Western Hunting Data

Just another smooth hunt

2010-09-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

To view the illustrated version of this post, go here:
http://www.biggamehunt.net/forum/just-another-smooth-hunt
So, we’ve been planning this hunt for nearly a year… We had been keeping an eye on the exploding elk population, yet extremely low bull harvests. But in order to hunt it properly, we knew it couldn’t be a mere truck hunt and would require a full on backcountry pack trip. Ryan had us talked into going in for a muzzleloader hunt in that unit to really get into the big dark timber bulls. Being primarily rifle hunters, the thought of getting into rutting bulls was pretty appealing, and a little out of our routine.

5 of us drew muzzleloader tags, two bull tags and three cow tags. Myself and Adam had the bull tags, and Adam was just coming off of a week of mountain goat hunting. I had tried to help him get his goat by opening morning so his mountain goat hunt wouldn’t cut too much into our elk hunt, but it ended up taking a lot longer to connect. We needed his horses, we needed to be fresh for this hunt, and he needed to be able to spend some time at home before taking off again for another big hunt.

In June we did a scouting trip on horseback. Probably saw over 75 elk up in the bowl that morning. Nearly every meadow we came across seemed to have elk in it. And the additional sign was incredible. The trail looked like an elk highway and the willows were browsed down to practically nothing. We came away very excited about our prospects.

Our plan for the main hunt was to meet at the trail head, late Tuesday night, pack up and hike in with the horses carrying our gear Wednesday, and Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning, hopefully catching the best rutting activity at the tail end of the muzzleloader season. Because muzzleloader season is 9 days, encompassing two weekends, we also decided to investigate some easier to get to areas for an opening weekend hunt. Some of that country will be shown in the scouting video we are working on, but we got into elk off the easier roads too.

Because our scouting trip up to the bowl was on horseback, we didn’t have a good feel for how long it would take on foot. We knew it was all uphill (about 3,000 feet), took four hours on horseback and was going to be at least 7 miles, maybe more. We also knew that we’d be wiped out if we did do it on foot, and decided to try to rent a horse with a guide for the ride up to the bowl, then hiking the remainder in to camp while the guide took the horses back.

The scouting and legwork for the unit was the easy part for us, but getting everyone’s act together for the rest of the prep was much more difficult. Ryan was the only one in the group who owned a muzzleloader by the time we drew our tags, so the rest of us needed to buy or borrow. I had previously owned one, and had several fiascos deer hunting with it before selling it. I waited until early August to finally replace it with a .54 cal Lyman Deerstalker and a 57SML peep sight. Two of the guys borrowed guns from other friends and didn’t shoot them until about two weeks before leaving. Another bought his gun in late July, and spent several hours getting accustomed to it/fiddling with the sights in frustration. The point is, none of us felt super confident with our new toys.

By late August, we finally decided to contact an outfitter about setting us up for the ride up to the bowl, but at that point they were completely out of horses. And since they were the only outfitter working this portion of the wilderness, we were back to square one. We had to walk it. Oh well. However, one of our hunters also backed out, when he learned there would be no easy ride in, deciding to just hunt the opening weekend. It turned out to be a good thing, leaving more space on each horse for the rest of our gear and allowing us to go up with just one tent for four guys instead of two tents for 5 guys.

Summer flew by, and Friday, September 10th was here, quicker than we were really ready for. I backed out of the weekend hunt at the last minute, instead focusing on just the pack trip. Mike and Ryan saw elk on that quick hunt, but couldn’t make anything happen.

Despite logically knowing the hunt was coming up, I still didn’t feel prepared. We had been planning our whole year around the big pack trip hunt, and it was time to put our plans to the test. On Monday, the 13th, Adam had a minor emergency with a boarder’s horse at his place, but he basically lost the whole afternoon and evening for packing and gear prep. So, he and Jason, who were supposed to leave by about noon on the 14th so they could get to the trailhead with daylight to spare, only left an hour before myself and Ryan left after working all day. Those two had never been to that trailhead, and were going in in the dark with a horse trailer. Thankfully we found them by 11pm on Tuesday night without any real incidents.

We got up at 5am Wednesday morning, hoping to hit the trail sometime just after dawn. But breakfast, packing and repacking gear in the panniers and saddlebags took a lot longer than anticipated. It was 9:30 before we hit the trail and was already starting to get hot. We balanced our loads pretty well on the horses, and they didn’t require much additional work. However, this is when things started to unravel for us…

First stop, we hit a creek about a mile and a half past our trailhead, just inside the wilderness boundary. While letting the horses get a drink, Adam set his shooting sticks down. By the time, he remembered, we were 3 miles up the trail. Not a big deal, but just a sign of the many things to come.

Next up was my turn. On my brand new gun, the ramrod guide tubes popped loose under the strain of being integrated into the sling swivels. I tied Sonny up to a very large dead Aspen, mostly because it was handy while I saw about dealing with my gun. Sonny, an otherwise great horse, has the bad habit of pulling when tied up. I forgot about this until he tore down the 40 foot aspen he was hitched to and freaked out, bouncing around with a 3 foot wide log attached to himself, laying waste to all the vegetation around him. Thankfully, I got him untied before he did any real damage to himself or the rest of us. We weren’t prepared to repair the gun at that moment, as my Leatherman tool was stowed in a fairly inaccessible part of the panniers. Barely two miles into our hike, I was now forced to put my gun into a scabbard and carry Jason’s gun, whose sling swivels thankfully did not come undone.

A mile after that, Ryan, who was carrying a six foot galvanized pipe that we were going to insert into the spring we were planning on camping at in order to better facilitate filling water bottle and buckets realized he set the pipe down sometime after my stop to deal with Sonny and the faulty sling swivels/guide tubes. He insisted we continue on without him and would meet us at a campsite that he and I knew of. At that point we were going to eat lunch, load our guns and fire fouling shots for those who hadn’t before leaving. That camp was about a mile from the border of our unit and still a long way from where we planned on camping and hunting.

At Lunch Camp, Adam couldn’t get his gun to fire on the first shot, it seemed his percussion caps were too small for the nipple. Turns out the friend he borrowed that gun from gave him #10 caps for a #11 nipple. Once again, not an insurmountable problem, but the last thing you’d want is to have to you gun go “CLICK!” instead of “BOOM!” with a bugling elk at bayonet distance. I had plenty of #11s, so that was no problem. Not long after we got Adam’s gun up and running, Ryan showed up, about 30 minutes behind our arrival.

I popped a few caps to clear out any cleaning residues in my nipple, then loaded a partial charge below a patched round ball to fire a fouling shot. However, I was out of caps and walked back to my pack to get another, hoping it would light the charge on the first cap in a still slightly oily barrel. Of course, it went “POP!”, instead of “BOOM!”, so back to my pack I walked (we were shooting at a bare hill about 75 yards from where the main camp was and where the horses were tied up). Next cap “POP!”, and the next, and the next one and the next one went “POP!”. WTF?! I never marked my ramrod for a full charge, so I couldn’t tell whether or not the charge was still in there. I was scared to death of double charging the gun, so my next idea was to put a little bit of Adam’s FFg blackpowder into my nipple to hopefully light my Pyrodex charge.

Holding the gun well away from my face, with Jason threatening to put the video of this whole incident on YouTube (I’m sure it was funny to him!), I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, “POP!”. But this time, the lubed patch from my round ball came flying out! Once again, WTF!?, over? My guess is that while walking back and forth to my pack for caps, the ball and main powder charge fell out. I know the patches and ball were always kind of a loose fit in my bore, which explains the poor accuracy I had with anything but Powerbelts, but still, the ball fell out? Never heard of that. But, next charge and patch ball lit off without a hitch, leaving me feeling and looking pretty stupid, screwing around for nearly 45 minutes when we could have been hiking to camp.

Oh well, bellies full, egos shattered, guns loaded and we were back on the trail by 3:00 pm. While messing with the guns, we did see two pack trains. One heading up and the other heading down. The wife of the outfitter had told us that the bowl we were headed to would be full of people during muzzleloader season. That seemed tough to believe, given that there was no more statewide muzzleloading tag. When we got up to the bowl(kind of a basin several miles wide, with strips of timber separating large meadows, bounded by heavy timber below solid rocky peaks), which is where the unit boundary started. About 1 mile in, we found a camp with several guys with rented horses from Pennsylvania. Thankfully, that was the last occupied camp we saw all week. Ol Linda was full of crap. In fact, the large outfitter camp wasn’t even occupied. It was getting late and we were exhausted, pushing on towards the camp we had intended to use. However, on the way there, we spied an even better spot, with better grazing for the horses. It was late, and no one was going to argue. At 6:30, we could finally stop hiking and start unloading horses.

What was a four hour horse ride back in June, took 9 hours this September! 6 of those hours through a unit we couldn’t hunt.

It didn’t take long to get camp set up, the horse corral built (electric fence), water bottles filled from the creek (no monkeying with the pipe was going to be necessary, but yes, we still filtered the water). By about 7:15 camp was made, and were feeling a little better. So 3 of us spread out to hunt the last remaining minutes of dusk. I head up towards where we intended camp to be, seeing a buck muley at our spring, Adam saw several does in the meadow below camp, and Ryan, who had a cow tag, put a stalk on a lone elk that night back towards the trail we came in on. In the falling light, he couldn’t make out whether or not it was a spike or a cow at 140 yards, so he let it walk. Jason stayed in camp, heating up some elk chili his wife made earlier in the week. After a long day and some good hot food, there wasn’t much lingering by the campfire. We hit the sack before 9.

Thursday morning we were up by 5, watered the horses, moved the 400 square foot pasture (3 horses can wipe out a 20x20 foot piece of meadow pretty quickly), grabbed our gear and headed out. Jason and I hunted together and Ryan and Adam hunted together so that we’d each have someone on had with either a cow or bull tag.

We started the morning sitting a meadow near a small saddle in the bowl, hoping to catch elk headed towards bed. No luck, so by 8 am we were stalking the timber and headed to a large opening at the back of the basin, up against the cliffs which would still be shaded. We took a little longer than anticipated going through the timber, but the large, wide trails just begged to be sat in hopes of ambushing elk headed to bed. We sat the meadow below the cliffs, glassing some bighorns above us until almost noon.

After that is was time to still hunt the timber. Within 30 minutes we were busted by two cows that we had no shot on. Oh well, that means slow down, but at least we were into elk. We spent the rest of the day investigating feature in the timber we had seen on the aerial photos. We found a small lake below a slide, several wallows, and some hidden meadows. The north facing timber that we cruised was absolutely littered with trails, sign and the familiar barnyard smells of a good elk hunting area.

At 4:00 pm we heard our first bugle of the trip, and it was within a half mile of the wallow we were presently investigating. The only call I carried was a cow call, as I’m not a super confident elk caller, and had always been of the belief that less is more with elk calling. Having called the biggest public land bull I’ve ever seen my just using my mouth several years prior to this, I thought I knew what I was doing. I didn’t. Our first move was to cut a quarter mile of the distance between us and the bull before he bugled again. On his second bugle in the thick blowdowns, we felt we were close enough to start calling to him. My first mews had him immediately bugling in response, so we set up, with guns trained in his direction. What felt like eternity was probably barely 3 minutes, before I couldn’t resist calling again. Another bugle, and it sounded closer. So we sat still, hoping any minute he’d come up out of the small drainage in front of us and collide with a .54 caliber slug. A few minutes later, still nothing. So we call again, trying to sound like a desperate cow. He bugles in response, but was he further away now? We move forward, creeping towards the ridge above the small creek in front of us. Nothing. We call some more, nothing. We creep forward…. “CRASH! SNAP! THUD! CRASH!” Sonofa! I catch a black blur off to my left as our bull is headed out of Dodge in a hurry. He must have been wallowing in the black mud alongside the creek below us on that last bugle, making himself sound further away than he really was with a hill directly between us.

Dejected, we decide to head back towards the meadows as evening was coming on. We sat the edge of a meadow, just above the large creek that lead towards camp, watching deer browse along the edge and a couple of grouse putter around, doing whatever it is they do when they aren’t busy scaring hunters. With 15 minutes of shooting light left, we hear another bugle, this one within a quarter of a mile, but just inside the tree line along the creek. We scoot around the edge of a spruce and give off a few cow calls, making us seem really desperate to the bull. Another bugle! Maybe 100 yards away, still inside the timber, but much closer now. Our guns our up and we wait. Nothing. Tick, tick, tick, tick, we are running out of daylight, so I call again. The bugle is further away now, down the creek towards camp. So we scoop up our packs, run to the trail, then jog/walk at a brisk pace until we hear him again. Our camp is now within sight, and just I’m about to call, I say to Jason, “where are the horses?” I could see the white electric fence in the falling light, but no horses. He picks up his binoculars and says, “they’re gone!”.

Oh crap. This bugling bull is now the last thing on our minds as we race down there to look at the fence. The stakes are strewn about, the fencing is stretched across the meadow and there are no horses to be seen. Softly, I call for Tango and Honey and Sunny. I knew it was a futile effort, but it was all I could think of.

10 minutes later, I get Ryan on the radio, who informs Adam of situation. I’m glad I wasn’t there when he heard the news, it could not have been good. He was surprisingly calm about it when he got to camp, saying there’s nothing we could do about it now, and that tomorrow we would have to go look for them.
We were all hoping that the horses would just show back up in the middle of the night, but at dawn on Friday we were not so lucky. We hiked the 2.5 miles down past the outfitter camp and to the Pennsylvanian’s camp. They had seen the horses run right by their camp the night before, but could do nothing to stop them. Unfortunately this now meant the horses had to be all the way down at the trailer, as there was no other place they were likely to stop at, except maybe the outfitter’s small ranch where he kept his horses.

Adam didn’t want us to ruin our hunts by going all the way down with him, but Ryan graciously insisted on going with him. He had two bridles with him, but the saddles were in camp, so whoever went down was going to have to ride the horses bareback all the way back up the mountain. In the end, Ryan and Adam both hiked all the way down to find the horses while Jason and went back to hunting.

Because our morning was now gone, we decided to hike back up to the slide lake, hoping to catch elk looking for a drink or to wallow at midday. We took our time getting there as quietly as we could through three-quarters of a mile of dark timber. When we got there, we maneuvered some of the driftwood around the small lake (maybe 100 yards wide) to create a small blind. We mostly napped and snacked throughout the afternoon, trying to keep the snoring to a minimum. By 2:00, we were pretty cold in the shade, so we switched sides of the lake to warm up a bit in the sun.

After warming up, I got underneath a tree at the edge of the lake with a little bit of shade, and got back to napping. I awoke an hour later after hearing a stick snap. Upon opening my eyes, a midsized 5x5 raghorn bull stepped out into the sunlight barely 60 yards away! But now I felt like I was caught with my pants down. I was lying on my back, with my feet facing the bull and the gun leaning against a tree next to me. I slowly reached over and grabbed the gun, but on cocking the hammer, which seemed to echo across the rock slide above us, the bull whirled to face me. At this point my heart was racing, I knew it was just a raghorn, but we had had had enough problems (oh yeah, did I mention my sling swivel and ramrod guide tube fell out again, and my powder flask broke open spilling powder out all over my food?) and with no word from Adam and Ryan on the horses, I had to try to take this bull to help salvage the hunt. As the bull turned his head to look back behind him, I snuck the gun to my shoulder, but I still felt pinned down and unable to rise off of my back. The gun naturally settled at the top of his shoulder, which was a lot higher than I should have aimed, but I pulled the trigger without thinking about it. “BOOM!” The bull stiffened in his tracks, then whirled around trotting back into the timber. I had a clear view of where the exit side would be, and with his unhurried reaction, I instantly knew I missed. With no hair, no blood, no muscle, no bone in the bare soil, my heart sunk. I let us all down. Jason saw the whole thing and was caught trying to decide whether to grab his gun or his camera to back me up. But there was nothing we could do now; I blew what should have been a chip shot. In fact, this is the first elk I’ve ever missed. There was no excuse, I shot before I was ready, which was the kind of thing I used to do as a kid. I’ve killed way too much game to do something so stupid, but here I was, acting like a 15 year old again and not talking myself through the shot placement and trigger pull.

We half heartedly sat the pond for about 30 more minutes before deciding to sit a smaller wallow a few hundred yards away. A lone bugle reminded us it wasn’t totally over yet. It was Friday, not Sunday yet. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful as we alternated sitting wallows and trails, and stalked the timber back towards camp, watching a few doe deer here and there. We were at camp at dusk, and thankfully Ryan and Adam were there. Apparently they just arrived and didn’t find the horses until they were over a mile beyond the trailer. The horses spent the night at the trailer, but when no one showed up, they must have wandered off to graze. Sonny was sore with a stone bruise, but otherwise the horses were just tired and no worse for wear. And apparently it’s really hard to bareback ride a horse up a hill unless it’s sweaty. We decided to alternate high lining two horses while one would graze in the enclosure at a time. That way we couldn’t lose all the horses at once again.

That evening, the camp bull piped up again. And unlike the night before, he kept going all night long! His bugles would seemingly reverberate off the mountains. Every half hour to an hour or so, there would be a response or three. We hardly slept, listening to the eerie chorus all night. The banshee shrieks and throaty roars seemed to be all around us, but that certain throaty roar of the camp bull was the one constant. It sounded as if he was standing just outside of our tent, tempting us to come out and fight him.

Dawn couldn’t come soon enough, as the bulls were still sounding off when 5 am hit.
It was decided that Adam and Ryan should go after the camp bull, while Jason and I headed further down the creek towards slightly more distant bugles. As the light began to switch from black to grey, the other bulls quit talking and we had no sound to cue in on, until another small bull piped up back towards camp. As we crept back in the direction of camp, we could still hear the camp bull going nuts. His high pitched opening note, followed by a throaty roar of a second note was very distinctive. As we headed up the trail past camp, we finally heard a “BOOM!” in the timber above it. Jason and I high fived in relief and glee for the other guys, then tried to get Adam and Ryan on the radio. We slowly hiked towards where we thought we heard the sound, when Ryan finally turned his radio on. I found him on my Garmin Rino, barely 500 feet away, and he said they found hair and felt like a good shot but were waiting on me to help them track the bull Adam shot.

It was a steep uphill angle at 110 yards through an avalanche chute surrounded by heavy timber. Ryan and Adam were trying to get to the main herd bull and cows, but a satellite that was dogging the herd was always in the way. After the 3rd pass by the satellite, Adam decided that the bird in hand was better than the two in the bush, so he took the easy shot. He said the bull spun at the shot and headed back into the timber to the east. When I inspected the shot site, I couldn’t find any blood, but there was hair there and so I felt like we should be able to find blood pretty soon. However, after 50 yards, and several log jumps, with no blood, things weren’t adding up. In my experience, animals don’t generally spin when shot, they run the direction they are facing. There was no hair clumps in the shot site, just a bunch of single hairs, and no meat or bone. I went back to the site to investigate some more and found where Adam’s slug hit the behind the bull. Now the question was, did it hit the bull first, or just graze him? We could see that the bullet hit the tree at about original caliber size, then expanded once hitting the tree. The final determination was made when Adam dug the bullet out and there was no meat or blood in the grooves. He now got to experience what I felt the day before. After all the angles he had studied for his .300 Win Mag before the mountain goat hunt, the excitement of the elk hunt made him completely forget to hold much lower on that bull at such a steep angle (50 or so degrees uphill). Combine that with what was likely too high of a hold, and he just missed spining the bull by an inch. After the shot, Ryan charged the herd while calling, hoping to catch the cows in confusion, but never caught up with them.

We decided to switch things up, so Ryan and I headed to the top of the mountain, towards the pass above our bowl, while Adam and Jason headed west through the timber. After a grueling climb, Ryan and I topped out at 11,500 feet on a ridge with a lot of elk sign. While debating our next move, and contemplating lighting off a location bugle, our questions were answered for us. A squeaky little bugle started to our east along the top of the ridge, then was answered below us by a hearty, throaty, deep bugle. I guess, we go down then, eh? Those two bulls kept talking, and every once in a while a third bull would light up to our west and down the canyon. So we fired off a bugle, and all three would answer. Then we would drop further towards the bigger, closer bull. Then I would cow call, and he would answer. Then, thinking he was coming and we really needed to challenge him, we got to within 100 yards, Ryan lit off a challenge bugle, while I kicked and snapped dry limbs and through in a little cow call here and there, trying to sound like a bull was taking his cows. Sure enough, our herd bull answered, but further away. He was now across the creek and heading up the opposite hill! Crap! We could talk AT the bulls, but we were not talking TO them. We did not know what they wanted to hear. We could get them to respond vocally, but we were just trying different noises to make them come to us. We didn’t really know what we were doing and were really out of our element. It was exciting, but demoralizing, being amongst what sounded like 3 bulls, at least one of which likely had a herd with him, but we didn’t know what to say to him. It’s possible we could have just crept in on him while the other bulls were talking to him, but instead, we wanted to feel like a part of the action, not an interloper. We should have just shut up and hunted him down.
The rest of the day was spent spinning our wheels at the top the ridge, then back to the slide lake until dark. It was a fun day, but we just couldn’t make anything happen in our favor. Now we only had a few hours of Sunday morning left to hunt.

I slept in, but the other three got up and hunted. I watered the horses and rotated the grazer, then Ryan came back by about 7:30. We began packing up the tent and the rest of our gear, and Jason came back to camp by 8:00. At 8:30 we heard a “BOOM!” behind camp. We hooted and hollered, hoping Adam took a last minute elk so we wouldn’t be coming out empty handed. It took another 20 minutes before Adam showed up with a big ol sh!t eating grin on his face, carrying something being his back. He said, “you didn’t think I was gonna come back empty handed did you?”, then pulled out a big lump from behind his back. I let a big whoop before I realized what I was looking at, assuming he was pulling out some sort of an elk part from behind his back. Turns out it was a grouse! He head shot it perfectly, but begs the question, if you can head shoot a grouse, how’d you miss an elk?

One last bit of drama in packing up the horses. Sonny decided to pull his “tug on whatever I’m tied to” routine again. He was fully loaded, but tied to a stout spruce that wasn’t going anywhere no matter how hard he tugged. He fell over sideways while we were trying to untie him. His eyes rolled back in his head, with the halter tearing at his face, as all 1,200 pounds of him pulled against it. I eventually got him untied, but not before getting kicked in the shin. It took him a moment to stand up, he was shaking with adrenaline, the skin on the bridge of his nose and above his eyes being torn off and acting completely dazed.

He quickly recovered, and the rest of the hike down was uneventful. We were excited about the spot and would like to return, but very disappointed with our own performances. Most of our problems were totally avoidable or easily solved with better preparation. We let too many opportunities slip through our grasp. We very likely should have been packing out at least two raghorn bulls. We’ll go back, but we need to get more serious about learning to talk to elk, we need to really focus on our open sight shooting, and we need to take more precautions with the horses. Or we’ll be taking goats next year. Just another smooth hunt, eh?

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

2010-09-08T20:26:00.001-07:00

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Do Oft Go Awry
Reality kicked me in the teeth yesterday. I had only been able to commit one day of hunting season to a mountain goat hunt with a friend. Our plan should have worked, but only by dumb luck did the mountain goat elude us. To see the full story, go here: http://www.biggamehunt.net/forum/hair
The point is, the odds are the odds. The vast majority of hunters will not harvest an elk this year, and slightly less than half will take a mule deer. Most antelope hunters will harvest, so will most moose hunters. And I’m sure my friend will harvest that goat eventually. But in just one day, almost anything can happen. The odds will win out eventually, but freak occurrences, accidents and unplanned events have short term effects that are difficult to plan for.
Time and flexibility will help to overcome most stochastic events. It’s difficult for all of us to schedule more time for a longer hunt, but if you’ve got the ability to schedule even a few more days, you should really consider doing so. There’s nothing like having a little extra time to make more informed decisions, be more selective with your choice of animals to harvest and react to unplanned events.
But in order to be able to react well, or to be able to react more quickly to new information and events, you need to plan for flexibility. What are you going to do if it snows? If someone is in “your” spot? What if it’s windy? If a trail or road is closed? What can go wrong? Do you have a back up plan? It’s never too late to alter a plan.
But in the end, even with the odds in your favor, you may still go home empty handed. Are you going to be happy anyway? What would it take for you to enjoy the hunt, even without harvesting? What if you shoot an animal younger/smaller than you had hoped? Will you be disappointed in yourself? That’s an easy one for me to answer: don’t shoot anything you aren’t proud of. Let him/her walk and let someone who would be proud take that animal. But just as importantly, were your goals a little too lofty? What’s a realistic expectation for the area you are hunting? I have to be able to dream of big, mature animals, but my trophy standards are on a sliding scale.
It’s not fun to think about reality, but in order to live out your fantasy hunt, you need to know what to expect and then plan for the unexpected.
Good luck and be safe out there

Illustrated Guide to Unit Selection

2010-08-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is the part of the script and illustrations to a series of videos that we are working on. What I’d like to attempt to do here is to show all of what goes into planning a successful hunt or three. And rather than sit on this for a few months until the video is complete, I’d like it out there for folks to be able to think as we head into hunting season. It’s my plan to do follow up pieces to this with remote scouting, on the ground scouting and hunting season updates throughout the 2010 season:

For me, there is no offseason. Hunting season does not begin in the fall, it is a yearlong procession of research, applications and scouting seasons, all culminating in the hunt. I put a lot of effort into this process; have developed some different ways of doing my research to put myself and my hunting partners on the ground in productive country, and would like to show how it is we are able to routinely harvest in new country every year. Because we are unit hoppers, we never get to intimately know an area the way someone would who has hunted a specific drainage for the past 20 years. I don’t find that to be a handicap, in fact, I feel that you are missing out by not exploring new country whenever possible. When you are wed to a specific unit, you stay with it through the good years and bad years, never feeling comfortable with the idea of trying a new location, not knowing how your wisdom will translate, and not knowing the specific movement habits of game in a new spot. I accept that I will never know have a complete understanding of the unique movements of game in every area, but I feel that knowledge and wisdom gained through hunting many places will apply to most situations I will encounter. While I may eventually settle down to hunting a few units routinely, by being flexible and keeping my eye on the population trends, I am able to hunt more places at their peak, and I don’t ever feel “stuck” with the same old, same old.

Unit selection is all about putting the odds in your favor. Most elk and deer hunters throughout the west go home empty handed more often than not. On average, elk hunters in Colorado harvest about 20% of the time, and deer hunters are successful about 40% of the time. Average isn’t good enough for me; I want to have the chance to harvest every time I go out. To do that, I feel it is advantageous to put yourself in more productive country. But how do you identify those areas? What do I look for when selecting a unit? After I’ve selected a unit to hunt, then how do I go about narrowing down the options for selecting a specific region to hunt? This script will attempt to show you the statistics and research that I looked at for this year and then show you the sign, habitat and terrain features that will encourage or discourage me from hunting in a specific area. Then hopefully, we’ll be able to put it all together for a successful hunt.

To begin the 2010 application season, my partners and I all had differing amounts of preference points and hunting preferences. We are all Colorado transplants, and so we do not have deep connections to any particular area within the state. We are mostly rifle hunters, but we also dabble in muzzleloading and archery now and then to expand our hunting opportunities. In 2009, very few of us were successful in drawing our first choice deer and elk tags, so we mostly hunted on second choices, OTC tags and leftovers. We had an up and down year with a few blown chances sticking in our collective craws making the season seem not quite as successful as we had hoped. As a group, our deer preference points were all over the map, with one of us having 0 points, one having 1 point, 2 having 2 points, one having 4 points, and two with 5 points. Only one of the 3 with a high deer point count had a plan for his points, the others were just blindly accumulating. For elk, we had fewer points as a group, with one having 5 points, but the rest of us had either one or two points each.

So our first order of business was to sit down and have a Meeting of the Mighty Hunters to map out our plans back in February. This was already past the application deadline for Wyoming elk, but none of us seemed interested in attempting an elk hunt Wyoming this year. For the last couple of years we have been going to Wyoming for a doe antelope hunt, so our first set of deadlines was going to be March 15th. New Mexico elk was on Ryan’s radar, and I decided to apply again for Nevada mule deer, as the last cheap and easy western hunt left now that New Mexico requires the full fee up front. But other than those hunts, the majority of our efforts were going to be focused on our home state of Colorado.

As with every group, some take a more active role in the planning process than others, with the less active members being more amenable to whatever the planners decide on. First order of business and that which most of us plan our year around is the elk hunting. In 2009, the main group hunt was a 1st rifle cow hunt in and alongside a wilderness area. We also had a 3rd rifle OTC bull elk hunt for 3 of us, while others hunted muzzleloader and archery seasons if they hunted elk a second time. Ryan had just taken up muzzleloading in 2009 and had an awesome experience with elk bugling in his face. As a dedicated waterfowler, the game calling aspect also appealed to him. To me, l liked the idea of having first crack at an elk with a firearm, and love mid September in the Rockies. We were also able to get more guys to commit to a backcountry elk hunt in September as opposed to October or November. Thankfully, we have access to Adam’s horses, which would make packing in a lot easier for all of us. Still, not everyone in the group was willing to commit to this hunt, but enough of us were willing to give it a shot.

Previously, I wasn’t willing to consider muzzleloading for cow elk until 2010 when the regulations changed. The previous statewide muzzleloader cow tag was a List A tag. But now that the statewide tag had been broken up into numerous units, with those tags that were List B for rifle hunts, now being list B for muzzleloading, it made it so that if I drew a cow tag, we wouldn’t lose an opportunity at a bull with the OTC tags or a leftover. While we were sold on muzzleloader season for our elk applications, we were well aware that our success rates would be much lower than a first rifle season tag. Traditionally, here in Colorado, 1st rifle season stands head and shoulders above the other seasons in terms of success rates. Of the 106 units I follow closely 1st season has approximately twice the success rates of the OTC seasons. Part of that is due to the common either sex tags, part of it is due to the fact that the elk have not been bothered for several weeks, and have not been run off onto the lower elevation private lands. But as you can see in the graph, 1st and 4th seasons are generally your best bets to kill an elk. These are 5 year averages reflecting either sex success rates for archery, muzzleloader, 1st and 4th rifle season, but bull only success rates for 2nd and 3rd seasons.

But where to go? I’m not the kind of guy who’ll chase a hot tip, and I try to put the experiences of others into perspective when listening to their advice. And most guys who’ll suggest a place to hunt have no perspective, and don’t really know what’s out there. Looking over data will help put things into perspective. And while it can be manipulated, I trust it more than the biased opinions of most hunters.
The unit had to be List B, so that those who drew cow tags could still hunt a bull. We also wanted a high density elk unit with low pressure. I want to hunt in units where I at least have a solid chance at shooting what I consider a trophy bull, basically anything approaching 300 inches. I have a sliding trophy scale, depending on the circumstances of the hunt; how many days I have left, what caliber of bulls I am seeing, what caliber I expect to see, and how many, if any elk I’ve already seen. The stat that I’m most willing to compromise on is success rate, as there are so many variables that affect a success rate that I feel it does not accurately reflect the way I hunt. Some of the guys were going to only put in for cow tags as a second choice so they could continue to accumulate preference points, but we were totally unsure of how the new muzzleloading elk units would draw out. There were no draw odds, and no tag quotas announced ahead of the draw, so it was going to be a gamble.

