new ground

[archery bum]

I know you seasoned hunters have your old stomping ground and know it like the back of your hand. Lets say you want to go to a new state and don\'t have time to put boots on the ground. So it\'s GE, you find 2 or 3 decent spots to go hunt. Opening day you go into one of these spots and hunt for 3 days. Every night in your tent you dig out the map and find a new spot to check out. Haven\'t really seen much, how long do you stay in the area to check out new spots in the unit before moving on to a new unit that you scouted on GE? (2 week hunt)

 

[Bullnuts]

Sounds like you\'re bivvy hunting while you do this, so unless you\'re seeing sign or animals, a couple days is enough. There is a lot of good looking country out there that looks like it should hold elk and then there is a lot of good looking country that DOES hold elk. Spending time in the former does nothing but waste your time. I have honey holes in my area where I have killed a lot of elk and that should be full of animals every year. If there\'s no sign in the first couple of days of hunting, though, I will completely abandon the area for another.

 

[cohunter14]

One thing I would mention is that just because you aren\'t seeing them right where you are hunting doesn\'t mean that you have to go to an entirely new unit. Picking up camp and moving a couple of miles should be more than enough to get you into new territory. Units are so big that I don\'t think you could cover all of the huntable ground in one if you hunted every single day for a month (and it shouldn\'t take you that long to find the elk )

 

[Swede]

Before I go to a place to hunt, I am confident it has elk. Now when I get there and find none, I have to ask why am I not seeing elk or at least fresh sign? Has something changed, or have they just not showed up? Just moving from place to place may not improve your situation, and like cohunter14 mentioned, you do not have to go a great distance to find them. I know of areas that once were great, but things changed and the elk numbers are way down. I also know of places that have no elk, but 1/4 mile farther up the trail and you have lots of sign and I have killed elk in that situation.

 

[archery bum]

Ya bivy hunting I should have mentioned that. So basically stay in that unit just keep moving til you find fresh sign. Once you find fresh sign how big would the area be you would stay in 1 to 2 miles and for how long before you would move on?