried pushing the same finger and two surrounding fingers with no luck in turning them up. It should also be noted that the weather on Sunday was brutal. It was windy and would be sunny one minute and a blizard the next, with no real accumulation which would have helped. A brief lunch and quick power nap was followed by more pushing of fingers and sitting at an area during the last of shooting light, trying to glass for elk, but the sideways blowing snow made it difficult.
Monday morning, and you guessed it, we started it by pushing some fingers. At this point, it actually made some sense as the weather had been pretty bad through the night and we had gotten a little bit of snow to accumulate, meaning we would be able to see any fresh sign. After pushing two fingers, we decided to move to a new area with a finger we hadn\'t pushed. With not a whole lot of sign, we started making our way back towards the vehicles when three shots ring off close by. One of our guys was making his way through the last part of the woods and had pushed out a cow. One of our guys ripped off the three shots at the cow, but she kept on going. We went to check her trail for blood and about 100 yards up the hill, I spot two drops on a couple of aspen leaves. So, I had my first real tracking experience in my 19 years of hunting elk. Most of my hunting in years passed has made for shots at animals who aren\'t suspecting you there, making for easier shots and cleaner kills. This was not the case here...
We followed the tracks as best we could and unfortunately, we bumped her out of her bloody bed about 45 minutes later and never found her. We spent a good three hours trying to continue the tracking, but there was very little blood to be found after we bumped her and the tracks became impossible to find in the timber. I will say that I am guessing she lived through the wound. There was very little blood to be found
So, more thoughts and things learned:
1) I do not like hunting this way. Pushing fingers essentially makes you still hunting, but you also have somewhat of an incentive to push the elk out of the area to the people posting up. So do you be quiet or loud? And when the elk get pushed out, they are probably going to be running, making for a difficult shot. Case in point is our lost cow. It also makes for A TON of walking. I was absolutely beat at the end of each day and am still exhausted, even after only 2.5 days of hunting. So, what to take away? Find a way that works best for YOU and not others.
2) Do not tie your hunting plans to others in your camp. Make your own decisions and do what you think is best. I wish I would have done this instead of continually pushing fingers with the group the rest of the time. Unfortunately, we already didn\'t have an optimum number of guys to do that, so I felt bad removing myself and making it even more difficult for them.
3) If you have a questionable shot on an elk, even with a rifle, give it extra time. I am thinking we could have finished off that cow if she wasn\'t expecting us to be coming after her. Maybe she even dies in that bed, but I am not sure she was bleeding hard enough.
4) Finding elk is still the most difficult part of hunting elk. They are so elusive it amazes me. There one minute and gone the next.
I\'m sure there will be more, but that is it for now. I will also post a few pics when I get a chance. Already looking forward to next year and can\'t believe this season has already come and gone.
Unfortunately we came back empty handed without any punched tags from our group. One of our guys got pnemonia, so he only hunted opening day and the other four of us struck out, but struck out swinging at least.
The first thing I will say is 2.5 days of hunting is simply not enough. I am also learning more and more that experience in an area makes a huge difference. As I have mentioned in other threads, we left our hunting area a few years back after some things had changed there, and I have yet to find a place to call \'home\'. We have bounced between a couple of areas over the last few years and just have not been able to pattern the elk well to where we can find them freqently enough. Add to that the area is 5+ hours away, and that makes scouting trips less and less frequent. I know, out of state guys are probably thinking this right now :agg: Unfortunately, it is the reality of the situation. Even being \'only\' that far away makes it difficult to find time to learn the area.
So, a few details before the story: this area is a spot one of the guys in our camp hunted back in the day before joining our camp. It is a unit that typically requires one preference point to draw a tag, making it even more difficult to learn the area because you can\'t hunt it every year (this was our second time here). The group he hunted with hunted and still hunts this unit during third season, so we don\'t do that out of respect for them. Last time here, we hunted second season and this time, we decided to give first season a shot. The group my buddy used to hunt with would go with 10-12 guys and they would push fingers of north facing dark timber that is surrounded by open space. Some guys would push the timber, others would post up. They would do this every morning and then hunt a few other locations in the afternoon, or push more fingers. Inevitably, they would fill damn near every tag each year they would go.