Anyway, our unit possibilities boiled down to the following units, some of which we had hunted in the past, others were new to us: Units that ranked highly on my lists that we had hunted recently and were considering returning to A, B, C, D, E, F and units that we had not hunted recently but were very interested in W, X, Y, and Z. Included on this list were some units that had previously had limited muzzleloader tags, but since we were unsure of how the breakup of the statewide tag would affect tag demand, we gave them some consideration too. All of these units had significant roadless area, most of which was federally designated wilderness.

As you can see in the chart, unit X has a significant elk density advantage over the others, and was a unit we had had our eye on for the past several years as the elk population had been growing.

Unit C, also has a substantial elk population, we were very familiar with it, but it was basically considered a raghorn unit, as you can see in the % of the bulls being harvested there last year. In fact, while only 30% of the bulls had been harvested out of that unit in 2009, that is considered a down year for that unit, as typical harvest percentages are in the mid to upper 40% range, leaving very few older bulls in the population. However, while Unit Y was a little below average in elk density, it is the top trophy potential unit, right next to unit X.

When you examine the number of elk per hunter in these units, once again unit X comes out on top, with only unit B coming in a close second. But unit B, which we hunted last year, doesn’t come close in terms of trophy potential and has half the elk density.

We do however like the extremely low hunter density in unit B as compared to unit X, but it’s not like X was particularly bad. When we hunted Unit C a few years ago, the hunter density was a real turn off for us, despite the fact we all harvested elk. Unit Y came up as another good possibility for low hunter density and good numbers of elk per hunter.

The main downsides to both units X and Y were the success rates, indicating difficult to access elk populations, especially compared to units C, E and Z.

Still, since we had decided to backcountry camp this year’s muzzleloader hunt, we were willing to disregard the lower success rates that are typical of units where a significant portion of the area is wilderness. We also knew we had to step up our scouting efforts in order to find good populations to hunt during muzzleloader season, as we wouldn’t be able to up and move very easily during the limited amount of time we’d have to hunt. But our decision had become a no-brainer at this point. With the expanding elk population in Unit X, which still wasn’t on the tongues of many hunters, we had to hunt this unit while it was still at its peak. Unit X is tops in nearly every category and the mediocre success rates could be explained away by the poor access that we could overcome through backcountry camping.

So that solved one of our primary elk hunt. Myself and Adam would put in for the bull tag as a first choice but were unsure how many points it would take to draw it. Ryan, Mike and Jason would apply for the cow tags with a second choice; while Matt and a friend of his from Florida, Chuck, would bow hunt the unit. We all applied separately, no group applications.

That left our deer applications for the other major group hunt. Having two or more resident points really opens up a lot of excellent possibilities. Determining a season can be almost as important as determining a unit. For us, primitive weapons hunts for deer hold little interest, but the early, high country rifle hunts have a lot of appeal. When you look at Western Colorado as a whole, there is little reason to spend the points on 4th rifle season, and the early rifle season is a terrible value. Although we still remain interested in the early rifle hunt, it would also conflict with our muzzleloader hunt this year.

However, when you look at some of my top rated units, you’ll see a few that truly represent excellent value. No one in the group had any special attraction to previously hunted units, and in fact hadn’t been happy with the ones we had hunted in the past, and had not drawn any tags since we had recently been following the data as closely as we do now. Jason and I had applied last year to unit A, but did not get drawn. However, a customer of mine had an excellent hunt in the same area we intended to hunt. I was open to a variety of units and seasons for 2010, but really dislike the amount of pressure that the 2nd season sees due to the number of OTC elk hunters. Traditionally, 2nd season has nearly twice the hunter pressure that 3rd season sees, and the deer success was lower. So it had to be a truly stellar unit to interest us in a 2nd season deer hunt. The units we were looking at for this year also had to require 2 points or less so most of us would have a chance to draw.

Unit A 3rd season, Unit B 3rd season, Unit C 2nd season, Unit D 2nd season and Unit E 3rd season, were the only units given much consideration. This was not going to be a meat hunt for most of us, we were after a quality experience. In the group, our trophy standards are all over the place, with some guys willing to shoot the first buck they see, others willing to be a little more patient for a buck. The unit also had to be OTC for elk, so those who only drew cow tags in muzzleloader season could come along on a bull hunt. Also, we had another friend, Tom, who wasn’t up for the backcountry muzzleloader hunt with his son, but would be more willing to jump in on an OTC bull hunt. He would be hunting a unit we had good success in for 1st season a few years ago.

Each of these 5 units had something going for them, and we knew that whichever we selected would be a slight compromise. But we had some incredible options to mull over. First, looking at the deer densities, unit E was the obvious standout, and is one of the top deer density units in the state.

But Units A and B were not too far behind in deer density.

One of the real downsides to Unit E 3rd season, which is even worse in worse in 2nd season, is the hunter density.

So, negating Unit E 3rd season, we looked at A and B for 3rd season, which were the next highest deer densities, and you’ll see both have low hunter densities. In terms of trophy Potential, Unit B 3rd season, begins to separate itself from A 3rd season.

However, unit C has excellent trophy potential. But the real downside there is the low deer density. Also, Unit C has a poor success rate. While that normally wouldn’t be the deciding factor, it did play a small role in this decision.

Of the last major statistical categories that I decided to look, Bucks per Hunter, Unit D 2nd season really stood out from the pack:

As I said, this was a tough decision. All of these units were ranked in the top 15 to 20 units in 2nd or 3rd season, and amongst the top values. The first to be eliminated was unit E 3rd season. It ranked the worst of these units, but the incredible deer density kept it in play in the discussions. Unit D 2nd season is the top ranked second season deer hunt, but because it required one more point than the other units, it would eliminate some of our hunters from drawing, and those with the minimum number of points, might not actually draw. So that left Units A, B and C. Unit C 2nd season only had the high trophy potential going for it, everything else looked poor in comparison with units A and B. And unit C 3rd season required more points than most of us had. So, in reality it came down to unit A versus unit B in 3rd season. Unit B was ranked slightly above A in our rankings, but because A was so close to our elk muzzleloader elk area, we had knowledge of the unit, the success rate was higher and the landownership pattern and terrain more conducive to our hunting styles, we decided to compromise and go with A. A did not lead any category, but was still an excellent unit.

Deciding on which units to apply for in New Mexico and Nevada went through similar processes. When we first started antelope hunting in Wyoming, we went on the recommendation of an area by a friend of ours. Productive hunting, and research showing we’d have to travel a lot further to greatly improve our hunting has had us staying put in the unit we know and like. Plus the tags are easy to get.

To be continued next time with the draw results, remote scouting and spring scouting…

Last Minute Leftover Tag Prep

2010-08-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

Wyoming’s leftovers are currently on sale, Montana’s go on sale Monday the 9th, Idaho is presently conducting its second chance drawing and Colorado’s leftovers go on sale Tuesday the 10th. It’s not too late to do a little last minute prep and scouting before committing to a tag. As I mentioned last week in “Why is this tag a Leftover?”, not all leftovers are junk. But some are more headache than they are worth.

So let’s walk through a few steps we should consider before purchasing a tag. As a data guy, the first thing I’ll look into is how the unit stacks up in my rankings. Everyone has different priorities, but for me personally, I want above average game densities, solid trophy potential if it’s a buck or bull tag, and low hunting pressure. I will sacrifice success rates, except in the case of meat hunts. But if a unit has unusually low success, I will want to try to figure out why, and whether or not it is something I can overcome by hunting smarter or hunting harder than the average.

The next thing I do is look at the landownership pattern. Checkerboards and small parcels of public land work for me for antelope and some deer hunting, but not for elk hunting. In heavily private areas that have tempted me to look into their tags for whatever reason, I will also look at any public access programs like Wyoming’s Hunter Management and Walk In Access areas, Montana’s Block Management, Idaho’s Access Yes! and Colorado’s Big Game Walk In Access Areas.

Next I’ll do some quick remote scouting of the publicly accessible areas on Google Earth, to make sure they look like proper habitat from the air. I’m not concerned with where exactly to hunt at this point, but I want to know that there is the kind of habitat that looks appropriate for the game of interest and works for my hunting styles.

After that, I’ll try to do a quick drive to and around the unit. Try to schedule your drive to be out during peak game hours. If the place I want to look at is 4 or 5 hours away, I will be leaving in the middle of the night to be on the roads at dawn. If that’s not possible, be sure to be driving through your most likely areas by dusk. This tactic is better for deer and elk, as antelope are more active mid to late morning and late afternoon. But I want to see that there is at least some game. If I have time I’ll hike around looking for sign that I mentioned in this scouting article a while back:

http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/ElkHuntingUniversity/EHULessons/EHUScoutTips.htm

When doing that I’m just trying to get an idea of relative animal densities. How does this area compare to others that I’ve hunted? Is there more or less browsing pressure on the plants than I’m used to? Can I see hedged shrubs along the winter range areas, indicating high winter concentrations of game? What about fresh tracks in the road and along the cut banks of dirt roads? It doesn’t take much to get me excited, and validate my decision to hunt an area, but it’s best to have some perspective. If you don’t know what a lot of sign looks like, head out to one of the higher game density reputation areas in your state(or take a look at my stats), then compare it to wherever else you’re considering hunting. Montana and Colorado hunters, you still have one more weekend day to do this.

It’s also important to know what kind of a chance you have of getting the tag you are interested in. Are there only a handful of tags available? If that’s the case, be ready with a backup plan. This year in Colorado, there are only 8 public land heavy units with rifle buck deer tags available. That’s as few as I remember ever seeing, so you’ll want to have several back up plans if you’re eyeing buck deer tags. Guys who have several members of a party going for a small number of leftover tags have additional issues. If you can’t pick up the leftover tags with all of your friends at once in the same place, make sure you stay in touch with everybody in the party. You’ll want to know if the tags have sold out and you’ll want to be prepared to purchase some sort of secondary license for that area if you intend to go anyway. That might be a cow elk tag or doe deer tag instead of a buck or bull tag. If you know members of your party can’t or won’t be first in line for that limited tag, you might have to think more seriously about a unit with more leftovers so you are all more likely to get a tag.

Additionally, if you have to return a tag before you can purchase a new one, do that before leftover day (that means Monday at the latest for Colorado hunters). You’ll have to that at a Division of Wildlife Office, which is the last place you’ll want to be on leftover day.

For Colorado’s mad rush on leftover tags, another good tactic is to head to less well known and less well stocked hunting stores for your leftover tag. Sportsmen’s Warehouse and Wal Mart are just as bad, if not worse than the Division of Wildlife Offices. Frequently, the counter help at big box stores are not aware of List A versus List B and List C rules, so if you see someone struggling as they are continuously rejected, don’t be afraid to let them know what’s wrong with their tag selections. Every year I see someone try buy more bull or buck tags than they are allowed, or try to buy a List A cow or doe tag in addition to the buck or bull tag. Also, there’s no need to buy your OTC tags while there are so many people in line. Those are unlimited.

You still have plenty of time to scout, but you should start getting ready to commit to a unit, if you haven’t already done so.
Good luck out there

Why is this Tag a Leftover?

2010-08-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

With application season pretty much behind us, leftovers becoming available and hunting season just around the corner, most of us have our plans pretty well fleshed out. However, many of you may still be contemplating the leftover lists, looking for an opportunity to hunt.
I’ll mostly talk about the Wyoming and Colorado leftovers here, but the thought processes should apply elsewhere.
More often than not there’s a reason tags go unclaimed in the draw, and it’s not always because it’s a bad tag to have. But you need to do your research BEFORE you buy a tag. It all boils down to supply and demand, but we need to look into both variables to see why the tag has leftovers, and whether or not it’s worth having.
On the supply side, units with high game populations frequently issue a lot of tags. So just because the tags are available, it does not mean no one wants them. It’s just that there’s a tremendous number available. Here in Colorado, a unit with one of the highest deer densities and excellent trophy potential is available as leftovers most years. Areas with population problems often make it to leftovers. Colorado’s top elk density unit has tags available in leftovers for nearly every season. Areas that are just in a population maintenance mode, are rarely as good for a meat hunt as those whose populations are above objectives.
Sometimes there will be areas that traditionally to draw out, with a fairly steady number of applicants. But if the managing game department suddenly increases the tags, the public may not have been prepared and the unit will go undersubscribed. Check out the draw stats for both this year and last year. Was there an increase in the number of permits? That might indicate a growing population for you to take advantage of.
One of the big factors affecting demand would include public access. This is easy enough to figure out with a simple atlas or map showing public land ownership and the major county roads. The antelope tags I buy in Wyoming every year are always available as leftovers, but Wyoming Game and Fish discourages people from purchasing tags for that unit with their asterisk, meaning public access is poor. It may not be full of contiguous blocks of public land, but there’s enough, especially when you include Wyoming’s Walk In Access and Hunter Management Areas. And don’t overlook checkerboarded areas for deer and antelope hunting. My favorite parcel for antelope is just a single 640 acre (1 sq mile) section of BLM land. It always has a large herd of antelope on it after 10 am.
Wilderness and difficult terrain conspire to discourage many hunters. If you’ve purchased my full data sets, you’ll see that some of the best units are wilderness-heavy and/or incredibly steep, rugged country. In Wyoming, that’s a major issue for nonresidents, because you can’t hunt a designated wilderness without a guide, but it shouldn’t hold back a hardcore hunter in other states. Also, look closely to see what proportion of a unit is wilderness. Is there still enough country left to hunt outside of the wilderness area? Most hunters just don’t want to fool with backcountry camping. But if you’re willing to, you’ll open up tremendous possibilities for yourself. Road closures to popular areas also discourage some hunters who had traditionally hunted in a place they could drive to.
But, as often as not, a tag goes undersubscribed for good reason. Frequently the game numbers are way down, and even the locals are giving up on hunting the area. While most hunters don’t pour over the statistics, long term trends of poor success and infrequent game sightings go noticed eventually. Heavily pressured areas take a toll on those who are intolerant of “pumpkin patches”. Despite an areas popularity, few hunters dream about hunting elbow to elbow with other strangers. But tolerance to hunting pressure is relative. If you’re used to heavily hunted areas in your home state, what locals consider heavy pressure may not bother you at all.
Sometimes, it’s just the season that hunters don’t like. Here in Colorado, 2nd season deer tags and 4th season elk tags aren’t very popular; leaving some high quality tags available in places that you wouldn’t think would have leftovers. 3rd season is very popular for deer hunters, but low on most elk hunter’s priorities.
New hunts and new boundaries also create confusion or poor awareness amongst hunters. This year, with 3rd rifle season in Colorado being extended to a full nine days, you’d think more people would know about it. But many of the folks I’ve talked to had no idea. Also, keep your eye out for new late or early season opportunities that are outside of the traditional hunting seasons. Because game departments tweak their seasons and hunting opportunities each year, new hunts pop up without the knowledge of many long time hunters. In fact, I talked to an outfitter this year that had no idea that there was a new late elk season in his area. Many of those guys just don’t pay enough attention to the new regulations each year. Yes, they’ll know for next year, but having first crack at migratory herd in an area of heavy public land appeals to me, and there are leftovers of the tag I’m talking about.
Lastly, we usually have a few weeks between finding out what the leftover list looks like and the date the permits go on sale. So try to get a little scouting in if you can to verify that an area looks like it holds game and the public lands are accessible.
My point is that there are many factors that go into whether or not a permit is available as a leftover. Sometimes it’s a supply issue, other times it’s a demand issue. So make sure you do your due diligence when considering a leftover tag. Also, keep in mind that a limited permit isn’t always better than an unlimited one. But more often than not, we need to take advantage of leftover limited permits in order to maximize our hunting opportunities. They aren’t all marginal permits, some of them can be fairly desirable. Wyoming leftovers are on sale now, Colorado leftovers go on sale in person and over the phone August 10th. Good luck out there and do your homework.

Gear Talk, Part 3: Elk

2010-07-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

In the last installment of Gear Talk, I discussed the variables of antelope habitat and hunting, and how it would affect your gear selection. Antelope habitat does not vary nearly as much as deer or elk habitat, so this time we are going to have to cover a wider range of hunting scenarios and habitats when discussing elk. While there is no “normal” elk country, it can be lumped into a handful of habitat types, which usually have an effect on hunting techniques, which should dictate which gear you bring, and which you should leave at home.
By now you should have an idea of what the country looks like, even if you don’t know a proper name for it. Within an individual hunting unit, elk country varies by time of year, snow levels, slope, aspect, vegetation cover types, altitude, latitude, region of the country and individual microclimates. Within the Continental US, the further north you go, the more precipitation you have, and therefore the forests are denser and more shade tolerant. Within a given latitude, your north and east facing slopes will also be denser than your west and south facing slopes. So, the Southern Rockies in New Mexico typically have sparser Ponderosa Pine forests at an equal elevation and aspect compared to Northern Idaho and Montana’s dense spruce-fir habitats. Those sparse Ponderosa Pine forests have excellent shooting and sight lanes, but the dense Douglas Fir and Lodgepole Pine forests throughout the Northern Rockies leave very little for shooting lanes.
Altitude has a very large effect on habitat types. Within most elk country, you can have low elevation cold desert and farmland winter ranges all the way up past timberline in the summer time. Timberline changes with respect to slope, latitude, aspect and precipitation. In the Northwest, where you have high precipitation (snowfalls are what’s important here), and higher latitude than say, Southern Colorado, timberline is closer to 10,000 feet. On the drier slopes in Colorado, timberline is over 11,500 feet, sometimes exceeding 11,700. As elevation approaches the tree line, the timber gets sparser, growth becomes stunted and twisted forming what is called krummholz (German for twisted wood). Extending below this tree line and the krummholz are your dense spruce-fir forests. The higher altitude increases precipitation and retains snow for a longer period of time, growing larger, more shade tolerant trees. Below this band of spruces and firs will be your typical pine and aspen habitats, depending on the successional stage that the mountain is in.
Because pines tend to burn frequently, the stands may still be in aspens or mountain mahogany and other shrubs, but the climax species below the spruce-fir zone tend to be in less dense, shorter pines where you have decent sight lines. Below most pine zones in the Rockies, the vegetation communies tend to be either Pinyon-Juniper, scrub oaks or various mountain shrub species. These areas are often winter range and late season hunting areas, though in some canyon country these communities are found through the highest elevations. These habitats tend to be much more conducive to spot and stalk hunting than the spruce-fir zones, though the visibility isn’t quite as good as when hunting in alpine and krummholz habitats.
ELK GUNS:
Where and how you hunt should play a large factor in your elk gun selection or build criteria. A standard factory sporter-weight .30-06 with 180 grain soft points and a variable 3-9x40 scope will be more than adequate for most situations. But since this article is about specialized gear, I’ll go over some features to consider when looking for an excuse to tinker with what you’ve got, buy something new or build something a little more festive than what you’re packing now.
Most of us can’t hunt with a rifle when elk are still above timberline, so the highest habitats we’ll be rifle hunting are the krummholz and spruce-fir zones. It takes over a foot of snow to really force the bulk of the elk herds to migrate much below that. So the reality of most elk hunting, is that shots can be very short. However, you must still be capable of handling a long shot across a large, wet meadow. I find short barrels to be of no real ballistic disadvantage, but I also don’t find that shortening a barrel helps in the handling very much. Shortening the length of pull on your stock tends to be of more help in handling a quick shot. Also consider that you will likely be wearing bulky clothes in late October or November, so a shorter stock will shoulder much more easily. A longer barrel will help you swing with a moving target. So if you are trying to build the best handling gun you can, barrel length is a tough compromise. A short barrel might be nice if you prefer to still hunt or track elk and hope to take short, quick, but stationary shot. The actual length should depend on the contour of the barrel, but the balance point for those stalking the dense spruce-fir zones should be right around the front action screw on a bolt action rifle so that it will swing properly. If you aren’t comfortable with a moving shot, then bring the balance point back to the middle of the receiver. Don’t forget to factor in the scope weight and position when trying to determine where a good balance point for you would be. Forward mounting a scope on the barrel will help the balance if you choose to shorten the barrel severely. Overall weight is less important than balance in this situation.
There are only a few places where a true long range elk rifle serves much of a purpose. Any rifle that can hold 1.5 MOA out to 600 yards will easily remain within the vitals of an elk, provided the shooter is up to such a shot. The only places where I could see the use of dragging around a dedicated long range rig would be for late season hunts on winter range, Wyoming’s Red Desert country, and some sparse canyon country. In BLM-heavy canyon country, you can occasionally see elk from extremely long distance, and roads may quickly get you to the edge of a canyon, where you would lose sight of the elk if you attempted to cross it. The danger of building such a specialized rifle is that you lose the versatility needed to handle the majority of elk hunting situations. A 12 or 15 pound, 30 inch barreled .338 Lapua with a 20X Nightforce scope and McMillan A5 stock is a poor choice of rifle for sneaking through the woods and climbing the mountains.
I think it is far better to improve your abilities at extended ranges with a more versatile rifle than to intend to hunt with something that specialized. If you think the country you hunt will present you with a situation where a 500 plus yard shot is possible, you’ll be better off having practiced those shots with your current rifle than be caught holding something wholly unsuited for a quick shot in the timber as you approach your vantage point. A good compromise is to stay with a high comb, sporter-style stock and not too heavy of a barrel. I’ve killed 3 elk in quick situations at under 100 yards with a 27.5 inch #3 contour(0.625 at the muzzle) .264 Win Mag with a 15 inch length of pull. I designed it as a somewhat long range deer rig, but I tend to use that gun for almost everything, as it is versatile enough to not be a handicap for quick, short range situations. If the elk in your area will stay in and around the krummholz for rifle season, longer shots may be presented, but you aren’t going to want to carry a heavy gun up and over 12,000 foot ridges. You’ll be happiest with a lightweight rifle with some long range capability. Fluting, skeletonizing, restocking, using a smaller scope, switching to lighter scope mounts and shortening barrels will work to cut out a significant amount of weight from most guns without reducing effective range.
I find bipods to be of little use for elk. In most timbered elk country, you can find a rest if you need it for longer shots. And a little ingenuity will give you more options to get a steady rest above the vegetation than a bipod. A bipod designed to be used from prone will rarely be used in areas with decent grass length or substantial shrubs. Shooting sticks are more useful, but even your binoculars will make a decent rest if need be. For those you that sit meadows and trails, a sitting length bipod or shooting sticks will work well to minimize the amount of movement necessary for a longer shot. I would take the bipod off when you are moving between areas or still hunting the timber. A sling is crucial. Not just to free your hands up when navigating difficult terrain, but also for steadying a shot from any position. Really wide, fat slings are comfortable, but of little use when trying to tighten up for a shot. A rangefinder is useful when sitting a meadow, as it can be difficult to judge distance in places that have very little vegetation. However, most shots must be taken before you have the time to judge the range.
I feel bullet selection is more important than cartridge selection. My basic guidelines are to use premium, controlled expansion type bullets with magnum cartridges. Basic cup and core bullets were designed for standard velocities and impacts below 2800 fps generally. I prefer heavy for caliber spitzers when using cup and core bullets, and light for caliber bullets in the monometals. You can choose too tough of a bullet and cartridge combination, just as you can choose too soft of a combination. A .308 Winchester and 200 grain Barnes TSX combination with a 400 yard shot into soft tissue is asking for trouble due to poor expansion. A .300 Weatherby Magnum shooting a 125 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip shot into heavy bone at 50 yards is another disaster waiting to happen. Nearly anything can kill an elk, but to do so efficiently and properly requires some forethought and understanding of operating windows for the bullet selected. Along that same line of thinking, if you have to ask whether your bullet and cartridge combination is up to the task of a severe quartering shot, it probably isn’t and you’ll be left wishing you chose a better bullet. My favorite rifle is my .264 Win Mag, but using my 3700 fps 100 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip antelope loads on elk would be irresponsible. In my .358 Norma Magnum, I wouldn’t use bullets designed for the .35 Remington velocities either.
Regarding muzzleloaders for rut hunting, keep them short and handy. Front globe sights are great for precision shooting, but cumbersome at short range. A peep rear and small, bright front dot works well in most conditions, but a larger, brighter front sight is useful in the dense timber. In Colorado, sabots aren’t permitted, but I wouldn’t use them anyway. I’ll stick with a heavy, solid lead conical.
OPTICS:
When scoping an elk rifle, you’ll want to think about the likely distances and conditions involved in the habitats you’ll be hunting, as well keeping an eye on the effect of weight and balance with your rifle. As mentioned before, a versatile 3-9x40 will handle nearly any situation well, just make sure you keep the setting at 3X unless you have time to set up for a long shot. There’s very little a simple fixed 4x scope wouldn’t work well for. The field of view allows quick shots, and the magnification is just good enough to be precise with your placement. I personally don’t like fixed 6x scopes, as I find the field of view a little limiting on short shots. A 4.5-14x or 4-12x works well, as long you keep the setting at low power. In reality, most guys could err on the side of low power variables, such as a 2-7x or 1.75-6x and be very happy with their nice, lightweight scope. The mid elevation pine-aspen and low elevation scrub oak/winter range hunter will have more long distance shot opportunities than the high elevation spruce-fir elk hunter, and might better appreciate slightly higher magnifications.
I was once guiding a hunter for mule deer in Western Nebraska, and two does and a decent buck came up out of a timbered draw, with the buck dogging the a doe 75 yards away. I pointed the buck out to my hunter and she said, “I can’t find him!”, turns out her scope was on 9 power and the field of view didn’t allow her to find the buck before he went up and over the ridge less than 50 yards away. We never got back on that buck after discovering her error. In short, if you have a variable power scope, check it to make sure you are on low power when you arrive in your hunting error. It’s common to leave your scope at max power after sighting in at the range.
Thick crosshairs are best for most elk hunting. Timber hunting dictates you find your crosshairs quickly on moving objects or in heavy shadows. Thick crosshairs are also useful for hunting during the typical primetimes of dawn and dusk for the meadow and trail sitters. If you like bullet drop compensators, realize those are typically designed to be used at maximum power, so if you have to take the time to figure out bullet drop, take the time to crank up your magnification. For the long rangers, custom reticles matched to your bullet drop or turret adjustments are great. But for most elk hunting situations, those are superfluous. Good eye relief is another important factor in an elk riflescope. We tend to choose hard kicking rifles and it helps to be able to keep sharp aluminum tubes from banging into your nose and eyebrow. But more importantly, long eye relief is great for fast target acquisition without too much of the “staring down a black hole” feeling.
I find spotting scopes useful for only two types of hunting: Road hunting in areas where you can see long distances, and when hunting from ridges above timberline in the early seasons. I know, I know, I should condemn the road hunters, but let’s get real, in some places that’s called hunting smart, and a lot easier than bumbling around the ridges. For the timberline archer or rifleman, a compact spotting scope can save you miles of walking by determining whether or not the small herd of elk you’ve spotted has a legal bull or a bull up to your standards. They are also great for peering into the krummholz and edges of the spruces and firs from above, while looking for bedded elk.
For most people, binoculars are all that is necessary. The big timber spruce-fir rifle hunter and bowhunter will do fine with a medium power 6,7 or 8x with a wide field of view. High magnification cab be a detriment if you’ve snuck up on elk in the timber. If you can’t find the elk, focus your binos and get a steady view of the antlers or what’s behind your target, they are worthless. Those hunting sparser country can benefit from greater magnification. In large aspen stands or dense scrub oaks you can often pick elk out easily with the naked eye, but will need powerful binoculars to make out the sex and antler size against the twiggy background. I’ve always used cheap glass, but only recently have come to regret it. I left my binoculars in my pack with a leaking water bladder and now one barrel of the binoculars are permanently fogged. Don’t make that mistake.

