Lots of action and lots of frustration today. Decided to stay on the southern end of the unit because we’ve seen so much sign and the weather was really iffy today, didn’t make sense to drive all the way north with the forecast we had.
We got up to a knob and immediately found elk. Right as Reid and I were getting ready to bail off the knob and make our play Matt glassed up some hunters and they pushed the elk. Since they were so far off we waited and watched and were able to stay on them. The group split up a bit but after a while I was able to find 6 cows in striking distance.
While this was going on two guys came up to our knob on a side by side. They glassed for a little while and then drove down to a road below us. They promptly spooked a big group of elk that were right below us. There were 8 cows and a small bull and a spike. But they left the county.
Reid and I made our play on the other group of cows we had found. It is very difficult to keep tabs on animals in this unit. It is flat! Any topographical feature that allows you to glass is surrounded by flat country, and when you go on your stalk you lose all reference points. Matt was on the hill glassing but they disappeared from his perspective. I was able to navigate to them and Matt let us know when we got to where they disappeared. We started still hunting the trees but the juniper is impossible to see anything through. Two cows busted 60 yard from us and all I had was a head shot for a brief moment before they took off.
The cows took off back toward Matt and eventually went right up onto that hill.... and then a road hunter shot one of them as we were following their tracks. The frustration was real today. All of the groups of elk we found were affected by other people. But we also saw 30+ elk today and had a good play that just didn’t work out. We know they are here now. Hoping the crowds are thinned out some tomorrow and we can get it done!
We got up to a knob and immediately found elk. Right as Reid and I were getting ready to bail off the knob and make our play Matt glassed up some hunters and they pushed the elk. Since they were so far off we waited and watched and were able to stay on them. The group split up a bit but after a while I was able to find 6 cows in striking distance.
While this was going on two guys came up to our knob on a side by side. They glassed for a little while and then drove down to a road below us. They promptly spooked a big group of elk that were right below us. There were 8 cows and a small bull and a spike. But they left the county.
Reid and I made our play on the other group of cows we had found. It is very difficult to keep tabs on animals in this unit. It is flat! Any topographical feature that allows you to glass is surrounded by flat country, and when you go on your stalk you lose all reference points. Matt was on the hill glassing but they disappeared from his perspective. I was able to navigate to them and Matt let us know when we got to where they disappeared. We started still hunting the trees but the juniper is impossible to see anything through. Two cows busted 60 yard from us and all I had was a head shot for a brief moment before they took off.
The cows took off back toward Matt and eventually went right up onto that hill.... and then a road hunter shot one of them as we were following their tracks. The frustration was real today. All of the groups of elk we found were affected by other people. But we also saw 30+ elk today and had a good play that just didn’t work out. We know they are here now. Hoping the crowds are thinned out some tomorrow and we can get it done!
