Advice After First Elk Hunt

[Bugle]

My father and I went on our first elk trip - a DIY, backcountry hunt in the Sangres. We had a lot of fun, though we never got into elk. Some quick details: we had llamas, and camped about 5-miles into a long drainage I had e-scouted (~10,200 feet). We hiked to various benches, avalanche clearings, blow-downs and to the timberline from 9,000 to 11,500ft. There was a bright full-moon and clear skies the whole trip, and a record cold front hit the day before the opener (it was 11 degF our first night). We saw 1-mule deer and no elk in 3-1/2 days of hunting. That could be due to a number of factors, but I have questions on a few things;

1. every night our water (bladders, bottles, Sawyer Minis and LifeStraws) froze solid. We kept them in the tent with us, but that didn't help. We had to boil water from the creek each morning to pack water for the hunts until we were able to thaw our filters in the sun. How do you keep water from freezing at night? I've seen some people say put it in your sleeping bag, but we were cold in our bags as it was. Anyone tried a handwarmer in a sock?

2. the spots I picked to hunt via e-scouting looked the part in every way. We found fairly fresh sign (at one location there were rubs with tree sap still beading out of them). But like I said, we never saw elk. When you run into fresh sign as we did, would you hunt the same area for several days, or should we have abandoned our plans and moved to a new drainage after not finding elk the first 2 days? In other words, how long do you give it until you give up on an area?

I think a lot of our failure was due to choosing an area that was a little out of our league geographically. We put in a great deal of effort every day, averaging about 8-miles of hiking in steep, tough country; but even then we were always near the trail (although we barely saw anyone the whole trip). I feel like we need to choose an area that is less thick with blow-down and less steep that will allow us to get off the trail a little easier. Of course then we'll pay the price with a higher density of hunters... Also, by hiking in so deep, we kind of mentally disallowed the idea of hiking out and trying a different drainage because of the physical effort it took to get back there.

Oh well, lessons learned for next year. Any help on the questions above is appreciated, or advice for a newbie in general.

 

[jspradley]

Only thing I have to offer is to boil water, pour it in your nalgene and keep that in your sleeping bag.

Keeps the water from freezing AND helps keep you nice and toasty.

Also keep your stove nearby and ready to go as the heat will likely run out in the middle of the night and you might have to re-up your water bottle heating system!

The Sangres are a bitch... spent 8 days in them in 2016, saw some beastly mule deer and a ton of elk sign but only 1 bull and a few cows. Was an awesome trip though

 

[fmyth]

Sawyer recommends you do not use your filter after it freezes as there is no way to tell if it is damaged internally.

 

[Felix40]

I dont have too much to offer except that those filters are probably ruined now if they froze when they were wet

 

[ChrisAU]

Why only 3.5 days?

I've abandoned bladders because of freezing, I place bottles in my boots in the tent next to me.

 

[jspradley]

Bladders suck, nalgenes all the way!

A steripen will solve your freezing filter problem, and it won't clog up. Works great with a nalgene too

 

[Apollo117]

Even though you were cold in your sleeping bag, the temp inside your bag was likely still above 32 degrees. Which would keep your filters and water from freezing.

Y'all may want to invest in warmer bags or add another bag to your sleep system.

Sounds like a great trip with your dad and a good learning opportunity.

 

[Kenai_dtracker]

I've heard of burying bottles below the frost line, but then of course you'd need a small camp shovel and all depends how cold.

 

[jmez]

Sap bubbling out of rubs on trees isn't really fresh sign. Those could have been from August. 3 1/2 days isn't near long enough on an elk hunt unless you know the area and know where the elk are located.

I consider fresh sign to be see them, hear them or smell them. You don't have one or more of the three move on until you do.

 

[RIELLY24]

I had a similar situation this year, there is an undeniable element of luck when hunting, we do our best to reduce that percentage but it never fully goes away....my plan for next year is to stay mobile and cover ground until i find them. as for the water issue i would say put it in your bag, sleeping in your clothes is a must and maybe upgrade the bag. Good luck next year.



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[theleo91386]

3 1/2 days when you've never hunted elk before isn't very telling, and the rub doesn't sound very fresh either. Keeping water in your sleeping bag is the best way to keep it from freezing. If you're set on trying to hunt elk on a regular basis, you'll need to just embrace the misery. What you really accomplished was a scouting trip. Yeah, you could go somewhere new but it will be new terrain with a different set of rules to play by. If you're confident that you choose a solid area you need to up your trips to more like 7-10 days and spend a couple of years hunting it before you consider moving elsewhere. There's a learning curve to elk hunting, and it's not one that you can get over in a few days. Failure isn't a bad thing, it's an opportunity to learn, and there's lots to learn about elk hunting.

 

[cnelk]

Get yourself a HydraPak Flexible water bottle - kiss those nalgene bottles goodbye.

As far the elk hunt, well, there's a 10% Club and a 90% Club every year

 

[Poser]

I agree that 3.5 days is just not sufficient. We typically plan 8 days for a 5 day rifle season and I had 10 days of scouting prior to the season. The more days you can have on the front end to scout the area, the better.

 

[rayporter]

cold in your bag=get better ground insulation!!!
cover your water at night.