Part 4, the continuation of elk gear, including clothing, footwear and camping gear will be coming soon…

Gear Talk, Part 2: Antelope

2010-06-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

In the introductory article on equipment pairing, I said I’d break down the articles by guns and loads, clothing and footwear, and camping equipment and specialized gear. But I think it makes more sense now to do it by species and habitats. I’m going to start off with antelope gear and the conditions under which they are normally hunted. If you’ve done your homework assignment from last week, hopefully you have an understanding of the terrain and vegetation in which you’ll likely be hunting. Terrain and vegetation are every bit as important considerations as the species being hunted when selecting or purchasing specialized gear.
As I mentioned in last week’s introduction, even antelope country varies, certainly not as much as deer or elk, but it’s important to understand the basic habitat features in your hunting area. I’m going to go over the major differences in each habitat and how your gear selection might be affected. The rangeland texts have 3 broad categories of range; deserts, prairies and grasslands, each of which have several subcategories. Of the deserts, you have Sonoran, Mojave, Chihuahuan, and Cold Desert (or Great Basin) deserts. Your prairies are generally categorized as tallgrass, mixed, shortgrass, Palouse and fescue. The grasslands are categorized as California, semidesert and mesquite-acacia woodlands. Each habitat is dominated by specific grass and brush species, some which can dictate your antelope gear and tactics. I’ll try to address these where the habitat difference may affect gear selection as we go.
The Antelope Gun:
I’m not going to get into archery equipment for antelope, other than to say you need to be prepared for longer shots. Archery equipment is also less fascinating to me, so I’ll focus on rifles, and throw in a little bit on muzzleloaders. When looking over your choices for what to take on a hunt, first know the legalities of the state you are hunting. Many states do not allow .22 caliber centerfires, even for antelope, most states have limitations on magazine capacities for semi autos, some states also have different minimum calibers for elk and larger game. We all know, or should know, shot placement trumps all talk of cartridge choice, action design, stainless vs blued or synthetics vs wood arguments. But I’m going to go through some scenarios and thought processes for elk, deer and antelope gun selections, including personal preferences, beliefs and feelings with the understanding that when I declare something better or more suited for the object at hand, it implies all other variables being equal.
As I mentioned before, not all antelope habitat is equal, and therefore some specialized guns are more suited to certain types of terrain. However, you should be prepared for windy country and long distance shot opportunities. The Interstate 80 region of Wyoming is the only gap in the Rocky Mountains, which acts to really focus winds more than anywhere else in the United States. And there’s a lot of antelope there. Antelope usually feel safest in areas with the least amount of cover so they can see danger coming. Antelope are also close to half the weight of deer and even more lightly built with a slightly smaller vital zone. This means that above all, you’ll want a rifle that allows you to be precise in your bullet placement. Magnums aren’t necessary, but because they flatten out the trajectory and higher velocity cartridges drift less in the wind (given equal weight and ballistic coefficient), they tend to be quite popular. Retained energy is of low priority when selecting a chambering for antelope, but it usually goes hand in hand with flat trajectories and minimal wind drift.
Other factors to consider when selecting or building an optimum antelope rifle includes stock style and rifle weight. Some specialized stocks, such as the newest generations of tactical stocks and many thumbhole stocks are designed to be shot from the prone position. A wide forend is also handy when resting the rifle over a pack, but awkward in shooting sticks. An oval forend is a good compromise over a round forend when it comes to using rests with a sporter style stock because they tend to roll less. I also recommend a longer length of pull for stocks you intend to shoot from prone. Your eye and forehead will be a little further from scope and less likely to be dinged in recoil, which is also a good reason to not go with too heavy of a cartridge.
One good thing about antelope hunting is the terrain is usually gentle enough that you won’t scratch up a beautiful gun. The stability of synthetics and laminates are nice for precision rifles, but properly sealed wood can be nearly as stable. So if you have a nicely stocked rifle, antelope hunting will give you the least amount of heartache. Rocky country can be hard on the gun, so use a tight sling when crawling to keep the gun off the ground (slung across your front). If it’s raining or snowing, the antelope will be difficult to find and you’re probably better off waiting until the storm passes. Therefore, blued steel is rarely a problem in antelope country either.
The most common and useful accessory in antelope country is the bipod. They are a wonderful aid in steady shooting from the prone position. The most stable versions will have you closest to the ground, but you are also limited by grass or shrub heights in some areas. When strategizing on your stalk, look for areas with bare ground, lower shrubs or small dips in the terrain to better utilize a short bipod. I find bipods that are designed to be used while sitting not particularly stable. Longer bipods are certainly better than an unsupported rifle, but a short bipod and shooting sticks seem a better combination. If you have a muzzle break on your rifle, be aware of the dust signature it will put off after you fire. If you place your shot well, it doesn’t matter if the antelope pinpoint your position, but the dust cloud may also obscure signs of a hit for you or your spotter. At a bare minimum place a handkerchief below the ports to minimize the dust.
When considering a bullet for antelope hunting, consider that the bullet needs to expand well at the reduced velocities that are a reality of long range shooting. A high ballistic coefficient is helpful to reduce drop and wind drift, but often requires stepping up in bullet weight, thereby negating the gains in BC. High ballistic coefficient bullets really shine at longer range than most are capable of shooting at, so study the ballistic charts to come up with a bullet that will shoot flat, but still expand. Few rifle bullets will expand reliably below 1800 fps, and even fewer below 1600 fps. Nosler Balllistic Tips and Hornady SSTs seem ideally suited as antelope bullets, provided impacts are kept below 3000 fps. Penetration is low on my list of concerns with an antelope bullet, as their chests are not much more than 12 inches wide and their bones are much lighter than deer’s.
Gun weight is of minor consideration in most antelope country. However, in terrain that is severely broken by breaks, coulees or badlands you may not want a very heavy rifle. Heavy rifles and heavy barrels are great for stable shooting, but a pain to lug around. Also pay attention to the amount of roads in your area. If there is contiguous public land 3 or 4 miles from a road, you’ll want to stay with a sporter weight rifle, something under 10 pounds.
For muzzleloaders, my top priority is a flat trajectory. In states that allow it, I’d consider a .45 caliber. If you’re stuck with a .50 caliber, drop bullet weight as much as possible in order to increase velocity and flatten trajectory to reduce your margin for error. Where scopes aren’t allowed, consider a combination of rear peep sights and front globe sights. The major disadvantage of globe sights, poor visibility in low light situations, is negated by the fact that antelope aren’t very active at dawn and dusk. A long sight radius is helpful in precise shot placement; so long barrels serve two functions here. They slightly increase velocity and increase sight radius, creating less margin for error in your shooting. Another way to increase your sight radius is to move your rear sight further back on the barrel. Most muzzleloaders are designed with a steep drop at heel for shooting from the offhand position. This will make proper sighting more difficult when shooting prone, so consider at least a leather cheek piece to raise your head on the stock to get better alignment with the sights.
Optics:
For rifle scopes on a specialized antelope rig, I like the higher magnifications. There’s little doubt that a 4x scope is sufficient for antelope hunting, but with a thick crosshair, it can be difficult to be precise with shot placement beyond 200 yards. If this gun is a dual purpose rifle and you want a smaller scope, go with a fine crosshair. A thick crosswire may appear to be the same thickness of an antelope’s leg at longer distances. Since you shouldn’t need to make a fast shot in low light on an antelope hunt, there’s no need for thick crosshairs. I’m not concerned about weight in antelope country, so 18-24 oz scopes don’t bother me. Large objectives aren’t necessary, but they often go hand in hand with high magnification. Turrets and bullet drop compensating reticles are also very handy, if you know how to use them.
In flat, open country, a rangefinder is extremely valuable. But the biggest drawback to most designs is the poor ranging of nonreflective targets (like antelope) at longer distances. Here’s where it pays to have the best you can afford. Beyond 300 yards trajectory matters and many of the cheaper laser rangefinders are worthless at those distances. If there are no large rocks in your area to get a good reading, investing in a higher quality rangefinder makes sense. Trying to get a reading on antelope, grass clumps and brush can be an exercise in futility.
Many people think a spotting scope is useful in antelope country, but unless you are good enough to trophy judge the difference between 13 or 14 inch long horns, or 70 versus 80 point B&C scores, leave it at home. Remember, antelope do not hide, so there is little need to try look under every sagebrush bush with a 60X lens.
Binoculars are useful if you are doe hunting. Does are obvious when they are standing next to a buck, but sometimes you’ll come up on a lone antelope and not have a reference for the black cheek patch and the ears may be obstructing smaller horns. 8, 10 or even 12X binoculars can be put to good use here. In hilly country with a good vantage point they are also useful for determining whether antelope spotted at long range are moving or lying down and helping to pick your visual cues for waypoints on a stalk. If there is any snow on the ground, antelope can sometimes be difficult to pick out when lying down.
Clothing and Footwear:
Here’s where the habitat really matters when antelope hunting. In some mixed grass prairies, you can get away with tennis shoes and shorts. In Great Basin sagebrush country, or with badlands, breaks or coulees, you’ll want something with better ankle support if you’re climbing in and out of minor drainages. While knee high snake boots aren’t normally necessary, they can give you a little piece of mind in early season hunts. If you’re hunting steep, rocky ground, get something closer to 8 or 9 inches high. In steep, rolling sandhills and sandsage, you’ll want high ankle support. Insulation really isn’t necessary in most antelope country and uninsulated boots will keep your feet cooler on longer hikes. Waterproofing isn’t necessary either, but I like it as I sometimes can’t quite clear a smaller creek. Typical upland bird hunting boots can be comfortable in the longer grass of the mixed grass prairie.
Regarding clothing, noisy clothes aren’t a big concern, but durability is when slithering around in the rocks and cactus. Knee and elbow pads are useful due to the 1 to 3 inch high prickly pear cactus that is so common in all but the mixed grass prairies and sandhills. If you aren’t planning on bringing elbow pads, a fleece or thick jacket and leather gloves may help ease the pain on some stalks. Scent proofing can’t hurt, but I wouldn’t purchase it just for an antelope hunt. Antelope do use their sense of smell at shorter ranges. I’ve underestimated their noses many times and have been frustrated by fickle winds when trying to get within 100 yards when guiding youth hunters. Sage-heavy camo patterns look odd in open prairies where the only thing resembling a shrub is a sharp yucca. Waterfowl camo blends well with most prairies, but not so much in the sagebrush deserts.
Packs and Camping Gear:
I frequently hear from people stating their desire or willingness to pack into some remote area to hunt antelope. That just isn’t necessary, and more than likely will be unproductive because you just can’t cover enough ground. Antelope are generally spotted and then stalked from a road. If they aren’t in the square mile you are presently in, you just drive on to the next piece of public land where they are visible or stalkable. Throughout most antelope country, the landownership pattern is too spotty for you to want to commit to one small area.
Due to the accessible nature of most antelope country, backpacking gear and horses are just a burden. Camper trailers and RVs can get you close to most of the country you might hunt. It’s unlikely you will experience a significant snowfall in early to mid October throughout most of the plains, so tire chains are probably superfluous.
A small backpack that you can use as a shooting rest is very convenient in antelope country. On rocky ground(typical in Cold Desert/Hot Desert/Great Basin or just overgrazed country), it is easier to get a steady rest over a pack than it is with a bipod. But if the grasses are over 6 inches high (anywhere outside of the deserts and shortgrass prairie habitats), it’s difficult to use a pack as a rest. You’ll rarely be out of sight of your truck for very long, so you don’t necessarily need a large pack that holds a lot of gear. A wheeled game hauler is a nice luxury but antelope are easy to drag with two guys. On longer stalks, it’s probably faster to just drag the antelope back with you rather than go back to the truck for the hauler. A portable game tripod and winch for skinning and butchering is a very useful addition to the camp gear. Cooling the meat off in warm weather and getting the meat into a cooler to keep it clean will make the meat much better for the table.
Other Specialized Gear:
I mentioned knee and elbow pads and snake boots in the clothing section and a rangefinder under the optics. But decoys and blinds are other pieces of gear to consider for the archer. Decoys should not be used during rifle season. Long sits in a blind are accepted by archers, but rifle hunters will benefit from being more mobile. Crow calls and doe bleats are often used by bow hunters to get a buck to stand still for a shot, but similar noises can be made with your mouth. A map and GPS with UTM grid coordinates is another useful tool. BLM lands are often illegally posted as private lands, but more often there is no sign at all. So it’s important to know exactly where you are. There will not always be a fence to help you differentiate between public and private lands, and sometimes a fence separating public land pastures will confuse you if you aren’t well equipped with maps.
Like most men, I find gear planning an integral part of hunt planning. Can you hunt antelope without any of the fun stuff mentioned above? You bet. Having general purpose gear allows you to handle a lot of hunting situations to some degree of adequacy. But if you’re looking for an excuse to purchase something new or specialized, or don’t know which categories of your gear cache could use the most updating; hopefully this article was of some use to you.
I’ll follow up with elk and antelope gear pairing articles in the following weeks.

Gear Talk, Part 1: Intro

2010-06-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Most hunters view their gear as more than just tools to use in the pursuit of game. Many of us find equipment selection an integral and enjoyable part of the hunt planning process. In some cases, less than ideal equipment can lead to minor frustrations, annoyances and limitations. In other cases it can ruin a hunt or put your life in danger. We all have budget, weight and space constraints to work within, so it helps to know what you can leave at home and where to spend any fun money you have available to upgrade equipment. Some of our equipment is useful for a variety of hunt types, but other gear is more specialized and poorly suited to some hunts. Matching your specialized gear to the game, terrain, season, or weather is an important and sometimes fun part of hunt planning. Under the broad category of gear includes weapons, ammo/projectiles, optics, clothing and footwear, tents and shelters, sleeping bags, packs, cutlery and navigation tools. But what do you take, and what do you leave at home? What do you need, and what can you make do without?
Some basic understanding of the game and terrain in your hunt area is necessary to make these decisions. I’m sure we know what game we are after, but the terrain that you will be hunting should guide even more of our decisions. If you’ve never laid eyes on the country you think you will be hunting, there are many ways to get both aerial and ground level views. First and foremost should be Google Earth. There is a layer called Panaramio that you should select if you want to see pictures of the major terrain features from hikers and photographers. Usually those pictures will be taken in areas of high visibility, so pay attention to what the surrounding country also looks like. If you can identify outfitters with a website who hunt the area you will be working, they likely have numerous photos of their hunters, as well as pack and fishing trips that will show you what kind of vegetation, steepness of mountains and visibility to expect.
If you can identify any major terrain features labeled in an atlas, run a search for photos of it. It might just be a famous, rock, peak or monument, but most photographers also include a little bit of the surrounding country in their photos. Habitats vary tremendously, even for antelope. Pronghorn antelope can live in shortgrass prairie where the gramma grasses are rarely more than 6 inches high, and shrubs are few and far between. In this country, you’ll expect even longer shots than in cold desert sagebrush country, or yucca and cholla flats where large shrubs or cacti and broken ground can hide your approach. In sandhills, mixed grass prairies, CRP or mountain foothills the grass may be too high for a 9inch bipod. Breaks or badlands country may make your approach easier, but the hiking involved may make you regret carrying a 12 pound rifle. Elk and deer country varies even more than antelope, so pay specific attention when examining photos of new country (or when scouting) to the visibility, availability of rests or difficulty of the topography.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be going through what I consider ideal gear for different hunting situations. The next article will focus on guns and loads for elk, deer and antelope, and follow ups will include camping gear, clothing, footwear, and how to match those to your quarry and country. So, if you’re one who follows what I write, your homework assignment over the next week is to get familiar with the environment you will be hunting, so you can picture it when we go over the major variables, and how they may affect your gear selection.

Getting With the Times-Using Technology in Modern Elk Hunting

2010-06-25T08:14:00.001-07:00

Originally published for the Colorado Division of Wildlife Elk Hunting University:
http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/ElkHuntingUniversity/EHULessons/EHUElkHuntTechnology.htm

Technological advancements have affected every aspect of modern life, so it is only fitting that it has affected modern elk hunting. Today’s hunters have tools available to them that were inconceivable even 20 years ago. None of these tools will revolutionize elk hunting, but learning to use them to your advantage can improve your knowledge, your odds of success, your comfort and your safety. Advancements in synthetic materials and metallurgy have created lighter and better performing gear, but the biggest leaps in technology have been in navigation and information gathering. Other articles will go into detail on specific gear selection, but I will touch on some advancements and how you can apply that to your gear. However, the main focus here will be navigation and information technologies to improve the way you hunt and select where or when to hunt.
Synthetic clothing materials have created lighter weight, waterproof, breathable, scentproof, silent fabrics that are all the rage. These aren’t cheap, but neither is wool anymore. Wool is the gold standard by which hunting clothes are measured, and no synthetic can yet rival the warmth and silence of wool, nor do they insulate as well when wet. However, wool is typically heavy, so outer garments are not well suited to the mobile western hunter. Light wool pants, sweaters or shirts, used as an intermediate layer is where wool still shines brightest, as modern synthetic undergarments and lightweight waterproof outer layers can be used over wool clothing. Another modern convenience is the hydration bladder. It hasn’t revolutionized hunting, but it is much more convenient than having to dig through a pack for a water bottle. If you are in the market for a new pack, you’d be wise to focus on those with hydration bladders. Titanium cookware, smaller stoves and lighter tents have also increased the mobility of the back pack hunter.
Rifle stock technology has greatly advanced for those looking to save weight and increase durability. Carbon fiber, Kevlar, Aramid and other materials are being used to drop firearm weight more than any other single advancement outside of titanium receivers. However, while using a titanium receiver requires the purchase of a new gun, simply changing the stock out on your old rifle can save over a pound. Aluminum scope mounts, and smaller, yet brighter optical coatings also allow you to save weight on your gun. Further advancements in gunpowder technology and case design allow hunters to save weight and/or increase power in lighter, more efficient, short action cartridges, and shorter rifle barrels. Archery equipment has also advanced over the past 20 years with lighter, faster equipment for extended range and more accurate shooting.
The above advancements are just that, incremental steps to decrease weight or increase performance for gear we already have. However, the common availability of the personal GPS, satellite phones and beacons has added to the gear we now use. GPS technology is the foundation of our modern star-wars weaponry systems, the way most land surveys are now conducted and preferred method for global navigation. The GPS has many beneficial uses for hunters and outdoor recreational users. It is beyond the scope of this article to explain all of what it does and how it does it. I suggest that you search some websites such as geocache.com (http://www.geocaching.com/) that has some very good articles on buying, setting up, using a GPS. Also, the site has information on almost one million hidden caches that you can search for and develop your GPS skills. Many are probably located right in your neighborhood. A good GPS will cost in the range of $100-400. You pay the extra bucks for more bells and whistles, such as added memory, color screens and better antenna systems. The better GPS receivers are capable of displaying topographic maps. Again, this is usually an additional cost but a wonderful improvement for elk hunting. Many GPS receivers have a built in compass. However, I still prefer to have the old tried and true magnetic compass. And IF your GPS conks out or your batteries die, at least you can tell north from south at anytime or in any weather condition.
A GPS is best used in conjunction with a topographic map that has UTM lines. These should be marked off in 1,000-meter intervals. You will need to setup your GPS to be compatible with this system of grid lines. In the GPS setup screen for “position format” select “UTM” or “UTM UPS”, etc. Under map datum you will need to select the datum that was used for produce your map. On a U. S. Geological Survey 7.5 minute topographic map the datum can be located in the lower left hand corner and it will usually say something like “Polyconic projection 1927 North American Datum. If this is the case, use “NAD27 CONUS” which is an abbreviation for “1927 North American Datum for the Continental U.S.). Other popular map Datums for Colorado includes NAD 83 and WGS 84. The map datum is the mathematical formula that is used to make a flat map from a curved surface. Failure to use the correct map datum will usually result in an error in locations on the ground up to 200 meters! While this may sound overly technical, knowing how to use the X-Y UTM grid system will allow you to find your exact position on a map, rather than just your proximity to objects you marked or those you have preloaded. This is a snap using UTMs. It is just reading a graph with the easting (X coordinate, the distance in meters from the central merdian ) and northing (Y coordinate which is actually the distance in meters north of the equator). The other parameter is zone. Colorado has 2 zones: zone 13 is east of a north-south line that basically runs through an area just east of Parachute CO. The rest of the state west of this line is all in zone 12. Zones are just a way of refining the accuracy of your position from the 3-D earth to a 2-D grid system. See http://www.maptools.com/UsingUTM/ for more info on using UTMs.
So, do you need a GPS? No. But with one, you can use the GPS receiver to navigate to all those hidden and secret elk magnets that you’ve have identified from your remote scouting efforts. You can also use your GPS to locate your camp or car so you should not get lost. You can use your GPS to navigate to your hunting stand in the dark. Just turn on the “tracks” function in your setup and it will leave a “breadcrumb trail” that you can follow to your stand. Hint – make sure that you set your map scale to a low level by zooming in on the screen so you can tell if you are on the trail or not. Once you find your position on a map, you can also determine the best route to the nearest trail or you can find that heading straight back to your truck as indicated by the GPS will take you through an obstacle that is best avoided. The confidence of being able to hunt unknown country, navigate your way home or to a hunt area in the dark is a huge advantage in the modern era of short elk seasons and limited time off from work. I cannot emphasize enough to make sure that if you are relying on this tool for navigation that you have a backup system: a map, compass and extra GPS batteries (usually AA). Failure to find your camp in a late season or wilderness hunt could be fatal - use caution.
Satellite beacons, radios and satellite phones have become common place among hunters. Satellite beacons are useful, especially if hunting solo in a wilderness area. They allow loved one to know your last location, and some models also permit one to send signal letting folks know that you are either alright or in need of assistance. Satellite phones of course allow you direct communication with folks back home, but are expensive. There are services that also rent satellite phones. Radios are much more commonplace than either of the above devices. To avoid ethical and legal violations, radios should only be used to let others in your party know your location and status. Garmin Rino GPSes have the added function of having a radio built in to them. This can be used for direct communication with your party, but the digital radio also sends your location out to other Rino users within range, displaying your location on a map every time you touch the “push to talk” button.
The other major advancement has been in information technology. The internet has revolutionized the speed with which we can obtain information, but also created new sources of marginal, biased sources. Google Earth and Geographic Information System (GIS) overlays have revolutionized remote scouting. Google Scholar and the digitizing of scientific journals have given those with a thirst for knowledge beyond what the average hunting magazine can offer a new source of high quality information. The Colorado Division of Wildlife and other government agencies have also responded to the public’s thirst for previously low demand information by publishing harvest and population survey results, game management plans, habitat management plans and travel management plans on their respective sites for the world to access.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife’s website (http://wildlife.state.co.us) and those of other state game agencies are not just for posting regulations, seasons and license fees. Harvest stats are great if you know what you are looking for. Most people are only looking at success rates, while some also pay attention to hunter numbers. Yet few people bother to truly compare which seasons are best in an individual unit. Without getting into how to select a unit (covered in other articles), one can select the best time to hunt a unit by seeing how success rates and hunter numbers vary over time. Some units are better in earlier seasons, others better in the later seasons. In Colorado, of the four rifle elk seasons, first season is traditionally the highest success rate, which then falls off significantly in second season, bottoming out in third season, then increasing again in fourth season. Second season usually has the most hunters, but other seasons can vary wildly depending on access conditions in each unit, perceptions of historical game movements and tag allotment. Also available through the DOW’s website is the Natural Diversity Information Database (http://ndis.nrel.colostate.edu/maps). This allows a hunter to look over maps of game movements and landownership. The system is a little awkward to use, but it is free. It should be used in conjunction with Google Earth to view aerial photos of the areas in question.
A far more user friendly, but somewhat expensive application is Hunt Data’s Big Game Maps (http://www.huntdata.com). These allow one to overlay elk migration and concentration maps or landownership maps into Google Earth, right over the top of the aerial photos. A slider bar allows you to fade the overlay in and out to make sure you are looking at the correct spot in the photos. If you can’t interpret what you are looking at in Google Earth, then it won’t do you any good. While it may be obvious which features are trees, what hillsides are open and which mountain is bare rock, it does take some getting used to. Aspens and scrub oaks whose leaves have fallen off are extremely difficult to pick out from grassy areas. So look closely. Having some knowledge of what vegetation to expect at different elevation ranges also helps. Looking at a conifer at 6,000 feet or 11,000 feet, a little bit of knowledge should tell you the low elevation trees are pinion pines or junipers, not big spruces or firs. Google Earth will also show you where timberline is in your area, and just how high you may need to be hunting. In some places in Colorado, timberline is barely over 11,000 feet, in others; it is close to 11,700 feet. While some topographic maps will show you that a ridge is barren, you won’t know whether it is alpine tundra or rocky scree without looking at the photos. Identifying parking areas, trails and water sources are also important skills when using Google Earth. You also need to be able to tell the difference between rangeland and irrigated croplands that elk may be feeding in at night.

Your Google Earth maps will also allow you to create wind direction maps. By tilting the viewing angle, you can get a full 3D view. Having an understanding of thermals will allow you to create trails to your hunting areas that will not blow your scent to where you expect the game to be located. Knowing that your scent will fall early in the morning before the sun warms the mountains, then rises until the late afternoon when the sun falls below the horizon will help prevent blown stalks or blowing you scent from your vantage point into the game. In general, hunt up the mountain in the morning, and down it in the afternoon. The prevailing winds blow west to east, but use your maps to sketch out alternate plans for unusual weather patterns. The other great thing about the 3D view is that you can get an idea of the areas that will be visible from a specific vantage point.
Another way to “ground truth” or educate your mind’s eye is to use Google Earth’s embedded photos to get a more realistic view of an area. Look past the hikers posing in the foreground to get an understanding of the scale of the terrain, and type of habitat. Another way to find pictures of an area is to do a search for outfitters or professional photographer’s portfolios to look at the landscape. Looking through outfitter websites will also give you a feel for which trails are being used and possible camp locations. The USFS can also help you figure out where permitted outfitter camp locations are at.
Herd management plans and habitat management plans can also be found on state and federal websites. These will give you a leg up on other hunters for determining where the game may shift their concentrations. Hunters often exclaim that a specific drainage used to be great in the “good old days”, but the elk or deer are just no longer there. The game may have shifted their usage to an area where prescribed burns, wildfire or timber harvest has produced younger, more palatable forage, and the vegetation in the previous drainage is now older, more fibrous, decadent or grown over in a thick stand of lodgepole pines. The USFS will also post travel management plans, letting you know in advance which roads will be gated and which will remain open for hunting season. You can also find out when cattle are being removed from the public land in your area. The National Interagency Fire Center is another site to keep your eye on during the summer. If you aren’t paying attention, you may arrive to a completely blackened landscape in October. No forage and no cover, means no elk. You can also search for historical fire data to try to find 2 or 3 year old fires which may be attractive to game. CDOW herd management plans can also be used to identify problems with achieving desired harvest due to private refuges or other access issues. They can also give you a clue as to whether the DOW will increase or decrease tags and why. The plans typically contain more than 20 years of harvest and population data, so if when someone tells you an area “used to” be great, you may be able to put that information into better perspective.
Internet discussion forums such as those on 24hourcampfire.com, BigGameHunt.net and the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s new forums are a new way of getting local information on specific hunting areas. Asking, “Where is the best place to elk hunt in Colorado?” will not likely garner much response, but asking more detailed questions about an area that you have done your homework on will probably get you better information. If you haven’t done any homework prior to putting your questions out on the internet, you won’t be able to see through “smoke screens” put out by those who don’t want any additional hunters in “their” area. If you don’t want to openly ask a question, use the search functions to see if someone else has asked questions about the area you are interested in in the past. Searches may also turn up individuals who seem more knowledgeable than others, don’t be afraid to send them a private message instead of posting on the public forums.
The single most underutilized resource freely available to hunters is that which is produced by the scientific community. Scientific journals such as the Journal of Wildlife management are full of very specific diet, population, movement and behavioral studies. It is expensive for a private citizen to subscribe to JWM and other journals (about $700 per year), but they are freely available at many university and some larger public libraries. In these journals, place names will be mentioned, oftentimes maps will be incorporated into the document showing home ranges of specific elk herds and how they react to hunter pressure. Preferred seasonal forages will be discovered, and the peak date of the rut can be determined in a specific area. Your university library, if it has a wildlife or ecology department may also have theses by Master’s and PhD students on the elk or deer populations. These can be full books on the behaviors or demographics of an elk herd that you can hunt on public land. If your local university doesn’t produce its own wildlife research, those theses can be had for free through interlibrary loan. Also check out cattle and elk interaction studies in your area, and whether or not elk avoid them or the associated activities with public land ranching or whether elk will prefer to move in behind the cattle, which may be grazing down the coarser grasses, exposing the newer blades for the elk. Don’t forget, that in addition to the published research, there are graduate students conducting new research all the time. Don’t be afraid to find out what students at Colorado State University and other schools that produce significant wildlife research are up to. Graduate students and technicians might love to have someone tag along and help with their data collection. By volunteering your services, you may be able to see where exactly the elk are during the summer, or gain insight you never knew to ask about.
Weather research can also be utilized to better time your hunt or better prepare you for the conditions you will encounter. Weather Underground and Weather.com have historical weather data available, as well as averages. Beyond determining what kind of weather to expect during your hunt, you may be able to fine tune your hunting plans by monitoring how harsh or mild the summer has been. If you were planning a hunt in a canyon country unit, where water is much more critical, you’ll want to do some research to determine where the most reliable water sources will be. During wet years, marginal sources of water may hold game in an area better than a dry year. Many times, smaller creeks won’t flow at higher elevations if the snowpack and summer rainfall was subpar. So don’t place all your planning eggs in one basket, and do some early scouting to help you figure out whether or not a certain water source will be dry. This is another reason to have a backup plan.
It’s not enough to merely educate yourself on elk behaviors, movements, habitats and the like. If you’ve bothered to do your homework, you should have a plan on how to apply that new found knowledge. If your research has uncovered a plant which elk forage on significantly more than others in the Flat Tops, learn to identify that plant, and where it grows. If you’ve determined when the peak of the elk rut occurs in the Poudre Canyon by backdating calving dates, be sure you are out hunting during that time period. If you’ve uncovered a behavioral study that shows elk flee towards the nearest private refuge in South Park at the onset of hunting season, position yourself to take advantage of this. This is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. You must be able to act on the knowledge that all these new information sources can provide, otherwise it is useless and you have wasted your time.

