7E Advice for a Youth

[YoungHuntr]

Hey all. just wanted to introduce myself. My name's Colton and my greatest passions are Hutning and Fly Fishing, the order depending on the time of year. I'm 16 years old. No one in my immediate family pursues theese as passionately as I do, so I handle the draw and what hunts I/we put in for. This year I need a little help.

 

I put a few 7E peaks hunt number for our last choices in case we didnt draw 5BS. The hunts we are after are for meat, not trophies, so we put in for cow. Though I didnt draw my first two choices, thankfully the Mid to late october cow hunt in 7E peaks hunt unit had leftover tages, so we drew a couple since it was ione of our last choices. (I also just found out I drew unit 32 coues for November! WOO HOO!)

 

Anyways, though I have done a lot of research, I was hoping to get some help with this tricky unit. I have some starting points but would appreciate it if anyone who had some advice would drop apost or send a pm. I am looking for general places to find where the elk are that time of year. If you want to share specifi spots, I would be happy to have them in a PM.

 

Anyways, my current game plan is to drive in on a forest road and hike north into the Kachina Peaks wilderness to track and glass for elk. This might change given someone provides me some other advice and.or directions on where to look for them.

The hunt is in the third week of october so I am thinking that it will be the tail end of the rut and the cows will be in harems?

 

Anyways, I just thought on the off chance anyone was familiar with this unit/hunt they could provide some adevice on techniques and location to find the cows come october. I'll take a scouting trip up there prior to the hunt, but would appreciate other information.

 

Thanks,

 

Colton.

[Coues&Bass]

I have only hunted the unit 1 time and my dad and I both took small bulls on the seconed day of the NOV. hunt. We found quite a few right on the 7E and 7W border off US route 89 north. We stayed in the pines and kept out of the ceders due to visiblity. It has been quite a few years so I can not remeber the name of the park. Good luck on your hunt.

[jefftrucker12]

we drew 4 of those tags all on our 5th choice! i guess better than nothing. Im planning on spending the first few days chasing cows and trying to fill our tags. This is going to be a very hard hunt considering all the hunting pressure before this cow hunt. You might have little opportunity for glassing. Im sure the elk will be pushed back into the thick timber and probly water at night. If you hike alot you will eventually run into them.

[jefftrucker12]

if you want some people to camp with or help you out PM me.

[Lance]

If you hike up the Peaks you will eventually run into elk. the question is will you be able to get an elk out of the wildernes area if you kill one there, or how far in you may kill one? I would be more worried about that. The west side of the unit goes all the way out to 180. hiking in between the roads out there will produce elk and so will the hills and small mountains in that area. There will be cow elk all over the unit. you just gotta figure out where you want to kill one.

 

Lance

[Devil Diver Down]

As Lance said, there will be cows all over the unit. Bonus points for shooting a cow closer to a road than farther, IMHO. You'll want to get it cool asap, though weather should be a bit cooler 3rd week of October than mid-September. But if you're still looking for a wilderness option, I sent a pm.