123efd2
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- May 2, 2019
- Messages
- 131
Hey guys, Here is all the info learned from my recent selway elk hunt me and my buddy did in ID. It is intentionally vague as I will be returning to hunt here again. Thank you to everyone that provided info to help me scout and plan when I was researching hunting out here. I just wanted to write this up for others who are interesting in hunting this area. I apologize in advance for the length. The below are only representative of my opinions based on my experiences. Your mileage may vary.
Couple of things to note about the hunt:
1. Between my and my buddy hunting separate seasons, we hunted 35 unique days in the field.
2. Hiked a total of 250 miles.
3. First day hunted/scouted: 9/12. Last day hunted: 10.30.
4. Hunted Unit 19 primarily with some time spent in Unit 20.
5. We did not kill elk. For my buddy's tag, that one is on him. He had 3 bulls preseason and just didn't hunt hard enough to kill one. He didn't put in the training required and was not in good enough shape to get to em. For my tag, I was in elk 4 times, 3 were just after dark due to the brightest full moon, I've ever seen. 1 was my fault. I made a bad move trying to close and messed up the stalk.
6. Located 6 total bulls for the hunt. 1 was somewhere I couldn't have gotten him out of. 1 was killed 2nd day by another hunter. 1 was shot at 4th day by another hunter and never relocated. The other 3 are probably still there somewhere.
Couple things to note about the area:
It was an extremely wet year according to Biologists. Water sources were everywhere including up high. I never climbed more than a 1000 ft for water.
It was extremely hot both in early season and mid season.
My pre-hunt assumptions/information gleaned from biologists/other hunters kind enough to share information.
1. Wolves are prominent in the area and impact elk behavior. My experience: I did not see a wolf, hear a wolf, see a track, see scat, or any other sign that wolves are real. If they are there, they had no impact on my hunt.
Edit: since people really seemed concerned about this comment. A different way to say that would be: I have hunted elk in areas with wolves and without wolves. I was able to get into elk in the Selway using the same tactics, thought process, etc. I used to get into elk when I hunted areas without wolves. So the presence of wolves in the Selway did not impact how I approached and executed my hunt.
2. Thermal cover is important. My experience: this is true if unhelpful. Glassing is practically a waste of time unless you are in a burn. The elk stick very tight to thermal cover and I was never able to glass one at distance.
3. Knowing your biology is important. My experience: This is true. Toxic weeds are an issue in this zone. If I was not capable of recognizing productive forage vs unproductive, I would have hunted areas with toxic weeds, etc. Highly recommend talking to as many biologists as possible and studying up on plant identification.
4. They don't really bugle as much. My experience: this is true. We only heard a few bugles pre-season and never heard any in season. I believe this was due to weather not actually the area itself. I know of two bulls killed the 1st and 2nd day of season, that were killed by bugling but that was it.
5. Elk densities are very low. My experience: this is true. I'm not sure if this due to actual densities actually being low or due to the sheer amount of terrain and the difficulty hunting it. Note that they have not done population surveys here since 2007 so IDFG doesn't know either. My biggest takeaway from this is that any elk sign is an indication that elk are in the area. A single fresh bed, one or two fresh crisp tracks, one pile of fresh scat was sufficient for me to hunt an area. If you spend your time looking for heavy elk sign, you will not find it and will think an area is devoid of elk.
6. Elk herds are smaller. My experience: this is true. I never once found or heard or found sign of an elk herd bigger than 8 animals and most 2-5.
7. Getting away from outfitters and horse hunters is hard. My experience: Meh. I can see areas where this would be true but I never felt like I was competing with other hunters. The terrain and low density of elk preclude people really bunching up on each other.
8. This is the most physical hunt you will ever do. My experience: this is true. I've hunted the Chugach in Alaska a lot and can climb 2-3k ft up and down per day in some pretty steep country. This is worse than that. I never felt like I needed climbing gear to be successful (although I did cliff out twice) but hunting the canyons here requires 3-4k vertical ft down and back up per day at a 60 degree grade or worse.
My takeaways:
1. Hunt the freshest sign you can find. Even one good bull track is worth hunting.
2. Be prepared to hike 4k vertical ft down and back up per day. The elk are in the canyons primarily.
3. Glassing is a waste of time. Go to still hunt or don't go at all.
4. Hunt the meadows and know how to talk to the elk.
5. Talk to as many hunters as possible. There aren't that many x's in the area so knowing where bulls have been killed could be the key between killing a bull and hunting an empty meadow.