Scouting Tips-The Secrets to Success

2010-06-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

Originally published for the Colorado Division of Wildlife Elk Hunting University:
http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/ElkHuntingUniversity/EHULessons/EHUScoutTips.htm

We all have to come to a decision on where to hunt somehow. But deciding where to hunt is dictated by how we like to hunt, how the weather is affecting the game and what we expect the game to be doing. Since most people live near a population center of some sort, and are far from the areas they intend to hunt, some form of scouting or research must be conducted to find a specific place to hunt. This is called scouting. The purpose of scouting is for the out-of-area hunter to gain local knowledge to increase his odds of finding and harvesting elk. Let's go through a couple of scenarios to determine how one might come to a conclusion about where to hunt. Each person will have different priorities based on where they are in their hunting career. Inexperienced hunters typically just want to harvest a legal animal, next we have the trophy hunter, and then the hunter who is just looking for an outdoor adventure or enjoyable experience. While scouting efforts are generally focused on finding game, don’t overlook finding a campsite and coming up with new tactics based on the terrain or manmade features in the area.
The novice:
The novice’s first task is to just select a unit and season. Previous articles have been written on the subject, so we won’t get into that at this time. Let’s say you’ve settled on a unit during a rifle season, now what? As with all scouting for any animal, you need to focus on the habitat needs of elk in order to find them. They need food, water and cover. Whichever is in the shortest supply in our area needs to be our primary focus. Elk are not evenly distributed throughout a mountain range; they are in large pockets with some small scattered herds. We are looking to maximize our chance of harvesting, and are therefore attempting to find the larger herds of elk. So keeping in mind that we need to feed, water and conceal large herd animals, it’s time for a little remote scouting so we can better focus our efforts when we finally set foot on our hunting grounds.
Let's first start with our paper maps. Elk receive a lot of hunting pressure, and it doesn’t take much to force them to move to less pressured grounds. So take a fat highlighter and outline each maintained road, looking for large gaps in the highlighted areas. The highest pressured areas will be maintained roads that connect to other maintained roads. A slimmer highlighter is also useful for the unmaintained and 4WD roads. Hunters will use them, but the more difficult the road, the less traffic you'll have. Unmaintained roads that connect two maintained roads receive more pressure than those that dead end. You'll also want to pay attention to the ATV rules for your area and look for locked gates blocking access to old logging roads that don't need to be highlighted. Lastly, find any marked or developed campground, and use your highlighter to mark off a two-mile radius from that campground. So without even looking at the aerial photos or topography, we now have a just a few major areas to focus our search for a great hunting spot.
Let's take a closer look at these roadless areas. Whether it is federally designated wilderness, or just an expanse of wild country, in a pressured area it is generally recommended that you hunt at LEAST 1 mile from the road. Two miles is much better in the heavily hunted units if you are looking for unpressured animals. Google Earth is a beautiful tool, so learn to use it in conjunction with your maps. It has color photos laid on top of a 3-D image of the earth. Once you learn to “ground truth” what you think you are looking at in Google Earth, you can get a very accurate feel for what the hunting area looks like. Now let's look at the topography and aerial photos. It takes a lot of forage to feed an elk herd, so areas near a large amount of grass or brush is important. We should be able to identify some open areas where the elk will be feeding at night, as there isn’t much forage in heavily timbered areas. Elk can be anywhere between timberline (11,700 feet) and about 7,000 feet in Colorado during the 4 primary rifle seasons. Generally, the warmer it is, the longer the grass will stay palatable in the high country. As the frosts begin to hit the mountains in mid September, the grass will begin to desiccate (go dormant till spring), and only areas with cool season grasses and wetter areas will retain palatable grasses and sedges before the elk must switch to eating brush. Elk are slaves to their stomachs and must eat at least every 8 hours or so. But during hunting season, an elk's first priority is to save its hide, so it will need cover. Don't place much hope on finding elk out feeding in a high pressure unit; you need to find their escape routes and hideouts. Water is rarely lacking during the rifle seasons, so pinpointing elk usage solely by locating water is a little more difficult.
OK, so we've identified a couple of meadows using maps and aerial photos, preferably one with a small creek; not for the water, but for the greener, more palatable grasses. Many of these areas are right near roads or trails. Elk usually won't use these places during daylight, but if there aren't many options available, they will still use them. But since we're looking for a place to hunt on opening morning and we know there will be a lot of pressure on these roads near the meadows, we need to take advantage of that pressure by anticipating how the elk will react to it.
Now let's try to find an open saddle in the timber along a ridge as close to one of these meadows as possible. Try to stay within a mile or so. Saddles are just one of many types of bottlenecks that naturally funnel pressured elk. Drainages leading into and out of major canyons and junctions of several drainages (usually there is good water at these points also) are other great places to focus pressured elk.
So, out of all of our meadows we should be able to find a nearby saddle (or drainage junction) that is at least a mile from a road, with a feeding area between the saddle and the road, below timberline, and that has some sort of opening for shooting lanes and dark coniferous timber nearby that elk may be heading to in order to hide.
Once you’ve identified 3 or 4 good saddles or drainage junctions, it’s time to lace up the boots and spend a weekend or two out scouting. In August, it is unlikely that the main elk herds will be low enough to be using the meadows we’ve targeted. But some units do not have true alpine country for elk to summer in, so it just depends on the unit. Don't be discouraged if you don't see a lot of fresh sign. Instead, look for old sign that indicates elk may have used these meadows. Look at the encroaching brush along the edge of the meadow. Do the ends of the twigs show old browsing pressure? Are the encroaching aspens or pines partially dead for some reason (from browsing pressure and elk rubs, hopefully not bark beetles)? What about the old brown grass from last year or earlier this year? Are the ends of it clipped off like a lawn mower? Elk and deer browsing signs on brush and aspens or other small trees often have a "flag" due to their not having upper incisors. The "flag" is just an outer bark layer left behind after elk or deer bit the stem, and then pulled up, leaving the "flag". Are there any small shrubs that look “stressed”, meaning many dead twigs protruding beyond the few live twigs that still have leaves on them? Or is the shrub no longer round? Stressed shrubs and small trees lose their natural shape when they are subjected to intense pressure from herbivores. Are there any old trails leading up to your saddle? What about the old sign around your saddle or drainage junction? Your hunting area should at least have some of these signs to let you know you are on the right track.
If the vegetation appears “hedged”, where the bottom of the junipers, aspens, scrub oaks and similar trees and shrubs are all the same height, you are likely looking at winter range. That’s fine if you are hunting during the late seasons, but elk rarely present in such concentrations to create hedged environments during the normal rifle seasons. Otherwise, you need to be scouting higher elevations if you aren’t planning a late season hunt. If you are finding shed antlers while scouting, you may also be looking too low.
You likely won’t be able to spot and stalk elk in heavily pressured areas, but from a good vantage on an open saddle you may be able to pinpoint where elk are heading to escape from other hunters. Don’t be afraid to stalk the timber, as elk spend more time in there than the open. If your escape route doesn’t produce for you, you’re going to have to have to go into the timber and pursue the elk. Coordinating a timber hunt with a partner is often more productive, especially if it’s possible to attack the patch from more than one side, pushing elk towards each other.
If trying to pick a patch of timber to still-hunt, the first places you need to investigate will be the flat timbered benches. These are often bedding areas and should show signs of elk usage during your scouting trips. Here, you won’t be looking for signs of browsing, just old tracks and feces. Old rubs are great too. If the area smells like fresh urine, or like cattle are in there, that’s another great sign. Many of these benches also have small ponds that are not marked on any map, but are visible from aerial photos. Focus your efforts near these spots.
Another type of productive timber for still hunting is burned or thinned timber. Both types of timber can be great for cover and feed. Elk tend to feel very comfortable in burns, especially if the trees haven’t fallen yet. They feel concealed, yet are readily apparent to hunters, and the lush new growth offers great forage so they have no need to expose themselves in larger meadows. Along the same lines are thinning operations. These areas have additional light hitting the forest floor, initiating grass and brush growth, but live trees are still in great abundance offering good cover to the elk. However, these areas tend to have good shooting lanes and visibility through the timber for the hunter. To find burns, you’ll need to use your aerial photos, but old logging operations are sometimes difficult to pick out. Instead, look for short spur roads coming off a main road. Many of those small roads will be gated off, blocked with boulders or the entrance to them will be bulldozed. When scouting, give extra bonus points to the roads that cannot be driven on. Aerial photos may not give you an adequate feel for the age of a burn and the amount of standing or down timber, so you need to scout it and decide whether it offers good feed and concealment to elk. And keep looking for sign. Old droppings are good, so are heavily browsed or stressed shrubs, and since the grass is often too long to reveal good trails, look for places where elk hooves have worn down or chipped away the downed logs when they cross them.
If you’ve exhausted the escape routes, the obvious hide-outs, and scouted the timber, yet still can’t find elk sign, it’s time to either choose a new area, or head down into the steep canyons and focus on the heavily timbered north and east facing drainages.
The Trophy Hunter:
Pressured units can be tolerated by the trophy hunter, as long as there aren’t too many roads and access is limited in some areas. Designated wilderness isn’t a necessity, but it helps separate the wheat from the chaff in a real hurry. However, it’s difficult to access many wilderness areas in the later seasons. So you need to have a plan in mind, when choosing which season to hunt the unit. Let’s assume we are hunting 1st rifle season here.
Occasionally, elk can be above timberline during 1st season, but it’s rare. Finding large pockets of unpressured land is our best option here. We don’t want pressure to ever reach the elk we are hunting, but it wouldn’t hurt if pressure would send additional elk our way. But first, we need to have a “measuring stick” so we know what kind of bull is possible in this area. It’s time for you to get up into the high country and glass elk on their summering grounds in July through mid August. In classic high mountain elk country, once the bachelor herds are found and trophy potential is determined, it’s now a matter of figuring out where they might be during hunting season. From archery season through 1st rifle, they will likely be within the same drainage or neighboring drainage where you found them, just at lower elevation. However, the bulls will either be nursing their wounds or still in the rut, so where they are in this stage will dictate how to focus on potential areas to hunt them. If they are still in the rut, they will be with the cows, which means there are a lot of mouths to feed. Only the larger meadows will offer sufficient forage, so you must focus on the lower reaches of the drainage where several creeks begin to form the primary river or creek in the area. This will usually be the largest meadow in the area and the focus of most of the cows and the dominant herd bull. These meadows are best found several miles into a wilderness area. Large south facing slopes on high mountains can also hold the herds, but only with a good source of nearby water.
In canyon country, pinpointing where a herd bull will be during the rut is more difficult. However, water can be scarce here. So, search for good meadows within a mile of water, but isolated from the roads by over a mile. Typically, canyon country elk herds are smaller and more evenly dispersed near the major water sources.
If the elk have quit bugling, you need to instead focus on smaller secondary meadows where the bulls will be trying to recover as much weight as possible to survive the winter. The very best places are the rare north and east facing meadows when it is warm out. These are often very small meadows, less than 200 yards wide, surrounded by heavy timber and good water. Level benches for bedding areas are not important for finding solitary bull bedding areas. The only thing in the world these bulls want is to be left alone, so they can eat and rest. Your focus here needs to be over 2 miles from the nearest major road and over a mile from any secondary road. These small pockets don’t have to be north or east facing, but they do need to have good forage. During a warm year, the bulls may go back up to higher country if there is still good feed available.
Lone bulls are also much more likely than cow/calf groups to use steep hillsides. Below most steep mountains is a slide area, with strips of timber between the slides, springs, small ponds and creeks at the base, and open grassy hillsides in places where the slide is sufficiently old. These little pockets provide all the food, water and cover a lone bull will need for the month or so before winter really sets in and he is forced to descend to lower elevations.
Because their potential meadow locations are so varied, spot and stalk hunting is much more critical, especially if you have trophy standards. Your scouting efforts should be focused on vantage points overlooking as many of these basins, meadows, and hillsides as possible, rather than trying to pinpoint a single small meadow. From one vantage point, many old slide areas can usually be seen, as well as the small pockets in the timber below. Road access to your vantage point is fine only if the points you are glassing are a long way off. If there is a tempting terrain feature to hunt immediately below your vantage point, and no barrier like a ridge or creek for a hunter to cross to reach that area you are glassing, you’ll need to find a different vantage. There must be very little disturbance reaching the area you will be glassing during hunting season.
The “Quality Experience” Hunter:
This hunter is one who is just looking to see wildlife and feel like he has some ground to himself. Trophy quality may not matter to this person and he will be combining tactics of both the trophy hunter and the meat hunter. This person is looking to enjoy the experience and isn’t necessarily looking for an armed death march to the furthest peak.
If you’ve settled on your unit, it’s time to decide how you want to hunt it. Some people like to find good roads to drive and glass the distant hillsides; others prefer a solitary still-hunt into the dark timber, while still others prefer to hike a nice vantage point to see what Mother Nature brings them. This hunter will also be conscious of the season to hunt. In some places, first rifle season has the least pressure, in other areas it’s the 4th season. Even 3rd season in some over-the-counter units can have fairly light pressure, but 2nd season is almost never the best choice for this hunter. As an archer, this hunter wouldn’t bother going out during the first several weeks of the season, and would rather pick his time to coincide with the peak of the rut. Here in Colorado, the third and fourth weeks of September are as good as it gets. And most of the bowhunters and muzzleloader hunters have already packed it in for the year. If we assume this hunter is a 3rd season rifle hunter, he can generally count on the roads still being accessible and snow in the high country pushing elk a little further down the mountain. This hunter is more focused on the honey holes outside of the wilderness, along migration corridors and pockets of public land near private lands. Depending on how you hunt, consider hunting the longest ridges extending from the high peaks. Many of these are easily accessible from the roads, and often provide a downhill hike (at first). The longest finger ridges usually have several saddles for migrating game or those seeking refuge from other hunters. Those same ridges usually have one or two good places to glass the surrounding ridges or meadows below. The trick here is to just keep walking further than most hunters and get an earlier start. The best places during the later seasons will have vantage points or will be above south and west facing brushy slopes. We can’t count on the grasses being palatable during the late seasons, so we need to be mindful of secondary food sources like scrub oaks, bitterbrush, sagebrush, serviceberry and mountain mahogany. Water is less important during the later season hunts, but will still be utilized. Standing water will likely be frozen over, even if there is no snow. Summer scouting should focus on these brushy food sources that can be seen from a safe distance without disturbing the elk during hunting season.
Utilize the tips on finding browsed and grazed plants that were described earlier when examining these hillsides during the summer. Buck deer rubs are useful signs in these areas, even if you are elk hunting, because deer are primarily browsers (as opposed to grazers), and the presence of deer rubs indicates late October and early November preferential usage in those brushy areas. If hunting for elk, focus mainly on the grass availability on exposed south facing hillsides above running creeks. These creeks will likely still be running during the late seasons, offering more reliable water sources.
In many parts of the west, irrigated private croplands are adjacent to public lands. Those private lands rarely have sufficient cover to hold elk, but the forage is irresistible to them. Use your aerial photo to look for any croplands next to public lands. Elk and deer will likely be feeding at night and early in the morning, but at some point they will reenter adjacent public lands. When scouting, look for sagging barbed wire, downed fencing, clear trails, hair snags on the wire, and other sign to indicate likely entry and exit points to these fields. But be certain you are on public land when attempting to hunt these locations.
Not all hunters have the stamina to hunt the backcountry. So finding isolated pockets that pressure will rarely touch near a road should be the focus if the above sounds like the Trail of Tears to you. For those who can exert themselves over short periods, but cannot sustain the effort, use your maps and aerial photos to find places close to, but not visible from the roads. Oftentimes, a road will pass just a quarter mile underneath a ridge, and many hunters will never bother to look at what’s on the other side. Sometimes, a difficult terrain feature such as a creek with steep banks separates the road from an unseen meadow. In most mountainous country, a road winds back and forth as it gains elevation. These gaps between the roads are also useful for short hunts, especially when coordinated with a partner or two who will park the vehicle at the bottom for you to hunt toward. Some maps do not show the road windings in sufficient detail and many aerial photos fail to show the roads underneath the timber, so scouting is crucial here. If there is ever more than a ¼ mile gap between the roads, consider it huntable.
Last Minute Scouting:
For those who can’t put the boots to the ground in elk country during the summer time, it is strongly recommended you give yourself at least one full day of scouting prior to the season opener before seriously hitting the hills. You’ve presumably narrowed down your hunting area by various remote scouting methods, whether by paper map, aerial photos, interviews, etc. But let’s say you are trying to narrow down your hunting area near two drainages where you’ll be camping. Your first order of business is not to spook game out of the country. You must minimize your intrusions at this time. You’ll have to walk with your eyes more than your legs at this time, so dawn and dusk should be spent glassing or driving the roads and glassing. When driving snow covered or dirt roads, keep a careful eye out for any trails indicating elk crossing the road. Note whether elk appear to be crossing back and forth on this road, or whether it was a one-way trip. If the snow is less than a day old, consider following those tracks. During the late morning and early afternoon, skirt any timbered potential bedding area as well as you can and do not skyline yourself when coming over ridges. Don’t be too concerned if there are elk carcasses in your new spot, consider it validation.
Unlike the summer scouting, the freshest sign wins when you’re only a day or two from the start of the season. When reading fresh sign, a little additional knowledge will tell you what the elk are eating and the likely sex of the animal you found. When elk are feeding on green grasses, their feces tend to be clumped and extremely soft. When elk have switched their feed to brush, their droppings become much harder and individual pellets tend not to clump together. If you think they are feeding on grasses, the elk are probably feeding in a wet meadow. If you think they are feeding on brush, it is likely on a south or west facing hillside. Some people can’t tell deer or moose sign from elk sign. Cow elk and small bulls tend to have tracks about 3 inches long, more mature bull elk have tracks around 3.5 inches long. A standard, factory loaded .30-06 cartridge (and most standard and belted magnums) is 3.3 inches long, .308s and other short action cartridges (including the short magnums) are 2.8 inches long. So, if the track is longer than a short action cartridge, but shorter than a standard, It is likely that of a cow elk. Anything significantly longer than a .30-06 is probably a bull, except when you are in moose country. However, moose tracks are much larger than elk tracks, often closer to 5 inches long. Their droppings are almost always slightly red, grainy and elongated from the willows that they prefer to eat.
In many ways, hunters need to be amateur biologists in order to properly read the signs the elk are leaving. If you are unsure of what you are looking at and how to interpret the signs, take a picture so you can show someone more experienced than yourself. Be prepared to ask specific questions of everyone you encounter while out scouting, but if you haven’t done your homework you won’t know when to disregard and when to accept information as gospel. You are at a severe disadvantage if you haven’t set foot in your hunting area before the season starts. The only way to move yourself further along the learning curve is to spend more time in the elk woods. The local, area-specific knowledge you gain from doing so is worth infinitely more than reading generic books and articles. Understanding what the sign is telling you and what do with that sign is a crucial step in becoming a good elk hunter. Our hunting seasons are short, so you will not get the necessary field time to become a knowledgeable elk hunter by spending only 5 days in the woods each year. Get out there, scout intelligently, learn your hunting grounds, become a more successful hunter.

Nonresident's Guide to Western Hunting

2010-06-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

Originally published with photos here:
http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Elk/Nonresidents-Guide-to-Western-Hunting-02081010.html

