Knowing Your Hunting Area

[Swede]

We have sorta gone off topic on another thread talking about hunting areas, so I thought it a good idea to engage in a broader discussion here. How well do you know your area and how long did it take? Tell us some quirks about your area so we can see how different places differ.

This was the second year I hunted "my" new area. I have scouted it in July and in August for two years now. There are no cattle in this area, but a lot of tourists travel through. I think there is one herd and a few straggler bulls that come around. Since the area is small (approximately 2 miles X 4 miles) I am getting to know it well enough. Based on the cameras I had out the elk come by some spots about every two weeks, but other spots get hit about once a week. That tells me they bypass some locations but some are not bypassed. I need to study this farther to see if that is a coincidence. There is a bedding area near to a couple of my stand locations that may find a stand in it next season, and one water hole may be missing a stand. Based on the evidence that appears to be a prudent move even though it is harder to get in and out of the bedding location.

[saddlesore]

Two areas I hunt,300 miles apart, I know very very well. One I have hunted off and on since 1995.The other about 6 years. I hunted another unit on and off from1976 thru about 2000,but gave up on it after the game department issued too many tags a and over hunted/killed it.Elk all but disappeared.

This first image is looking south in my one hunt area.Those rock spires are about 7 miles away and I hunt everything in between when needed. As you can see, not much glassable country so one needs to know just where in that timber the elk live. I have killed elk pretty much all over it, but mostly in the next photo. In the last three years, I have introduced Luke Kessler to this area, and pointed out where to hunt. He has been into elk every year. Next year, I plan to put another young hunter in there during rifle season and I am sure he will see elk too

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This next image is if you turn around 180 degrees. I can hunt about 300 yards before I hit the cliffs. I have killed four elk sitting right beside those aspens in the last few years. I found it by knowing the area after putting in a lot of saddle time.I pretty much know where every game trail is

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[Trophyhill]

I know a couple areas pretty well but, typically I'm hunting a new OTC unit when I don't draw NM. I love seeing new country. Finding and killing elk, or not, in new country is what I love to do.

[Roosiebull]

I know several areas really well... that's a huge benefit to my styles of hunting (I rarely just go cover ground and locate bugle) calling is fun, but my favorite way to hunt elk is to cover ground, find fresh sign, then figure the sign out and then employ a strategy that fits the scenario.

calling is fun, but the hunting aspect generally happens pretty fast, I like the tedious and drawn out hunts more... hunting like any other predator.... it's fun for me, and the shots end up being a much more controlled situation (solo calling is very dynamic, and never under control.... I have little control of how it will play out)

what surprises me about "knowing" areas as well as I do is how much I learn about each area every year. I think I know spots in and out, but always have significant breakthroughs each year... I connect more dots, and see scenarios play out I hadn't considered in the past, so it makes me wonder how well do I really know these spots?

keeping an open mind is huge, even if the elk do the exact same thing 8 of 10 times, it's good to be aware and consider what they do those other 2 times, even if it's not common, it's good to have in your mind so you can improvise if needed. I used to think knowing my spots well is one of the most important things, but have changed my train of thought a bit.... now I don't assume I know the area that well, so I don't get stuck on thinking I know and not.

all I really care about is knowing the areas I hunt more than the rest of the people hunting the area, knowing the country, what elk do there, and different access points for different situations..... that's pretty easy to do, it seems most don't know areas well.

I think not knowing is the fun of hunting, it's satisfying to make the right decisions based on what you do know, and it's fun figuring out the things you don't know.

I also spread my wings every year, and pickup new areas to learn. I usually pick new areas based on the hunting pressure I see (or more important, don't see) and knowing or assuming there are elk there. it's not hard finding habitat with the resources we have today, and walking into good habitat usually will open up a can of proverbial worms

just this rifle season, elk hunting with my wife, i found a really cool area within an area i know well, that makes a lot of sense of why i see so much sign in this one area but never catch the elk there.... i'm excited about that.

how long does it take? for me it never really ends, i don't get to "know" a spot completely. i get the basics of an area pretty quick, but there is always something to pick up on.... always some dots to connect to learn the area better.

