Game Plan 2019 - Episode #2

[WapitiTalk1]

Tag: Bull tag
Season/Hunt: Archery, partner hunt
Time/Date/Location: Late September, the wee hours of the morning, in an elk state
Camp/gear: You and your buddy have a base camp off a main FS road. You either hunt from camp (if you hear elk below you in the draw) each morning, or, head out in one of many directions to hunt spots you’ve gotten into elk before (take a truck there, or, quads). You both have backpack gear in base camp if you decide you want to head “in” to a spot for a few days.

Allrighty then. You and your bud located several singers the night before by locate bugling way, way across a large steep draw about 5 miles by road from your base camp. This morning, you’ve driven the truck to the spot, and are navigating on foot via an ancient outfitter trail, around the head end of the draw, to the ridge you received answers from the night before. You can hear bulls screaming (three of em) as you make your way across the head end of the draw in the dark (headlamps on low, just pointing at the trail so you don’t trip) coming from that distant ridge. There is really no way to access this particular ridge/spot from anywhere below. Once you start ascending down the timbered and brushy (huckleberry and U brush) ridge the elk are on, favoring the off side from where the bulls are howling, you can tell that the elk are moving down the other side of the ridge…… down, down, down into a super deep canyon on the way to the deep dark bottom where they will spend their day in the cool creek bottom. Over the course of the next week, you repeat this drill two more times with the exact same results (elk are singing at the crack of dawn but are moving off that particular ridge as soon as day breaks). Again, there is really no way to access this spot from anywhere below, and, no way to access the deep hole the elk are spending their day from the bottom (no trails and way too far in from below to hunt up/in to said bottom).

I know it's tough to answer without being there and knowing all the variables but again, it's just a scenario to offer suggestions and share ideas. What should you do with the information you have to maximize your chances of bringing an elk home for dinner? You know there are elk at that spot at night but depart when daylight hits, and, moving down that ridge after crossing the head end of the draw obviously puts the wind at your back when you’re moving down toward the critters this time of the day.
There are some “nice” bulls in this group. What’s your tentative game plan to let the air out of one of these seemingly inaccessible bulls?

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[Swede]

I believe I would toss a few Mountain House meals, something to heat water, and tie on my bedding to that pack and go to a spot on the other side of the canyon in the early afternoon. That is where I would want to be in the early morning. There is no use continuing to come in from above if they can scent, see or hear you approach. I can go to where the elk are. I just need to be there first.

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

My thoughts:
1. my fancy new tree saddle and ultralight steps weighs less than 10 pounds, and don't take up the whole backpack. Maybe there's a tree to be in before first light. That would require intimate knowledge of the terrain to judge thermals correctly.

2. I'm young and dumb still, with a fancy pack designed for death marches. A spike camp, followed by a dive off the backside when they retreat to bed sounds reasonable enough.

3. I still hate the memory of my first elk hunt, when my grandpa refused to follow fresh tracks in snow over the ridge into a nasty spot. I don't blame him now, but I smelled blood, and I haven't suffered a bad pack out yet.

[Swede]

Trumkin, I like your plan. I just don't know how to get the saddle where you would place your stand without bumping the elk. Likely you could camp 300-400 yards up the trail and slip in before daylight. I could not sit in a Tree Saddle long. They look Uncomfortable. Go with a Millennium M100u and enjoy your stay.

[Chuckler]

I like the ideas already posted. The only other alternative I can think of is to consider the evening. They are apparently coming back every night if they are leaving every morning. So figure out what route they are using to come back and ambush late in the evening.

But my first choice would be to pack in and find a good spot to camp where I can't be winded and can get ahead of them in the morning.

[Lefty]

Only bulls! Sound like a great opportunity,they have been consistent both times of the day, Ill give them the evening try first
Likely If Im picturing this I had a similar situation this year. The bulls were coming up too late in the day Wow thinking back I was in on bull elk every time I hiked into that area

There is really no way to access this particular ridge/spot from anywhere below. ]

Im calling horse pucky. Or maybe Im not picturing the location. Ive motored across bodies of water, paddled across White water rivers, Slept with the game , snow machined in, hiked in hiked up hiked down. I have never repelled, but have climbed some steep faces

The only thing that has blocked me is private ground I couldn't get permission on

[Lefty]

2. young and dumb ,,,,,, death marches.,,,,, sounds reasonable enough.

When you get older that is called a good plan,,,,,, in my book maybe thats why I hunt alone so much

Short story. The guy that got me back into archery I took on a desert elk hunt. He is twenty years my Jr. Super fit, could stack 5 minute miles into double digits and 80 lbs lighter than me

We worked an area elk had been bedding,.. He got dehydrated, then sick, and hasnt hunted elk with me since,..

[WapitiTalk1]

Only bulls! Sound like a great opportunity,they have been consistent both times of the day, Ill give them the evening try first
Likely If Im picturing this I had a similar situation this year. The bulls were coming up too late in the day Wow thinking back I was in on bull elk every time I hiked into that area

There is really no way to access this particular ridge/spot from anywhere below. ]

Im calling horse pucky. Or maybe Im not picturing the location. Ive motored across bodies of water, paddled across White water rivers, Slept with the game , snow machined in, hiked in hiked up hiked down. I have never repelled, but have climbed some steep faces

The only thing that has blocked me is private ground I couldn't get permission on

Ha, I hear ya Dennis. But..... this scenario is based on an actual area I've hunted off and on for years. As far as access from below (to get you to the spot the elk retreat to after leaving the ridge in question), a hunter would honestly have to "crawl" in 3+ miles through the nastiest, thickest, steepest creek bottom and or side hills that the good Lord has ever put on this earth. Trust me... there is no reasonable access from below .

