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Opening day/first day

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Opening day/first day

Postby Elkhunttoo » 08 22, 2017 •  [Post 1]

How do you pick where you are going to spend Opening Day/first day hunting?

I have 9 areas that I can hunt that I feel good about. I will mainly only get the afternoons to hunt this season. I'm debating on where I want to go first day, and so on. How do the rest of you decide on one area over another?
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Re: Opening day/first day

Postby Timber » 08 22, 2017 •  [Post 2]

I would mainly pick a spot that has the least amount of people as long as there are a fair number of elk in there of course.
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Re: Opening day/first day

Postby BrentLaBere » 08 22, 2017 •  [Post 3]

Right where I found elk on my scouting trip. Elk seem to keep that pattern from the summer months until everyone hits the hills. After that the game plan needs to change, but ill be heading to that general area well before sunrise with the thermals in my favor and listening. If I dont hear anything I will start to creep a long at shooting light and may let out some location calls. Depends what I hear the night before.
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Re: Opening day/first day

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 08 22, 2017 •  [Post 4]

I'll probably hunt several spots the first day and exchange TC SD cards to look at later at camp. We've got the area dialed in pretty good and there's a high probability that there will be wapiti in any area we decide to poke into. I will try to avoid a couple of deep holes that I know one of my hunting partners will want to parachute into... will save that for day two or three once I get my mountain elk legs/wind back with me 8-).
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Re: Opening day/first day

Postby Indian Summer » 08 22, 2017 •  [Post 5]

There's only 1 first day. I'm not out to glass huge areas. I am NOT sight seeing! It's not about gathering information for tomorrow's plan. It's about today! I'm in a spot where encounters are close up and personal and if the elk are there there's a good chance I can kill one. I don't set foot there before that day. No cameras. No calling or even glassing. I show unannounced up in the predawn light ready to rock and roll like the special ops guys that took Bin Laden out! 8-)
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Re: Opening day/first day

Postby saddlesore » 08 22, 2017 •  [Post 6]

In the last 10 years, I have only hunted two different Hunting units.Each time I hunted one, I always went back to the same spot as last year and my last kill.I tend to not move around to new areas once I get to know a particular area well and have been successful in it.

Muzzle loader,I have killed three cows within a 100 yards of each other.Rifle I have killed two bulls and one cow shooting from the same fallen tree.

The the two bulls I killed in the first five minutes of sitting there in successive years. Although the 2nd bull, I was three days late starting to hunt because of a moose hunt.The cow took 8 days . If not successful opening day, the the next day I might move around. I know if I sit at that location long enough,I will kill an elk.Last year it did not work though and I did not see one elk.

It's been awhile,but In this bowl I killed 8 bulls in eight years straight.Not all on opening day,,but when hunting this region I was always there on opening day.I never ventured out of it the entire season..

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Re: Opening day/first day

Postby Roosiebull » 08 23, 2017 •  [Post 7]

Opening day, I pick an area I like to hunt, and an area I will not run out of turf. After day 1, I start breaking down spots one by one...opening day I just like to get out and hunt. Probably why I have never killed one opening day, killed a few on day 2 though
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