i think it's important not to get stuck in the "i know this area well" phase and keep an open mind.

i do know this is all a generalization through my eyes, and i'm sure a guy like saddlesore knows about every detail that can be learned about the areas he hunts. for me, I hunt too many areas (many of them change due to logging) and I have not been alive long enough to intimately learn all of the areas I hunt.... but I know enough about them to make me a hazard to elk in those areas (or at least a nuisance )

[7mmfan]

The ground that I probably know the best, is ground we don't hunt anymore due to low herd numbers. We used to hunt some ground around Winthrop, WA that we had dialed. We knew where the deer would be, and exactly where they would go if pressured. 3 or 4 of us would post up in various escape routes and pinch points and usually be done opening morning. If not then, the 2nd morning. I'm sure we could still kill deer there, but the numbers have fallen so dramatically we opt to leave them alone.

I am quite familiar with a lot of my local Puget Sound timber company ground, but the problem there is that it changes every year with new cuts replacing old timber, and good cuts growing up to much to hunt. So it's a case of constantly relearning the same ground.

This was my 4th year hunting the same general ground in Idaho, and the 1st year that I found success because I knew the ground, how to get around in it, and where to expect to find animals. We've been successful in years past but purely through making educated guesses and stumbling onto animals. In those 4 years, we've spent a grand total of 40 days or so in the field, in various part of our area. So I would say at just over 1 month in an area, patterning animals, learning travel routes, bedding areas, and how to navigate the ground in general, we're just now getting a good feel for it.

[WapitiTalk1]

It' HUGE to know your hunting area. I normally say it takes 3-4 years hunting an area to even begin to understand the elk patterns and mannerisms of a given spot. That said, I have been hunting a certain elk area for 6-7? years and am amazed at how little I know about the area. I also feel that the best time to scout an area is during the particular season you hunt it (early archery or ML, OCT/NOV boomstick, etc.). For each specific hunting season, the elk are oftentimes in a different feed/bed/escape pattern(s) due to many factors, including the rut, weather, logging activity (as 7MM and Roosie mentioned), and predation levels (to include hunting pressure). Good topic Swede.

[Lefty]

I’ve have moved a few time , my wife is a rolling stone, but I tend to get to know hunting areas quickly. And I need to mention a lot of that came from my trapping days trapping new areas often

Elk hunting is like mink trapping, follow the habitat you don’t need to be inside good habitat to know it’s good habitat

Some parts of where we hunt I know every tree , other I know how the tree groves are laid out and others I only know the drainage the water runs down hill.

I’m not a cartographer , well maybe not a certified one. But I’ve set up lots of hunting trapping by road travel indexes alone, DOT county highway maps and landownership
Didn’t need google earth or x hunts



I find the simple Challenge of new areas very satisfying and part of my outdoor experience

[7mmfan]

I’ve have moved a few time , my wife is a rolling stone, but I tend to get to know hunting areas quickly. And I need to mention a lot of that came from my trapping days trapping new areas often

Elk hunting is like mink trapping, follow the habitat you don’t need to be inside good habitat to know it’s good habitat

Some parts of where we hunt I know every tree , other I know how the tree groves are laid out and others I only know the drainage the water runs down hill.

I’m not a cartographer , well maybe not a certified one. But I’ve set up lots of hunting trapping by road travel indexes alone, DOT county highway maps and landownership
Didn’t need google earth or x hunts

I find the simple Challenge of new areas very satisfying and part of my outdoor experience

I agree with you Lefty, once you learn to ID good ground and habitat, it begins to get a lot easier to find success in new places. And while I technically agree with you that you don’t need Google Earth or OnXmaps to learn an area, boy they make it a lot easier. I’ve walked right into spots I’ve never laid eyes on and navigated to predetermined glassing locations, camp locations, knew where stands of trees and subtle benches not identifiable on topi maps were. OnXmaps showed me exactly how to circumnavigate private land boundaries, and which boundaries I just couldn’t get around because of terrain features. It’s another tool in the tool box, and a dang useful one. Use it.

[Swede]

You may not need GE or good topo maps, but they sure help so you can make the best use of your time in the field. I make my scouting plans around them. By the opening of season I am set for the most part.