The following is designed to be a not-so concise look at the opportunities available to those who have decided to come out West for an elk, deer or antelope hunt and don’t know where to start. This won’t address bighorn sheep, mountain goats, or moose as those are typically once-in-a-lifetime hunts. This is also designed for DIY hunters, not for those looking for private land or outfitted hunts, as there are various other aspects regarding transferable tags that could also be addressed. To the best of my knowledge this information is up to date and accurate. Let’s take a look at each state, one at a time, the tag procurement processes, license fees, competitive advantages and disadvantages compared to other states, and various things that make each state unique.
First a few definitions regarding the major public lands that may not be familiar to those who do not live in the West:
USFS: The United States Forest Service, these are the lands where most hunters hunt. They are typically higher elevation lands open to most recreation with a few limitations. There are also National Grasslands that are run by the USFS, and hunting is permitted here as well. There may be, and in fact frequently are, private inholdings within the administrative boundaries of these lands where you cannot hunt. Make sure you have a good map that shows the actual land ownership, not just the administrative boundary.
BLM: The Bureau of Land Management. These are federally owned public lands, but they are not indicated on your typical road atlas. BLM lands are notorious for not being marked or being marked as private lands when they are in fact public. Once again, you need a good map.
Wilderness: This does not mean woods or forest. Federally designated wilderness areas can occur on either USFS or BLM lands. Wilderness areas on BLM lands are referred to as Wilderness Study Areas or WSAs and are treated the same as a USFS Wilderness Area. The important thing to know about Wilderness Areas is that there is no motorized access permitted. If you are looking for a horseback hunt, backpack hunt or want to just ensure there are no ATVs, these are the areas to focus on. Also, there is no wheeled vehicles of any sort allowed, which includes mountain bikes and game carts. Another important note is that the state of Wyoming does not permit nonresidents to hunt big game in wilderness areas without a guide.
State Trust Lands: Throughout most of the west, section 16 and 36 in each township is designated as a State Trust Land, also School Lands. These lands are not always publicly accessible and vary from state to state. In many states, they are treated as private lands, controlled by those who own the grazing lease on these lands.
One other issue regarding public access: You cannot cross private land to access public land. If there is no public road access to a block of land, you may as well consider it private ground. You are trespassing if crossing private lands. Also, in areas where checkerboard landownership patterns exist, it is generally illegal to cross from one corner of land to the next because the law assumes you must have been trespassing, even if briefly in order to hop from one piece of land to the next.
ARIZONA
Arizona has a national reputation for trophy deer and elk hunting, but they also have spectacular trophy antelope hunting despite not having the antelope numbers of places like Wyoming and Montana. Arizona, along with New Mexico and Texas are the only opportunities for Coues deer in the US. While the image most folks have of Arizona being a desert is mostly true, a strip of mountains running northwest to southeast holds most of the elk habitat and National Forest lands. There are large holdings of BLM land in the rugged western and northern deserts, and probably more state land than any other western state (13% of the state). Indian Reservations make up a large percentage of the lands in eastern Arizona. There is a small wolf population in the Blue Range.
Due to the requirement of purchasing a $150 hunting license before the drawing, Arizona has surprisingly good draw odds for a state whose trophy opportunities are so well published. The elk and antelope applications are due February 9th, 2010. Deer applications are normally due in June. You are required to pay the full fee of the $150 hunting license plus whichever species you are attempting to draw; $595 for elk, $485 for antelope and $232 for deer. Arizona does not have a preference system, but rather a bonus system to increase the odds for repeat applicants. The draw is different than most other states, utilizing what they call the 3 passes. The first is the bonus point pass, where up to 20% of the permits are issued, where those with bonus points through repeat applications, hunter education or group applicants have additional chances to be drawn. The remaining permits are allocated in the 2nd pass by attempting to randomly fill applicants’ 1st and 2nd choices. The 3rd pass does the same thing with 3rd, 4th and 5th choices. For hunters who feel “stuck” with a $150 license they aren’t likely to use if unsuccessful in the drawing, Arizona has some very diverse upland game bird opportunities that cannot be found in the East, including chukar, blue grouse, Gambel’s quail, California quail, Mearn’s quail, and scaled quail.
Elk seasons vary quite a lot, but nearly every unit has a rifle season from November 26th to December 2nd. There are also rifle seasons during the rut, and a wide variety of archery seasons. Antelope seasons are almost all from September 3-12. Deer seasons rarely overlap with elk seasons, and most of the rifle deer seasons occur for 10 days in late October through early November.
Scopes, sabots and inlines are legal for muzzleloader hunting in Arizona.
State lands can be hunted. A valid hunting license grants you access to those lands. They are frequently posted, “No Trespassing without valid permit” or something similar.
CALIFORNIA
Hardly on the radar of most travelling hunters, California has more opportunities than some might realize. While sometimes considered California’s most popular game animal, there is a lot more to the state than wild hog hunting. The huge state offers a wide variety of blacktailed and mule deer hunting opportunities, including several subspecies of mule deer not found anywhere else in the West. California is also the only state in the West to have three sub species of elk to hunt, and there are also limited opportunities for antelope. And don’t forget the stellar black bear hunting. Northern California is mostly heavily timbered, low elevation mountains, with large tracts of Forest Service and some commercial timber lands, but also home to the largest Columbian Blacktails. The Central Coast is also semi-mountainous terrain, but much drier than the North, with shrublands and smaller trees dominating the landscape. There are very few big game opportunities in the Central Valley, which is almost entirely private. The Sierra Nevadas make up much of Eastern California, and extend to over 14,000 feet, with Mt. Whitney being the tallest peak in the lower 48. Southern California isn’t just the LA Basin; it is surrounded by a mountain range, with some peaks that extend over 10,000 feet. East of those mountains is the Mojave Desert, a rugged desert, owned primarily by the BLM.
Applications for all big game species are due in early June. There is a preference system, with 90% of the tags going to those with the most points, and 10% going to a random draw for the so-called Premium Deer Tags. The Premium Deer Tags are primarily in the Sierra Nevadas and Cascades for mule deer. The elk tags are a long shot at best for a nonresident and ridiculously priced like Nevada. Those tags not considered premium are available first-come, first served. A $141 hunting license is required before applying, and the full $242 deer license fee is required up front. Elk, antelope and sheep tags do not require the full fee up front, just a $7.50 application fee. Elk tags, if drawn are $1,062 and only one is available to nonresidents per year.
One interesting thing about California is that you can buy two buck tags. The second cannot be a Premium tag, but the opportunity is available if you want to spread out that $141 hunting license fee. Another interesting opportunity for the hunter who is bored out of his mind in midsummer is that California offers an August rifle deer season along the Coast Range. Most of the other seasons are in September and October, although a few extend into November. Another nice aspect to California’s deer seasons is that they are often over 1 month long, except the Premium mule deer units, none of which are less than two weeks. And if you’re really looking for something different, you can bow hunt in July along the Coast. The muzzleloader opportunities are special hunts and relegated to just a few places.
Outside of the National Forest and BLM, there are very few opportunities (but there is a lot of BLM and National Forest land). A handful of state wildlife areas offer big game hunting, and private land access is rare.
COLORADO
This is the state most people think of first when they think about Western hunting. Colorado has the largest elk population and with a diverse selection of management philosophies, there is something for everyone regarding elk. The mule deer hunting opportunities are more limited, and all deer tags are controlled, but even without applying there are numerous units with leftover tags each year. While antelope are present here, this is not a great state to hunt them for a nonresident. The tags are very difficult to draw, and the populations are nothing compared to Wyoming.
Part of what makes Colorado so popular is the availability of unlimited over-the-counter elk tags for over half of western Colorado (that’s where most of the elk are, the eastern 1/3 is prairie. In general the far western 1/3 is rugged desert, mesa and canyon lands, the central 1/3 is the mountainous area most people envision). Archery tags, 2nd rifle season and 3rd rifle season are the only seasons with unlimited tags. 1st and 4th rifle season are draw only, but there are sometimes high quality tags available as leftovers. The units that are not unlimited are managed with one of two management philosophies: crowd controlled, or quality managed. The crowd controlled units are mostly near the main urban centers of the Front Range, and are limited to prevent overcrowding. By reducing the crowding, those units also tend to have decent trophy potential, but without the steep price in preference points of the trophy units: 2, 10, 201, 40, 61 and 76.
Presently, nonresident elk tags are $550 for bulls and $350 for cows. There is no separate hunting license needed. Colorado has 6 seasons in most units, plus special late and early rifle seasons in a few units, but those tend to be for cows only. Deer tags $326 and are draw only, but there are often leftover tags. If planning a combo hunt, it is most convenient to try to draw a deer tag in an OTC elk unit during 2nd or 3rd season so you don’t have to plan on drawing both tags.
Colorado’s draw process is by a pure preference system: those with the most points get the tags. Don’t worry, most hunts don’t require any preference points to draw. The application deadline is April 6, 2010. You may apply as a party, and there is no limit to group size. The best units will likely fill with the first choice, but look at the drawing summaries to find units whose tags are still available during 2nd and 3rd choice so you don’t waste your draws if you are trying to get a limited tag. If you don’t fill your first choice, you will be granted a preference point for next year’s drawing. If you still want a tag, other than one in the main drawing, the next step is the leftover draw. Do not forget to check the box that asks if you wish to be eligible for the leftover drawing. After the drawing, a list of units with leftover tags will be available first to those in the leftover draw in June. If there are still tags leftover, and there always will be, there is a first-come, first-served basis for distributing them in August. If you miss out on all these, or would prefer to be secure in the knowledge that the tag you want is going to be available to you, there is always the OTC archery, 2nd and 3rd rifle season tags for elk. Deer seasons are primarily during 2nd and 3rd season, there is no 1st rifle deer season, and there are very few 4th season tags (mule deer rut). One other intriguing tag for hardcore hunters is the early rifle deer tags. Those tags restrict hunters to a wilderness area in early September and usually require more than 1 preference point.
You may have two Colorado elk and deer tags each, but at least one of each of those species must be List B. List B tags are listed in the regs booklet and are always female tags, but not all female tags in all units qualify as List B, typically only those with population problems. So you may have either two female tags or one male and one female tag for both elk and deer.
2010 archery season is August 28-Sept 26. The first weekends are very popular due to Labor Day, but not a good choice as the elk rut doesn’t hit high gear until much later in the season. The last two weekends are usually the best, but the elk have already been pressured for several weeks. These tags are available over the counter in unlimited numbers for much of the state, but there are some draw only areas that are worth the effort.
Muzzleloader elk season is Sept 11-19, and the peak of the rut usually falls during this time. All muzzleloader tags are limited, and draw only. Colorado does not allow scopes or sabots during muzzleloader season.
1st rifle season is limited to draw only, but there are some tags, especially for cows that make it to leftovers 1st season is usually the highest success rate and will be Oct 16-20 in 2010. 2nd season offers unlimited bull tags throughout much of Colorado is the most popular season to hunt. It is also the first available deer season, and will be Oct 23-31 2010. This is the lowest success deer season and 3rd highest success elk season, but it’s popularity was partly due to the fact that it was traditionally the only season with two weekends. 3rd season is Nov 6-14, and for the first time will now span two weekends. This is traditionally the lowest success elk season, and one of the best deer seasons. 3rd season bull elk tags are available OTC for many areas. 4th season is only 5 days, like 1st season and is Nov 17-21 in 2010. Where available, these are typically the best deer tags, but require many preference points in most units. This is typically the second best elk season, and a great season for a low pressure hunt.
Colorado’s late seasons are for cows only and vary from Thanksgiving weekend to the middle of January. These can be tricky hunts as they attempt to span a migration period and are not recommended for anyone who doesn’t have local knowledge and access because the elk will be on lower elevation lands that are often private.
Colorado has both Forest Service and BLM lands in abundance in Western Colorado. There are also a handful of state wildlife areas to hunt on. Not all state school trust lands can be hunted. There is a booklet produced by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the State Land Board that indicates where publicly accessible state lands are located. State lands not designated as such should be treated as private lands. Private land in Colorado, and most of the West does not have to be posted.
IDAHO
I believe this to be one of the unsung states for western hunting. Colorado, followed by Montana and Wyoming may be the most popular places to hunt, but Idaho is one of the better options for elk and deer due to their over-the-counter tags and abundant public lands. The statewide deer tags are capped and may be used in much of the state. Several of the elk hunting units are also capped for nonresidents, but are available first come first served and worth considering. A large swath of Southern Idaho is desert or prairie, but the eastern and southeastern edges also have significant Forest Service lands. Northern Idaho is primarily dense forest, with National Forest and commercial timber lands. This is excellent whitetail country. East and Central Idaho is the large rugged, sparsely populated area most people focus on for deer and elk hunting. In recent years, wolves have reduced the game populations, but there is still good hunting to be had. For anyone looking for a wilderness adventure, central Idaho, in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area, is the place to go. Unlike most wilderness areas, there are many air strips throughout the 2.3 million acre wilderness, so for about $450 round trip you can penetrate the wildest country in the lower 48. Southern and western Idaho offer antelope hunting, but it tends to be better in Oregon, Wyoming or Montana. There are a few places where you can have a combination deer and antelope hunt if interested.
Idaho does require hunters to purchase a $154 hunting license prior to the price of a $416 elk and/or $301 deer permit. This puts their elk license price on par with most states, but the deer permit is far more expensive than nearly any other state if the hunting license price is not spread out between both elk and deer. There are both general and controlled deer and elk tags, but the vast majority are first-come first serve general tags. The general deer tag is essentially statewide, not including the controlled hunts, the elk tags are broken up regionally, with some of the higher demand areas having nonresident caps. The controlled hunt application deadline is in early June, with draw results in July. Idaho does not have a preference system, so the drawing is completely random, giving everyone at least some chance of drawing a tag. Due to the requirement to first purchase a $150 hunting license, the draw odds are quite good. The general elk tag is offered in two types, A or B. The B tag is primarily for rifle hunters, the A tag is primarily for archers, but each unit has a different set of rules for each tag regarding sex, antler restrictions, weapon restrictions and season dates. The archery seasons generally fall in mid September, lasting 3-4 weeks, the rifle seasons are typically two weeks in mid October (2010 regs are not yet published). The notable exceptions to these are the Middle Fork and Selway B tag which allows rifle hunting during the September elk rut. Deer seasons vary also, but are generally more than 3 weeks long and are often concurrent with the elk seasons.
A muzzleloader season for elk is usually offered after the general rifle season with some A tags and some B tags. Scopes, sabots, 209 primers and pelletized powders are prohibited.
In addition to the elk and deer hunts, Idaho does offer extremely inexpensive black bear hunting and is worth a look, as the tags are just $31.75 for a nonresident in some units. Also, in select areas, the deer tag may be used to take a black bear. Idaho has over 400,000 acres of accessible private lands managed under the Access Yes! Program.
MONTANA
Montana is a great state for nonresident hunters. Eastern Montana is primarily rolling prairie, with scattered areas of rugged badlands or breaks and sparse timber, with abundant BLM lands in some areas, and scattered checkerboards of public lands in other areas. Western Montana has large Forest Service holdings, some large, rugged wilderness areas, with the Bob Marshall, Absaroka-Beartooth and Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness areas being the largest and most famous. Northwest Montana is great whitetail country, but mediocre at best elk country. West-Central and Southwest Montana should be the primary focus for elk hunters. Deer hunting can be had throughout the state, with the river valleys and Northwest forests being dominated by whitetails, and the prairies, badlands and southern mountains by mule deer. Most antelope hunting is done Eastern Montana, but there is some decent antelope hunting to be had in the valleys of the Southwest.
Like Western Idaho and Northern Wyoming, Southwest and West-Central Montana is now home to wolves. The game populations have declined, but there are still plenty of elk, with excellent hunting to be had. And you can always add a wolf tag for an interesting trophy.
Montana has a different system for acquiring tags than most other states. First, you must acquire a general deer or elk tag through the drawing. Then once that tag is acquired, you may put in for a limited permit. There is a bonus system, not a preference system, and those without bonus points can usually draw the combination elk/deer ($643,) elk ($593) or deer ($343) about 50% of the time. There are also guaranteed outfitter sponsored tags for an additional cost. The application deadline is March 16, 2010 for the general tag, and June 1st for limited tags (if you’ve drawn the elk or deer general) and antelope tags.
One of the great things about Montana’s general tags is that they offer great flexibility and long seasons. With a general elk or deer tag, one may hunt from the early September through late November. Archery season is early September through mid October, rifle season is mid October through late November. The same permit is good for both archery and rifle season. There is no muzzleloader season. Another wonderful opportunity for the hardcore hunter are Montana’s Backcountry seasons, which usually open September 15th, only requiring a general tag. This allows you to take advantage of high country mule deer and rutting bull elk, but accessing these units is extremely physically demanding.
To hunt on Montana’s School Trust lands, one must purchase a $10 permit. Montana also has what is called the Block Management Program, which allows hunters access to private lands. Sometimes, access is completely unregulated, just requiring that you sign in and out, other places it works off a reservation system. This is great system, especially in the East, where public lands are somewhat limited.
NEW MEXICO
New Mexico is considered a top trophy state for elk and mule deer, but they also have good Coues whitetail antelope hunting. Eastern New Mexico is mostly shortgrass prairie and scrublands, and private ranchlands, but there are some small National Grasslands and larger state lands, plus large blocks of BLM in the Southeast. Large portions of New Mexico are owned by either Indian Reservations or the US Military, especially in the Northeast and South-Central portions of the state. The two largest Forest Service holdings are mostly in the Southwest and North Central portions of the state. New Mexico does have a small wolf population in the Gila National Forest and they are currently federally protected. One other interesting hunting opportunity in New Mexico, not found in other places is the chance to hunt oryx.
For 2010, New Mexico has altered their draw process by requiring the full fee up front from applicants. By only charging a$12 application fee and no preference system, New Mexico had terrible draw odds, but everyone had at least a slim chance of drawing a trophy tag. With the new change, there will likely be fewer applicants, but since there is no preference system, a first time applicant has as good a chance as anyone else of drawing a tag. New Mexico has standard priced tags, and high priced tags for their quality and high demand units. Standard deer licenses are $297, and quality/high demand tags are $382. Standard elk licenses are $562 for bull, $352 for cows, and $787 for quality/high demand.
Seasons vary by unit for elk and deer, and are typically just 5 days. Like Colorado, New Mexico offers a series of short seasons to reduce hunting pressure during any one season. Most rifle deer seasons take place in late October through mid November, most rifle elk seasons occur in early to mid October. There is generally no overlap in the elk and deer seasons. New Mexico has both late and early archery deer seasons, and the archery elk seasons are mostly during the mid-late September rut. Muzzleloader elk seasons are mostly after archery and before the rifle season, allowing hunters to catch the tail end of the rut. The highest demand hunts are usually the first rifle hunt offered for each species. If you are willing to accept a slightly lower success rate on animals that have already been hunted, you can typically increase your draw odds.
New Mexico has both primitive and modern muzzleloader seasons for deer, and modern muzzleloader hunts for elk. The modern muzzleloader hunts allow scopes and sabots. Restricted muzzleloader deer hunts require open sights, and prohibit in line ignition, pelleted powder, sabots, and belted bullets.
Hunting on state trust land is permitted. New Mexico also has a private land access program called Open Gate.
NEVADA
Nevada is rarely thought of as a big game state, but it offers tremendous mule deer hunting and some limited elk hunting opportunities. There is no shortage of public land in Nevada and access is excellent except for the I-80 BLM checkerboard where every other square mile is private land. Believe it or not, there are mountains ranges and high elevation National Forest Lands. Most of Nevada’s largest mountain ranges are in the middle of the state. One other unusual opportunity in Nevada is the Himalayan Snow Cock, an introduced upland game bird, much larger than a grouse in the Ruby Mountains.
Nevada requires hunters to purchase a $140 hunting license before applying. But you are not required to pay for your tags up front, just an application fee, so it makes some sense to apply for nearly everything, including antelope, bighorn sheep, elk, and mountain goats. Nevada operates on a bonus point system, so you have a chance at drawing a tag without waiting for several years of points to accumulate. If you are only interested in deer hunting, you may opt out of paying for the hunting license, but you lose the chance to earn a bonus point for future draws. This makes the Nevada mule deer draw one of the least expensive opportunities in western hunting. Applications are due in early April, deer tags are $240, antelope $300, bighorn sheep, mountain goat or bull elk $1,200, cow elk $500 and are charged to you after you draw.
Deer seasons vary, but most take place throughout most of the month of October. Some of the more popular units have both a late and early season. The popularity of those seasons varies somewhat by terrain. Those with accessible high country tend to have popular early seasons, while those units with difficult to access high country have stiffer draw odds for the late seasons. Muzzleloader seasons occur in mid September, for the most part, archery season throughout most of August and early September, although late archery hunts also exist. There are only a handful of elk units, and most have a rifle season lasting two weeks between early and mid November. Deer and elk seasons rarely overlap. Muzzleloader elk season is late October through early November, archery is from mid August through early September. There are no hunts during the peak of the elk rut.
Sabots, inlines and centerfire primers are permitted during muzzleloader seasons, but scopes and pelletized powder are prohibited.
Nevada has very little state owned land to hunt, but with the amount of Forest Service and BLM land available, accessing public lands is not an issue.
OREGON
Oregon is an incredibly diverse state, with temperate rain forests in the West to high deserts in the East. That diversity creates an enormous number of hunting opportunities; from Columbian Blacktails, Mule Deer, Whitetails (including the endangered Columbian Whitetail, which you can hunt because it is overpopulated in some areas, imagine that?), Roosevelt(the largest bodied sub species) and Rocky Mountain elk, antelope, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats, and an incredible array of upland bird species. This is not a state on the list of most Eastern hunters, but it really should be. While not known as a trophy state, there are some well-managed opportunities for both elk and deer. The amount of public land is simply staggering, with large amounts of BLM in the eastern basins, National and State Forests throughout the mountainous western and central regions, and another impressive, isolated series of mountains in the Northeast. Combine those opportunities with the commercial timber lands and you have no shortage of hunting land.
Oregon has both unlimited general and controlled tags for deer and elk, and all antelope tags are controlled. The controlled hunt application deadline is May 15. The fees were greatly increased for 2010, and you are required to purchase a $140 hunting license, but are not required to pay for a permit up-front. So if you don’t draw the controlled tag, you are still stuck with the license, at which point you really should consider purchasing the general tag or at least checking out the interesting bird hunting opportunities. If you draw the permit, you may decide at that time whether or not to accept it. Oregon’s preference point system allots 75% of the tags to those with the most preference points, and 25 % in a random drawing. Combined with the high up front $140 license fee, your draw odds are very good. Elk permits are $500 and deer are $375, antelope $333.
Oregon’s general deer seasons vary by location, but the Cascade region has a split season from October 2-15, the breaks from October 16-22 for the Cascade bull elk season, resuming from October 23-November 5, 2010. The Coast buck season is unbroken and goes from October 2-November 5. The Rocky Mountain elk seasons are split, the first being a 5 day season in late October, the 2nd being a 9 day season in Mid November. The Coast bull elk season is also split from November 13-16, then November 20-26. Deer and elk archery seasons are from late August to late September. One of the more interesting exceptions to all these seasons, and a great adventure opportunity is the High Cascade buck hunt, occurring in mid September, and it never draws out with the 1st choice applicants. It is a wilderness hunt, great for backpackers and horsemen. Antelope hunts are typically in August, but there are exceptions. Muzzleloader hunts are offered but the seasons vary.
Scopes, sabots, jacketed bullets, centerfire primers, pelletized powder, and in line ignition systems are prohibited on muzzleloader hunts.
Oregon has a private land access program, state wildlife areas and many state trust lands that are open to hunting.
UTAH
Utah is on most trophy hunter’s radar, and is well known for their trophy bull elk hunting and trophy mule deer hunting. They also offer antelope hunting in the eastern and western deserts, but Montana and Wyoming are much more popular for that species. The state is bisected by a mountain range, approximately ¼ the width of the state. Eastern Utah has flat, arid deserts, deep canyons, and high mesas. Western Utah is primarily desert with smaller, isolated mountain ranges. Like Colorado, the state’s population centers are all along an interstate corridor. In Utah’s case most live just west of the mountains, in the cities and suburbs between Provo, Salt Lake City and Ogden in North Central Utah, where hunting pressure can be intense. Nearly 2/3 of Utah is public land, with over half of that land open to hunting.
One convenient aspect of Utah’s drawing system is that you do not have to pay for the elk or deer license fees up front. You are, however required to purchase a $65 hunting license, which is nonrefundable. The low up-front costs and trophy reputation make drawing a high quality tag difficult in some parts of Utah. Now for the confusing part, Utah offers general tags, limited tags and what they call premium tags. You are only allowed to apply for either elk or deer, not both, with one exception, the Northern Region Bull/Bull combo. The deer and elk seasons do not overlap, except for with that combo license. The combo license is $651, general elk is $388, general deer is $263. Limited entry elk is $795, premium limited entry elk, which allows you to hunt rifle, archery or muzzleloader season is $1,500. Limited entry deer is $463, and the two premium limited entry deer units are $563. Applications are due by March 1st.
Utah’s general deer tags have a quota, but they allow you to hunt several units, and are restricted to one of 5 regions in the state. Utah’s general elk tags also have a quota, and allow you to hunt even in the premium units, but are restricted to spike bulls only in those units. You do need to apply for these tags, but there are often leftover Northern Region deer tags. An archery deer tag allows you to hunt any region in the state, but not in the limited units. Deer seasons run from Aug21-Sep 17 for archery, Sept 29 to Oct 7 for muzzleloaders, and Oct 23-27 for rifles. Elk archery is roughly the same as deer, rifle season is Oct 9-21, muzzleloader is after the rut in Utah; Nov 3-11. The special northern region combination license runs Oct 9-21, the same as the general elk season.
Utah does have a fledgling walk-in access program on private lands, but at this time is only 70,000 acres. Unlike most National Monuments, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is open to hunting. Utah has over 100 state owned Wildlife Management Areas open to hunting. Hunting is permitted on Utah’s State Trust Lands with some minor exceptions based on land usage.
Muzzleloaders are permitted to have a scope with up to 1x magnification, sabots and pelletized powder are permitted, but not bonded as 1 piece.
WASHINGTON
Washington is a state managed for maximizing hunter opportunities and has few real trophy hunts. What they do offer that is of interest to the nonresident hunter are plentiful tags, public land and a variety of species. Whitetail deer, mule deer, black tail deer, Roosevelt elk, Rocky Mountain elk, moose, mountain goats and bighorn sheep are all available. Most of Central Washington is mountainous, with plenty of Forest Service land. Western Washington is known for temperate rain forests and commercial timber lands. Much of Eastern Washington is private ranch and farm land, with exceptions to the mountainous northeast and a small pocket of mountains in the southeast. Unlike most western states, the BLM has a fairly limited amount of land. While 400,000 acres may seem like a lot, the BLM owns 15 million acres in Oregon.
Washington forces a hunter to commit to hunting in Washington when applying for a permit. You must purchase a general elk or deer tag before you can apply for a special limited tag. So why would you hunt here? Well for one thing, they offer a guaranteed elk and deer combo tag for $616, which makes Washington the least expensive state to hunt. The deer and elk permits are $396, so an elk hunt here is among the cheapest options, but the deer hunt is among the most expensive. Another interesting option is the High Buck Hunt, which is a general tag, allowing you to rifle hunt high elevation wilderness areas in mid September. The special permit applications are due in late May.
The typical buck deer seasons are two weeks from mid October through late October. Elk and deer seasons do not overlap (which would be a downfall to that combo tag), but a late Western Washington deer season opens after the 2.5 week mid November elk season. Archery seasons do overlap throughout most of the month of September and there are two days of overlap (or there were in 2009) for the muzzleloader seasons, which are in late September through early October for deer, and early October for elk.
Sabots are allowed, but inlines and scopes are generally not permitted.
Washington does have some very large state land holdings that are open to hunting, some of which exceed 50,000 acres and are worth investigating.
WYOMING
Wyoming is not an easy state to get started in for elk hunting, but the deer and antelope tags are readily available to first time nonresident hunters. Wyoming has very limited opportunities for archery elk hunters and forbids nonresidents from hunting big game in wilderness areas without a guide. The elk hunting is excellent, but if you are looking for a DIY, wilderness backpack hunt, this is not the state for you. Eastern Wyoming is primarily shortgrass prairie with scattered BLM holdings. Northeast Wyoming has some National Forest and National Grasslands also. Southwest and Central Wyoming are is cold desert, prairie, badlands and minor mountains with large BLM holdings, including the infamous Red Desert Checkerboard along 1-80, where literally every other square mile of land is BLM, which runs east-west for 200 miles and north-south for 50 miles. Northwest Wyoming, North Central Wyoming and South Central Wyoming have large Forest Service holdings. Most of the designated Wilderness areas are in the northwest, near Yellowstone National Park, so be careful when selecting a unit to stay out of those areas if you don’t plan to hire a guide. The wolves are mostly in Northwest Wyoming and there currently is no open season on them.
Wyoming has both general and limited elk tags for nonresidents, but the general tag is capped and only available through a drawing, with a deadline traditionally on January 31st. Wyoming has a confusing draw process, so bear with me as I try to explain it: Of the nonresident tag allocation, 60% are regular price, 40% are “special” price. The special price is nearly double the regular price to increase the drawing odds for those willing to pay the price. Now, within both the regular price tag and special price tag allocations, 75% of the tags go to the preference point drawing, where those with the most points, get the permit. 25% of both the regular and special price tags are available in a random draw, ensuring there is always at least some chance of drawing a highly coveted permit. Even the Wyoming general elk tag requires a preference point to draw, unless you pay the special price, in which case it should be guaranteed. There are only a little over 20 units that have a specific, limited archery season.
Tag prices are as follows: $591 regular priced elk, $302 for cows and calves, $1,071 special elk, $326 deer, $566 special deer, $286 antelope, $526 special antelope, $48 for doe/fawn deer and antelope. The deer and antelope drawing deadline is March 15, 2010. Antelope tags are all allocated to specific units. General deer tags are broken up into regions, allowing a nonresident to hunt one of several units within each region. Many of the best units in a region are limited quota, and cannot be hunted with a general tag, so be careful when applying. If you want to hunt the limited quota unit, apply for it, but the odds are generally much stiffer than the general regional tag. Also, the many of the general deer tags are undersubscribed and are available as leftovers.
Seasons vary from unit to unit, but most antelope rifle seasons are open from late September to late October, rifle elk seasons are usually two weeks to a month long in beginning anywhere from early October to mid November, deer seasons are also two weeks to a month and have at least part of the season concurrent with elk seasons. A notable exception to the generalities above is that there are some September rifle bull elk seasons in Northwest Wyoming. While these allow you to hunt the rut, most are in wilderness areas, requiring a guide. For the most part, there are no muzzleloader seasons, except for a few antelope units.
Nearly all of Wyoming’s state trust lands are open to hunting if they can be accessed by public road. Wyoming also has several access programs for the public to hunt on private lands. Some are called Walk-in areas, some are Hunter Management Areas. No matter what they are called, or how they are run, these areas are often your best bet to get access to good hunting grounds, especially in the East, where large blocks of public land are rare.
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE TRAVELLING HUNTER
The states immediately east of those mentioned above all offer at least some mule deer hunting opportunities to nonresidents on public land. North Dakota has mule deer hunting and public land in the Little Missouri Grasslands. South Dakota has the Black Hill National Forest, Custer National Forest, Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and Grand River National Grasslands with mule deer, although whitetails make up a high percentage of the deer in those places. Nebraska’s Pine Ridge is one of the few places in the state with significant public land and mule deer. The Nebraska National Forest and Oglala National Grasslands are the largest public holdings in the state. Mule deer hunting in Kansas is mostly restricted to small, isolated state properties with the exception of the Cimarron National Grassland. Oklahoma’s mule deer hunting is mostly by draw only on state wildlife areas and the ODFW runs drawings to hunt on federal properties like the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. Texas has a little bit of federal land that can be hunted for mule deer, but the best places are available by drawing on large state properties in the Big Bend region.
And then there’s Alaska! But since the primary focus of this piece was on “Western” species like mule deer, blacktails, elk and antelope, I’ll just focus on those species in Alaska. For starters, there are no antelope, but there are Roosevelt elk and Sitka Blacktails on several of the larger islands. On some islands, the elk permits are by draw only, others are available without a draw. Deer bag limits vary by island, or group of islands, but some allow up to four bucks to be harvested. Some of the island chains have moose which you could hunt in conjunction with deer or elk, but most do not, so you’ll have to stick to bears if you want a combination hunt.
And while we’re on the topic of moose, three more states, which most certainly are not Western states should be mentioned. Since drawing a moose tag is so difficult in the West, one should consider drawing in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. The draws are inexpensive, as you aren’t required to pay for the permit up front, and you can have multiple applications to increase your draw odds.

Effects of new Colorado draw regulations

2010-06-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

If you don’t care about elk hunting in Colorado, bear with me. Colorado is the 800 pound gorilla of elk hunting, is the state I follow the most closely and is the state and species 90% of Eastern and Midwestern hunters are most interested in. As some hunters are in a constant state of thinking for the future, knowing how and where to spend your scouting efforts and research this summer and a complete understanding of the effect of the new draw rules may help you with your future application strategies.
Anyway, last year the Colorado Division of Wildlife announced they would finally offer a hybrid draw system, but only for the highest demand hunts. Previously, Colorado operated on a pure preference system, where the applicant with the most points got the tags (only state in the US with this type of draw). There was no chance for an applicant with fewer points to acquire a high quality permit in Colorado’s Northwest trophy units. The point creep also made it unlikely that some applicants would ever draw before dying or quitting hunting. Units 2, 10 and 201 require 15-20 points to draw, even for archery, and the number required was going up yearly. So, in order to give applicants with fewer points some sort of a chance of drawing, the DOW decided to go with a hybrid draw, where 20% of the tags would be randomly allocated to applicants with 5 or more preference points. However, that also meant that the tag quota would be reduced for the 80% preference point draw, increasing the points required.
Secondly, the Colorado Division of Wildlife also decided to do away with the former “statewide” muzzleloader elk tags and exert more control over hunter distribution. The old statewide tag was valid in most of the OTC archery units, which made up about 50% of the mountainous regions of Colorado. There were both bull and cow tags available in the statewide tag system and the old cow tags were list A. Meaning those who drew a statewide muzzleloader cow tag could not buy an OTC or leftover bull tag. By controlling the cow and bull harvest more closely with muzzleloader hunters, the DOW now offers List B cow elk muzzleloader permits. But, by breaking up the units from the statewide system to individual hunt codes, it was difficult to predict how many points would be required to draw each unit, especially without knowing the tag quotas ahead of time. We knew how many muzzleloader hunters hunted each unit, and there was talk of reducing muzzleloader hunter pressure in some areas, so combined with the hybrid draw, this year more than ever was a bit of a crapshoot for applications.
Lastly, the Gunnison Basin units, 54, 55 and 551 were removed from the statewide OTC archery tag, causing further confusion to anyone trying to predict how to use their applications. These were popular units, but the archer pressure was making it difficult for the DOW to hit their harvest objectives with the rifle hunters. To increase total harvest, the DOW decided to reduce the archer numbers which were scattering significant numbers of elk to refuges off of the public lands. Biologists also chose to reduce 1st rifle season pressure, so that there would be more elk and less pressured elk available for the OTC 2nd and 3rd rifle seasons. Added to those strategies were additional late season cow permits.
Anyway, this is will be a review of where the applicant pressure went. It’s possible that the preference points required for muzzleloader, hybrid and non hybrid trophy units won’t stabilize for several more years. Many hunters aren’t as savvy with applications as those with westernhuntingdata.com, do not read the draw summaries, do not have a cohesive application strategy and will continue to make unwise application decisions. But for those who try to have a strategy with long and short term goals, it’s difficult to predict an outcome when there are major changes to the mechanism by which we acquire our sought-after tags. So the point of this whole article is to educate ourselves on how to play the system as wisely as possible. I will probably send this out again next application season as a reminder.
I was curious to find out whether the new hybrid draw reduced the number of points required in the middle tier trophy units: 40, 61 and 76, and what effect the loss of the statewide muzzleloader tag would have on tag availability. Would fewer hunters apply first for a preference point and then try to draw a tag with a second choice? What would happen with the cow muzzleloader tags? Would more people be willing to apply for the northwest trophy units with one-third to one-half the required points hoping to steal a hybrid tag? Would more people apply for a preference point in the hopes of earning the 5 points required to by hybrid eligible? Would some people simply give up trying to draw the northwest trophy units knowing that the number of points required will keep increasing? What effect would the limitation of archers in the Gunnison area have on the draw? There are also Ranching for Wildlife bull and either sex tags available to Colorado residents only that became part of the hybrid draw, but that will not be the major focus of this report. There were very few deer tags that were hybrid eligible (as with the elk, hybrid units required 10 or more resident preference points to draw) and no other major changes, so I will not be taking a close look at the effects on the deer draw.
The whole preference system is based on simple supply and demand, so we first need to take an overview of the demand on limited Colorado elk tags. For 2010, there were 191,747 elk applications for 147,849 limited tags. This is continuing a downward trend from the 192,606 applicants in 2009, 197,413 in 2008, and 198,044 in 2007. The limited tag quotas hardly changed between 2010 and 2009, but are down from 156,925 in 2008 and 165,366 in 2007. The main decrease in applicants came from nonresidents, with 77,504 in 2010, 79,764 in 2009, 86,818 in 2008 and 88,522 in 2007. Resident applications are on the rise though, with 105,209 in 2010, 104,017 in 2009, 101,870 in 2008, and 101,104 in 2007. So both applications and tags are down from recent numbers, but overall limited tags represented 77% of applications in 2010, versus 83% in 2007. This indicates that the recent reduction in applications were not in line with the reduction in tags. So preference points required should increase slightly.
Every either sex or bull hunt in units 2, 10 and 201, plus muzzleloader in 1 and 61 and early rifle in 1 were all part of the hybrid draw (Have I told you unit 1 is fool’s gold yet? Most folks have no idea it is not on par with 2, 10 or 201, with harvest stats similar to standard crowd controlled draw units.). Several either sex RFW tags and the Bosque Del Oso hunts were also included. On average, the preference points required went up at least 1 point for nonresidents in these hunts and in some cases, the resident preference points also increased. Remember, the hunts requiring 6 or more resident points have an 80/20 resident to noresident tag allocation split, not the standard 65/35. So it stands to reason that across the board, the hybrid units would have an increase in nonresident preference points required. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the northwest trophy units that jumped in points the most, but the 3rd season special Bosque Del Oso hunt (unit 851), going from 13 resident and 15 nonresident points to 15 resident and 19 nonresident points. If you average the point increases for all the hybrid eligible hunts, on average they increased 1.36 points.
Ok, so the hybrid units take even more points to draw now. What are the odds of drawing a hybrid tag with fewer than the required minimum points? Let’s look at unit 2 early rifle: Unit 2 went from requiring 16 resident and 18 nonresident preference points to 17 resident and 19 nonresident points. Unit 2 early rifle applicants increased from 1113 in 2009 to 1385 in 2010. Those applicants with just 5 points increased from 42 to 91, and total applicants with 5 or more points increased from 568 to 902 (58% increase) for the 0.5% (5 out of 902) chance of drawing one of the randomly allocated tags. 0-4 point applicants also went up 15% from 296 to 342. That increase in 5 or more point applicants could have sucked a lot of potential high point applicants out of other potential draws, but my guess is that it mostly just reduced the applicants applying for a preference point only. 2010 preference point only applicants went down from 65,782 in 2009 to 62,999 in 2010.
Unit 2 early rifle was typical of many of the hybrid draw hunts. So, what about the non hybrid trophy units? What happened to those? Looking just at non hybrid hunts in units 40, 76 and 61, plus the RFW bull and either sex hunts, on average they increased 0.5 points. So for the most part, point creep is still affecting these units. Only a few hunts required fewer points in 2010 compared to 2009. Unit 76 first rifle decreased from 6 resident and 10 nonresident points to 5 resident and 9 nonresident points. That may have had more to do with the DOW adding an early rifle hunt than with folks trying to draw a hybrid tag. Another big loser was the Silver Spur RFW hunt, going down from 11 points in 2009 to 7 in 2010. But those were exceptions; the point creep is still having an effect on these trophy units. Several of these hunts are nearing hybrid eligibility, and it’s hard to say how many additional applicants will choose to participate. It’s also possible that many high point applicants realized that they might never draw the Northwest trophy units while they are still healthy and mobile, so they put in for these slightly lower tier units. Unit 76 first rifle required 9 resident points last year, but the addition of an early rifle hunt has changed the dynamic. Unit 61 first rifle also required 9 resident points in 2009 and did not gain an early rifle hunt. I expected applicants to decide they would rather earn points while having a chance in the hybrid draw. Unit 61 first rifle season increased in nonresident points required in 2010, from 14 to 15, but total applicants were down from 1641 in 2009 to 1477 in 2010. Savvy applicants with 5 to 8 resident points and 5-13 nonresident points seemed the most logical to jump ship and apply for hybrid draw hunts with no chance of drawing unit 61 first rifle, but at least a slim chance of drawing a hybrid unit. Sure enough, residents with 5-8 points decreased from 387 to 267, and nonresidents with 5-13 points decreased from 283 to 181. It seems that no more than the normal number of applicants decided they were done waiting on a tag, and applied with up to 3 more points that required the year before.
Now, if you’re still with me and not bored to tears, is there a way to take advantage of the increase in applicants in the “holding pattern” of earning points in the hybrid draw? Possibly, but unlikely. There will have to be an increase in the tag quotas for these high demand non hybrid units. If you’re watching the population objective and status and sex ratios carefully, you may be able to anticipate an increase in tags and poach a tag from 76, 40 or 61 at some point with 1 or 2 points fewer than the previous year. But that’s the only reason I can contemplate applying for these units when you have 1 or 2 points below the minimum number of points. It’s also possible that the word about the hybrid draw has not fully gotten out yet, and more high point applicants will choose to take that route instead of continuing to apply for non hybrid hunts, thereby reducing the point requirements. It seems more likely that 40, 61 and 76 will soon become part of the hybrid draw as they reach 10 resident preference points for the muzzleloader and early rifle hunts (61 is there already).
Alright, so what effect did the new muzzleloader tag system have on the draw? For starters, the cow tags that only had a moderate chance of drawing in 2009 with a 2nd choice, are for the most part available as leftovers this year, despite no real increase. It seems many applicants tried to apply for bull or either sex muzzleloader tags with 1st, 2nd or 3rd choices, instead applying for the cow tag with a second choice as they usually do. To illustrate: in 2009, there were 13,068 applications for the statewide muzzleloader bull tag which required 0 points for residents (but only about 15% chance of drawing with 0 points) and 2 points for nonresidents, and about 20% of those applicants applied with 2nd choice or later with no chance of drawing. Conversely, in units 6/16/17/161/171, the either sex muzzleloader tag now requires 1 resident point and 3 nonresidents points, yet 32% of applicants applied with 2nd choices or later. Now maybe that was because this tag was now either sex instead of bull only. But units 80/81 had a similar phenomenon with a bull only tag, as the resident and nonresident points increased 1 point each, and 32% of applicants also applied with 2nd or later choices and no chance of drawing. And what about the OTC rifle units that were not part of the statewide muzzleloader tag in 2009 like that Flat Tops and Bear’s Ears? Both units had point requirements increase, by 1 each for residents and nonresidents in the Flat Tops and 1 point for nonresidents in the Bear’s Ears. So, if several units increased their point requirements, it stands to reason that some must have decreased unless there was some sudden surge in muzzleloading interest. Sure enough, two units did decrease in their point requirements, and another two units increased in the resident point requirement, while decreasing the nonresident point requirement.
Below is a list of former statewide units that had a net increase in points required (either resident or nonresident or both):
6/16/17/161/171
14/214
15/27
18/181
21/22/30/31/32
25/26/34/231
28/37/371
38
53
54
70/71/72/73/711
74/741
80/81
551
Below are the two former statewide units that had a net decrease in points required:
35/36/361
86/691/861
Below are the two former statewide units with no net change, but increased in resident point requirements, yet decreased in nonresident points required:
3/301
59
Interestingly, the loss of the statewide muzzleloader tag may have cleared up confusion with previous applicants who did not understand the system, and chose to apply to crowd controlled units. Units 48, 56, 57/58, and 69/84 all had a net loss of points required. The preference point requirements might not stabilize for several years as savvy applicants chase list B cow tags with 2nd, 3rd or 4th choices and fewer applicants apply for bull and either sex tags with 2nd or later choices. I’d venture to guess that list A cow tags will continue to be had with 3rd, 4th and leftover choices for the foreseeable future, while the list B cow tags eventually go back to only being available with 2nd choices.
It’s difficult to put a finger on what happened with the limited archery tags in 54, 55 and 551. Each of these units had the previous archery hunter numbers reduced by nearly 40%, so it’s surprising they are available as leftovers. There were probably several factors at play leading up to the draw. It appears that many residents chose not to be limited to a single unit, as nonresidents outdrew residents in 54 by a margin of 102 to 157, but residents preferred the better access and slightly closer units of 55 and 551 by a combined margin of 353 to 202. That makes sense as nonresidents will most likely have just one week to hunt, and residents might hunt 2 or 3 weekends out of the month long season. The majority of Colorado’s population lives nearly 4.5 hours from those 3 units, so it seems likely that Gunnison residents were the majority of the residents who bothered with drawing those tags. I know several folks who hunt more than one unit during archery season and didn’t want to be tied down to going all the way to Gunnison every weekend. It’s also possible that many hunters still aren’t aware of the changes and intend to hunt their old units on the OTC archery tag. Although the tags are now available as leftovers, others were unsure whether they could be drawn as 1st or later choice tags. In 54, 14 applicants wasted 1 or 2 points each to guarantee the tag. Similar issues occurred in 55 and 551, with several hunters throwing away as many as 5 points for a tag that could be had as a leftover (of course they didn’t know that at the time). It’ll be interesting to note whether the leftovers are quickly picked up or if they continue to be available all season. It might take a full season of enforcement/reminders for hunters hunting on OTC tags to realize the new changes, or maybe the area will never see much significant archery demand again. If it’s an issue of awareness, with OTC hunters trying to hunt the Gunnison country, expect the tags to be harder to draw next year (but I’d still wager a second choice tag if I intended to hunt there). If the reason for the lack of interest is resident travel commitment, the tags will continue to be available as leftovers. And now what’s going to happen to the former OTC hunters who did hunt the Gunnison area? Were they mostly Front Range residents who will now continue to pressure the closest OTC units? Will they pile into neighboring units? There’s several hundred displaced hunters now.
So those are the biggies. There’s nothing we can do to change our applications for this year, but keep these affects in mind for this year’s leftovers and next year’s applications. You still cannot draw a second choice muzzleloader bull tag. Many bull and either sex muzzleloader tags had an increase in the preference points required for nonresidents. Only a few decreased the requirements, but that may not hold true for next year. We have cow muzzleloader tags available for the first time in several years. Don’t expect too many of those tags to fall to leftovers next year, especially List B tags. We know the preference point requirement for the Northwest trophy units will continue to increase. There will likely be a few more hunts added to the hybrid draw in the next several years. You may be able to get lucky and draw a non hybrid tag if you choose not to participate in the hybrid draws, which only give you a .5% chance of drawing. We won’t know what to make of the newly limited archery units in 54, 55 and 551 until we see whether the leftovers are quickly purchased or if they remain available throughout archery season.
I know this may have been tedious, but if you are trying to plan for future hunts, it helps to try to understand the effect of new regulations on tag demand. Good luck out there.

