How much of your unit do you scout or hunt?

[Dave0317]

I tried to find some past threads on this, but didn’t turn up anything, so..
When you pick a GMU to hunt, how much of that unit do you scout?

Do you E scout the whole thing, then pick the best few ridges to check in person?

What about once season opens? I’ve had seasons where I spend much of my hunt all within a 2 mile x 5 mile ridge system, and I’ve also had hunts where I spent too much time driving 10-20 miles all across the entire unit thinking I might relocate to a “better” spot.

How do you strike the right balance? Most units are too big to cover it all in a 5-10 day hunt. But I would think you hurt your chances covering too little ground as well.

 

[justinspicher]

I live in the unit I hunt in so that really helps. I can’t imagine going somewhere to hunt.

 

[Raghornklr]

I make a couple trips out in spring and summer and try to cover at least all the road systems and trails of interest before season. Usually helps narrow down the area in season.

 

[Indian Summer]

If the unit is worth hunting, you should only need to scout two or three areas of about 10 square miles to find one that has what you’re looking for. If you’re doing it right, those areas should still be worth hunting when the pressure is on.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I hunt a block within my home unit of about 12 miles by 8 miles. That includes 5-6 drainages and 3000 ft of elevation.

So far I have hunted nearly three weeks averaging 10-12 miles per day on horseback. The elk move north -south cross-cutting the drainages. I ride roads and trails that are largely east- west. This allows me to try to anticipate which block of land they are in at this time.

Snow gives me an edge however this year with bare land I am running between 3 hrs and three days behind.

We have cut trails through miles of blowdown - some places 6-8 ft deep. The elk like the trails but they travel at night while we travel during the day.

I have two weeks + left of the season. Every day is another drainage. The horses get tired and thinner and I get older. This isn't Colorado. I operate in 100% cover. Mostly lodgepole jungles. We even killed one one year at 12 paces. Darn near self defence.

It takes years of time on the ground to learn the habitat and the travel patterns.

In frustration at times I hunt an adjacent district for a differant view. Either way, I am in the field for 30 - 34 days of a 35 day season and need nearly every day to connect.

 

[yvk253]

I live in the unit I hunt in so that really helps. I can’t imagine going somewhere to hunt.

that's the dream right there..

 

[Hnthrdr]

Depends, several units I hunt I know fairly well, so I have my usual spots, then I have places I will E-scout and then maybe check if the usuals aren’t producing. I also predator hunt, turkey hunt, and shed hunt pretty often in the units I deer and elk hunt so I try to cover lots of ground and always learn more about them

 

[wapitibob]

E scouted AZ off and on for months then went down a week early to see whare the Bulls were.

 

[rw79]

I spent a ridiculous amount of time e-scouting the entire unit(s) I was hunting in SW Colorado. I had hunted the area two years ago so I was somewhat familiar with the landsacape. Arrived two days before 3rd rifle opened and heard multiple bulls bugling so I was able to locate where they were hiding. Because of this, I ended up hunting a small piece of public wedged between two private ranches and shot a small 4x4 on opening morning. I’m not a skilled enough elk hunter to hold out for a giant and told myself I would shoot the first legal bull I had a chance at.

 

[Jason Snyder]

I e-scout the entire thing and pick three to four different options of smaller size within the unit. If I can physically scout I will so I can hopefully develop a plan A-D.

There is a balance between being persistent and stupid. I’ve hunted plan A for too long before and I’ve also moved on too quickly.

 

[shootnrun]

At home I scout just because I enjoy seeing ani.als. but generally speaking I know where they go when season hits.

For out of state draw tags I don't have the ability to make pre season trips. But I E scout and do as much research as ai possibly can to have 5-10 spots to check when I get on the ground. Then I arrive 2 days prior to season and see how they look. Thus far I've found elk this way every time.

 

[TaperPin]

You can try to hunt every type of country, everywhere elk exist, but it helps to narrow it down and specialize in the areas that are more productive for you.

A lot of my friends kill the hell out elk in the quakie patches, barely out of the foothills, but my brain just doesn’t enjoy that country or understand how to hunt it effectively, at least where they hunt - it seems too random.

On the other hand it’s not all that hard to look at topo maps and find dark timber full of elk - the topography makes sense to my brain, the feeding/bedding areas are easy to guesstimate, and in one day I’d expect to bump into elk.

Timberline elk aren’t hard to pin down since they tend to bed in predictable areas.

Guys who hunt clearcuts have a feel for which of 50 clearcuts looks better - I just don’t have a clue.

