# Muzzy elk advice



## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

After four days of hunting my LE area I have seen, let me total how many elk, carry the 4, divide by 7 = freaking 0! Pretty discouraging. The area where the neighbors' trail cam spotted pics previously shared has had no sign at all in weeks. Many other areas don't even have old tracks at an elevation of about 9,000-10,000'. The only bugles we heard came from a 28K acre CWMU right after sunset. Spotted some tracks in areas, but no longer there. In speaking with a DWR gal last night checking my tag she suggested a much lower elevation walk in only area... In speaking with a neighbor who knows the area very well he suggested a different lower elevation wintering area; you seeing a pattern yet? Got me thinking of the last time I had this happen, we left the high area of 9,000' and went to the 5,000' spot and there they were. Does that sound reasonable to folks? Any other general suggestions? I thought for sure I would be going back to work tomorrow after having my choice of elk, so it has been very discouraging to say the least. Any input or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!


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## bds (Sep 20, 2007)

Huge, I feel for you. A very similar thing happened to me when I had the Wasatch ML tag four years ago. I spent a lot of time scouting, covered a lot of ground, found a lot of sign, saw a lot of elk in person and on my trail cameras. When the season started, I couldn't find an elk anywhere. There was no fresh sign where a few weeks prior there had been abundant sign. I was very discouraged. I asked people who were familiar with the area, followed their advice and was able to kill an elk. I think that the archery hunters then the any weapon LE hunters had pushed the elk out of the areas where I had seen them. Don't give up hope. Take the advice you were given and check the other locations. Above all else, enjoy the hunt. This is an awesome time to be in the hills.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

bds said:


> Huge, I feel for you. A very similar thing happened to me when I had the Wasatch ML tag four years ago. I spent a lot of time scouting, covered a lot of ground, found a lot of sign, saw a lot of elk in person and on my trail cameras. When the season started, I couldn't find an elk anywhere. There was no fresh sign where a few weeks prior there had been abundant sign. I was very discouraged. I asked people who were familiar with the area, followed their advice and was able to kill an elk. I think that the archery hunters then the any weapon LE hunters had pushed the elk out of the areas where I had seen them. Don't give up hope. Take the advice you were given and check the other locations. Above all else, enjoy the hunt. This is an awesome time to be in the hills.


Thanks for the insight! Where did you find him? Lower elevation, deeper timber or ?? 
There are two spots that are deathly steep that may hold elk. I got into the edges where they would go for water, so I doubt it...


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## shaun larsen (Aug 5, 2011)

same deal where i was hunting. no elk to speak of up high. went down lower and there they were, i was running out of time, so i shot the first bull i saw this morning, a small 6. even tho he was small, i still had a blast!! good luck to you!


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

In speaking with both of my experts on the area they both stongly believe that they are still in there, but in the remote nasty stuff, so I am going there tomorrow. Fortunately, there is a road through private property that goes right to it, so If I harvest an elk there the retrieve would be easy compared to bringing it all the way out of about a mile and a drop and rise about 500' twice. Thanks guys!


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## shaun larsen (Aug 5, 2011)

just remember they travel all over the place this time of year in search of cows. they can be anywhere


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

Good luck tomorrow!


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## Mytoge Muley (Jan 11, 2011)

Huge, in my experience as some of the others have said they can be anywhere this time of years in search of cows or I have actually witnessed herd bulls bringing there harem deliberatley down low to get away from competing bulls. Good luck let us know how you do.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Huge - This sounds very familiar to a elk hunt I did back in '99. We hit the high country hard the first day and found nothing but old and dried up sign. After two days of hard hiking, we hit the lower country and found a nice bull. What we concluded is you've got to go where there is water. And lacking a spring of some kind, the high country is very dry right now. We found the elk at the stream at dusk and found they hung around there for the most part. Between drinking and rolling in the mud, the elk were where the water was. Find water, and you'll find the elk.


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## muzzlehunter (Nov 29, 2009)

Just got back from my le elk, we found the elk in the worst place possible. Luckily Thats where we started, was in elk every day. Even when they would go into deep timber they would call all day long. Didnt see any in the usual places, and easier canyons to hike. Also we was above 9000 ft. Good luck


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Elk were up high in my area on the LE elk opener, but after all the opening morning commotion, they seemed to move down lower. I would do two things - 1) check where your "experts" tell you to go. Deep, dark, and nasty pockets probably hold bulls that have been pressured thru 2.5 hunts now.; 2) spend some time glassing the lower country. Elk move a ton and they just might have gone lower to escape some of the pressure in the more "typical" areas that people hunt. Also, as suggested above - find some cows and water, and you'll probably find the bulls. Don't give up! Hit it hard and you will be rewarded. If not, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you did everything possible and will be that much better of a hunter in the future.


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## StillAboveGround (Aug 20, 2011)

Been seeing elk high and low...
2 groups this a.m. at 9100 ft.
Got within 50 yards of 2 6X6s (dark timber) this a.m. while looking for ML buck...