 

[Bugle]

Sawyer recommends you do not use your filter after it freezes as there is no way to tell if it is damaged internally.

I dont have too much to offer except that those filters are probably ruined now if they froze when they were wet

Bladders suck, nalgenes all the way!

A steripen will solve your freezing filter problem, and it won't clog up. Works great with a nalgene too

I did not know that about the Sawyers! I used mine several times after it froze, so thankfully I got lucky. I will not use them again. Thanks for the heads-up. Nalgenes and a Steripen will be added to the kit. Thanks!

Sap bubbling out of rubs on trees isn't really fresh sign. Those could have been from August. 3 1/2 days isn't near long enough on an elk hunt unless you know the area and know where the elk are located.

I consider fresh sign to be see them, hear them or smell them. You don't have one or more of the three move on until you do.

Lots of advice on 3-1/2 days not being nearly long enough. We did hike in 1-day earlier to scout a little, but I agree the trip should have been longer. We were limited some by family obligations but also left one night earlier than we intended to because of lack of game. I'll admit that we were pretty disheartened after hunting as hard as we did and not even seeing a cow. Sounds like the general advice is "toughen up, buttercup." I will be more mentally prepared for next year.

 

[Bugle]

I consider fresh sign to be see them, hear them or smell them. You don't have one or more of the three move on until you do.

Does the "move-on" advice apply even when glassing larger areas? In other words, should we have spent time glassing large areas if there was not sufficient sign nearby? We spent the better part of 2 days glassing larger areas near the treeline based on the rubs we found (and LOTS ~1-week old scat on a bench in another area). Would you recommend not stopping to glass until fresh sign (see/hear/smell) is found?

 

[trophyhill]

Next time plan A, B, C, D.......

Archery hunt? Did you call? Still hunt? Run n gun? Need more information

 

[Indian Summer]

Curious... how far in did you hike to set up your camp?

E scouting is barely scouting. Nothing compared to word of mouth from a trusted source or boots on the ground. For that reason I would suggest camping at the truck, with heat, and hunting from there until you see something worth packing in for.

I will say I admire your persistence working hard to get that high and sticking it out when your water froze. In my opinion you do have what it takes to work your way to becoming a successful elk hunter. Don’t be discouraged. I’m sure if I showed up where you worked and tried to do your job with no training I wouldn’t be very good at it. Elk hunting takes more time to learn than most jobs. Lucky for you learning the ropes is more fun than work right? Good luck pilgrim.

 

[Bugle]

Next time plan A, B, C, D.......

Archery hunt? Did you call? Still hunt? Run n gun? Need more information

1st Rifle Season in CO. (Oct. 12-16). I did a very small amount of cow calling while still hunting in dense timber. I smelled a strong smell of what I thought to be elk - smelled like a herd of cattle or something - and pursued that for a couple of hours hiking through some dense blowdown and sparingly using a cow call (to no avail). Otherwise, I stayed quiet.

I had picked out several potential glassing spots based on e-scouting, and we used those as base points for sitting in the mornings and afternoons, then still hunted during the day.

Curious... how far in did you hike to set up your camp?

E scouting is barely scouting. Nothing compared to word of mouth from a trusted source or boots on the ground. For that reason I would suggest camping at the truck, with heat, and hunting from there until you see something worth packing in for.

I will say I admire your persistence working hard to get that high and sticking it out when your water froze. In my opinion you do have what it takes to work your way to becoming a successful elk hunter. Don’t be discouraged. I’m sure if I showed up where you worked and tried to do your job with no training I wouldn’t be very good at it. Elk hunting takes more time to learn than most jobs. Lucky for you learning the ropes is more fun than work right? Good luck pilgrim.

We camped about 5-miles into a long drainage at around 10,200 ft. Our hope was to get deeper than the trailhead hunters by starting farther in (and that definitely worked because we saw almost nobody and the trailhead had a handful of parties based there when we returned - all unsuccessful as well).

I agree that, while the e-scouting was helpful and put us in areas that looked "elk-y," it was absolutely not indicative of the roughness of the terrain. This year, I plan to take my wife and daughter on a vacation near the area I plan to hunt next and do a lot of hiking/scouting before the hunt. We really wanted the DIY, backpacking experience as much as the hunting experience - and that part was definitely fun.

I appreciate the words of encouragement.

 

[jmez]

Does the "move-on" advice apply even when glassing larger areas? In other words, should we have spent time glassing large areas if there was not sufficient sign nearby? We spent the better part of 2 days glassing larger areas near the treeline based on the rubs we found (and LOTS ~1-week old scat on a bench in another area). Would you recommend not stopping to glass until fresh sign (see/hear/smell) is found?

If I've never been in an area then yes. I would glass large areas at first or last light if they are open. I cover country until I find fresh sign. If I find it I'll spend all of my time right there determining if the elk are still there or not. I would walk past 1 week old sign. Those elk may still be there but they could be 5 or more miles from there.

You have to approach elk a little differently. You need to now where they are to hunt them. Doesn't matter where you want them to be, where you think they should be or where they were a week ago.

There is no such thing as an easy elk. As you found out, you have to be prepared to go days without seeing anything. All of that can change in seconds. You are looking for a needle in a haystack, prepare yourself for that.