Pinion-juniper surrounded by sage can have elk in the PJ or they get out in the open once shooting starts - they aren’t hard to find, but just pulling up to an area it isn’t instantly obvious.

Large mountain sides of rather uniform timber, remind me of fishing a lake without any structure - critters aren’t concentrated as much and I wouldn’t know where to start.

Late season hunts are easy to figure out - just go with a buddy to his family’s haystack and unleash all the wallop in your pop gun. Lol

 

[5MilesBack]

I'm not much of an e-scouter, but I love exploring. I could hunt my favorite unit every year to the end of my life and still never explore all the areas. But I'll drive 50 miles one way from my base camp to hit a couple different spots that I've found from exploring during past seasons. And those spots never disappoint.

 

[Poser]

I live right on the line of 2 large and variable terrain units which are the 2 that I hunt the most. I scout in them constantly and try new areas out for hunting every year. I'm also close to 4-5 other units that I don't hunt, but I spend time in scouting just to learn the general area more.

 

[el_jefe_pescado]

I also live in my unit and try to spend most of my scouting time figuring out where not to hunt. It sounds dumb but actually helps breakdown the area into more "manageable" portions.

 

[Poser]

I also live in my unit and try to spend most of my scouting time figuring out where not to hunt. It sounds dumb but actually helps breakdown the area into more "manageable" portions.

I do the same. It’s surprising the overlooked spots you can turn up. I won’t say they are “easy” to access, but they are often within a half mile of the road.

 

[Fishshop]

that's the dream right there..

Haha seriously

 

[nphunter]

Not as much as I should, I normally hunt the same small areas of my unit every year and do very well. Some of those area's I've been hunting for over 20yrs and know like the back of my hand.

This year I decided to hunt a totally different unit and new areas I have never been. I spent very little time scouting and actually didn't scout anything I hunted. I went on a backpacking trip with my wife into one of the areas but ended up not hunting there because after we made it in a few miles we got into tons of elk.

The area we backpacked into an area this year and the first day in the new area we saw over 100 elk in like 5 different groups from a good vantage point.

Came out and went to another spot I've hunted in the past prior to archery going draw and splitting units. I ended up killing a nice 310" 6 point in that spot and then after that we went back to another spot we had never been. We spent 4 days chasing a really big 6 point, I could have shot it several times if my tag were still valid, however my buddy just couldn't make it happen, always in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

In Nov. my sister had a rifle tag, I took her to another spot I've never been and ended up tracking down a bedded 6 point bull that she killed at 150yrds.

I guess the whole point is I think being mobile can really pay off big time. Although there is a lot to be said for just learning a spot really well, especially if your just after any elk. If your looking for something specific a person needs to do a little more exploring.

 

[Phaseolus]

I live in my unit too and can access a good portion of the area I hunt by leaving on my ATV or Mountain Bike from the house. It’s nice to live next to BLM that also borders National Forest.

 

[nphunter]

I do think having some diversity in your unit is important. Before we went to draw the whole state was pretty much OTC with the same tag. I always had a high country spot, mid slope timber spot which we hunted the most and a desert spot for when the weather turns and the woods are nasty. Once the units went draw and we have to pick I stayed to the same unit I've hunted the most, the problem is that it's almost all the same elevation with similar terrain so typically when the hunting gets crappy the whole unit is crappy.

I do know the unit well and have hunted probably 50% of I over the years, a few years ago my buddy kid drew a premium tag and we put dozens of cams out over the entire unit. The areas I normally hunt ended up being the best areas with the most bulls.

The reason I switched units this year is to have more diversity in the terrain, in the new unit I can hunt from about 9500ft down to 2500ft, this really makes finding active elk much easier no matter what time of the season it is. If it's hot and early I'll go high and when the weather turns up high we can drop down low and everywhere in between. Although I don't know the unit as good in the end I will be better off learning this unit where I'm not doing the same ole thing every day.

If I were e-scouting only I would find an area where I could access and see as much land as possible and as many elevations as possible. I personally would avoid private land and look for areas where I could access a lot of canyons or big hillsides to glass and call. If I'm struggling to find elk I will spend a night driving around bugling from roads in the dark locating bulls and marking them on the GPS for the following day. Also don't over look heavily driven areas, the bull in my avatar spent his life within 100-200 yards of drivable roads, that picture was taken in a pond that is 20' from the road. You also don't need to go 20 miles, sometimes moving 20 feet can mean the difference in a bull answering you or not hearing you.