6. Keep an eye on the weather. Once it snows a lot of those roads are going to be unsafe.
If you want to kill an elk, go somewhere else. If you want an epic hunt, with epic terrain to truly test yourself in, this is the place to do it.
Couple of things to note about the hunt:
1. Between my and my buddy hunting separate seasons, we hunted 35 unique days in the field.
2. Hiked a total of 250 miles.
3. First day hunted/scouted: 9/12. Last day hunted: 10.30.
4. Hunted Unit 19 primarily with some time spent in Unit 20.
5. We did not kill elk. For my buddy's tag, that one is on him. He had 3 bulls preseason and just didn't hunt hard enough to kill one. He didn't put in the training required and was not in good enough shape to get to em. For my tag, I was in elk 4 times, 3 were just after dark due to the brightest full moon, I've ever seen. 1 was my fault. I made a bad move trying to close and messed up the stalk.
6. Located 6 total bulls for the hunt. 1 was somewhere I couldn't have gotten him out of. 1 was killed 2nd day by another hunter. 1 was shot at 4th day by another hunter and never relocated. The other 3 are probably still there somewhere.
Couple things to note about the area:
It was an extremely wet year according to Biologists. Water sources were everywhere including up high. I never climbed more than a 1000 ft for water.
It was extremely hot both in early season and mid season.
My pre-hunt assumptions/information gleaned from biologists/other hunters kind enough to share information.
1. Wolves are prominent in the area and impact elk behavior. My experience: I did not see a wolf, hear a wolf, see a track, see scat, or any other sign that wolves are real. If they are there, they had no impact on my hunt.
Edit: since people really seemed concerned about this comment. A different way to say that would be: I have hunted elk in areas with wolves and without wolves. I was able to get into elk in the Selway using the same tactics, thought process, etc. I used to get into elk when I hunted areas without wolves. So the presence of wolves in the Selway did not impact how I approached and executed my hunt.
2. Thermal cover is important. My experience: this is true if unhelpful. Glassing is practically a waste of time unless you are in a burn. The elk stick very tight to thermal cover and I was never able to glass one at distance.
3. Knowing your biology is important. My experience: This is true. Toxic weeds are an issue in this zone. If I was not capable of recognizing productive forage vs unproductive, I would have hunted areas with toxic weeds, etc. Highly recommend talking to as many biologists as possible and studying up on plant identification.
4. They don't really bugle as much. My experience: this is true. We only heard a few bugles pre-season and never heard any in season. I believe this was due to weather not actually the area itself. I know of two bulls killed the 1st and 2nd day of season, that were killed by bugling but that was it.
5. Elk densities are very low. My experience: this is true. I'm not sure if this due to actual densities actually being low or due to the sheer amount of terrain and the difficulty hunting it. Note that they have not done population surveys here since 2007 so IDFG doesn't know either. My biggest takeaway from this is that any elk sign is an indication that elk are in the area. A single fresh bed, one or two fresh crisp tracks, one pile of fresh scat was sufficient for me to hunt an area. If you spend your time looking for heavy elk sign, you will not find it and will think an area is devoid of elk.
6. Elk herds are smaller. My experience: this is true. I never once found or heard or found sign of an elk herd bigger than 8 animals and most 2-5.
7. Getting away from outfitters and horse hunters is hard. My experience: Meh. I can see areas where this would be true but I never felt like I was competing with other hunters. The terrain and low density of elk preclude people really bunching up on each other.
8. This is the most physical hunt you will ever do. My experience: this is true. I've hunted the Chugach in Alaska a lot and can climb 2-3k ft up and down per day in some pretty steep country. This is worse than that. I never felt like I needed climbing gear to be successful (although I did cliff out twice) but hunting the canyons here requires 3-4k vertical ft down and back up per day at a 60 degree grade or worse.
My takeaways:
1. Hunt the freshest sign you can find. Even one good bull track is worth hunting.
2. Be prepared to hike 4k vertical ft down and back up per day. The elk are in the canyons primarily.
3. Glassing is a waste of time. Go to still hunt or don't go at all.
4. Hunt the meadows and know how to talk to the elk.
5. Talk to as many hunters as possible. There aren't that many x's in the area so knowing where bulls have been killed could be the key between killing a bull and hunting an empty meadow.
6. Keep an eye on the weather. Once it snows a lot of those roads are going to be unsafe.
If you want to kill an elk, go somewhere else. If you want an epic hunt, with epic terrain to truly test yourself in, this is the place to do it.
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