Why did you move to a new area?

cohunter14

cohunter14

Administrator
Jul 10, 2017
5,345
I am curious what has caused any of you to switch hunting areas. Not in a given season, but switching up the hunting location permanently, more than likely for an entirely new unit. Lack of animals/success, hunting population change, number of tags change, etc. Let\'s hear what you\'ve got! And better yet, have you ever left an area, only to realize the grass isn\'t greener on the other side of the fence, and returned to the area?
 
Well to be honest, I like to explore.

I did spend the first 3 years in one unit, only to have it posted on a website. Opening day found me sharing the mountain with a dozen other camps. Way to many people. Left and never looked back.

Plus, over the last decade the hunting trip was more of a camping trip. The wife came along. It was one of her vacations. So I had to find a spot with with cell phone coverage (to check in with the kids), plenty of water, and a road that didn\'t scratch HER truck.

After last year I decided to change from the camper mode to the hunter mode. The big honking wall tent is gone, and I\'m packing in a bit to attempt to get away from the hordes.

That\'s my story, and I\'m sticking to it.

AB
 
Im still hunting in the same \'general\' area I started in about 25 years ago.
I have \'moved\' a little, more for practical purposes than anything else.

This year my base camp will be the furthest it has ever been from my first base camp, once again, only for logistics as I will still hunt the original area too.

But overall, my \'area\' may be larger than most guys, with it now encompassing 150 sq miles.
If I cant find an elk in that area, something is wrong... :help2:
 
How much of that 150 do you actually hunt in a year Brad? Assuming you have scouted it all at one point or another, how much of it do you actually get to in a given year? Do you just hit area by area until you find the elk and then stay there?
 
Derek
Some of the area is intercepted by roads and other places that dont hold elk.
Of that 150 sq miles, I would say ~20% dont get a look from me.

But the other 80% is broken down into parcels where we look for the animals.
We split up and dissect the parcels until we find them.
We dont hunt them twice in one day as we have different spots for both morning and evening hunts.

Even tho its large, there are some spots we dont hunt some years as we get into elk and dont get back to them.
But its a nice \'pet\' to have :)
 
Dana, the last time I used the term \'big honking\', I thought the kids would never quit laughing! That does kinda date you!
 
The main reason we moved was some of my hunting party have quite a few years under their belts and have some phisical limitations that was making our old spot very hard for them to hunt any more. I plan on going back to our old area someday. I have done well where we are now but there is something about going back to where I shot my first elk that that keeps me wanting to go back.
 
I never have changed. My dad had an army buddy who lives in Colorado, and has a mountain cabin. We always used it for out base when we came here to hunt. I continued to use it after my dad passed away coming here alone. When I finally moved here I stopped using the cabin when my dad\'s buddy passed away.

Now you know why I say I know the unit I hunt very well. I\'ve been hunting it for 60 years. I doubt i\'ll be changing anything at this point.
 
I am thinking about changing locations. Partly it is due to the deterioration of hunt quality where I have hunted, and partly to just try a new spot. Call it adventure I guess.
 
we\'re hunting a new area this year. the unit we used to hunt is really, really steep and hard to navigate for us flatlanders. the elk we\'ve found there have historically been in really tight, hard to access areas, and frankly I\'ve been in spots where I said \"I wouldnt shoot an elk here\" because of the packout.

I\'m \"only\" 40, and can get around the hills okay, but my dad and uncle are both 60, and aren\'t quite as mobile. we are moving to a draw only unit this year, and much of it (not all) is flatter. hopefully, it\'ll still be fruitful. :)

shane
 
My old area became way too popular and every year guys brought back more buddies. I decided to try to learn a new area with lower elk density and fewer hunters. Looking forward to the new adventure.
 
Our group hunted an area off and on for over 20 years (before I even started hunting). We left it to try an area that was a little closer to home (3 hours to camp instead of 6 hours) and wasn\'t as difficult to hunt. That didn\'t last for more than a few years and we were right back where we started, working our tails off and filling tags. The grass definitely wasn\'t greener, that\'s for sure!