[Swede]

I had invited our Pastor's son to go deer hunting with me years ago. It was just going to be an October afternoon outing. He was in high school and played football. I was in my mid thirties and rarely did any special exercise outside of my work for the Forest Service. He was frequently telling me how good of shape he was in and how much he would like to go hunting. I think it was just to get me to invite him to go along.
As the afternoon progressed I noticed he was having a harder time keeping up. Finally it was time to go back to my truck as the sun had set. We were in a wide draw and I said we need to go back up to the side ridge so we could drop back down the other side to where the truck was. He knew the highway was straight below us just about 1/2 mile away. He said we should just go down the mountain and walk back down the highway to the truck rather than climb back up and go over the ridge. I said we could not get through that way due to the cliffs above the highway. He was beat and insisted we could, so I said "Ok lets go down". I knew it was a waste of effort, but decided Andy needed another lesson. We went straight down until he sees a 100 foot vertical drop off immediately in front of him. He looked and for as far as he could see to the north that bluff was there.
Andy gave in then and we started back up slope and he is even more tired now and the ridge is even farther. It was starting to get so dark I started running down hill and could actually jump off of rocks that jutted out and land in the talus and slide down like a skier. After one of those jumps I looked back to see if Andy was keeping up. I saw him fall and his rifle literally do a cartwheel down the mountain in the rocks.
I never heard Andy brag again about what great shape he was in, and he never talked about going hunting with me either.

[Swede]

I know exactly where RJ is talking about. I could see that in the original scenario "Episode #2" question. Access is from the top. The question is one of timing. When do you go in, and do you camp or hike out each day? What RJ was saying about the elk, which I did not really know until the episode question, was the problem with being scented on your way in in the morning. I liked that spot a lot for a tree stand, but was reluctant to go there because of the difficulty of getting one out. I figured it would be an all day affair for two guys.

[Lefty]

Im just not able to picture the senerio well enough

Do they come out on the ridge too late in the evening?
How far down do they go? Can they be followed to the bedding area and called out or short stopped?

Possible to get a topo of the area? Black out identifiables.

[WapitiTalk1]

Im just not able to picture the senerio well enough

Do they come out on the ridge too late in the evening?
How far down do they go? Can they be followed to the bedding area and called out or short stopped?

Possible to get a topo of the area? Black out identifiables.

Hope this gives you a clearer picture of the area. As mentioned, really no access from "below", and, you know what the thermals are doing as you move across the head end of the big draw and down that ridge to the saddle the elk are hanging on right at the butt crack of dawn. They move up out of that "hole" starting late evening, arriving at the saddle right around dark. These elk we hunt, they are not so dumb sometimes .

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[Swede]

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The little red dot shows where there is a great tree stand location. Note it is not a water hole. There is water all over that country. This is a saddle and a location the elk stop and hang around for awhile at least in part because it is open. Almost everywhere below is heavy brush.

[Lefty]

OK more questions
Are the major lines on the topo 100 foot intervals basically 500 feet top to bottom?
What time do they leave the bedding area.? Where are they 20 minutes before the end of legal shooting? How far down the ridge the direction of the elk bedding area
Are they consistent on the location in and out,.. patterned well?

Im now thinking catching them on the way up
Would a bugle move them quicker for a shot!
In stead of working with thermals can you work the wind or during rain or snow?
Really appears similar to a canyon we hunt only part of what we hunt is too thick to move through. I moved down the far side of the ridge and got seen by a big bull hat I wasnt aware bedded at the top.

Near dark I was 500 yards listening and glassing from the ridge a bit of rain. The herd was up on the ridge earlier than normal/dark. the bulls were sounding. I rushed in , literally the last minute of shooting I was 11 yards from another 6x6. If I knew what I was doing I messed up twice on bulls that day,.. So maybe my advise is terrible I can get you close, but can close the deal
Or kill him during th November season with a rifle
Just saying knowing what I dont know,.. We've had some bulls charge into us . Yikes its almost depressing if it wouldn't have been so exciting how many mature bulls we got close to

I would try to ambush them a day or two, then try calling


The canyon Im speaking of there were 3 other guys that were regulars at the top of the canyon. They would bugle wait if no response then leave. The day they ran in front of us they walked out an opposite ridge and the elk and me were working Other mornings as soon as they bugled the bulls shut up
Next year were pulling a Swede. Putting two camps at the trailheads or call joejoe8 after he kills his bull

[WapitiTalk1]

40’ contour line intervals, there’s a bit of up/down in this country.

[Lefty]

40’ contour line intervals, there’s a bit of up/down in this country.

I need my glasses

I think Im still going to wait a few hundred feet down . Im still going to try to catch them on the way up a couple evenings ,

[jmorr]

I have a similar spot in Northern Idaho that I also need to figure out. What if you bushwacked your way over the ridge to somewhere near the head of that creek bottom mid-morning and set up a spike camp. Play the thermals appropriately in hopes to catch them coming out in the evening, then be in position to intercept with the wind in your face in the morning. Maybe the creek bottom is out of the question in your spot because it is too thick. In my spot the creek is the clearest course to travel..