Hold em or Fold em

2010-06-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Many of you have hunted the same units for several years and have noticed changes in the elk and deer numbers. In some cases, the animals are still “there”, but not in the same numbers in the same drainages you traditionally hunt. In other cases, the population has been severely reduced, sometimes due to intentional or accidental management decisions, other times due to factors out of our control. Populations fluctuate due to natural variables, but wildlife managers usually try to keep them steady around an objective.
Many hunters distrust the population surveys that the Colorado Division of Wildlife produces. But it’s what they use, and what is going to dictate their management decisions. So if you’ve been unhappy with the deer or elk hunting lately, it pays to look at the current population in relation to the objectives. If that population doesn’t appear to have changed much, you may want to consider doing some more research and scouting to see what has changed in other parts of the unit. Did the Forest Service close a road, creating a new sanctuary? Was there a fire in a neighboring drainage, producing younger, more palatable forage? How long has it been since the last mechanical or natural disturbance in your area? Maybe the plants have become older and tougher where you hunt. Maybe the trees are now thicker, with less light hitting the soil, shading out the more desirable forbs. Did a spring quit running? Has the livestock management changed? What about timber management? Did the rancher whose fields that the elk or deer used to raid change crops, get a new outfitter or quit outfitting? Any of these things and many more can change the distribution of game in your area without changing the population. Most hunters hunt just a small percentage of the total area available in a unit, so it pays to have a little better perspective regarding the population and habitat changes (if any) in that unit.
Nature is never static. Nothing stays the same; plants grow, animals reproduce, snow storms wipe out deer populations, fires set back succession of plant species. Add in human interaction with nature and you have more changes. Thankfully, we can arm ourselves with information and monitor or anticipate these changes, which may affect our decision making processes. Even if the habitat hasn’t changed much, rancher and farmer attitudes toward wildlife might, putting pressure on the Division of Wildlife to allow a larger antlerless harvest. We hunters tend to abhor change, but wishing things would stay the same will not make it so.
So what might make you decide whether to look for greener pastures or whether stick it out? Take a look at where the population is in relation to objectives. This won’t tell you anything about the game distribution, but it should tell you whether the wildlife managers will try to let it build back up to the numbers that you once saw. If so, you ought to consider sticking it out. Hunting during those leaner years, while frustrating, will make you more knowledgeable about the area. You might also consider a temporary move to different ground with the intention to return when things get a little better. But if you’re unhappy with the numbers and it appears that the wildlife managers intend to either keep the numbers at their present level, or worse yet, intend to further reduce it, it’s probably time to consider folding up shop in that unit.
Most state game departments do not produce nearly the quantity or quality of information that the Colorado Division of Wildlife produces for public consumption. Some states don’t do population estimates, many do not have population objectives. So I can’t be of much help outside of Colorado, but the following is a list of DAUs whose glory days may be returning, and whose sun has set. It’s not a complete list, just some highlights and doesn’t include those who are on their way down due to being way over objective (ripe units for those seeking new ground while your old unit builds back up). I don’t have complete population data prior to 2004, so this will be more about recent history.
DEER:
The winter of 2007-2008 really worked over the deer herds in Colorado, so many of these units show similar patterns in their populations: near objective, then a precipitous drop that didn’t show up until after the 2008 post hunt survey. For other units, the winter compounded an intentional decline. Deer populations also fluctuate much more than elk, as they tend to breed at an earlier age and often producing twins and triplets, but are much more vulnerable to smaller predators and the weather.
The Flat Tops, units 11,12,13,22,23,24,211,131,231: This deer population has seen its glory days and it’s not coming back any time soon. In 2005, this herd was over 105,000 animals, representing nearly 18% of Colorado’s deer population in just one herd. It was also 50% over objective. Combined with lots of tags, and some harsh winters, the population plummeted to its low of 61,450 this past year. The DOW intends to let the population build back up towards the objective, but it will probably never number near 100,000 animals again.
The Uncompahgre Plateau, units 61,62: In 2006, the Uncompahgre deer herd was nearly 40,000 animals. After the harsh 2007 winter, whose damage wasn’t fully realized until 2008, this deer herd now stands at less than 22,000. It will come back, but it will take time. Antlerless tags have been reduced by 66% for 2010, but the DOW projects very little population gain for next year. Even at a 20% growth rate, which assumes almost no doe harvest and mild weather, it will be no less than 3 years before the population can get close to the 36,000 deer objective. If this was your deer hot spot, you might consider hunting somewhere else for a few years.
Poudre Canyon, units 7,8,9,19,191: This has always been a popular area, but the proximity to Colorado State University and the prevalence of Chronic Wasting Disease made it the target of an experiment to find out to what degree CWD is density dependent. Reducing the population from a high of 13,900 in 1993 to just 5,700 in 2007 with a tremendous number of doe tags was intentional. If you moved due to the poor recent hunting, I can’t blame you, but it is on the way back up and quickly. The new population objective is 12,000, and the past two years have shown significant gains, which are projected to continue beyond the present 8,700 and 9,300 in 2010. If you’ve left, don’t come back yet, because it’s still shy of the early 90s. But it should be close to peaking by 2012 or 2013.
Gunnison- Powderhorn, Cimarron, West Elk and Taylor Park-units 54,55,551,64,65,66,67: The area around Gunnison received the most publicity during the severe storms and emergency winter feeding operation of 2007 and 2008, but losses were much more widespread. Each of these DAUs were significantly over objective in the mid 2000s, and had been for many years. Combined with the overpopulated elk outstripping the winter range and able to outcompete deer for precious forage, the area was primed for a fall. While the DOW attempted to compensate for the losses during the following hunting season by cutting tags in half, the deer population was still down by more than 8,000 in the 2008 post hunt survey. This isn’t a deer and history lesson, so which areas are coming back, and which ones aren’t? The Powderhorn units (66,67) will not be coming back to their high of the early 90s and early 2000s. They were way over objective, so the harsh winter only helped the management goal, and the herd is now at objective. It’s a quality managed deer unit, so the buck ratio is going to be kept high, but don’t expect to see nearly as many bucks as you once did. The Cimarron units (64,65) will be coming back, although they have continued to decline since the major winter die off. Presently these units are at their low of 8400 deer, down from nearly 15,000 in 2006. The objective is 13,500 and doe tags have been completely eliminated for 2010. The West Elk (54) and Taylor Park (55,551) units will be on the rise also, but they will not be near their previous highs in the early and mid 2000s. Unit 54 had 9200 deer and was 40% over the objective of 6500 back in 2004 but has since plummeted to about 4,000 and hasn’t grown at all since that harsh winter. This is a unit that will take a while just to return to objective, which it had previously exceeded since the 80s, so don’t expect it to ever return to what you had been used to. The Taylor Park units were nearly twice their objective of 6,500 in the early 2000s, and are now presently struggling to break the 4,000 deer mark. You might want to give either of these last two DAUs 5 or 6 years before considering them again (and you’ll need nearly that many preference points to hunt them anyway).
State Bridge, units 15,35,36,45: In 2006, the deer herd exceeded 24,000, with an objective of 21,000 and was among the top deer densities in the state. Harsh winters combined with generous doe quotas and a reduced population objective (several habitat, disease and human issues) knocked the population down to a low of less than 14,000 in 2008. The new objective is 15,000 and the present population is hovering around there at this time. This is a population that will not return to the tremendous densities of the recent past. It’s still among the higher densities in the state, but it will not be going back to what it once was in the 1980s and early to mid 2000s.
Glade Park, unit 40: This herd has been below objective for over 30 years. Even with virtually no doe harvest, the unit has stagnated, despite good fawn production. The lack of a population increase points to a probable winter range habitat problem, which is likely compounded by an overpopulated elk herd in the area. It’s tough to make a call on this unit, as the population is roughly half the 12,000 deer objective and has been for some time. The population has declined from its previous high in the mid to late 80s of rougly 13,000 deer, but the objective at that time was 16,000 deer. Given that herd hasn’t grown in 20 years, despite management efforts, I see no reason to believe it will again without major habitat improvements or maybe a decline in the elk population.
Grand Mesa, North units 41,42,421 and South units 52,411,521- The north herd has always been about 3 times as large as the south herd. In the 1980s, this herd was over 40,000 deer. Presently, it stands at just 20,000, significantly below the 29,000 deer the DOW was managing for. The herd was just over objective prior to the 2007 winter, which takes most of the blame for the present population. However, this herd is not coming back. The population objective was just reduced to a maximum of 23,000 due to the Division’s feeling that closer to 30,000 would be unsustainable with increased energy development and decreased winter range quantity and quality. The Southern Grand Mesa herd was hardly affected by the winter of 2007. Previously the herd had been at the objective of 10,500, but the herd has since declined by 15% in 2009 as the deadly combination of drought and harsh local winter conditions showed a larger than expected decrease this past year. This herd should come back, but it was never anything like the North Grand Mesa herd. If you enjoyed the recent deer hunting here, you might give it two years before coming back.
Bear’s Ears, units 3,301,4,441,5,14,214: In 2004, this deer herd numbered nearly 48,000. Attempts to bring the herd back under control with liberal a doe quota was slowly working. But once again, the winter of 2007, combined with lots of doe tags, knocked the population down below 36,000 this past year. The objective had been 37,000, so doe tags are being reduced by over 50% this year. It’s unlikely this herd will push 50,000 again in the near future. There’s still a lot of deer, but it won’t be like it was just 6 years ago.
Aspen, Eagle, Glenwood-units 43,47, 471, unit 44 and 444- The 2007 winter in Gunnison received the most publicity, but that same winter took a tremendous toll on the deer populations in these units. Most dramatic was south of Eagle in unit 44. This herd is 80% lower than what it was in 2006! The 2006 post hunt population was over 10,000 animals, 30% over the objective of 7,000. The herd has plummeted to less than 2,000 animals according the 2009 post hunt survey. It is going to be a looooooong time, if ever, for this population to return even to objective. There have been virtually no doe tags issued for several years, but the population has not rebounded. While not exactly cheery news, the 50% decline in unit 444 from the 2004 highs will likely rebound much sooner. The population is presently about 20% below the objective of 5300 deer, but should bounce back quickly. In two years, the population in 444 probably won’t be pushing 7,000 like it was in 2004, but should be closer to objective by 2011 or 2012, barring another disastrous winter. The Aspen units, 43,47,471, have lost over 65% of their deer since 2006. The 2006 high of 16,400 deer was 50% over objective, bottomed out in 2008 at just 5,770 and has since rebounded slightly to about 6,400. This unit will not see anywhere near the numbers of the mid 2000s anytime soon. It will recover, but not to the level you may have been used to.
Delores, units 70,71,711- Yet another huge deer herd that has lost nearly 40% of the herd from recent highs. While slightly over the 34,000 deer objective in 2006 at 36,000 deer, this herd now stands at just 22,000. However, and I’m not one to armchair quarterback normally, but I do not understand the mere 25% reduction in doe tags and projected 2010 population decline to just 19,000 animals. I don’t hunt there, so it’s not my problem, but if you do, you might deer hunt somewhere else for a few years. Keep an eye on what the DOW does so you can time your return, but it’s hard to project when that might be given the current tag quotas and projected declines. I actually don’t believe the population will continue to decline into the 19,000 range with the 800 doe tags being issued, but for some reason the DOW’s population model expects it to. Tread carefully here. It could be at objective in 4 years, or it may never return.
Saguache, units 68,681- In the early 2000s the population was being managed for 8,500 deer and the population was just under 9,000. The herd management plan describes the reintroduction of doe tags in 2006 and 2007 as “erroneous”, when the DOW falsely believed it was over objective. To put it mildly, the deer herd was decimated, and fell to just 3,700 animals. The new objective is just 4-5,000 animals and the population is there at the present time. This herd will not be returning to the mediocre numbers it enjoyed between the 1960s and early 2000s. It is now half of that previous population and will be staying there, apparently with local public support.

Elk
Elk present different management challenges than deer. It’s easy to build the population up by simply reducing the antlerless tags, as the Colorado winters generally aren’t harsh enough to hurt them, and the large predators aren’t present. But reducing an elk population is much more difficult, as during the early seasons they often inhabit difficult to access wilderness areas, and flee to private refuges when the guns start going off. So, it stands to reason that in Colorado, there are very few populations significantly below objective that will be allowed to grow. Instead this is a list of units that have declined in recent years, and will not be allowed to grow back to the numbers you were once accustomed to.
Units 35,36 State Bridge/Eagle’s Nest: In 2004, the elk population exceeded 6,600 animals. However, the objective was just 2,950 and presently stands at 3700. So, not only will this population not come near the highs seen in the middle of the last decade, the wildlife managers intend to continue the heavy cow harvests and late season hunts until the population is less than 50% of what you had come to expect 6 years ago. It’s time to move on, the glory days are gone.
Bear’s Ears, units 3,301,4,441,5,14,214: The area around Craig had seen some fantastic elk hunting in recent years. Good public access at higher elevations with no wilderness, and enough BLM and state lands at lower elevation to take advantage of a large migratory herd made this a popular unit. The elk herd numbered nearly 26,000 in 2006, but has since been hammered with either sex and antlerless tags. The winter of 2007 contributed to the decline by pushing the elk closer too close to the travel corridors along Highways 13 and 40, denting cars and trucks in addition to the elk population. The herd now numbers around 17,000 and is projected to decline into the 15,000 range, with the objective being 16,500. I’m not convinced they will hit 15,500 elk projection in the 2010 post hunt survey, as the DOW has cut the 1st season cow tags in half for the second straight year. There are still good numbers, but if you were hoping the population would build back up to the mid 20,000 range again; it might be time to move on. Tags have become much more difficult to get this area as demand has not fallen off yet. Folks I hunt with used to rely leftover 1st season cow tags, but they have completely dried up.
Poudre Canyon, units 7,8,9,19,191: Just 10 years ago, the elk population was over 6,000 animals and well over the population objective of 3,300. A tremendous surge in cow tags, plus late season hunting as part of the CWD monitoring project knocked the population down towards the objective by 2008. There has been a slight increase in the objective to about 4,200, but the present population is just 3,800, so the increase will not be particularly noticeable. If you enjoyed the hunting here in the late 90s and early 2000s, the elk numbers will not return in the foreseeable future. It’s probably time to move on.
Big Thompson/Estes, unit 20: This population will not be coming back to the recent highs in the middle of the past decade. Well over 4,000 elk were present with an objective of 2,400. Several late season hunts were instituted, but the real problem was the Rocky Mountain National Park elk never left their sanctuary of the Park or town of Estes. Over 200 cow tags were issued in each of 3 late seasons, and the local herds on National Forest lands were annihilated. Additional culling in the park by government personnel and volunteers has helped knock the population below objective to around 2,100 elk. The attempt to solve the Park’s population problem with hunting on National Forest lands solved nothing, and now the public land hunting is the worst it has been in years. And since there are very few cows left on the public land, it won’t be getting much better unless the distribution of the elk herds change.
San Juans, units 75,751,77,771,78: We’ll end with some good news. This population had been near the objective of 19,000 for several years, but a series of larger than expected harvested knocked the population down from 20,000 to around 17,000 recently. The change may not be drastic, but can be quite noticeable, as the herds that were hit were mostly led by cows on public lands. The DOW has pulled back slightly on the cow tags for this coming year and is trying to hit the objective with slow growth due to the reluctance of surpassing 19,000. So if you noticed fewer elk the past few years here, they will be back in a couple years. Give it three years.
I understand the hesitance to leave your old stomping grounds. Traditions, proximity and local knowledge all play a role in why we continue to return to places even after we know they will never produce like the “good old days” or even just 5 years ago. As a unit-hopper, rarely hunting the same place twice, I know full well the difficulties and expenses in scouting new country. But you can approach these new places with an optimistic attitude, rather than stay put and grouch about the fact that the deer or elk are no longer present in the numbers you once knew. If you’re willing to expand your horizons, there is still a lot of good elk and deer hunting to be had. And if you aren’t willing to leave your spot, well, that’s your choice too. But at least consider re-scouting it to find whatever hot spots are left. If you believe that your pasture is greenest, that’s great, but it doesn’t hurt to take a look around.
With experience comes wisdom, but not all of it may apply to a new location. So weigh the consequences of leaving your spot for somewhere new. Despite the decline in game numbers in your area, are you still successful? How much do you really care about success, and how attached are you to the memories of your old camp? Is your wife going to ban further hunting trips if you don’t come home with game soon? How confident are you in your abilities to find elk or deer in new places? These are just some of the questions you might ask yourself before folding up or holding on.

Trophy Potential

2010-06-25T07:48:00.004-07:00

Throughout the years, it has been difficult to determine trophy hotspots outside of areas that claimed to specifically manage for older age classes of animals. Trophy hunters were told to peruse the B&C or P&Y record books to uncover areas that have produced well in the past. However, the record books generally only recorded a county of kill, which won’t always be useful in determining an individual unit. Additionally, those kills may have been 100 years old, or so few and far between, that the records are virtually useless for determining places that routinely produce older animals. Also, keep in mind that a Boone and Crockett class animal is a freak of nature, whose antlers far exceed anything else in his age class.
Age, genetics and nutrition all play a role in producing large antlers, but age is the single most important factor. There is currently no practical way to determine the genetic potential in an area, and nutrition is usually sufficient in a mild year to come close to maximizing an animal’s antler growth for his age class.
However, at WesternHuntingData.com, we have devised two statistics to help you determine which areas have the greatest potential for older age classed animals. One of the statistics in our data sets shows the % of male animals harvested yearly. Obviously, harvesting a lower % of male animals increases the likelihood of allowing bucks or bulls to live an additional year, thereby growing larger antlers. Comparing between units to see which ones kill a smaller % of males is primarily how the statistic was designed, but can you use those statistics to determine an age class of animals to expect to be able to harvest? YES! Here’s how:
Let’s pick on my favorite unit to bash, unit 12 in Colorado, the most popular of the famed Flat Tops units. Unit 12 is part of a Data Analysis Unit where 45% of the available bulls are harvested yearly. Think about that, spikes aren’t generally legal, so hunters are harvesting over 45% of the bulls age two and older (spikes are almost always yearlings). Since spikes aren’t legal, that 45% bull harvest is a lot of pressure on the two and older class. So what’s the chance of harvesting a 3 year old bull? You have to make some assumptions here, but let’s assume a typical 40 calf: 100 cow ratio, with half of those calves being bulls, all of whom grow up to be spikes the following year. Now, in a unit whose pre season (not postseason) sex ratio is 40 bulls: 100 cows, it could be that nearly half of the bulls available are spike antlered yearlings. So, a 45% bull harvest, could be more like a 90% harvest of bulls age 2 and up if half of the bulls are spikes. The chance of surviving past age 2 is about 10%! Yikes. So since your typical 2 year old is a raghorn 3x4, 4x4 or maybe 5x5, and most three year olds are 5x5s or skinny 6x6s, what’s the chance of finding mature 6x6 5 year old bull? Nearly impossible, but let’s try to do the math. If a bull has about a 10% chance of survival from age 2 and on, to make it to hunting season of age 5, we multiply 10%(odds of making to age 3)x10%(to age 4)x10% (to age 5)=0.001, or 0.1%. That’s 1 in 1,000 bulls.
HOWEVER, this isn’t the whole story. These are the odds for the entire DAU (11,12,13,23,24,25,26,33,34,231,211,etc), not just unit 12. There is a lot of elk on private land that never ventures onto public ground, so maybe on those properties there is a 10% chance of making it to 3 years old or older. Not in unit 12. By applying the elk density to just the public land (which is likely higher than the entire DAU, so these are conservative estimates), and then extrapolating the number of available bulls, that 90% bull harvest jumps dramatically. You’re now looking at 288% of the extrapolated number of bulls being harvested (this is what we call the public pressure index). Of course they aren’t killing 288% of the bulls, but this number is useful in comparing other units. More than likely, private land harvest is having a significant impact on the total number of bulls harvested, thereby inflating the success rate. This number also shows that hunters are likely killing a heck of a lot higher % of bull elk on public land than on neighboring private lands. So in reality, the chance of finding a bull over 2 years old is almost impossible on public land. Compare this to unit 10, a famous trophy unit, not far from unit 12. The DAU% bull harvest is just 3% and the public pressure index is virtually identical (0.0477 or 4.77%), suggesting the vast majority of these elk are harvested on public lands. Well that’s a trophy unit, and it takes 13 resident preference points to hunt there. Would you believe that there are OTC units in Colorado that harvest less than 20% (and some less than 10%) of the available bulls in the DAU? And they clearly aren’t coming just off of private land when they have public pressure indices that are the same as or better than trophy units like 40 and 76 (but not quite as good as 10). So, in a unit where 20% of the bulls are being harvested on public land, what’s the chance of finding a 5 year old bull? Assuming no natural mortality and no spike harvest, the odds of the bull you found being 5 or is nearly 22%. That’s not bad at all. These units are out there and they are available over the counter. Nobody talks about them for a reason.
Similar things apply in every state. In some states (Montana for instance), spikes are legal with the bull tags in some units, so there is far less pressure on the older bulls. There are Oregon general season tags for units where less than 10% of the bulls are harvested yearly. In Idaho, a handful of units harvest less than 10% of the bulls, and many general units harvest under 20% of the bulls.
Now for deer, especially in places where spikes are legal, the odds of making it to an older age group change slightly. If yearlings are legal, we have to apply these mortality rates to yearlings. And of course, natural mortality is much higher with deer. Now let’s pick on unit 52 in Colorado. The % of bucks harvested in that DAU (includes 521 and others) is just 21%. So to make it to age two, you are looking at 100-21=79%. Well that’s pretty good, but we all dream of 4x4s, not big forkhorns. So to make it to age 3, assuming no natural mortality, multiply .79x.79=53%. Once again not bad, thank goodness for all deer tags being controlled in Colorado. But we forget about the public pressure index, which suggests closer to 80% of the available public land bucks are harvested. So in unit 52, you might be seeing all sorts of great deer on the ranch land as you drive up into the national forest, but all of a sudden, the big deer are gone, and you are only seeing little forkhorns. That’s because to make it to just to age two, that little buck’s odds are just .2x.2=.04, or 4%, not including natural mortality. So there is a chance of seeing a two year old, but it’s pretty slim.
So think about these things when selecting a unit if trophy potential has any meaning to you. Be honest with yourself, if you won’t be happy settling for a raghorn or forkhorn, whose meat is certainly delicious, don’t shoot it. Leave that animal to someone who would be happy with him. And if all you are seeing are little bucks, and you aren’t happy with them, you’re probably in the wrong unit.
Good luck this season

The Public Pressure Index

2010-06-25T07:48:00.003-07:00

Of all the unique stats we offer up, the most confusing is probably the Public Pressure Index. I get a lot of questions on what the numbers mean, and I figured this article may help. The Public Pressure Index is something I came up with to reflect public land trophy potential, but it can also be used to indicate other problems with the unit you are looking at. I wrote an article on the trophy potential indices just a few months ago, and went into some detail about how to compute a buck’s chances of living to a specified age, so if you’d like a copy of that, just email me. I felt the Public Pressure Index deserved further examination and will do so here.
Ideally, the Public Pressure Index should indicate the % of available bucks or bulls harvested off of public land. In calculating the PPI, the game density and sex ratio is applied to just the public area, to extrapolate the number of public land bucks or bulls available. The total buck or bull harvest from the prior season is then divided by the available bucks or bulls, which equals the PPI. Computing the Public Pressure Index makes two assumptions: it assumes that game density is equal on public and private land and assumes that all males harvested came off of public land. Obviously, these two assumptions are not true 100% of the time, but without total knowledge of the hunter and harvest distribution within the unit, some assumptions have to be made. I think it’s fair to assume that most hunters are public land hunters and that most of the game harvested in a unit came off of public land in the West. Now, some people may argue the game density assumption, but when averaging out the unsuitable private land habitat throughout an entire area, and not looking at winter concentrations on private fields, the assumption shouldn’t be too far off in one direction or the other.
So the % harvest statistic measures the estimated % of available bucks or bulls harvested regardless of public or private lands and you may be more interested in that number if you have or are trying to gain private access. But the Public Pressure Index is another tool you can use to tease out the areas where the public lands are much more heavily hunted than the private lands. Because the PPI assumes 100% public land harvest, if a unit was 100% public land, the PPI should be the same as the % harvest, but in most cases it is not.
Let’s take a look at some examples. Unit 12 in Colorado is an extremely popular elk hunting unit, which is primarily private land, with some high elevation ranches that are outfitted. This past year, the DAU % bull harvest (which includes several additional units in the DOW’s post hunt population survey) fell to about 31%, which is much better than the mid 40s% of recent years. However, the PPI in unit 12 is 2.218. That indicates 221.8% of the available public land bulls were harvested in 2009. That’s impossible. What is likely occurring is significant private land harvest of the bulls, which also inflates the success rate. There is a similar phenomenon with the units northeast of Craig, units 4 and 441 with over 200% of the bulls available being harvested. Nearly every square inch of land outside of town is outfitted and/or in the Ranching For Wildlife program and it is likely that a disproportional number of bulls being harvested are coming from these lands, which also inflates the success rate. In contrast, in the Book Cliffs, which are almost entirely BLM land, have nearly the same % bull harvest and PPI. If one cares at all about trophy potential, you’d do well to discount any unit which has a PPI over 1.00, which indicates an impossibly high public bull harvest rate.
We all notice the number of nice bucks in the fields while driving through the lower elevation ranch lands, heading up to the Forest Service lands where we intend to hunt. Then when we get there and all we see are little yearling fork horns. This is typical of a unit that has a decent % buck or bull harvest, but the Public Pressure Index indicates a disproportional amount of public land harvest. While I’ve covered this before, I’ll use an up to date example on how to compute the age classes one might expect. Let’s look at unit 4: The DAU% buck harvest indicates about 24% of the available bucks were harvest in 2009. That’s not terrible, as the 2009 state average was about 18%. Remember, deer have a higher natural mortality rate than elk, so the bucks can’t be harvested quite as heavily. Since yearlings are legal, that means the chance of making it be a big forkhorn, or spindly 3 or 4 pointer at age 2 is 76% (100-24), assuming no significant natural mortality. To make it to age 3, deer in that DAU have a roughly 58% chance (0.76x0.76=0.5776). Still not bad and the chance of making it to four years old, at which point nearly anyone would consider harvesting this buck in a leftover tag unit would be about 44%. At 44%, he more than likely he wouldn’t make it to 4 years old, but it suggests there must be a fair number of older bucks out there. But that’s not the whole story. The Public Pressure Index is just 0.883. That suggests almost 90% of the available bucks were harvested on the public land in 2009. So the chance of a buck making it to just 3 years old is nearly incredibly low: 0.12x0.12= 0.0144, or 1.44%. Not impossible, but really, really unlikely.
Now, what about when the PPI is lower than the % buck or bull harvest? The only way that can happen is if the population estimate draws from more than one unit, as it frequently does in Colorado and Wyoming. You should expect some variation in the Public Pressure Index, which should be between half and twice the % harvest number. On occasion a PPI may be much less than half of the % harvest, and in these cases, it is likely that there is not anywhere near the number of deer or elk in that unit compared to surrounding units where the rest of the population came from. Staying with the DAU that makes up units 3,301,4,5,14,214, and 441, unit 14 has a PPI of just 0.069. It isn’t because unit 14 is completely ignored by hunters and the bucks get to live to a ripe old age. It’s because there is hardly any deer on public land to be harvested in that unit. Unit 14 has a 5 year average success rate of just 12.2% in 2nd season, and the hunter density (#hunters divided by sq. miles of public land) is almost 2.9 per sq. mile. There are lots of hunters running around those mountains, but no one is shooting deer. If look at the lower ranked units, you’ll see quite a few units with “good” Public Pressure Indices. Do not be fooled, the stat looks good because there is very little game to be harvested there.
So in review, use the Public Pressure Index to identify units that should be avoided. Avoid units with a PPI exceeding 1.0. The success rate that made you look at that unit in the first place is likely inflated by private land hunting, and if you have any sort of trophy standards at all, you will likely be disappointed. Avoid units where the PPI is half or less of the % harvest, the game density is likely less than it should be on the public lands.
Good luck.