Unfortunately, the area randomly went cold over about a two year span. At first, we weren\'t sure why when all of a sudden it became blatently clear...opening morning found me sitting in my ground blind when a plane buzzed over the top of the trees, hearding any elk in the area back onto an outfitters private land. I discussed it with the DOW, and although they acted like they cared, I knew they weren\'t going to do anything about it. So the decision was made to leave the area for good. After not hunting there for three years now, part of me still wants to go back there again. When you hunt a place that long, you get to know it pretty well. I guess I do have to look at the bright side that I now get to try to learn a new area just as well as we knew that one :)
 
Derek
In this day of digital cameras/movies, you should go back just to film that activity and then post it on the WWW.
I bet that would get someone\'s attention!

Plus, who knows, maybe the elk got wise to the plane and now they dont move :)
 
Exactly ... my suspicion is that \"herding\" like that is most effective the first time it happens. Remember, they need to do that because there are hunters on the private land that are \"herding\" them back ... it may be now that the elk have figured out that guns are worse than big noisy birds.

I bet they only \"herd\" them like that when their hunters aren\'t happy. In fact, it may now be a \"show\" for paying hunters. \"Dang, I\'m not sure why Roy couldn\'t get them to cross back over here, but it sure is exciting to watch him, eh?\"
 
Yeah, I hear you guys. I have the same thoughts, especially with using the video camera. The only downfall would be to potentially waste a year of hunting by doing it. The 6 hour drive to camp is one thing, but the walk into that hunting area is brutal. To put it that much effort and have it happen again would drive me nuts and I\'m not sure it would be worth it. Plus, it would be very difficult to actually catch them on video camera as you can\'t really hear him coming (comes from the other side of a mountain). This land owner is also known to go right up to his property boundary in the middle of the night and rip off a few rounds, trying to push the animals back to his property.

As I said, it was getting to be noticable that there were fewer and fewer elk in the area. Truthfully, I think the elk did get smarter and a lot of them just relocated and don\'t hang in the same area anymore. Not to say there are no elk there, but there were definitely fewer around and a lot less sign the last few years we were there. I juggle the idea of going back there a lot, but in the end I think I am content to just move on than potentially waste a year or more trying to deal with that.
 
we are moving, hoping to find less pressured elk.... a big gamble, yes! but we had talked about hitting other states well before....
 
COhunter, the same herding thing happens in the area I\'m now leaving. The CPW knows about it, but have to catch them in the act. I\'ve talked with the local DWM about it and he\'s frustrated, but doesn\'t have the resources to stake it out for days at a time to catch them. They do it during the week before the season, back on public land out of sight from roads, early in the morning when the elk are heading to bedding on the public land, and drive them the other direction onto the private ranch. Once on that big ranch, they don\'t leave because the hunting pressure is fairly low. It\'s a bad deal.
 
The first area I hunted in CO was right after I moved here in 2000. The hunting was okay, but the drive was 6 hours, so no weekends.

I started looking elsewhere and found a place within 2 hours and that\'s where I hunted for probably 6 or 7 years. Then that area, IMO, got over-hunted with elk #s decreasing dramatically...too many cow tags. Also the number of archery elk camps increased to the point that there were twice as many archery camps as there were 1st and 2nd season rifle camps. So now that area had way too many hunters and too few elk. I haven\'t hunted there for two years now since I skipped elk altogether in 2012 and sheep hunted, and then last year I hunted unit 61. I did notice in 2011, the last year I archery hunted in there, that the number of archery camps had finally started decreasing.

I\'d love to go back there because I am so familiar with the area, but if the hunter #\'s don\'t continue downward and the elk #\'s don\'t get better, I doubt I will go back for...at least another few years.
 
Been hunting the same area since 1991 and there were only 2 years that I didn\'t bring meat home. If it isn\'t broke don\'t fix it. It\'s only busy on the opening weekend and after Monday about have the whole place to myself.
 
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