In G a lot of that country can be accessed in a 3-5 mile hike and depending upon your legs less than 4 hr hike. This would be both the Salt and Greys side. There are good bucks throughout that country…in deep and just just above the trailheads.
H lays out the same in some areas but other areas will definitely require more travel.
Scouting will be huge, so as mentioned above, before selecting those hunts I would look more into how many days you have to scout and learn the country.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I hunted G for the first time last year, and this is consistent with what I experienced.
Had a little insider info from a family member, and this was a head start. Two-day scouting trip confirmed that the area I planned to hunt would give me some good opportunities. Then planned to hunt last four days of archery and first four days of rifle.
Mountains were nice and quiet during my first couple days, and I had a couple opportunities, including a quality stalk on a great buck. Didn’t pan out, but that’s archery hunting sometimes. As it got closer to the rifle opener, horse camps started popping up around water sources (I was the only hunter that I ran into not using pack animals), and you could tell everyone was positioning for the rifle opener.
Opening day of rifle was pretty crazy. After a morning of having deer pushed around and lots of shots fired across the basin, I ended up heading to some rougher country that was a ways from water and more rugged than most horse hunters wanted to traverse. Had seen some big bodied bucks from a few miles away and decided to drop in. Was glad to take the buck in my profile pic that afternoon. Pack out to truck was 7 miles.
So in sum, I scouted two days, hunted five days. How long you need to hunt may also be dictated by your goals. I wanted to kill a mature buck. Got an old, big bodied velvet warrior who is all main beams and good mass but not much for scoring. I am 100% pleased. But the next time I hunt G I’ll probably set my sights a little higher and that could take longer too.
Feel free to send a PM. Not interested in sharing locations but happy to talk general strategy and planning.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk