U15a,b / 18a...Early Rifle Bull. Areas to avoid?

[daverp]

Brother drew early rifle bull for 15a,b and 18a.

Have spent countless time in U10, but none in the above units.  So we need to start hitting the scouting now. 

Thinking of starting in 18a, south and north of the 40 for the first trip up in a few weeks, brother seems interested in that area.  I plan on spending a week to familiarize and "see what I can see".   Look for sheds, glassing points, etc.  Get the lay of the land.  I'm not currently working (taking time off), he is, so I've got time to invest.

Not looking for areas, but rather areas to avoid.  Built up areas, heavily hammered areas, etc.  Not at all interested in a "Williams Corner" type hunt, but rather an out in the middle of nowhere (as much as possible) middle of the Boquillas type hunt.  We have no problem putting miles on the tires and boots.  Any of the 3 units meet that kind of criteria?

Starting now so I can get custom topo's printed up (not exactly cheap) and don't want to waste time in areas that would be fruitless or frustrating (people, private property issues, etc.).  As soon as I can get some topos in, I'm headed out.

[1uofacat]

get onX...

[wish2hunt]

Early bull hunt won’t be hammered anywhere

 

[maximus]

only 35 tags on those units, won't get hammered.

[Swivelhead]

Burn fuel, boot leather, search for rut rubbed trees. 

[Sneaker]

Don’t waste your time on 15a/b. They have some elk on the res boarder during the summer but are on the res by the time the rut starts.

In 18a, a lot of private property, some scattered housing and some big chunks of private (x-1 ranch) that you need to stay away from. Elk are pretty nomadic there and roam far and wide and are few and far between in most of the unit. Honestly summer scouting won’t help a lot, sad to say. Where they are now or even in August is little indication of where they will be come late September, they usually make big moves to rut. I would spend more time looking for elk and bugles(at night and early morning) just before the hunt to be most effective.

[trphyhntr]

Jfc there’s elk in 15b?

[JSR]

 

[forepaw]

21 hours ago, trphyhntr said:

Jfc there’s elk in 15b?

Can't remember exact year, believe 2014 or 2015 but there was a 400 class bull killed right next to the res.  Bulls used to be occasionally spotted in some of that country that is about as un-elk like as you could imagine - mostly young ones on the prowl.   One year a friend sent me a photo of a spike bull on the Temple Bar road - crazy.

[trphyhntr]

50 minutes ago, forepaw said:

  One year a friend sent me a photo of a spike bull on the Temple Bar road - crazy.

Serious? That’s unreal lmao. That’s where I shot my ram and I remember it being barren . 

[daverp]

Thanks for info.  We may stick closer to U10 than further away.  NE and SE portions of 18a.  Brother coming over this weekend, maps on the way and will be here Friday, and we are going to game plan.  Will make the first trip up in a couple weeks and get the lay of the land.  Have a feeling September is going to come pretty quick.  Good thing is I have taken some time off after the move back home, and unless a too good to refuse offer comes up for work, I should have some decent time to dedicate to burning some boot leather and rubber.

Definitely want to spend a good chunk of time familiarizing with the unit.  I think at this point the familiarization, along with looking for good evidence of last year's scrapes will give us some decent starting points.  Then, the week before, head up and start looking for rutting bulls hopefully around previously identified areas with good glassing opportunities.

As for the Onx app, never used it before.  Signed up for it, and it looks interesting.  Like Google Earth, but with a lot more info.  Will take some getting used to, especially being a paper maps kind of guy myself. 

[wildwoody]

We found around Ashhurst