Hunting Dark Timber

[LostArra]

excellent post by kad11 especially this:

"Be ready to kill an elk anywhere. Last year i shot a bull at 4 pm at the end of Oct... I was on my way to a small clearing that I wanted to watch for the last hour of light when I stumbled on a lone bull raking a tree at about 60 yards. Just right place right time. Fight the urge to relax and go in to "travel " mode (head down, moving too fast, making noise, etc) when you are in the timber. "

When you haven't seen an elk in hours (or days) it's easy to go into "travel" mode which usually ends poorly with the sound of thundering hooves.

 

[kad11]

I would recommend a book called "The Still - Hunter" by T.S. Van Dyke. The first half really does a great job of describing the mindset you should have when slinking through the timber (the second half is aimed more at open country hunters). I definitely agree with LostArra that it can be hard to keep your spirits up and concentration sharp when you haven't seen an animal for hours or days, but if you keep at it you WILL be successful eventually.

I've gotten to the point where I feel the day was successful if I didn't spook any animals because of my own carelessness. You have to just accept that there will be some days where you only see squirrels and birds, and that's ok because you aren't always going to pick the correct ridge, bench, etc. The really nice thing is that WHEN you do see something, it will likely be VERY close and very calm/ relaxed.

 

[MattG]

This is all a great help. My original plan was to go for first rifle. It's a short season (only 5 days), and second is 9 days long. The upside of going earlier is obviously that there will be fewer hunters, and less prior pressure, downside that it's short. Any thoughts on which is a better choice?