Navigation

2010-06-25T07:46:00.001-07:00

It seems there are a lot of folks who do not know how to use half the features provided by their GPS or map. Beyond marking points and then using the “go to” function, there are several things people should know when attempting to navigate.
First of all, switch your GPS units to UTMs. In my Garmin, it’s called UTM UPS. Without getting overly technical, UTMs are a simple X-Y grid system placed over the earth. Because the unit is in meters, it becomes much more logical to use than decimal degrees, or degrees, minutes, seconds. The only way to calculate your position on a map with decimal degrees or degrees, minutes, seconds are with special rulers that few hunters own, nor know how to use, unless they were in the military. For the Average Joe, with high school-level math skills, UTMs make more sense. Here in Colorado, our coordinates are projected in either Zone 12 or 13 which is a way of refining the accuracy of mapping a 2-D system onto the 3-D earth, usually in map datum NAD 27 (it will say on the corner of your map). But don’t worry about that for right now, unless you’re manually inputting coordinates into your GPS. The first set of digits are called Eastings. Here, they are six digits long, but in reality they are 7 digits, because they start with a zero. This number represents how far east or west you are from the central meridian. The 7 digit Northing is how far you are from the equator, all in meters.
But who cares about that? You should, here’s why. Let’s say you’ve been wandering around hunting and don’t know where you are. You marked your truck on the GPS this morning, so you could get back by simply following a straight line, regardless of what it leads you through. Wouldn’t it be better to know exactly where you are and what you’ll be walking through or whether there is an easier way around to your vehicle? What if you wanted to investigate a terrain feature, whose coordinates you hadn’t previously entered into your GPS? How would you go about doing that?
The vast majority of maps these days have UTM grid coordinates marked on them. They are typically in 1000 meter grid squares or hash marks. For instance, on the National Geographic Trails Illustrated map I am looking at, the numbers on the top, called eastings begin with a superscript 3, followed by two normal sized numbers, on the side of the map, the superscript has two numbers all beginning with 43, followed by two normal sized numbers. So, let’s say our GPS says we are at 0302465E 4317521N. Where is that on the map? Remember these are 1000 meter grid squares. So on the top, the eastings, follow the superscript 3 until you hit 302. What about the rest of the numbers, the 465? That means you are 465 meters east of the 0302 gridline. Basically, within 35 meters of dead square in the middle between grid lines 0302 and 0303. Now, for the northings, 4317521. On the side of our map, we should see a grid line for 4317, then we continue 521 meters north of that line, which once again, puts almost in the middle between the lines for 4317 and 4318. Where those two lines intersect is your position. Understand?
Using that same system, you can also manually enter coordinates into your GPS to navigate your way to a terrain feature.
Many guys these days also don’t know how to properly use a good compass. A good compass has a rotating dial, not a simple north arrow.
Two quick and dirty uses for your compass: staying on a course, or determining a on bearing. How do you do that, and why, especially if you have a GPS?
Let’s say our GPS indicated which direction to head and it was through the timber to our meadow. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always had difficulty maintaining satellite reception in heavy timber. Your GPS pointer will tell you which direction the waypoint is, but it might not have a good fix on your location, giving you inconsistent directions. So you stop, letting the satellites find you again and the GPS tells you the direction you need to head to find your meadow, but you know you’ll lose reception as soon as you move. Many GPSes will also give you the direction in degrees. 0 is north, 90 is east, 180 is south, 270 is west. Your direction dial says 45 degrees, northeast. How do you stay on that course? Whip out the ole compass, did you ever notice there is one white arrow, one red arrow? And a red outlined arrow on the dial opposite of the white arrow? We want to go 45 degrees, so rotate the dial to 45, or northeast. Then turn your body or compass so that the red arrow overlays the red outline, that is the rough direction you need to head.
Same idea if you are trying to figure out what direction you are heading. Keep facing that direction, with your compass out in front of you. Rotate the dial so that the red arrow and the red outline overlay each other, then read the indication.
GPS isn’t working? One other use for your compass is to take a bearing. We will not worry about declination, or how true north and magnetic north differ slightly. Want to triangulate your position on a mountaintop. Take a precise bearing of the prominent peaks listed on your map, then use the compass to help you draw a line back towards your potential position. Do the same thing with two or three other peaks to create an error polygon. You should be somewhere with that polygon. That is the basics of triangulation, and similar to how satellites calculate your position.
I hope this helps somewhat. And hopefully I didn’t leave out anything crucial.

Long term planning

2010-06-25T07:45:00.002-07:00

As with many aspects in life, setting goals, having a plan and mapping out the steps necessary to achieve those goals is crucial to our success. With our hunting goals, having a series of long and short term plans makes a lot of sense. By understanding draw odds we can usually anticipate when we will draw a highly coveted tag, but we aren’t going to stay at home if we don’t draw that dream tag, right? That’s where short term planning also makes sense. I’ll go through several examples, including my own, of how some might make long and short term hunting plans.
There are many highly publicized trophy areas throughout the west for both elk and deer. Some of Colorado’s elk units may take nearly 20 years to draw and the odds of drawing some New Mexico elk tags make it seem unlikely you will ever draw in your lifetime. So you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Would you rather have a pretty good hunt every few years or one great chance in your lifetime? Just like with high-end optics, the economics of drawing trophy elk and deer licenses follows a law of diminishing returns. A hunt that is far better than average, often takes much more time to draw than a pretty good hunt. In some of the most tightly managed trophy elk country, fewer than 10% of the bulls are harvested yearly, you will feel like you are one of the only hunters on the whole mountain, and the animals are so lightly pressured that your odds of success are incredibly high. But are you willing to wait 20 years to draw that hunt? Will you be physically capable of capitalizing on your new tag? Are you willing to sacrifice a little success rate and hunter pressure for a chance at a similar caliber of bull? Would you rather sacrifice trophy potential and hunter pressure for a good chance of success on a younger bull? In order to put ourselves in a position to have a public land dream hunt, we have to have the tags. But by reducing our demands slightly, we can come up with hunting areas that we can draw much more frequently.
To have it all every year, you must be willing to pay for quality management on a private ranch or reservation, or be willing and able to purchase highly coveted tags at auction prices. The reality is that most of us are DIY hunters, and even if we could afford to hunt a trophy managed ranch, some of us take greater pleasure in doing the hunting for ourselves.
The major western big game species, elk, deer, antelope, bighorn sheep, moose, mountain goats and bears all require slightly different long and short term strategies. In many western states, elk, deer, bear and antelope can be hunted yearly. Maybe not in the best areas, but some of them are still very good, if a little less desirable in terms of pressure, trophy potential, success, or access, but not necessarily all of those general categories. But bighorn sheep, moose and mountain goats are likely a once or twice in a lifetime hunt for a DIY hunter outside of Alaska or Canada.
Understanding the application process for each species you are interested in hunting in each western and fringe state is important in your planning process. I outlined each of the western state’s application processes for elk and deer in this article: http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Elk/Nonresidents-Guide-to-Western-Hunting-02081010.html . Most states have some sort of opportunity for hunters without preference points to draw a tag, even if it is a slim opportunity, through a random draw. Random draws allocate a minority of tags, often 20-25%, giving everyone a shot at a tag. Other states operate on a bonus point system, where those with more points get their name in the hat an extra time to increase their draw odds, but never guarantee it. Colorado is the only state with a pure preference system at this time, and as of 2010, the hunts that take 10 or more resident points to draw, now have a chance to be drawn by those with 5 or more points in a separate random draw.
Once you have a couple of long term goal options in mind and have figured out how to get there, now what? I hope you’re not going to sit on your haunches for 20 years, waiting for your ship to come in. If you’ve only elk hunted once or twice in your life, you may in for a big disappointment when you get to your trophy unit. The country may not be what you’ve envisioned and the elk probably won’t be standing around in the open, waiting for you to shoot them. You need hunting practice, and you need to at least lay eyes on the areas you have in mind once or twice. Some of the best trophy elk units came about not because the soil conditions are so fantastic, but because the elk were too accessible, so something had to be done to limit the hunter numbers. The country may be more desert-like than what you imagine for your dream hunt, so check it out while doing other scouting trips or vacations. In other cases, the unit may be more remote and inaccessible than what you can handle. Make sure it is what you want before you draw the tag. The dead of winter can be a good time to visit the Rockies. You’ll be able to see game on their winter ranges, and can always throw in a ski trip to keep the rest of the family happy. Just don’t tear up your knee.
If you’ve settled on a unit in a particular state, check out the tag availability for other species or even antlerless tags that you can hunt while getting to know the country. In some trophy deer units, the elk may not be trophy managed so you may have more total hunters to deal with than you wanted. I don’t like surprises, I want to know what to expect in terms of total hunting pressure, access, trophy potential and restrictions before I show up.
For myself, in looking at the data in most states, I don’t find it worth my time to hold out for 20 years or more to hunt the very best trophy elk units in Colorado. I find value in having a very good hunt nearly every year because I’m willing to sacrifice access or success. What I will not compromise on is hunter pressure. I want very high trophy potential, but my standards are on a sliding scale depending on how many days into the hunt, or how far from a truck I am. I usually won’t choose to hunt a unit unless I know there is a chance of killing an older bull or buck. In Colorado, there are a couple of OTC units that harvest less than 15% of the bulls each year. Access is difficult in these units, but I need to know the big ones are out there to keep me going day after day. So my long term elk goals do not include a 20 year wait for any specific unit in Colorado. I hunt on OTC tags every other year or two if I do not draw a really good 1st season or muzzleloader bull tag. I also pick up a cow tag every year and tag along on other hunts with friends whose hunts do not conflict with my own. This helps me learn new country and fill more tags. If I have already harvested a cow elk early in the year, I feel less pressure to fill my bull tag.
My longer term elk hunting goals include trophy hunts in Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming. I used to live in and have taken elk in Montana, but intend to return and hunt on general tags now that I’ve analyzed the data and realized how many good places I overlooked while I was in college. Most years I bite off more than I can chew, and end up with a tag or two that I can’t use. Last year, that was an elk tag I had for Idaho with plans to do a backcountry hunt in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. I still plan to do that hunt, but I can purchase that tag any year I’m up for it. For New Mexico, because there is no preference system, there is no harm in skipping a year or two, because your odds don’t really change. Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Arizona all require the purchase of a nonrefundable hunting license in order to apply, so this discourages me from applying, but increases the odds for those who do. Wyoming’s preference system is still fairly new, so I don’t feel disadvantaged by not having any points at this time. Combined with the option to purchase a preference point in July instead of applying, I don’t feel like my Wyoming dream elk hunt is too far in the future. In fact, it’s probably something I can do every couple of years.
If I ever settle into a rhythm, and money were less of an object (we can wish, can’t we?), here’s how I’d lay out my elk applications: Good, solid 1st rifle or muzzleloader elk hunts in Colorado every two to three years, plus cow tags and/or OTC bull tags every year, stagger those draws with Wyoming and Idaho hunts on the years you can afford to throw in an out of state hunt. Apply for New Mexico the years you don’t expect to draw a solid tag. I need to be applying for Utah, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada more frequently, but so far it’s difficult to justify. I have a brother in Oregon that will go bird hunting with me if I don’t draw deer or elk tags, so I really need to be taking him up on that. This year, I drew a good muzzleloader tag with one preference point and will be purchasing a Wyoming elk preference point with hope of drawing next year. For my second elk hunt, I’ll be purchasing a leftover list B cow elk tag but my summer scouting will determine which unit and which season.
Now, I love deer hunting, especially mule deer, and intend to harvest a deer in nearly every state before I die. Two things that make me a happy man: most non-western states have easy to acquire deer tags, and the state I live in has excellent deer hunting. Here in Colorado, I do find it worth it to hold out for good deer tags, but not for more than 5 years. So my hunting generally follows the pattern of 2 or so years of 2nd choice or leftover buck hunting, followed by 1 good year of trophy hunting. I apply to numerous other states for deer tags most years, and am almost always sitting on one or two that I didn’t end up using. For me, the most convenient nonresident state to apply for is Nevada, but New Mexico used to get an application from me every year also before they required the full fee up front. I will also be buying a preference point in Wyoming with intent to return there and better my last buck. Nebraska is another state I frequently hunt with decent public land and easy to come by mule deer tags. My short term deer hunting goals mostly focus on the opportunities here in Colorado and my neighboring states: Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Arizona is high on my list too, and might fit into the category of longer term. I’d like to do some quail hunting there to help justify purchasing a license before applying. With brothers in both Washington and Oregon, it makes it easy to justify hunt planning those states too. As opportunities come up in new states, I take advantage of them when I can and am confident I will kill a deer in all 49 states which they are native to. The demand for mule deer and whitetail tags is not so great that I need a 20 year plan to trophy hunt a specific state. This year, I drew first choice elk and deer tags, zeroing out my points for both here in Colorado. If I had planned it a little better, I’d stagger my good elk and deer hunts so as to make my scouting a little easier and so that I wouldn’t have a year like next year where I won’t likely draw a great tag for either in my home state.
Antelope is something I enjoy hunting, but I treat it much more casually than my elk and deer hunting. Here in Colorado, buck tags in units with significant public land require more than 10 points, so I need a long term plan. In order to get my fill of antelope hunting I’ve been going to Wyoming on cheap doe tags, while accumulating points here in Colorado. If I was in a hurry to shoot another good buck, I could pick up a tag in Wyoming or Montana nearly every year. But it’s not very high on my list right now.
Bears are another casual species to hunt for me. For whatever reason, they don’t excite me like elk and deer, but I pick up an OTC tag every once in a while, while accumulating points. I don’t have a goal for them and it kills me to not know what to do with the points. I’m sure I will be thrilled to take one, but maybe since I haven’t, it’s the reason I just don’t care much about them.
I’m always stressing to others to not accumulate points without a unit in mind for elk and deer, but since I’m a hypocrite, I am doing it for bears. One of the reasons to not accumulate points without a unit in mind is because you never know when demand may fall off or tags may increase and the unit may be easier to draw. You may also be wasting precious hunting years when you find that a unit that would suit your dreams could be drawn with 8 points and you’ve already accumulated 12 points. You could have had your dream hunt four years ago and be half way there to hunt that unit again if you so chose.
For the rarer trophy species such as moose, sheep and mountain goats, I had always just assumed I would hunt them in Alaska when I was ready. Colorado’s sheep, goat and moose draw process makes it almost impossible to draw a tag for your first three years of applying, which has discouraged me from throwing my name in the hat. But reality struck me in the face this year, with a very good friend drawing a mountain goat tag. He had been applying for less than 5 years and he now has a dream tag. Yes, he was lucky, but someone has to draw the tags. On a recent scouting trip, we found mountain goats in the first drainage we checked, so now I’m kicking myself for not jumping on my state’s opportunities. He is just 33, and stands a very good chance of drawing another tag while he is still active and mobile.
The point of all this is that some of us are just spinning our wheels, when we could be living our dreams right now. Bring your goals into focus by mapping out a comprehensive strategy that is attainable. If we don’t believe we will ever reach our hunting goals, we won’t put the effort into achieving them. In order to achieve or long and short term goals, we need to know how to play the preference point games. We need to continue to develop, learn and hone our hunting techniques and strategies through cow hunts or deer hunts in our highly sought after units. If your physical abilities are diminishing, how capable will you be when you finally draw? Is there another place you can hunt sooner and still be satisfied? Have you even set foot in the unit you’ve been holding out for for 10 years? I’m sure there are many more questions you need to ask yourself, and if you need a guidance counselor, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email.

What Ifs and Backup Plans

2010-06-25T07:45:00.001-07:00

What ifs and backup plans

By the end of June, most hunters should have a pretty good idea of what tags they drew or didn’t draw. For some of you, it’s the same areas you’ve been hunting for 20 years, for others this may be the first time out west. Regardless of how long you’ve been hunting public lands in the west, there’s always a little bit of uncertainty and anxiety leading up to a hunt. Now is the time to be creating backup plans and going through “what if” scenarios, not the day you are scheduled to arrive in hunting camp.
Some of you will not have your application strategy go according to plan. So now what? What’s left if you still want to hunt Western big game? If you drew you what you expected, you may now be looking to add additional licenses in your area for the same season, or different seasons if you like to spread things out. If you didn’t draw what you expected, you’ll want to go to Plan B. But not yet, first figure out why you didn’t draw, so you don’t make the same mistake next year. Did you have a proper understanding of the draw process? Look at the drawing summaries. Was there a reduction in permits? An increase in demand? Did you understand or even look at the odds before applying?
If it’s mid-summer and you don’t have any licenses, what are your options? Of course, each state handles things a little differently. In some states, residents can purchase unlimited general licenses, but the nonresidents are limited. Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are going to be your only options for unlimited nonresident bull elk tags. Many states will have leftover limited licenses, mostly cow and doe tags, sometimes in marginal areas, other times in merely undersubscribed areas with a large number of tags.
If you want a buck deer license, you’re in luck because those are much easier to come by. Colorado has a few leftovers every year, mostly along the Northern Front Range. Wyoming usually has large numbers of leftover “region general” tags that are good for a large number of units. Utah often has Northern Region buck deer licenses left after the draw, but they go quickly. Idaho almost never sells out there nonresident general deer tag quota (good for most of the state). Oregon and Washington have unlimited general deer tags, with Oregon’s valid mostly in the western half of the state for blacktails, but eastern Washington does have some general mule deer licenses. California will usually have a large selection of blacktail licenses, many of which are pracically unlimited, but the mule deer zones are mostly draw only. Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico will have a handful of leftover buck deer tags also.
Of the fringe western states, Nebraska is one of your best bets for mule deer tags still. Public land is severely lacking in nearly all regions but the Pine Ridge, whose tags are available first come first served. At $209, it is still one of the better deals in mule deer hunting(although half the deer in the area are whitetails), and usually doesn’t sell out until the season starts. And did I mention you could have two buck tags?
If you live in or near the state you want to hunt, or will have time before the leftovers are gone and are considering new country, take a spin around the unit. Familiarize yourself with the terrain, vegetation and access. See if these things suit you and the style of hunting you prefer. In most states, you still have plenty of time to check out new ground before having to make your decision amongst the leftover and general units. Do some brief scouting, but allow yourself some time to compare this new spot with another area. If you wait until the last minute to check out the new ground, and then don’t like it, you’re kind of stuck.
If you’re hunting familiar ground this fall, do you need a Plan B? Yes! Do you know of additional suitable camp sites if your regular place is occupied? What are you going to do if there is a fire, a road closure, emergency drought relief cattle grazing, new timber harvest or energy development in your old spot? How would these things change your hunting? Keep an eye on the local forest service and BLM sites. Go through any posted management plans. Keep yourself abreast of timber sales or energy leases. Those practices may open new roads that may or may not be good for your hunting. It’s far better to know about these changes and be able to plan ahead for them, then to show up and unexpectedly find your old campsite that used to be at the end of the road but now connects to a paved highway with gas trucks moving up and down it. There are various government sites that will help you keep abreast of stream flow and fire conditions. You probably don’t need to check on them every day, but once a month during fire season should be sufficient. A fire in early summer might be a benefit to the habitat in your area, attracting even more game if followed by good rains. But a fire in September could have a devastating effect on cover and forage.
What about scouting? I wrote a pretty comprehensive article a few months back for you, but here’s another review of it: http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/ElkHuntingUniversity/EHULessons . Be sure to keep checking back with the Elk Hunting University Lesson Plans for more articles written by other Colorado Division of Wildlife Huntmasters. In your summer scouting, make sure you do not focus all of your efforts in a single area. Not only is it fun to see new country, but you can make more informed decisions when you have a basis for comparison. When checking out new country, dissect the unit by the major drainages to help spread out your efforts and to be able compare relative abundance of sign. If you’ve only seen one area, how can you have much of a backup plan? Make sure you have a plan when scouting, don’t just bumble around randomly sniffing the Wood’s Rose and hoping to find elk or deer. Have a checklist of things you hope to see or verify, and locations you expect to find them.
If you’ve done your homework, hopefully you will be prepared if you show up two days before the season starts and find your first choice area is 50 other people’s first choice also. If you had a plan for how to use heavy pressure to your advantage, you’ll still be fine. But if you thought you were the only one who would be hunting the beautiful meadow a half mile past the road closure, time to enact Plan B. What will you do if the weather isn’t exactly what you had hoped for? What are you going to do if it is windy, or snowing or raining or hot and dry? Plans A, B, C and D might have to be scrapped for Plan E.
Other problems can occur that may be difficult to anticipate. Some people cannot handle the higher elevations and thinner air in the west. Talk to your doctor ahead of time about prescription medications that may help you cope. Keep in mind that the elderly will have the hardest time acclimating to higher altitudes. In an elk camp of mine at a mere 9,000 feet, we had a 70 year old from Tennessee wake up with nausea, aching joints, headaches and dizziness from altitude sickness. By descending to lower elevation, and resting for another day, he was able to continue his hunt. If we didn’t have an alternate area to hunt, he would have been stuck in a motel in Craig, Colorado while his friends and relatives were hunting the high country without him. Make sure you aren’t fixated solely on high elevation areas. Even if you can physically handle the elevation, snow conditions may restrict your access temporarily. Lower elevation canyons can be rich in game, but difficult hiking.
Don’t overlook the demands placed on your vehicle(s). Fresh air filter, oil and oil filter is just a start. Chains aren’t just useful for snow, but can be crucial to your survival on muddy roads. At a bare minimum, make sure your tires have a decent amount of remaining tread.
Without being too much of a pessimist, make a list of “if A, then B” scenarios. Think about what could ruin your first plan, and what you would do about it. A few years ago, I found a beaver had built a dam just barely downstream of a road I was planning on using to access my hunting grounds. I considered trying to cross it in the Suburban I had, but quick prodding with a stick told me that was a recipe for disaster. By having good maps, I figured out a new, convoluted route to my hunting spot, which I liked much more due to the difficult access. That wasn’t much for preparation, but it changed my mental ranking of spots I was considering hunting by changing the previous parameters. Keep in mind that hunters do not like having to cross country that they cannot legally hunt. So in some places it makes sense to try to find pockets of country that are relatively accessible, but rejected by the public due to regulations making it less desirable. While studying your maps, you will find a crucial road being blocked by private land. Many county websites have their plat maps digitized, so it can be simple to figure out who owns that property so you might come up with an access arrangement.
Any scouting you conduct this summer will likely change what you thought you knew about an area and how you thought you may want to hunt it. So be flexible and be prepared. Know what you are going to do ahead of time when you are thrown for a loop.
There is no offseason to the dedicated. The end of application season is upon us, but it is now scouting season. Scouting season isn’t just for the upcoming fall, you should have your eyes open to future possibilities during your travels and adventures. You likely won’t get a chance to see much of the country you plan to apply for during the next application season if you don’t plan for it now. So if you take a little extra time this summer, you may be able to sharpen your long and short term plans. You do have long and short term plans, don’t you? Might be a topic for a future article.

Game per hunter

2010-06-25T07:44:00.002-07:00

We all like hunting in places where there are a lot of animals and not a lot of hunters. However, many of the elk and deer hot spots are either tightly controlled or too well known, with too many hunters.
When I first looked into the game per hunter statistic for my own unit selection, I was coming off two disappointing elk hunts in a row, hoping to find areas with just as many elk, but far fewer hunters. Both hunts were in well known areas of Northwest Colorado; the Bear’s Ears and the Flat Tops. Yes, I was hunting 1-2 miles from the roads, and yes I did harvest elk on both hunts, but I was stunned at the number of hunters, my inability to escape the pressure, and the degree to which the elk were run back and forth between ambush points. Shooting at panicked elk, with their tongues hanging out of their mouths from exhaustion was not my idea of a good time. The morning after I harvested the cow elk in the Flat Tops, I decided to hit a smaller, hopefully lesser known parcel of BLM to look for deer. I had allotted plenty of time to drive to the location and hike up the cliffs, but there were guys parked or camped all over the place, trying to hunt a roughly 4 square mile parcel of BLM. There was just nowhere to go to ditch the crowds. That’s really more of an issue of public land hunter density, but that hunter density breeds a competitiveness, and drive to shoot the first legal animal that many hunters would rather not deal with. Throughout most of the west, there are considerably more hunters than legal male animals during every season. If you want to shed some of the pressure to harvest the first legal animal you see, you need to look for under the radar areas with good numbers of game per hunter.
To some degree, higher hunter densities can be tolerated if you are seeing game. But those game sightings might not be what you consider an ideal opportunity to fill your tag. This is where the game per hunter statistic matters. Units with high game per hunter values, whether it is elk, deer, bucks or bulls per hunter, those are units that provide you the luxury of turning down a less than ideal shot at a less than ideal animal. Many areas have less than 1 elk, bull, buck, or deer per hunter, depending on the season. Those are places where you will be tempted to take that long distance, Hail Mary-type shot that you may or may not have been practicing all summer for. If you’re four days into the hunt and finally see your first elk running straight away through timber, you might be tempted to take a shot you wouldn’t otherwise be proud of.
This same line of thinking applies to buck and bull hunters who are trying to stick to an age or trophy standard. If there is less than one buck per hunter in the woods, you can’t really be picky and still expect to go home with an animal.
For instance, let’s say you are ready to apply for your first high quality deer tag (we’ll get to elk in a minute). We all dream of Boone and Crockett class deer, but in reality, those are freaks of nature, and not the norm. But let’s say a 4 year old deer is our goal, maybe it’ll score 160 inches, maybe you are more interested in 28 inch or better spread. Either way, you need to be able to pick and choose a little bit to harvest an animal that you are satisfied with (and you really shouldn’t be shooting a substandard animal just to fill your tag. If you have a standard, stick to it. Let someone else harvest that young deer if won’t make you happy.). But if what you’re looking for requires some age, say 4.5 years old, you need to know the odds of making it that old and how many deer you may have to turn down to find that old of a deer. We’ve already covered the trophy potential indices in previous articles (email me if you want another copy), but we haven’t covered the number of deer you’ll have to be willing to turn down yet, which is another use for the bucks/hunter statistic.
First, we’ll need some brief overview of population demographics. Each cohort or age group of deer will have the maximum number of males of a cohort available at birth, with that cohort declining over time. There will likely be a high rate of fawn losses over their first few months, after which the losses over time slow down, then increasing again as the deer age, and their teeth wear down. That is more applicable to does than bucks, as most hunters do not select for a particularly large, old, young or small doe. They often take the first legal animal. Bucks will be a little different. After fawnhood (50% mortality is pretty typical), there is a steadily increasing pressure on the bucks as they age, meeting more and more hunters’ trophy standards. A yearling buck in a trophy unit likely won’t have many folks willing to pull the trigger on him, but a 5 or 6 year old will likely meet 90% of hunters’ trophy standards.
Of course this takes nothing into account regarding that individual deer’s ability to avoid hunter pressure as he ages. So, in a medium density (hypothetical 8 deer/sq mi, 65 square miles, 25 buck: 100 does sex ratio) unit where 20% of the bucks are harvested annually (pretty typical outside of OTC states), and let’s say another 5% die of natural mortality between the ages of 1.5 and 7.5 each year, how many 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 year old bucks would you be likely to encounter before finding the 4.5 year old that meets your standard?
In this little unit, with 435 does and 87 bucks, we have a theoretical buck age structure of 25 1.5 year old bucks, 19 2.5 year olds, and 14 3.5 year olds before you get to the 4.5 and up crowd, with 11 4.5 year olds, 8 5.5 year olds, 6 6.5 year olds and 4 7.5 year olds before they all die out by age 8. So of the 87 bucks, 58 or 67% do not meet our requirements. See the problem developing here? If 2 out of every 3 bucks do not meet your requirements, you’ll need to see at least 3 bucks before you pull the trigger. In which case, hunting a unit with less than 3 bucks per hunter would be make no sense whatsoever. And if you want to start putting the odds in your favor, I’d be hoping to find a unit with 6 or more bucks per hunter. 6 bucks per hunter isn’t out of the question, as nearly 25% of Colorado’s western deer units meet that requirement. However, this isn’t the case with most other Western states that I’ve looked at. One would think that Utah might come close, but only in their 3 top trophy units do they exceed 6 bucks per hunter. Wyoming appears much better at first, as the state average is 7 bucks per hunter, but a few units that exceed 100 bucks per hunter really the exaggerate the statistic. In this case, it’s better to look at the median bucks per hunter in Wyoming which is just 1.16. In California, the state average is 3.6 bucks per hunter, but once again is being carried by a few top units. The California median bucks per hunter is just 2.1, which is still better than the mediocre units in Wyoming, believe it or not. Oregon, with their OTC deer tags is much worse, averaging 1.25 bucks per hunter, with only one unit exceeding 6 deer per hunter and just four units exceeding 3 bucks per hunter.
I’m sure you get the point, but if you have a standard that you plan on sticking to, you need to be in the right unit for you and your goals. And even in well managed states, you can’t find a unit like this by picking radomly.
Now, like I promised, let’s look at elk. On average, it seems more people are happier with a younger age class of bull than they are deer. A 3 year old bull is easily capable of exceeding 260 inches, which most hunters would deem a trophy. Elk are much hardier and don’t have nearly the calf mortality that deer suffer, but they also have fewer young cows reproducing. In a hypothetical unit of 4 elk per square mile, 90 square miles, 25 bulls per 100 cows, a post season ratio of 35 calves per 100 cows and 35% bull harvest is pretty typical. In Colorado, spikes are generally protected and suffer almost no natural mortality. So, if they survive calfhood, they will likely make it to 2.5 years old, at which point they are relentlessly pursued. In our little population of 61 bulls and 305 cows, we can expect 18 or so yearling spikes, 16 2.5 year olds, 10 3.5 year olds, 7 4.5 year olds, 4 5.5 year olds, 3 6.5 year olds, 2 7.5 year olds and an 8.5 year old. So of those 61 bulls, 27 meet our minimum critieria, or 44%. If you’re happy with raghorn 2.5 year olds, 43 bulls or 70% of the bulls would make you happy. But sticking with the 3.5 and older bulls we’ll still need to pass up one or two bulls before finding one we’d be happy with harvesting.
So, looking for a unit with 2 or more bulls per hunter isn’t out of the question, even during OTC seasons. Colorado’s first season averages more than two bulls per hunter throughout the western units we cover. 3rd season and archery is your best bet if you are trying to be picky during an OTC season in Colorado. The high pressure OTC second season drops that average to just 0.74 bulls per hunter. Idaho’s general elk units are popular enough that there are no units with over 2 bulls per hunter, there’s a similar problem with Montana and their general tags. Most of Wyoming’s units with over two bulls per hunter are limited units, but some general units do fit the criteria. About half of New Mexico’s units allow for over 2 bulls per hunter, same with Arizona. The only units in Oregon or Utah that manage for greater than two bulls per hunter are limited draw units. Even though Colorado is known as a raghorn state, it’s your best opportunity at a 3 year old and older bull if you don’t want to wait to draw a limited tag. But you have to be willing to pass up legal animals if that is your goal. Harvesting the first raghorn you see will guarantee that you never shoot a mature animal. I know the temptation all too well, as my standards are on a sliding scale, depending on many factors…

