Me and Lew were talking the other day and the subject came up about having the guts to make a decision and move camp to another location if we aren\'t getting into the elk this year. Understand, we\'ve been hunting the same spot for around 20 years now and we are typically 100% opportunity and 75% success every year. We\'ve just had a couple years now where the elk aren\'t as numerous, we\'re really having to lay down the tracks to find them, and when we do they don\'t seem to stick around very long. We\'re also starting to deal with a lot of hunter pressure where our previous years weren\'t so bad. So how many of you guys would leave an area like that, in the middle of the season, in hopes of finding something better?
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Moving
- Thread starter Bullnuts
- Start date
I don\'t have enuf experience to give a great answer, but it would be tough to move an start over with that kind of success. to me, an im use to small mo tracks of land, if you move on you just move into someones elses place an have to find the elk there. I may be wrong
An old dilemma here, too.
You get to know a place (for deer, pheasants, elk ... whatever) ... and you know that that knowledge is probably the biggest key to your success ...
And yet ... there\'s always that \"Greener Pasture Syndrome.\"
I really enjoy NEW areas ... but bnsafe is right ... you are often trading one headache for two new ones! But I do really enjoy NEW areas, be it for camping, riding, driving, hunting, or hiking.
You get to know a place (for deer, pheasants, elk ... whatever) ... and you know that that knowledge is probably the biggest key to your success ...
And yet ... there\'s always that \"Greener Pasture Syndrome.\"
I really enjoy NEW areas ... but bnsafe is right ... you are often trading one headache for two new ones! But I do really enjoy NEW areas, be it for camping, riding, driving, hunting, or hiking.
americanbwana
New member
- Sep 3, 2017
- 396
I used to just plan on hunting one area, but have recently decided to have a plan B area.
My old camp was a big walltent that took all day to pack up and move to a new location. Just to much work. This year I\'m going for the pack in base camp, which I can pick up and move when I need to.
My plan B area is about 30 miles to the SE, so I can be down there and hunting well before sunset the same day.
Reasons to move?
A. Crowds
B. Fires
C. USFS decides to close an area to get rid of beetle kill.
D. Sheep
E. Logging activity (Not that big of deal really, but you have to blame someone if)
F. No fresh elk sign
G. To many people
AB
My old camp was a big walltent that took all day to pack up and move to a new location. Just to much work. This year I\'m going for the pack in base camp, which I can pick up and move when I need to.
My plan B area is about 30 miles to the SE, so I can be down there and hunting well before sunset the same day.
Reasons to move?
A. Crowds
B. Fires
C. USFS decides to close an area to get rid of beetle kill.
D. Sheep
E. Logging activity (Not that big of deal really, but you have to blame someone if)
F. No fresh elk sign
G. To many people
AB
Billy Goat
Member
- Sep 5, 2017
- 332
unless I\'d packed in, I\'d just continue to use the same basecamp, and drive to your new target location on a daily basis..
we usually camp centrally, and drive a truck to a trailhead of some sort and hike in daily.
shane
we usually camp centrally, and drive a truck to a trailhead of some sort and hike in daily.
shane
The year before last I left my base camp in place, but moved with a spike camp an hour away to a good area I\'d hunted years before and had also scouted the previous summer. Figured out it was just as overrun with hunters as the area where I left. Conditions change as more hunters learn about an area, and the elk movements change with it. My \"old standby\" has become like a zoo.
Now that I\'m learning a totally new area I plan to be mobile. My base camp will be my 16\' hard-side camp trailer that can be easily moved. I\'ll also have a dome tent with camp gear, and a full backpack spike camp outfit. I have a mountain bike with a kid-trailer (holds 100 lbs) and an ATV to get to the end of some trails where I\'ll plunge off. May also get a game cart or a Pack-Wheel.
Once I find an area with decent elk opportunity and not too much pressure, I\'ll establish my base close to it. May take a season to figure this all out, but I\'m going to figure it out.
Now that I\'m learning a totally new area I plan to be mobile. My base camp will be my 16\' hard-side camp trailer that can be easily moved. I\'ll also have a dome tent with camp gear, and a full backpack spike camp outfit. I have a mountain bike with a kid-trailer (holds 100 lbs) and an ATV to get to the end of some trails where I\'ll plunge off. May also get a game cart or a Pack-Wheel.
Once I find an area with decent elk opportunity and not too much pressure, I\'ll establish my base close to it. May take a season to figure this all out, but I\'m going to figure it out.
I\'m thinking about buying a tent so that I can put a spike camp in my truck and camp out on promising looking areas that I might find during a midday scout. The tent, a small stove, a few groceries, and a light is about all I would need to stay and check out some new areas without having to drive back and forth.
Bob Frapples
Member
- Mar 10, 2014
- 367
So cnelk, do you make it back to base camp each night or spike around when packing on the truck mileage ?
Bob Frapples
Member
- Mar 10, 2014
- 367
Do you leave someone hunting around base camp? I\'m wondering how you would know if the elk haven\'t moved back in your base camp area if ur gone?
Bob Frapples
Member
- Mar 10, 2014
- 367
Oh, power in numbers no doubt. Like a pack of truck driving wolves, that sound pretty efficient. The few times I get to go to a similar area on my Midwest deer trips with co workers it\'s amazing to see the deer activity, or lack there of in a few miles.
We typically drive a lot during the season anyway. We have a basecamp, but drive trucks to our hunting areas, sometimes close, sometimes up to an hour away. And lately, all of our honey holes have started to dry up. Be it extreme pressure from ATV hunters, recreational campers and hikers, etc, a lot of people have seemed to have found our spots and they really don\'t know the best ways to enter/leave or hunt them yet. That pushes a lot of the elk out, but we still manage to scratch a few shots together each season. Even with our success rate I\'m guessing that I\'m just longing for the good old days in our area when 2-3 shot opportunities were presented every day and we\'d see 50-100 elk in a season. I\'m sure there are still places near our area where things are still like that. I\'d sure love to find them!
Colorado_Lew
New member
- Mar 4, 2014
- 189
I think we just need to spend more time scouting the areas we talked about for plan \"B\".
Most summers I spend nearly every weekend in the area we hunt. I just need to to start expanding the camping into
new areas that have high potential. This summer getting boots on the ground and hanging trail cams are high on my list.
We\'ll need to make sure if we decide to pack it over to another spot we are actually moving to a better locale, and not just moving because of lack of sightings, hunter pressure...
Plus we could have a year like last and have 75% shot opportunity on day 1.
Last year we should have killed at least 5 elk in area \"A\".
Most summers I spend nearly every weekend in the area we hunt. I just need to to start expanding the camping into
new areas that have high potential. This summer getting boots on the ground and hanging trail cams are high on my list.
We\'ll need to make sure if we decide to pack it over to another spot we are actually moving to a better locale, and not just moving because of lack of sightings, hunter pressure...
Plus we could have a year like last and have 75% shot opportunity on day 1.
Last year we should have killed at least 5 elk in area \"A\".
That\'s true, and that\'s why it\'s hard to move too. I\'m just longing for the old days I guess when we weren\'t dealing with all the ATV armies and knucks who don\'t know what they\'re doing. We\'re going to scout more this year too and take a look at some of that stuff to the west of where we usually go.
