Unit 10 Bull Elk

[Perkele!]

After trying for over a decade I finally drew the 10 Bull/Late Rifle.

 

Did my homework, pounded the ground almost every other week, saw a lot of potential shooters.

 

Planned everything with a friend who, successfully hunted the same unit a bunch of times, he was gonna go with me but a family emergency forced him to go back East last Thursday, he wont be back for a month.

 

It seems like it's gonna be a solo hunt for me.

 

Here is the kicker, last Friday I went back to 10. There was snow on the ground and the shooters I've seen were nowhere to be seen.

 

What do I do now ? Scrap the old plan and start from scratch or stick to the plan ?

 

Frustrated ? Yes I am.

[Tight Guy]

Just a thought. When we had the late rifle bull in unit 9 we had the same issue. What we found was that the forested waterholes were frozen from the cold, and the Elk moved to lower more open ground where the water was still open.

Don't know if that's the case, just something to ponder

[Str8Shot]

These late hunts are where shed hunting pays off for guys ... Think of where you seen them earliest in late winter through spring ... they will be working there way back, knowing these areas and some in between usually are holding a good source of nutrition something the need after the rut and to make it through the winter .... Once they find an area they are going to eat more than travel (they have to put back on mass,) and unless the snow is deep and hard packed making it hard to graze , or the water is frozen so thick they can not bust the edge ice with their feet do not assume they are not close.... Elk primarily feed and breed during the night and lay up in cover much of the day, so if I were in your shoes I Would be looking for good grazing grounds and hunting the thicker stuff between .... Also water is less of an issue when there is so much rain and snow , food is much more needed and this time of year can contain enough water for them to stay put for a while.

[elkaholic]

kinda need to remember that there are a lot of hunting seasons going on right now - with all the tags available in 10 -that means several THOUSAND hunters have been pounding the same general areas as you - driving the same roads-

 

lots of hunters chasing elk all over the place - being 3rd- 4th to get a chance - means tougher hunting as the elk are getting more conditioned to turn nocturnal - they may be coming out later and going in earlier than normal

 

its hard to say scrap everything and start over - I'd say give it a day or 2 in the areas you've seen the shooters and look to find the bedding areas as these elk are getting tired of running so much - they will most likely be held up in the deeper thicker stuff

 

nothing is frozen yet - water everywhere with more to come - they may still be coming to tanks - but at night

 

good luck

 

on an added note - this time of year they seem to like the edges of canyons and ridge lines

 

find the trails dropping off into these canyons edges

[rossislider]

Scouting for those late bull hunts prior to all the achery, muzzleloader, deers hunts, etc. is next to worthless. That is unless your goal is just to get into the woods and have a great time seeing animals. Than it is a great idea. So many variables can throw things off for the late bull hunts. For example, my buddy and I had the late bull hunt in unit 1 several years ago. Over the final couple of days leading up to opening morning we had scouted and patterned several great bulls. Thanksgiving day, the day before the hunt opened, they were right where we expected, and we even bedded them. That night we had a huge snow storm dropping over 24" of snow in spots. The next morning was a white foggy mess. The bulls we had put to bed were gone and we never saw them again. That change happened in under a 12 hour period and is one reason why I quit putting in for late bull hunts (hiking in the pitch black at 4:00 AM through 24" of fresh snow SUCKS).

Sorry, probably not what you want to hear. There are still bulls there somewhere. Good luck to you. I'm sure you will figure it out.

[daverp]

Couple years ago on the U10 late rifle bull hunt, the bulls disappeared after that first good snow a few days before the season. Everyone was saying the same thing "they were here yesterday, now they're gone". A lot of conjecture about the "why" of it, but one sure thing remained...they just were no longer there.

 

(As a side note, the following fall when I was scouting and hunting for deer in the same area, we only picked up a couple small sheds, where in previous years, we were picking up multiple, nice sized sheds in the same areas. Some years they stay in that area, and some years they don't).

 

I got stubborn continuing to scout my go to areas for 4 days before the season, and into the 3rd day of the season, and was coming up nearly empty. Glassed up one broken up 5x and a few scattered cows the entire time (kicked a couple more up driving back to camp at night, but that was it). Walked into one "hot spot", almost two miles, fairly fresh snow. Saw ONE elk track on the 4 mile round trip. (This area, BTW, is the same area we hunted for my son's bull hunt last year. Elk...big elk...up the wazoo, the entire hunt, and scattered over a pretty wide area. Difference? Only obvious one...no snow).