So, opening morning found us at shooting light pushing the first of many fingers that day. There was a TON of sign in a couple of them, mostly from the previous few days, but some steaming piles of fresh stuff as well. However, we were never able to get an elk to chase out of one of these fingers. The first one we pushed opening morning had an elk crashing through it, but somehow it never came out. Later that day, someone caught a glimpse of the elk, so we pushed the finger two more times, but were outsmarted each go around. Only a brief lunch was taken that day and we continued pushing fingers. That evening, I hiked in a mile and a half or so to a valley and sat until dark. Great looking valley, but not a whole lot of fresh sign in there.
Day two found us pushing fingers yet again. This time, the same finger we heard and saw an elk in the first morning had a new story: someone hunting a nearby group of trees pushed out eight cows and a 6x6 bull and they ran into the same finger we were hunting. Although we never saw this happen, we trusted the guy and tried pushing the same finger and two surrounding fingers with no luck in turning them up. It should also be noted that the weather on Sunday was brutal. It was windy and would be sunny one minute and a blizard the next, with no real accumulation which would have helped. A brief lunch and quick power nap was followed by more pushing of fingers and sitting at an area during the last of shooting light, trying to glass for elk, but the sideways blowing snow made it difficult.
Monday morning, and you guessed it, we started it by pushing some fingers. At this point, it actually made some sense as the weather had been pretty bad through the night and we had gotten a little bit of snow to accumulate, meaning we would be able to see any fresh sign. After pushing two fingers, we decided to move to a new area with a finger we hadn\'t pushed. With not a whole lot of sign, we started making our way back towards the vehicles when three shots ring off close by. One of our guys was making his way through the last part of the woods and had pushed out a cow. One of our guys ripped off the three shots at the cow, but she kept on going. We went to check her trail for blood and about 100 yards up the hill, I spot two drops on a couple of aspen leaves. So, I had my first real tracking experience in my 19 years of hunting elk. Most of my hunting in years passed has made for shots at animals who aren\'t suspecting you there, making for easier shots and cleaner kills. This was not the case here...
We followed the tracks as best we could and unfortunately, we bumped her out of her bloody bed about 45 minutes later and never found her. We spent a good three hours trying to continue the tracking, but there was very little blood to be found after we bumped her and the tracks became impossible to find in the timber. I will say that I am guessing she lived through the wound. There was very little blood to be found
So, more thoughts and things learned:
1) I do not like hunting this way. Pushing fingers essentially makes you still hunting, but you also have somewhat of an incentive to push the elk out of the area to the people posting up. So do you be quiet or loud? And when the elk get pushed out, they are probably going to be running, making for a difficult shot. Case in point is our lost cow. It also makes for A TON of walking. I was absolutely beat at the end of each day and am still exhausted, even after only 2.5 days of hunting. So, what to take away? Find a way that works best for YOU and not others.
2) Do not tie your hunting plans to others in your camp. Make your own decisions and do what you think is best. I wish I would have done this instead of continually pushing fingers with the group the rest of the time. Unfortunately, we already didn\'t have an optimum number of guys to do that, so I felt bad removing myself and making it even more difficult for them.
3) If you have a questionable shot on an elk, even with a rifle, give it extra time. I am thinking we could have finished off that cow if she wasn\'t expecting us to be coming after her. Maybe she even dies in that bed, but I am not sure she was bleeding hard enough.
4) Finding elk is still the most difficult part of hunting elk. They are so elusive it amazes me. There one minute and gone the next.
I\'m sure there will be more, but that is it for now. I will also post a few pics when I get a chance. Already looking forward to next year and can\'t believe this season has already come and gone.