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Well, I just completed one of the most depressing and discouraging events of my life. I don't get too excited for anything anymore, but I was stoked for this one. Saturday night I was pretty down after hitting it hard for 4 straight days and not seeing a single elk or single fresh track in an area where pics had been taken of elk in the last month. I thought for sure the only issue would be which one to choose and where. My spirits were lifted again after speaking with my insiders Sunday and the vote was unanimous for this remote ridge where most people would not bother to hike. 
I was stoked and my legs were definitely refreshed after taking Sunday off as I flew right up the nasty thick mountain in no time without hardly a sweat in the much cooler air. I made it there and was stoked to see a few tracks right off. I then get into the fortress and the wallows have almost gone stagnant with moo-cow crap everywhere. Not a track anywhere past where I first made the top of the ridge. That made the 500' drop and 600' rise that much more difficult in returning. The climb just took it all out of me especially when my two quarts of water dried up about 60% of the way back up. I started feeling heat exhaustion as the sun was still pretty strong. My posse consisted of myself and my 70-year old father, so when he indicated that he had penciled in plans to fish later in the week, since I would not want to hunt way up there by myself, combined with now feeling completely exhausted really iced the move to throw in the towel, not to mention that the wifey poo capital had already been all spent after 7 days of being away. 6 hours of driving later I made it home and felt much better, not feeling nearly as disgusted with all of the wasted resources. 
I had called the CWMU manager on Sunday to request permission to access public land through his property if I were to harvest a bull on this remote ridge. He finally returned my call today and indicated that things had been slow, but that their public hunter had seen 80 bulls on the ranch on Sunday. Their hunting just began on Friday, so for the last 7 weeks the entire herd of elk had apparently just been accumulating on to the CWMU ground. We had heard some bugles coming from the private ground on two nights. I am at peace with it now, still extremely disappointed with it. There is only one other spot to have tried and it is a walk-in only area, which is out of the question being a one-man posse. Thanks for the advice, BTW we did try the lower area as we drove through there on the way back and asked a few of the oil field workers and the only spots where they have seen the elk was outside of my LE area. The most odd thing is that water was plentiful in many spots, apparently the archery deer hunter pressure, there is only one bull tag issued for archery, is what must have pushed them off to this reserve...thanks again guys. BTW-I only saw one tiny buck over 5 days, which was on Monday morning and had seen no less than 20 does. Their must have been 1/4th the number of hunters there this year compared to years in the past and I only heard of two bucks being taken in this area. Thanks again to all of those who offered support. I am headed back in to work tomorrow after taking today to get the wifey capital account back into balance and cleaning up the mess of a trailer and truck. I don't mean this in any way as a complaint session and I certainly could have held out through the last day on Thursday by myself, but I just didn't see that as a logical conclusion (to take such a risk of hunting alone with all of the **** Sasquatchuses out there, not to mention the Chupacabras) after having hit about 9 different spots combined with deer hunter's reports on about 4 more. The oil field guys know the lower ground better than anyone and had not see any on my side of the boundary, so I didn't get much hope in that and the CWMU being so big made it hard to imagine that them now hunting it would push many off to the public ground.


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## Huntoholic (Sep 17, 2008)

I know it is tough when you work your guts out and have those feelings of being spent. But the words of my brother-in-law come back to me, "you can't see a thing if you are sitting home".

One of my most memorable hunts was almost just like yours. The feelings were the same. A cow elk hunt with a muzzy. Should have been a no big deal. I felt like I was always in the wrong place. Then on the last evening sitting on a ridge, with those feelings of despair, over looking a bowl that I had check out twice before over the coarse of the hunt, there they were. To far to get to that evening and the feeling of them to not be there in the moring kept me up all night. I hunted them the next morning, but it was so quite. Not an elk sound to be heard. I was sure that they had moved out. As I worked my way down the ridge and to the place were they where the night before, I found myself in the middle of the herd. To this day I think that is the most elk that I have ever seen in one place. It took the rest of the day and just about killed me to get that elk back to camp.

My humble point to you "Huge29" is, IF you can make it out, even for just one more day, do it. Push those feeling of despair away. Go for a walk and enjoy the beauty. No matter what happens, whether you go or not, remember you got to spend time with your Dad and you got to spend it in one of the greatest places on earth.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

I agree with Huntoholic...if you can get out, then get out there. I had a 2008 cow moose tag up Parleys Canyon. During the archery deer hunts over the years, we ALWAYS saw cow moose, but when I drew the tag all I saw were BULLS and LOTS of them. I started with my bow and had 6 bulls at a seep within 25 yards on the first night. Never saw a cow during the first three weeks, but saw many more bulls. Switched to the ML and saw nothing for 1.5 weeks. Finally with two weeks left, switched to the rifle and finally found a couple cows with a bull...on the wrong side of the hunt boundary! Needless to say, I was depressed by this time. Still got out there...and saw MORE bulls but NO cows. Finally, down to two days, I was utterly out of options, so a friend and I just started talking to some deer hunters on the 2nd Saturday of the deer gun season. Low and behold they had seen a cow and calf earlier that morning and told us the general area. We drove up the road, got out to spot, and saw the cow immediately. 3 hours later, my cow moose was on the ground and I was on cloud nine. I had been out a total of 16 trips - saw 15 different bulls and only three cows....but it only took one.

You never know - those oil field guys may put you on something the last day OR you may make your own luck. Can't kill anything if you're not out there, and it's going to be a long time before you can draw that LE tag again. If you decide to go, good luck to you. Hit it as hard as you can, and make it up to the wife after it's done.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Bummer Huge. As a consolation, if you are going to the Bee Why game Saturday, I'm cooking brats and wings at the Marriott Center parking lot. You're welcome to join us and cry in some homemade root beer.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Sorry it didn't work out for you. I have to agree that the more opportunity you give yourself the better chance at success. Maybe the high success rate for the unit lulled you in to thinking it was going to be easy.

Too bad it worked out the way it did, a LE hunt should be about the good times and memories even if you didn't kill.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

You sound like a broken man. I've been there, brother. Boy, have I been there. Last year I saw one bull right away, then went 17 days on the ground without seeing a single elk. Then all of a sudden I was seeing elk everywhere those last couple days of the hunt. The elk moved in when the weather changed. All this rain can definitely change their hideout. 

You have my condolences. I well know what a mental and physical beat down you've taken.


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