Map Study

[cohunter14]

As promised, here is another map study opportunity. This is an area that we hunted for many years and took quite a few elk out of. The area to the left (west) of the red line is private land and they outfitted out of there. Another thing to note is the small hash lines on the topo coming off of the main trail. Those are drivable 4x4 roads, accessible by truck in most cases, or worst case ATV\'s. Let\'s hear your thoughts on potential spots that you would hunt.

[attachment=1]<!-- ia1 -->Topo.png<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment]

[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->Aerial.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

 

[Deertick]

Let\'s just see if I can post a paint file ... I put BLUE double-circles where I\'d look.

 

[cohunter14]

Anyone else? Let\'s get a few more guesses in here before throwing out the answer. It should be a good learning experience, even for me, as I have some questions as to why people think we found the elk where they were. So throw out some guesses guys, even if you don\'t want to go through the work of trying to put the marks on the map. Don\'t be shy, there are no wrong answers

 

[cnelk]

Derek

I placed a blue line where I believe the elk travel. Anywhere along that line I think is good
And also 3 blue circles with Xs of spots that I would check out.

 

[cohunter14]

One other thing I forgot to mention...maybe throw some notes as to why you picked the spots you did. It will help to make this as much of a learning opportunity as possible for everyone. So, John and Brad, why would you focus your attention on those spots?

 

[cnelk]

Terrain, roads, pressure (from points of access)

And using hunters psychological thought process :dance2:

 

[atfrith]

My thoughts were exactly that of Deerticks. My reasoning for that would be the saddles that seem to provide the elk a preffered method of travel over that ridge. Also, and I could be way off here without seeing the area in person and my limited experience with reading topo maps (why i love these threads)... Is that the majority of hunters traveling that road I would think would take the lazy stand point of looking for an area that didn\'t require a steep hike down and up to find elk knowing that they\'d have to make that trip back to their vehicle with a bunch more weight on their back :mrgreen: Looks like a great area to me though. I just tend to lean towards the idea that most hunters would rather not expend that much efford and continue driving on without giving it a second look.

 

[Deertick]

Psychology.

You have to go DOWNHILL and TOWARD PRIVATE/GUIDED LAND ... that gets rid of a lot of human traffic right there ... and then the benches in those areas ... might be good spots for elk to reach a \"happy medium\" between the pressure to the west and the road to the east.

 

[cohunter14]

Guys, I probably should have done this initially, but got lazy. I alluded in my initial post to the other \'roads\' that contain some traffic, but are difficult to see. I went ahead and updated the topo to show these roads better. As I mentioned, these can be accessed with trucks, but mainly get ATV traffic. I am not sure if some of you noticed them or not, but based on some of your responses you might not have. Let me know if this changes your thought process:

[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->Topo.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

 

[atfrith]

hmm...i deffinitely didn\'t see that before. That may change things a bit..

 

[WapitiBob]

I\'d probably look in these areas.

 

[cohunter14]

This was a very unique area that we hunted for many years. The purple lines are common travel routes that the elk would take. The purple E is also a spot where we had taken elk, although we typically focused on the eastern-facing side of this drainage. The orange circle is a finger of black timber that ran down the mountain (it is difficult to see this on the aerial map). That finger was 30-50 yards wide.

[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->Topo.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

One thing that was very unique about this area is the lack of water up high, especially on the public land side. Because of that, we assumed that the elk had access to water on the private side in those big draws. We would occassionally catch an elk going up or down to the creek at the bottom, but it was pretty rare. This hillside was very steep, so the elk preferred to traverse it instead of going up and down. This is part of the reason we figured that the elk would constanty circle up towards the top of the mountain. They also had pressure from the outfitters on the other side, which would force them over to the public land.

We found this area because of the couple of meadows that were way up high. When we went to check them out, we found some MAJOR game trails. What was interesting about these game trails is that they were totally driven by where the pressure came from. There was very little sign down low in the valley and very little sign towards the southern part of the top of the mountain. This, obviously, was driven by the road hunters. Every day, there would be atv\'s cruising up and down those roads. So where did the elk hang out? Where pressure was at a minimum.

We had stands along the top left route, in both of those meadows as well as in some other areas that had enough open area to provide some shooting lanes and elk were taken there every single year. We also had some stands on both sides of that finger of black timber on a few major game trails. The bulls loved to hang out in there.

We very rarely ever saw a hunter up there because of two reasons: 1) if you accessed it from the atv trail on top of the mountain and took an elk down, you had to hike it back up the hill. It might only look like a little bit of vertical, but it was STEEP. 2) you could access it from the bottom and hike up. This hike was absolutely brutal. It was just over a 1/2 mile from that road below, but that hike would take over an hour and a half and would leave you dripping in sweat. Not many people wanted to make that trek, but it was worth it! The nice thing is that it was all downhill back to camp. We took multiple elk out whole just by dragging them down that hill back to the road.

Anyway, it just goes to show that you can find these pockets just by figuring out where the pressure is coming from. We stumbled onto this area and it was a gold mine for a very long time.

 

[cnelk]

I think I would have done well in that area :dance2:

 

[cohunter14]

I think I would have done well in that area :dance2:

You definitely had the right idea, which is why I was asking for your explanation

You guys also have me looking back at this and my curiousity is quite high on that bench to the south. I only went through that area one time, but I would love to do some more investigating there. Unfortunately, this is the area that I referred to in another thread where the land owner/outfitter on the other side has screwed the hunting up. It was a pretty sweet place for a long time!

 

[cnelk]

derek
I have a thought for you regarding this area.

Get that bow you were talking about and get up there and hunt it early.
I bet that landowner doesnt bother with flying in early September.

Man, Id be lickin\' my chops....

 

[cohunter14]

That could work, but then again if there isn\'t hunting pressure from the private side, the elk could just stay over there and not come onto the private. The outfitter has a weird setup and doesn\'t advertise at all, so I am not sure if/when they hunt the area for archery. If there are hunters there, it could work. The lack of sign in that area over the last couple of years we hunted it made me think that the elk had relocated all together, but who knows. I do like that idea though... :think: