I spent the last week scouting a couple Gunnison units. I found bulls in 2 places - way up high in the rocks and up high in the scrub oak. I ran into elk in the black timber on 2 occassions. I talked to numerous guys and saw exactly 1 dead Elk and heard of 1 other - and there was ALOT of guys out.
The thing that struck me with the 'largest aspen grove in NA' is the amount of food in the aspens. Right now, you could feed 10,000 per acre or so it seems. Plus I found alot of water. The limiting factor to my way of thinking was security cover. Conifers were up high and alot of them had elk sign from small groups of elk.
This is new area for me. I'll be out here 2nd or 3rd rifle with all 100,000 of my friends. My goal is pretty simple: any legal bull.
I say all this because I've never hunted an area with so many aspens and feed. My strategy going in is to hunt the black timber and timber-aspen edges 1+ mile from any trail or road. I'll likely focus on timbered finger ridges leading up to the rocks. These would seem like bedding areas if they are feeding in the aspens.
Any advice on hunting raghorns in giant aspen groves? PM if your comfortable doing so.
Thanks.
