7E - Tag Soup

[varnco]

Well, I gave it my best and it wasn't enough. After 4 trips of scouting, 5 days of hunting (plus one full day of scouting before the hunt), I called it quits, as I hadn't seen a single bull. My buddy who hunted with me saw a bull, but unfortunately missed.

 

I also had done quite a bit of work on Google Earth, had over 100 water tanks/springs marked. Had scouted mainly the Northern side of the unit and scouted saddle mountain, white horse hills, maverick butte, missouri bill hill. But then no rain in months, and all the tanks that had water in them previously were nothing but dust. We found 1 trick tank that had water in December, but the only sign there was for deer and coyote.

 

Day 1 - Found a water source on the SE side of the mountain and sat trails leading to the water, as the water was at a campsite and there were about 3 other people sitting the actual water hole. hiked in about 1 mile into forest, found trails, scat, rubs, and thought great. No sighting of an elk - just squirrels. In the PM we moved over to an area near burns and glassed until dark and spotted 5 does.

 

Day2 - Switched it up and moved to the canyons near Bear Jaw on the N side, and as we're walking up the canyon (i am in the canyon, he is up on the ridge looking over flats to the right), he sees out of the corner of his eye an elk walking in parallel with him through some thick trees.. what luck. He shoots and misses twice - what bad luck. Hike in 2 miles up canyon 1 and move over to canyon 2 and hike out. See nothing.

 

Day 3 - Go back to canyons again hike up/out 2 miles each way (covered actually 5 miles) in a new canyon area (starts with an A) and see nothing except 2 hunters who hadn't seen anything.

 

Day 4 - switch it up and go further north and sit up on a hill near the radio towers and 523 where there are two trick tanks that likely have water and glass 360* and see nothing until dark (saddle mountain area)

 

Day 5 - Go back to the canyon area and hike in even further, to 9200ft and see nothing. Switch over to Bear Jaw and hike down and see nothing.

 

Had cameras setup day before day 1 north of Shultz tank and picked the cameras up (along trails leading down to shultz tank) and had pictures of 7 different hunters, 5 cows and 1 bull. Hunters were during the day and the elk were at night.

 

I want to thank everyone on this forum for all their tips. I'm missing something in my technique.

 

questions for those that hunt canyons:

 

1. How the heck do you get through the thick forests with the twigs, aspen leaves and pine cones crunching away and not alerting every animal within 200 yards of your presence?

 

2. We saw tons of sign - fresh trail tracks, fresh(er) scat, rubs, bedding areas, but didn't see buy 1 elk which was luck, since we were both walking the same direction (deeper up a canyon/into woods). With all the sign, shouldn't we have seen more elk?

 

I know hunting isn't a guarantee, and we almost had one...

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[Beaton]

Don't beat yourself up. Although we filled 2 tags in 6a it was tough. We saw elk but lots of people didn't. The full moon made most of the decent bulls nocturnal. Sounds like you did your homework and hunted hard. That's all you can do.

[hoghntr]

Man multiple people I know that always seem to kill were texting me and saying something about aliens and elk and 7E.. Think they were abducted! The hunt, that's what keeps us going back! I'm betting this moon gotcha as it was doing to buddy of mine I was helping with deer down South.

[Hoss50]

I had 3 buddies who tag souped that hunt too.

 

My son's teacher and her family had 4 tags up there too, and only filled one. They got a unicorn spike bull over toward the 180 side of the peaks it sounded like. He only had 1 funny shaped horn.

[PseAZ]

we had 4 guys eat tags in 23. I never seen a elk in 8 days of hunting, only time we saw bulls was one day we glassed after we got rained out, everything was coming in during the night it was rough.

[Jazz]

Yeah Im with ya. I hiked about 25-30 miles over 6 days and drove a ton to get from hike spots all over the unit. The family came, and had wifey pick me up at the end of the hike. I went over most of the cones and hills in the middle north of the unit. I walked over the white horse hills, most of the cones, Missouri bill, etc.. a ton of antelope and deer, and 3 cows. Never saw a bull. I had a good time and a lot of good advice. They just werent there in numbers. I heard it wont even snow in the area till 2018.

[602Huntr]

Definitely a tough hunt!

[Delw]

#1 try to walk on the game trails

# if your behind them your too late elk walk fast even when there just moseying along, only thing you could have done is hiked up the canyon and got ahead of them they had to be going somewhere. I know its easier said than done.

 

1. How the heck do you get through the thick forests with the twigs, aspen leaves and pine cones crunching away and not alerting every animal within 200 yards of your presence?

 

2. We saw tons of sign - fresh trail tracks, fresh(er) scat, rubs, bedding areas, but didn't see buy 1 elk which was luck, since we were both walking the same direction (deeper up a canyon/into woods). With all the sign, shouldn't we have seen more elk?

 

I know hunting isn't a guarantee, and we almost had one...

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[CatfishKev]

Yup like beaton said, don't be hard on yourself. A tough hunt is a tough hunt. I don't necessarily consider myself a "good" Hunter but I consider myself a successful hunter. The biggest factor in the long run is persistence. The best advice I can give anyone is keep at it and stay positive.

[mattys281]

Yup like beaton said, don't be hard on yourself. A tough hunt is a tough hunt. I don't necessarily consider myself a "good" Hunter but I consider myself a successful hunter. The biggest factor in the long run is persistence. The best advice I can give anyone is keep at it and stay positive.

 

^^^^

This is it. If you did all you could do, then you go home with some good memories and be thankful for the time in the woods, which is it's own reward.

[HuntHarder]

This hunt has turned into a tough hunt with High tag #'s and low success rates. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it, it happens from time to time and it's not like everyone else was tagging out and you guys couldn't. It is a tough hunt which was compounded dry weather and cold temps.

[lancetkenyon]

7W wasn't any better. Super tough year. The 2 guys I was with literally had 0 opportunities for shots at any bull. We only saw 6 total bulls. 5 were good bulls, 1 spike. All bulls were glassed up at 2+ miles, and all but out of reach at getting close enough.

 

Last year we saw 47 bulls...

[Crusader_22]

Yeah, we got skunked too. After seeing a million people everywhere on opening day and Saturday in areas we successfully scouted prior to the hunt, we pulled up stakes and moved to the east side of 89. We did see 3 cows over there, my buddy climbed O'Leary peak for fun, and saw a bull WAY up there, fleetingly, and no chance of a shot...not that we could have gotten it out of where he was! Basically our entire plan went out the window.

 

I seriously do not understand how G&F can justify 1200 tags for this hunt between 7E and 7W given what we saw there. I know water conditions, weather, moon phase, etc. hurt, but 1200 tags? How?

 

Anyway, hiked a lot, saw some beautiful country, and spent quality time with good friends...good enough for me.

 

Jeff

[elkaholic]

1200 tags -- they've had more than that for 10+ yrs in unit 10 - that's just cow tags

 

hey- people just want to draw a tag according to G&F - they don't care about success !

[Jazz]

I got some of the pics downloaded off the camera.

 

I wasn't joking about the Antelope Mafia.