Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Advice on Our Elk Hunting Plans

This is my buddy going up the bowl:



This is his hunting blind up fairly-high in the bowl:



This is a view up (northwest) from there, which is toward the direction from which I intend to come into the bowl this year by camping up high in that direction:



This is looking down from the same area toward the lake at the bottom of the bowl, where there were countless herd-made elk tracks:



After the first day, we hunted the valley below because it involved making much less noise and allowed for far more hunting time where there were many tracks.

We had a good time, hid out quietly, but didn’t see any elk.

PRINCIPLES:

A few principles to provide some context for the questions I ask further below:

1. Last year, I bought a 2nd Rifle Season tag when there usually is little or no snow in the area, and it snowed earlier than normal, about seven days before the 2nd Season opener.

2. This year, I drew a 1st Rifle Season Either-Sex Elk tag in the same area. Unless it snows early again, and given that I am hunting a week earlier, I likely can get my vehicle to the desired campsite 1.2 miles north of the hunt spot. Also, as a backup this year, I am going to bring winter backpacking/camping gear. So, I should be able to get to the desired campsite one way or the other.

3. In the entire miles-long valley to the south and above that around the hunting area, we saw no other hunters all week-long last year. Zero. During the entire week, there were two off-road vehicles that drove up part of the valley, just for fun.

4. We saw countless elk tracks in the snow in the valley below the hunt site and near the lake.

5. All of the Tracks were less than a week old, and all of the tracks were made since the snow fell about seven days before the start of the 2nd Season.

6. All of the countless elk tracks in the valley appeared to be individual elk that were travelling alone.

7. The tracks in the snow near the lake up top, appeared to be that of a herd of elk with a lot of group activity. In some places near the lake, fairly-large areas were turned to mush from all of the activity.

QUESTIONS:

1. Is it normal to see so many tracks in an area from individual elk moving with no companions during that time of year?

2. Are those tracks made by elk who are migrating out of the area on their own, not to return until another season?

I think there may well have been elk up in the bowl up top when we were there, but they heard our hours-long hike up to the bowl, and they did not come back while we were there.

Given the volume of elk tracks in the area, especially near the lake, I tentatively am planning on trying to camp over the ridge at the spot 1.2 miles to the north of the primary hunt site, and creep up to plateau above the giant bowl that partly surrounds the lake. If I see elk down in the bowl around the lake, they could be 500yds - 600 yds away, but there are ways to creep relatively quietly into the valley, assuming no snow.

3. If the wind isn’t bad, and you had the rifle and ability to make that shot, would you get into position and take it, or would you risk creeping down one of the ridges to get closer?

4. Given the volume of elk tracks in the area, especially near the lake that were made during the 1st Rifle Season last year (a week or less before we were there), what are the odds there will be elk there during 1st Season this year?

Any answers to any or all of the above questions, or any other comments, would be greatly appreciated.

As with last year, I will have backup plans.

I also drew a 2nd Rifle Season muley-buck tag for the area in which I recently bought a 120-acre plot in the mountains 20 miles away. The deer on that land apparently have not been hunted in decades. Every day at about 5:00pm to 5:30pm, a large herd of muleys, including some big bucks with big racks, would wander from the north end to the south end of my land, just below a rocky overlook along a long meadow, and they never noticed that I was watching from that big rock. So, I pretty much am planning on bagging one of those after my elk hunt, no matter how it turns out.

Many thanks in advance for any guidance.

Happy hunting to all.