Hunter Density

2010-06-25T07:44:00.001-07:00

When most people conjure up their ideal hunt in their minds, it doesn’t involve anyone other than those in their own party. Reality is, of course, far different. We need to compete for campsites, compete for glassing spots, ambush points and meadows to sit on. We want or need to be the first out of camp and first on the mountain in order to get ahead of the pressure. This is just something we have come to accept, but we really don’t have to.
There are many places that receive very light hunting pressure, and not just because of limited tags. Many of those places are difficult to access, have very few roads, are federally designated wilderness areas, have difficult terrain to hunt or maybe just don’t have enough game to support large numbers of hunters.
Some people are used to heavily pressured public land hunts and the numbers of hunters in the woods doesn’t bother them. But most come to the Rockies thinking they can get away from everyone else. In many cases this is possible by just hiking a little further than the average guy. But in other units, this is not possible for many reasons. In some places there are too many roads and in others there are too many hunters, many of whom also think they are going to just out-hike the next guy. We see this all the time, someone declaring they are going to hunt the Colorado Flat Tops during 2nd season, and stating their willingness to go further than everyone else to find unpressured animals. I’ve got news for you: the foot hunter just can’t walk far enough in some places and at some times of the year.
The good news is that you absolutely can hunt areas where you can have some elbow room. Where you can have entire drainages all to yourself, places where you’ll never see another soul, other than on the trails near the trailhead at dusk or dawn. If this sounds good to you, then there are a few places that need to be avoided. I don’t care if your brother-in-law says there aren’t “a lot” of guys hunting the place he has described to you. Most people don’t have the proper perspective to know what a lot of hunting pressure is and what light hunting pressure is. “A lot” of hunters to a Pennsylvania or Michigan public land hunter will likely be a lot more hunters than what a Texas private land hunter is used to seeing.
So, what is “a lot”? That’s subjective to some degree, but I think most people could agree that Colorado’s unit 12 with over 10 hunters per square mile of public land is “a lot”. Some of the Idaho panhandle units have close to 10 hunters per square mile of public land and Oregon’s Trask unit are places that most would say feel crowded. But at what point does the hunting pressure feel uncrowded? For me, it’s closer to 1 or 1.5 hunters per square mile of public land. It will vary depending on how many roads are in the area to spread out the hunting pressure, how much wilderness there is, how many foot and horse trails there are and how heavily forested and how flat the terrain is to determine what feels “pressured”. In areas that I’ve hunted that had a lot of roads, lots of timber, some wilderness and had some very difficult terrain, up to 2.5 hunters per square mile did not feel particularly crowded. You’ll certainly be seeing additional hunting parties, but they will only rarely be occupying “your” spot. Anything pushing 3 hunters or more per square mile of public land has felt crowded to me. Those are spots where I had to compete for campsites and meadows, and had road hunters driving up and down the mountains at dusk and dawn.
Of the variables that seem to affect how we feel about hunting pressure, which ones will have the greatest affect in determining which areas feel overpressured and how can we identify them ahead of time? For me, the number one factor to look for is wilderness. Most of the western states have several large federally designated wilderness areas that are ideal for foot and horse hunters. If you cannot stray far from your camp or vehicle, a unit that is primarily wilderness will feel especially crowded to you because the limited amount of land you can access. If I needed to stick close to the roads, I’d focus primarily on areas with a lot of logging activity, which often has many side roads to help distribute hunting pressure.
And just a reminder, Wilderness does not mean woods or National Forest. Wilderness is an area where all motorized and wheeled vehicles have been banned. Access is by foot or horse only. Keep in mind though, that outfitters will likely be using the largest meadows or basins in a wilderness area. They pay the Forest Service to operate out of a semi permanent camp and will have dibs on the biggest, most obvious places. Don’t worry about it though, you just need to know where to the small pockets of pressure.
So where are these wilderness areas where one can expect to get away from others? First of all, not the Flat Tops Wilderness. It’s 235,000 acres, but with hunter densities between 4 and 10 per square mile, you’ll never escape them all. Colorado’s largest wilderness, the 480,000 acre Weminuche Wilderness is primarily in unit 76, a trophy unit. So those two biggies are out. But we also need to exclude some other areas that are just too close to civilization. The Indian Peaks Wilderness Area, just outside of Boulder is the most popular wilderness area in the United States. Any early season hunt there is going to be marred by hikers in addition to hunters. Don’t worry, that leaves a lot land to hunt, the following is a list of some of the largest wilderness areas and the units they are associated with that you should either check out as a foot hunter or horseman, or avoid as a less mobile hunter in favored of areas with more roads:
ARIZONA
Mazatzal Wilderness, 250,000 acres south of the Mogollon Rim, with numerous other small wilderness areas around it. The Salome (18K), Sierra Ancha (20K), and Hellsgate (37K), Cedar Bench (16K) and Pine Mountain Wilderness (20K)areas are also in the vicinity. There are very few roads south of the Mogollon Rim, making this terrible for road hunting, but fantastic for those who love wilderness areas. Units 21 and 22, has some good elk hunting, but getting a little far south of the main elk concentrations but a traditional deer hunting hotspot.
CALIFORNIA
A complex of wilderness areas in the Sierra Nevadas around Mt. Whitney, Yosemite National Park and Sequoia-King’s Canyon National Parks make for a huge wilderness system. Much of this land is either in National Parks or so far above timberline (much of it between 12 and 14,000 feet, with Mt. Whitney at almost 14,500 feet) that there is no point hunting half of it. However, there is some fantastic mule deer hunting to be had between the X and D zones that fall within the 650,000 acre John Muir, 230,000 acre Ansel Adams, 300,000 acre Golden Trout Wilderness, especially the legendary X-9B.
For the blacktail hunter, the B zones have numerous large wildernesses, but few as productive for hunters as the 525,000 acre Trinity Alps Wilderness Area or 180,000 acre Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel.
COLORADO
We’ve already ruled out the Flat Tops and Indian Peaks and the Weminuche requires too many points to be of interest to most hunters. However, for elk hunters, the following wilderness areas are all over 100,000 acres and feel uncrowded: 120K acre Lost Creek Wilderness in 501 (draw only), the 228K acre Sangre De Cristos in unit 82 and 86, 120K acre Holy Cross in 45, 180K acre Marroon Bells-Snowmass in 43, 120K acre La Garitas in 681 and 160K acre Mt. Zirkel Wilderness in 14. The elk are hard to get to in many of these places, and success rates are often quite low, but if you are looking for some elbow room, you can find it in these units.
IDAHO
The largest single wilderness area in the lower 48 is in Central Idaho, the 2.3 million acre Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. While it should need no introduction to the hardcore, the Middle Fork of Salmon River is about as far away from civilization as you can get while elk hunting. The Middle Fork and Selway Zone Tags in the 1.3 million acre Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness are the only over the counter tags in the US available to nonresidents that permit rifle hunting in the elk rut. Small landing strips provide the best access into these areas for those without horses.
MONTANA
The 1 million acre Bob Marshall Wilderness is the one most folks hear the most about, but it’s never impressed me. The 248K acre Lee Metcalf Wilderness and 900K acre Absaroka-Beartooth are more productive. For those with a general elk tag (draw only for nonresidents, OTC for residents), unit 316 in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, just north of Yellowstone National Park still allows a mid September elk and deer hunt. The Hunting Districts of 150,151 and 280 in the Bob Marshall, 239,000 acre Scapegoat and 286,000 acre Great Bear Wildernesses also offer the mid-September hunt.
NEVADA
The 113,000 acre Jarbidge and 115,000 acre Arc Dome are the two largest wildernesses administered by the USFS in Nevada. The Jarbidge, in Northeast Nevada is especially known for it’s deer hunting, but Central Nevada’s Arc Dome shouldn’t be overlooked either. In reality, it’s tough to go wrong deer hunting anywhere in Nevada (I’m working on the rankings right now), and with so much public land it’s really an overlooked state.
NEW MEXICO
The Gila Wilderness, at 550,000 acres, gets the most press and deservedly so. It’s an elk hunting mecca, with tightly controlled tags, fantastic bulls and extremely light pressure. But the Aldo Leopold and Pecos Wilderness deserve at least some mention for their deer hunting, and both Wilderness Areas are over 200,000 acres. The elk hunting in both 21A(Aldo Leopold) and 45(Pecos) isn’t especially great.
OREGON
Much has been said about the 350,000 acre Eagle Cap Wilderness in Northeast Oregon by the likes of Cameron Haines, but some fantastic deer and elk hunting can also be had around the 500,000 acre Hells Canyon and the 130,000 acre Hells Canyon Wilderness. Oregon also offers an early, high country blacktail hunt in several wilderness areas. The 279K acre Three Sisters Wilderness is among the largest of those included in that tag (which is easy to draw), but the 116K acre Sky Lakes should not be overlooked.
UTAH
The High Uinta Wilderness is Utah’s only wilderness over 100,000 acres, but at 456,000 acres, it’s a big one. The elk hunting there is just marginal, but some great deer hunting can be found in the South Slope.
WASHINGTON
While much of Washington is overpressured, the High Buck hunts are worthy of consideration for those seeking a quality experience. The 360,00 acre Alpine Lakes, 529,000 acre Pasayten, 100,00 acre Henry Jackson and 570,000 acre Glacier Peak Wilderness areas are all included in this September OTC deer tag.
WYOMING
It almost seems pointless to write anything about Wyoming’s Wilderness Areas for DIY hunters, as Wyoming requires nonresidents to hire a guide when hunting any wilderness area. There are several huge wilderness areas around Yellowstone National Park and the Tetons, and much of Wyoming’s best general tag elk hunting opportunities are in those areas. But you have to be willing to hire a guide, in which case you’ll be hunting where they take you, not relying on a DIY website for assistance in finding a good place to hunt.
For those who can’t handle or choose not to endure the hardships of a backcountry hunt, your best bets are to find those less popular units, especially those with logging roads. There are several places with less than 1 hunter per square mile of public land in some seasons, but they aren’t on the tips of anybody’s tongues. Remember though, it takes very little pressure for game to realize its being hunted. So, in lightly pressured areas, you may not get the amount of game movement you are used to from the heavily pressured areas. Sitting and waiting on trails or meadows in those places will often be less productive than still-hunting the timber.

Game Density

2010-06-25T07:43:00.001-07:00

The typical way of expressing game density is in animals per square mile. However, that assumes even distribution of an animal, which is of course, rarely the case. An argument could be made for deer having fairly even distribution throughout an area, as their average group size is usually small and they occupy a wide range of habitats. Elk, on the other hand, are anything but evenly distributed. Average group size during hunting season is about 6 animals according to some studies, and they rarely occupy low elevations year round. In fact, during the hunting seasons, in areas with the full spectrum of low altitude winter range and high alpine summer range (most of the Central Rockies), elk will rarely be below 8,000 feet, with 9,000 feet being about average.
So while there may be 4 elk per square mile of an entire unit, once you get up to an appropriate altitude and habitat type, the number of elk per square mile should drastically increase. But don’t forget, the average group size during the fall rifle seasons is about 6 elk, while during the rut it averages more than 10 elk. One might at first think that looking for larger groups would be easier, but that’s not usually the case. Just ask hunters in Montana, Idaho or Wyoming’s wolf country. The mean group size out there is much larger as defense mechanism, which greatly reduces the number of elk groups per square mile of suitable habitat, making it much harder to find the one or two herds in an entire river drainage.
To illustrate this mathematically, take an area with 2 elk per square mile (which is the average for the Northern Rockies but half of much of Western Colorado), and assume half that unit is actual elk habitat that is used through the hunting seasons. That gives us 4 elk per square mile of habitat. For an archer trying to hunt elk in the rut, when the groups are even larger at, let’s say 10 elk per group, you’re looking at just 1 group of elk per 2.5 square miles. In wolf country, where group sizes often are more than 20 elk, you’re looking for a needle in a haystack with one group per 5 miles of habitat. This is where the seemingly minor increase in elk density in good elk country can really help your hunting.
Many of Colorado’s better elk units have over 6 elk per square mile. And going with an area where half of the unit is appropriate elk habitat, which puts us at 12 elk per square mile or more than one herd per square mile during the rut and 2 herds per square mile during the fall rifle seasons. When you add in additional human factors and elk avoidance, you can see why most serious hunters talk about wilderness areas. Considering the average distance from a jeep trail during rifle season from a 1980s study was 1.3 miles, it’s obvious that you need to get away from the roads for consistent success.
For the sake of this argument, let’s call it 25% of the elk can be found under 1 mile from a road and 75% are over 1 mile. Let’s go back to a 2 elk per square mile unit, such as popular places like Colorado’s units 7, 8, 19 and 191 in the Poudre Canyon just west of Fort Collins. If you’re hunting within a mile of the road, don’t expect to find a typical herd of 6 more than once every 10 miles. Whereas in that same area, if hunting over a mile from a jeep trail (they are even further from well maintained roads), your elk herd density would greatly increase to one herd every 1.8 miles or so. In many units, there are so many roads and so few places where one can get much over 2 miles from the road while still remaining on public land, that it’s no wonder the success rates are in the single digits and the only elk you see are on high elevation private lands.
Since the whole idea behind westernhuntingdata.com is to put the odds in your favor, you need to be hunting where the game is and the roads aren’t. You can see how much a seemingly small increase in the number of elk per square makes. There are units in Wyoming with over 9 elk per square mile, 30 deer per square mile and 20 antelope per square mile. Colorado has a unit with 11 elk per square mile, several with over 9 per square mile and another unit with 25 mule deer per square mile. While Montana’s average elk density is about 2.5 elk per square mile, there are a few units with between 12 and 19 elk per sq mile. Idaho has a 10 elk per square mile unit. Oregon has several units that exceed that number and several deer units between 20 and 30 per square mile. Even California has units with more than 10 deer per square mile. If you want to succeed, you need to put yourself in a position to succeed. By arming yourself with information, you can make better informed decisions, put the odds in your favor and create your own luck. Obviously, hunting isn’t a game of pure chance, but there’s no reason to stack the odds against yourself any further than you have to.

Using your application choices wisely

2010-06-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

While a lot has been said on how to read the preference point requirements or how to determine your draw odds to see which units you have a chance of drawing with you first choice, we haven’t spent a lot of time on how to use your second and later choices. The following is mostly focused on Colorado, as that is where the most interest is, but I will also cover some of the other states and how your draw strategies might change due to their processes.
First you must have an understanding of the draw process in the state you are applying for. In every state, you only gain points if you do not draw with your first choice. Many states offer a mixed or hybrid style draw, with a majority of tags going to those with the most preference points and 20-25% being allotted in a random draw for the first choice. States like Wyoming, Oregon, and California do this. Some states work on a bonus point system, which increase, but do not guarantee your drawing a tag if you have the most points. Essentially you have your name in the “hat” more than once with a bonus point. Montana, Arizona, Nevada and Utah are bonus point states. New Mexico and Idaho do not have a preference system, so the draw odds are equal for everyone. Colorado has a true preference system and a hybrid system. The hybrid system is only for a handful of trophy units that traditionally take over 10 resident points and is similar to the mixed systems of Wyoming, Oregon and California, except that applicants must have 5 points to be eligible.
The vast majority of Colorado’s tags are in the preference system. Those who have the most points are guaranteed the tag, those with the minimum number of points need to know how to read the draw odds and know what their actual chance of drawing the tag is. On the next Colorado update, I will include this in the data sets. The only way to guarantee yourself a tag is to have more than the minimum points required as stated on the preference point report. To determine your actual odds, you will need to look at the hunt recap summary. If a tag requires 1 point, and you only have 1 point, you are not guaranteed the tag. To determine your odds, look at how the tags are allotted between residents and nonresidents. Subtract from the number of tags available to you the number of applicants with more than the minimum number of points required to determine the remainder of tags available to the minimum point applicants. Let’s say there are 125 tags allocated to residents, and 75 resident applicants have two or more points. That leaves 50 tags available to applicants with 1 point. If there are 250 applicants with 1 point, your odds are 50/250=0.2 or 20%. If the odds are that low you need to have a backup plan with your second choice, or be planning to use OTC tags instead.
If you apply for a unit where you have fewer than the minimum number of points required, you are throwing away your chance at a tag with your first choice. Do this only if your intention is to earn a point. I believe it is advantageous to apply for a hunt rather than a preference point on the off chance that there may be less demand for whatever reason that year and you actually draw. But if you don’t want that hunt, do not apply for it. If your intention is to hunt with an OTC tag while you gather points, then it may make sense to apply for the preference point instead with your first choice.
If there is a chance that you will not draw with your first choice, then you need to know how to use your second and later choices. By looking at the drawing report, you will be able to see which units do not completely draw out with the first choice. For starters, all units that require preference points will draw out with the first choice. When there is a very small number of tags drawn with a second choice, make sure that those are not just landowner tags that you cannot draw. The report will show how many residents, nonresidents and landowners draw with which choices. So make sure you are looking at the correct column. Any tag that goes to leftovers will be guaranteed with a second choice. Those tags are marked with an asterisk in the Big Game regs, or have will have a number under the “current balance” heading in the draw report.
Use the same idea with 3rd or 4th choices. Look to see which tags are still available with a 3rd or 4th choice or leftover. If you are trying to maximize value and avoid the pressure of OTC tags (they aren’t all bad), find the tags that draw out with the third and 4th choices. But, if you are doing this as a group, without a group application, you run the risk of your party having different tags. So do a group application if you are counting on someone else drawing the same tag as you. The vast majority of tags that are available in 3rd or 4th choice are also available as leftovers. That is not the case with 2nd choice tags. Because there are no OTC tags for deer in Colorado, I spend the most time wringing my hands over 2nd and later choices for deer.
More often than not though it only makes sense to apply for a first choice and second choice tag, and then checking the box for the leftover draw so you can coordinate efforts with other party members. By learning how to read the drawing report, you will know which tags are available in the leftover draw. Very few people take advantage of the leftover draw, but some good tags are available by this method. If you want two tags, you will need to wait until the leftovers go on sale after the main and leftover draws. Have your plan laid out ahead of time and know which tags are available before you even attempt to purchase one.
And if you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask. This isn’t rocket science, but it may seem like a foreign language to those who aren’t used to western style application processes.

Variables of Success

2010-06-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of factors that go into successfully harvesting elk and deer, therefore success rates for a certain unit deserve some additional focus. An individual’s success is determined by many things, some of which he can control, some of which he cannot. But success rates for an entire population of hunters in one unit are often dictated by things beyond the control of the individual hunter, as one would assume individual luck and skill factors average out over the group. We’ll touch on some things you can do to increase your success, but let’s also look at how to put the odds in your favor and when to be concerned or when to disregard the success rate of an area. Knowing what factors increase and decrease success will help you to weigh your options more intelligently when choosing a hunting unit. Among the factors you cannot control that influence success rates over an entire unit: Roads and access, amount of wilderness, land ownership, hunter pressure, weather, timber (management, density and species), seasonal variations, game density. Things you can control that affect your individual success: using the wind, local knowledge, balancing speed and patience, physical fitness, determination, shooting skill, harvest preferences, and knowledge of how to maximize your odds to put yourself into position to succeed.

Land ownership within an area is something you cannot control, but need to be aware of when selecting a unit. National forest and BLM heavy areas often have private inholdings along the main creeks and even some of the higher meadows. Narrow drainages in private hands rarely create much of a refuge for elk and deer, but higher elevation holdings can create problems. There is nothing more frustrating to see than elk or deer feeding right next to a property boundary. So save yourself the hassle and hunt somewhere where private lands cannot create large refuges. Low elevation ranch lands can have the same effect, but typically only during later season hunts. If you are considering a late season hunt, make sure there is some kind BLM or state land that can be hunted below the forest service if the snows are heavy enough to drive the game much below 8,000 feet. Areas with large amounts of private land also tend to have high success rates. Be careful when perusing the stats. If an area (say Colorado’s unit 13) has high success, it may just be indicative of the land ownership, not of the game present and public hunting opportunities.

Roads are another important influence on success. Roads obviously allow hunters to spread out, creating pressure over a wider area on the game. Having only a few roads in an area creates bottlenecks of heavy pressure and then large voids where the majority of hunters are unwilling to hike to. Well maintained roads, attract more hunters. Poorly maintained, high clearance roads weed out a lot hunters. When looking at a map, if a road has a county number or name, not just a Forest Service or BLM number, it is likely a maintained road. We need these to access our hunting grounds, but do not expect anything but heavy pressure within a mile of that road. Typically, the higher the road density, the greater the success. Conversely, areas with large amounts of federally designated wilderness often have low success rates. That’s not because there aren’t any game animals in these places, but it’s because few people have the means to access them beyond the average foot hunter conducting day hunts from somewhere near the wilderness boundary. Once again, wilderness creates a bottleneck of hunters near the boundaries accessible by road and marked trailhead, and then refuges are created in the distant back country. Penetrating beyond four miles (as the crow flies) during a single day on foot, then returning to camp is about the maximum for the above average hunter. So when looking at the statistics of a unit with federally designated wilderness, one should expect to see lower success rates due to access difficulties created around the wilderness boundaries and the roads leading to them. If you are willing and able to hunt the backcountry, then you should place a lower emphasis on the unit-wide success rate, as they do not reflect your determination. But you may also want to compare that unit with other like units that are wilderness dominated.

Along the same line of thinking, you should pay attention to areas where the timber has been managed. Logging creates roads, sometimes those roads are open, sometimes they are not (look at your map), but it also creates better habitat conditions and more “huntable” land. Clear cuts, thinning operations, and even the road building process encourage game to feed on more palatable forage species, and also allow hunters to see them, reach them and retrieve them. Some places have had no real timber management, but fires may have put the timber into an earlier successional stage (first grasses, then brush species, then small shade intolerant timber species like aspen, then pines, then shade intolerant species like spruces and firs), with more brush species or aspens instead of thick stands of spruces, pines or firs. Early succession timber stages tend to increase success rates, as once again, the game is more “huntable”. Few hunters are competent thick timber still-hunters, so areas where black timber dominates often have very poor success rates, similar to archery success rates. Lower elevation or earlier succession plant species such as scrub oaks, increase success rates where they are present. This is partly due to the fact that elk and deer feel comfortable in such brush, but are quite visible to hunters after the leaves have fallen.

Game density of course influences success rates. Density, when stated, usually refers to the animals per square mile of the entire unit. Obviously game is not evenly distributed, but is concentrated in pockets, devoid in some areas, and sparsely scattered in other areas. Your preseason mission should be to determine those concentration pockets, but before then, you must select a unit to hunt. Areas with higher elk or deer densities usually have higher success rates because even when not hunting in the major concentration areas, there are simply higher numbers of scattered animals to randomly bump into or feed out into a meadow. When trying to put the odds in your favor, the more animals per square mile, the better the chance of success. Seems obvious. That’s why the Colorado’s Flat Tops are swarming with hunters. The success is high partly because there are a lot of animals, the timber is huntable, there are sufficient roads, and pressure bumps the numerous animals from one hunter to the next.

Which brings us to our next factor: pressure. Pressured animals move more than unpressured animals. When game is on the move, you are much more likely to encounter it. If game can bed down at midmorning and feel secure, you will have a very difficult to time finding that game. But if other hunters are constantly moving them around, it enhances the success of all hunters in the area. Pressure can be a necessary evil, but the units with low pressure are obviously more enjoyable for those seeking solace. But they tend to have lower success rates. Extremely low pressure can have the opposite effect, as the game may not be forced into nocturnal feeding patterns or is unconcerned with the presence of humans. This extreme is typically only seen in the trophy units, but the point is, is that there is a point where really low pressure increases success. Above that point, you have extremely low success rates as there aren’t enough hunters to move the game, and there is just enough pressure to cause the animals to take on nocturnal feeding habits.

Weather is one of the most talked about factors regarding hunting success. But it can be a double edged sword. Cold weather and deep snows may make for elk and deer feeding during daylight hours, sunning on south faces, and easy tracking conditions. But it also makes the hunting grounds difficult to access, discourages many hunters from hunting all day long, decreases the number of hunters in the field, increases equipment failures, and sometimes the snows are too deep on the public lands, forcing the game down to the private lands too quickly. I tried to correlate weather patterns to 1st season elk success in a unit I was planning on hunting in October of 2009 and wrote this piece in September of 2009:

“As most of you know, I'm kind of a data freak, so while a buddy and I are still wrestling with exactly which unit to hunt this year (our 1st season tags are good for more than one unit), I decided to do some historical weather data analysis to help explain the variability of success. Some of it is kind of obvious, but it's nice to have data to back up your statements.

Weather Underground has some really good historical data, including day to day looks at the weather for as far back as you can go, but I just took the last 10 years because that's all I have for success rates. I looked at the periods between September 19 and October 18, because twice in the last 10 years 1st season ended on the 18th and I figured Sept 19 would give me a full month out from the end of the season.
Variables I put into a regression analysis to correlate with success:
Temperature: Average low prior to opener, minimum low prior to opener, Sept 19-30 low, average low 7/5/3/1 day prior to opener, low temp on the opener plus days 2 and 3, days below 32 (at the airport where the data is recorded) prior to opener, and the season average low temp.

Precipitation: Total precip prior to opener, max precip event prior to opener, September total preicipitation, precip 7/5/3/1 day prior to the opener, precip on the opener plus day 2 and the total between those two days, season total precip and number of days of precipitation before the opener.
I also looked at how hunter numbers and the date of opening affected success.

Basically, none of the analyses returned anything significant, but there were some very weak correlations. Sort of significant is the lack of anything solid to hang your hat on regarding weather.

The closest I could come was (and if you know anything about stats, the closest I could come were r-values around .2 and F-stats around 1) with these variables in descending order of significance:
Season average minimum temp
Precipitation 1 day prior to opener
Opening date
Average Low prior to opener

Everything else had an r-value below .1. So in reality, the most significant conclusion I could make was weather has very little do with success over the whole unit. Common sense and conventional wisdom say otherwise, so I'm still just as confused as when I started. I guess I can't account for human dimensions such as people not being able to reach their spot due to weather, or hunters hunting somewhere else trying to anticipate the weather or things of that nature.”
So disregarding what the numbers told me from analyzing just one unit and the events that may affect the 1st rifle season, it seems logical to assume that an area with many good roads and with low elevation public ground would have higher success than areas with few and poor roads and very little low elevation ground to hunt. Also, in Colorado, where there is 4 rifle seasons (but this applies to other states like Arizona and New Mexico, and to lesser degree states with a single long rifle season), one can examine how success changes over time. At the statewide level, Colorado’s rifle seasons during the 2008 season (but this pattern applies to most warm years) went from averaging 31% in 1st season, plummeting to 16% in second season, to a low of 14% in 3rd season, then back up to 18% in 4th season. Deer are the opposite, with success increasing over the seasons. This is at the statewide level (not just the 105 units we track, and is for either sex), and is typical of the past 5 years, but at the unit level, some places buck that trend. Here’s where you’ll want to know how put information to good use. When selecting a unit to hunt, it is also important to know when to hunt that unit. We’ve made it easy for you to examine how success in that unit changes over the 4 rifle season (but also archery and muzzleloader, though that is comparing apples to oranges).

The other stat that we offer, which is frequently disregarded is the average deviation of success. This statistic helps to expose those areas where weather likely plays a major role in some aspect of huntability. It’s very difficult to make a broad generalization as to what is being affected, but since elk populations are relatively static (deer populations fluctuate much more due to weather), land ownership, timber management and successional stage, roads and pressure patterns don’t change much on a year to year basis, it seems the only thing that isn’t consistent is the weather. Weather could be affecting water sources, the elevation at which game is located, the ease at which they are tracked or found by glassing, or access to the hunting grounds, but it is difficult to make a blanket statement regarding a whole state in respect to how weather changes affect huntability. Nevertheless, looking at the average deviation of success in a unit (and amongst seasons in Colorado) will show you areas which fluctuate greatly and are difficult to depend on if making plans far in advance. For instance, unit 24 in Colorado has one of the highest average deviations in the state during 4th season over the past 5 years. The average fluctuation (+ or -) from the mean was over 20 percentage points! The past 5 years either sex success was 22, 6, 27, 81 and 12%. It’s very difficult to say what about the weather conditions created that 81% year and what created the 6% year, but do you want plan your hunt for a unit where success can vary that wildly? So pay attention to this statistic. We all spend a lot of money, time and effort planning and trying to put odds in our favor and control what variables we can. But the weather is way beyond our control and we can’t always know what effect it will have on our elk or deer hunt. If you can be flexible and well equipped, a unit with a high average deviation may not be so bad for you. But for most hunters, it is wisest to hunt somewhere more reliable.

Those were all things you can’t control that affect success. But you can control what you do with this information by how you emphasize success and the deviation of success in determining where and how you hunt. Other things that you can control and ought to spend the offseason improving are: local knowledge, your shooting skills, physical fitness, your mental state, attention to wind direction and knowing when to stop and glass, slow your movements or when to speed up.

Scouting will improve your local knowledge of an area, but for many people that is just not possible. Those not willing or able to do so must accept the disadvantage they are at, but can do small things to improve their chances of success from afar. Remote scouting through the use of maps and aerial photos will take the “newness” of the area out when you finally do arrive. Knowing in your mind’s eye what the area looks like and where features that you’ve studied are in relation to your current position without having to study a map will make you more comfortable and willing to travel further than the average hunter who does not know what lies over the next ridge. Local knowledge also entails being familiar with the local vegetation. This is a weakness of most hunters, and one of the things that separates biologists from the average hunter. Knowing what the animals are eating and where those plants are found is helpful when hunting less pressured animals (and not all animals are heavily pressured). Consider spending some time at your local University’s library (if they have a wildlife or ecology department) reading over some of the diet studies that have been conducted in the past. These studies can also be a good way of finding areas that have traditionally good hunting by paying attention to where the study was conducted. If that degree of study isn’t for you, at least consider picking up a plant ID book and getting to know some of the more important shrubs, then calling either a biologist or professor to get to know which ones may be preferred forage in your area. Not all shrubs have the same food value to an animal, and elk and deer diets are frequently different.

Regarding shooting skills, if you can’t hit a moving animal or at least cannot make a quick decision to shoot or don’t shoot, you probably shouldn’t be hunting in areas with lots of black timber. If you consider yourself a long range specialist, you should be hunting areas with good vantage points. Your shooting skills and preferences should be taken into account when selecting an area, as not all places have the terrain and vegetation that is right for you.

No one wants to be told to get fit, but being fit will help your endurance and your mental state while hunting. If you are completely physically exhausted after day 1, how are you going to get out of bed for day 2? I don’t want to be a nag about this, but you know whether or not you are in the condition you expect of yourself, and whether that condition limits your hunting success. This goes with physical fitness, but those who are mentally tough, willing to go the extra mile, willing to do what other hunters won’t are those who will increase their chances of success. You probably won’t kill an elk while sleeping in camp, and in some instances you’ve wasted time by going back to it with daylight remaining. If you aren’t comfortable walking to camp or to a hunting area in the dark, you are at a disadvantage. If you won’t shoot an elk at dusk 4 miles into the backcountry, why are you even there? You should know your limitations, but the most successful hunters likely have the fewest limitations holding them back from their goals.

Other things that have a great impact on your individual success is knowing how to play the wind. Understanding thermals and paying attention to wind direction is one of the best ways to negate a game animal’s greatest advantage over you. We all know game animals have a difficult time picking out someone who is standing still, so be careful when you are hunting. Every time you hit an opening, at the bare minimum, remain still, and glass the edges of the opening before exposing yourself to anything that may be watching it. Experience will teach you when to slow down and when you can risk speeding up, but also having a good feel for when to sit down and glass, and when to be patient along a trail will also help your success.

One other thing you can change is your selectivity regarding trophy quality. A good hunter who is happy shooting the first legal animal will likely have much higher success than a mediocre hunter with high expectations and is willing to turn down legal animals. For many hunters, this is a natural change over time, first just wanting to harvest a legal animal, then the desire to only take the best, then not caring whether one harvests at all, just focusing on the enjoyment in the field. But one must be comfortable with where they stand among these different mentalities in order to enjoy time afield. Harvesting animals you are unhappy with, or turning down animals you’d actually like to harvest, then not being happy with going home empty handed are surefire ways to have an unsuccessful hunt. Know yourself, and know whether you are hunting in the right area for yourself and your mentality.

Good luck out there