yotebuster Report post Posted November 30, 2019 If you’re finding cows and spikes but not mature bulls you’re looking in too easy of country. Take your paper map and a highlighter and highlight a 1.5 mile band on each side of every road in the areas you wanna hunt. Then take another colored highlighter and highlight anything that remains. You’ll find that in 27 it’ll leave a lot of spaces, particularly in the southern part. Then using the topo figure out places that have decent hiking access to those areas, steep country that you can glass with out having to drop into it is a bonus. 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AzRaised08 Report post Posted November 30, 2019 Second morning update: We went the first few hours of the morning without seeing anything, so we decided to try another area since there is fresh snow on the ground and the elk are easy to track. We came across some tracks that looked like it could be a group of three bulls. After following the tracks for about a mile we spotted our first elk of the day: a cow. We watched her for a bit and found 2 more smalls cows. We were pretty disappointed but I was convinced the tracks we were following were not those cows and were larger bulls. My buddy and I decided to bump the cows to see if they’d lead us to the bulls that I was positive we’re there while my wife and father-in-law stayed behind to watch the ridge we were about to climb. We followed the cows up the ridge and ended up getting pretty close to them a few times. Finally I caught a glimpse of a rack. It was a smaller bull but it was half blocked by a cow and I could only glimpse it through some thicker aspen and bushes. We decided to give it some time and finally saw the cows and bull crest the ridge. We radioed back to my wife and father-in-law that we found a bull and they let us know that there were still some elk on the ridge we had just climbed...among them were two bulls. A large 4 point and an even larger 5pt. They ended up walking right over the top above my buddy and I. We ended up busting out but to get over the ridge to see if we could get our eyes on the three bulls. By the time we made it over a few minutes later the elk were nowhere to be found. We were closely checking the wind every 30 seconds or so and it was working in our favor so I’m not really sure what spooked them. Again, we got very close to some elk and each time we would stop and let them slowly climb over the ridge. So sadly we never had a chance at any of the bulls. We met up with my wife and father-in-law back at the car and they told us that from where the were, they would have had a perfect shot at the 5 pointer broadside at 100 yards. Ouch, that stings. Still keeping a positive attitude and I hope this afternoon and evening turn out great! FullSizeRender.mov 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
roninflag Report post Posted November 30, 2019 awesome. Envious! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flatlander Report post Posted November 30, 2019 Keep it up. You’ll get your chance. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tight Guy Report post Posted December 1, 2019 Totally jealous. Loved to chase Elk in the snow back in my Colorado days, Just keep at it and good things will happen. Enjoy the ride, and good luck Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CatfishKev Report post Posted December 1, 2019 Yotebuster is right, u gotta walk farther in to see bigger stuff. Easier said than done though. I sure is crap don't wanna walk that far in the snow! Also If you have tripods for the binos they are your best friend! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost85 Report post Posted December 1, 2019 They’re out and about today. Saw probably 30ish bulls this morning and my brother killed a real good one. Keep at it. It’ll happen. If you’re seeing cows and dinky bulls, look in other places. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted December 1, 2019 Just now, GreyGhost85 said: They’re out and about today. Saw probably 30ish this morning and my brother killed a real good one. Keep at it. It’ll happen. If you’re seeing cows and dinky bulls, look in other places. Yes, he did! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
joelpresmyk8 Report post Posted December 1, 2019 5 minutes ago, GreyGhost85 said: They’re out and about today. Saw probably 30ish bulls this morning and my brother killed a real good one. Keep at it. It’ll happen. If you’re seeing cows and dinky bulls, look in other places. Pics? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azbirdhunter88 Report post Posted December 1, 2019 44 minutes ago, CatfishKev said: Yotebuster is right, u gotta walk farther in to see bigger stuff. Easier said than done though. I sure is crap don't wanna walk that far in the snow! Also If you have tripods for the binos they are your best friend! Not in thick pine country Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CatfishKev Report post Posted December 1, 2019 24 minutes ago, azbirdhunter88 said: Not in thick pine country Agreed, but 27 is chock full of glassing opportunity depending where you are at. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yotebuster Report post Posted December 1, 2019 1 hour ago, GreyGhost85 said: They’re out and about today. Saw probably 30ish bulls this morning and my brother killed a real good one. Keep at it. It’ll happen. If you’re seeing cows and dinky bulls, look in other places. Pics?!? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AzRaised08 Report post Posted December 1, 2019 1 hour ago, GreyGhost85 said: They’re out and about today. Saw probably 30ish bulls this morning and my brother killed a real good one. Keep at it. It’ll happen. If you’re seeing cows and dinky bulls, look in other places. That’s awesome, congrats to you and your brother on what I’m sure was a great hunt! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AzRaised08 Report post Posted December 1, 2019 Day 2 Evening Update: Well the tag has yet to be filled. After a tiring and fast paced morning, things slowed down quite a bit this afternoon/evening. We hiked a pretty steep ridge that opened to a canyon where we had seen a bunch of sign before. We ended up getting the chance to glass a ton of country and saw a bunch more sign, but unfortunately the elk were 3 ridges over. It was about 45 minutes before sundown when we finally spotted them but they seemed to be all cows and there was no way we were making it before it got dark. We saw a bunch more sign, which was encouraging but didn’t get the chance to see any bulls this afternoon. It was just about dark, when on our way back to the truck, we almost ran into some elk. It was too dark to tell if there were any bulls in this small group, but I don’t believe there were. Oh one pretty neat thing that happened just before dark was we got a turkey “fly over”. About 12 turkeys ended up jumping off a ledge about 40 yards away from us and flew right over head. Not quite the same as an F-16 flyover but mother nature’s version was just as awesome. We’ll be back at it again early, so maybe tomorrow will be the day—at least that’s what we’re hoping for! Thanks so much for all the tips everyone. Definitely much appreciated for newish elk hunter like myself!! FullSizeRender.mov Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
el diablo Report post Posted December 1, 2019 Keep at it you’ll get it done. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