 

Back to two years ago...Knew we had to at least try to make a move. As soon as we dropped lower, started seeing a lot more sign. Unfortunately the fog then rolled in for a couple days, and we couldn't get the kid on a bull. But we were seeing a ton of fresh elk sign, and spotting some elk. Lesson learned. They are either there, or they aren't. If they aren't, don't waste time hoping they'll magically appear, or thinking that you've just had a bad couple days of glassing. Go somewhere else.

 

I am half way convinced U10 bulls are spoiled wimps. The first sign of significant snow (a couple inches or more), and they can easily drop to lower areas, and seem to do so. I'm not positive about that yet, but that's been my experience so far, with 3 late season elk hunts (and four or five deer hunts) as a spotter or hunter under my belt there.

 

I agree that scouting bulls this far ahead of the season is nearly useless (some years), and is best left to scouting out areas you'll investigate and glass from the week before the season. Plan A's, plan B's, and hopefully plan C areas. Scouting this far out could work...if nothing pushes them out of the area for whatever reason, but that seems to be a fairly sizeable "if".

 

I'm headed out to U10 again in 10 days to scout for my nephew's second bull hunt there (and our 3rd bull hunt there in the last 3 years). I won't make the same mistake twice as I did a couple years ago. I'm going to hit my "go to" areas in the first two or three mornings, and my butt will be somewhere else, far from there, glassing in the evenings, pretty much regardless of what I see in the mornings. If after a few days of our best spots, we don't see anything, they will be all but abandoned and the mad search for the bulls will commence, hopefully finding them before opening morning.

 

 

 

 

[GJMauro12]

I don't hunt unit 10 and never have but the unit I do hunt for the late bull tag is split into two areas. Snow on the ground I hunt this side and no snow on the ground I hunt the other side. I prefer the snow!

 

I know every year on the late hunt the topic of how much snow is enough to make them move pops up at some point around the fire and I tend to think it doesn't take much for them to start heading out in my opinion.

 

With that said I will usually always check both sides during the week hunt no matter what the weather is.

[6ANut]

From what I saw from this last storm the elk were moving south (6A) saw two heards of over 100 plus elk lined out and heading south.

[Mountainman99]

That stinks it took you a decade to draw a late rifle bull tag in ten. I don't think any unit in az is worth a decade for a late rifle bull tag. Anyway I helped my dad and brother on this hunt a few years ago and it snowed. It was a tough hunt.the elk moved into the cedars and they were tough to find.

[5guyshunting]

I will be there helping a friend. Just look in the places you would never want to get an elk out of and your good to go.

[Perkele!]

I will be there helping a friend. Just look in the places you would never want to get an elk out of and your good to go

 

 

Very true !

[208muley]

Hunting spots where you can glass tons of ground isn't always the best idea in this unit on the late hunt. Everybody knows the best places to glass from and usually you will have company so when a bull is spotted its a foot race to get him dead, and that sucks. I have hunted this unit for over 15 years with my own tag or guiding and my opinion is there is two ways to hunt this unit for better bulls on the late hunt. One is to hunt smaller brushy areas and try to dig out the bulls that are in these small pockets that are not seen from the typical glassing points. Once a bull gets to these places they almost never budge and you got to root them out. Or you could go the polar opposite and go hunt the wide open stuff in the north. Lots of elk will winter in the "antelope" grounds hiding in the little cuts and draws away from roads. You would be surprised how many big bulls hide where the tallest thing is sagebrush or grass... Both ways take a bunch of effort and shoe leather but it's very rewarding and I used to see very few hunters and killed some dandy bulls doing it. Good luck..

[naturebob]

I shot the last good bull in that unit 6 weeks ago. Its all downhill from here on in ................BOB!

[Perkele!]

Ha!

I'm less disappointed after today's trip.

Just got home from the unit, less pessimistic.

Fingers and toes crossed.

[Perkele!]

Made it to the unit 2 days in advance. Set up camp, went glassing. A few potential shooters spotted.

Scott showed up with wall tent and much needed wood burning stove, it was 19 degrees and scattered fleuries.

Opening morning was a circus.From walkers to drivers, you name it we had it.

 

If that wasn't a sign of things to come...

 

We moved to our rather remote plan B location. We were alone but there were no shooters.

Day 2, Andy arrived to camp.

 

After restrategizing over the map and gps location I have previously plotted, we started very early and took our 120 degree coverage location. All day of glassing and monitoring the radio chatter, we saw one cow, we called her the emo-cow, she was all alone. I stalked to within 50 yards of her, not another elk in vicinity.

Next day was a repeat.

 

We left yesterday evening after the late sit. Other than one that crossed the road 75 yards in front of my truck at full tilt boogie, didn't have a shot at anything.

 

I still have 5days to do day trips and push my luck.