Thomasj1107
WKR
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2019
- Messages
- 421
First time OTC in Idaho. We spent the first two weeks (minus a couple days) in the field and although we saw a lot of elk through the glass, and had encountered several bulls on opening morning at about 70 yds, the remainder of the time was just quiet and frustrating. The last night of the two weeks the a couple bulls fired up and finally it felt like we were hunting. Got close but ran out of light. Went back in solo 4 days later for a 48 hr go at it and things were way different. Had a bull at 25 with no shot, several cows close, chased more bugles than I can count, got close on another at last light, and just overall had a great time but came up short. I think in the end just realized we were so excited for the season that we jumped the gun and hunted the two wrong weeks. Feel like if the dates had been adjusted there’d be a bull down in there somewhere.
With all that said, the area we hunted had a lot of hunters along the road in and at the trailheads, but it seemed that the direction we went and the roughly 7-10 square miles we focused more didn’t have a single hunter in them. There was one day a random guy popped out of a drainage from nowhere, but other than that didn’t hear another hunter call, didn’t see another hunter going our direction, and didn’t see another boot track that entire time. The first two weeks I would’ve thought the reason was because there were no elk, but my eyes new that wasn’t the cast and the last 72 hrs in the area and the (literally) hundreds and hundreds of bugles proved otherwise. I know where we hunted was pretty damn steep. Not so much steep where it’s like oh man I can’t walk up this at all, but more so like I’m over here and the elk are over there and it’s just too damn steep to get down and back up in time kinda steep if that makes sense…
Does anyone else experience areas like this where they know it’s loaded with elk and IS accessible but it seems like for whatever reason just other people aren’t hunting it? Or am I missing something or haven’t thought of something or what?
With all that said, the area we hunted had a lot of hunters along the road in and at the trailheads, but it seemed that the direction we went and the roughly 7-10 square miles we focused more didn’t have a single hunter in them. There was one day a random guy popped out of a drainage from nowhere, but other than that didn’t hear another hunter call, didn’t see another hunter going our direction, and didn’t see another boot track that entire time. The first two weeks I would’ve thought the reason was because there were no elk, but my eyes new that wasn’t the cast and the last 72 hrs in the area and the (literally) hundreds and hundreds of bugles proved otherwise. I know where we hunted was pretty damn steep. Not so much steep where it’s like oh man I can’t walk up this at all, but more so like I’m over here and the elk are over there and it’s just too damn steep to get down and back up in time kinda steep if that makes sense…
Does anyone else experience areas like this where they know it’s loaded with elk and IS accessible but it seems like for whatever reason just other people aren’t hunting it? Or am I missing something or haven’t thought of something or what?
