The day before the opener

[Coveyleader]

There is a group of deer, elk, moose, sheep, you name it. You're unsure who else has eyes on them but you've been watching them for months and they haven't really moved. What's your opening day plan?

 

[alecvg]

Kill one?

 

[Nickofthewoods]

Is this a trick question?

 

[Squirrel Master]

Kill one?

I'm going with this.

 

[Dwnw/theAltitudesickness]

Sure I'll play the game. Had somewhat of a similar scenario- WY- rifle elk. Found group of bulls on a big 1,000'- 3 mile long semi open face halfway up day before opener. Big face has lots of timbered drainages can't see into. Elk bed in random drainage each day. Recent snowstorm just dumped 10" and currently snowing. ATV road in the bottom. Can hike in from main road same elevation 1.5 miles to bulls. "No other camps" around as we were in before snowstorm hit.

Plan for opening morning- hunter hikes in to where bulls been at- spotter stays back to give hand signals.

Actual Opening morning- Slower than expected progress for hunter with deep snow. ATV's flying in on bottom road. Jump off and start blasting at scattering bulls.....

Many mornings/ evenings were same. With ATV's on the bottom road pushing elk. Other areas explored no bulls found. Continued to see bulls on big semi open face.

Summary, ended up filling all tags on raghorn bulls on open face. High hunt/atv pressure throughout the hunt. Ambush/ whitetail tactics to be up near bedroom at last light most successful. Unwilling to "race" other ATV's to elk in morning.

Hindsight: Not sure if hunters would of hiked hour earlier opening morning if it would of made a difference. Should of pinpointed bulls pushing out each morning into various side drainages. Then found way to get cross canyon for mid morning/ mid day shots. Expect if it seems like the animal is easy to see someone else probably has as well.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Wait and see if someone else shoots at them first. Makes it more of a challenge.

 

[49ereric]

Double up on ibuprofen

 

[Rich M]

Go hunting?

 

[Dos Perros]

Obviously you're going to hunt them.

But what I believe you're getting at is, what can I do to make sure someone else isn't hunting them?

You need to engage in a strategic deceive & deter campaign.

1) You sleep as close as you can to the animals, positioning yourself between the animals and likely access points. If you need to sleep at the trailhead, literally in the trail, you do that. They'll have to get by you to get to the animals, and you're not going to let them.

2) Setup multiple tents, and park every extra vehicle you can get your hands on, at your trailhead, to make it look like a lot more dudes are in there. Got a wall tent? Ever seen Home Alone when little Kevin McCallister is trying to keep the Wet Bandits from breaking in? Ya you do that same thing. Put a Michael Jordan cutout on a record player and pipe a bunch of loud music from the tent.

3) Get some night vision or a thermal scope. You want eyes on the animals and anyone else hours before shooting light to enable decision making.

4) Be prepared to shoot before legal shooting light.

 

[svivian]

Shoot it the day before opener obviously.... Duh

Dont hate the player hate the game

#keephammering#MTNOPS#BBD#HUSHLIFE#DIRTNAPDEALER69

 

[Geewhiz]

Sure I'll play the game. Had somewhat of a similar scenario- WY- rifle elk. Found group of bulls on a big 1,000'- 3 mile long semi open face halfway up day before opener. Big face has lots of timbered drainages can't see into. Elk bed in random drainage each day. Recent snowstorm just dumped 10" and currently snowing. ATV road in the bottom. Can hike in from main road same elevation 1.5 miles to bulls. "No other camps" around as we were in before snowstorm hit.

Plan for opening morning- hunter hikes in to where bulls been at- spotter stays back to give hand signals.

Actual Opening morning- Slower than expected progress for hunter with deep snow. ATV's flying in on bottom road. Jump off and start blasting at scattering bulls.....

Many mornings/ evenings were same. With ATV's on the bottom road pushing elk. Other areas explored no bulls found. Continued to see bulls on big semi open face.

Summary, ended up filling all tags on raghorn bulls on open face. High hunt/atv pressure throughout the hunt. Ambush/ whitetail tactics to be up near bedroom at last light most successful. Unwilling to "race" other ATV's to elk in morning.

Hindsight: Not sure if hunters would of hiked hour earlier opening morning if it would of made a difference. Should of pinpointed bulls pushing out each morning into various side drainages. Then found way to get cross canyon for mid morning/ mid day shots. Expect if it seems like the animal is easy to see someone else probably has as well.

I'm gonna say if you saw them the day before opener, you're probably the guy that everyone else is worried about.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Shoot it the day before opener obviously.... Duh

Dont hate the player hate the game

#keephammering#MTNOPS#BBD#HUSHLIFE#DIRTNAPDEALER69

Now there is some sage advice.

 

[go_deep]

 

[Bubblehide]

Decades ago I had a simular scenario with a very nice mule deer buck, but plenty of guys had been keeping an eye on him. I knew there would be 1/2 dozen guys hunting on the mountian he had been on all summer up to the opener, and many would head up in the dark. Come opening morning, in the dark, I headed ip a mountain I had been on several times pre season. I never did find a single buck on the mountian I went up prior to opening morning. Despite glassing my but off, I was unabl to locate this target buck until I dropped down the backside using a rock formation to hide my approach. I peaked over the rocks keeping my exposure ti a bear minimum. After about an hour, at about 2pm, I finally spotted him beaded. An hour later, I was standing next to a a super heavy 28 inch spread 4x4 buck, with minor junk on both sides, admiring him.

My point here is that mature animals are often aware of the season opener. Perhaps it's the huge influx of people, activity during the wee hours as hunters are positioning pre dawn. But mature bucks know when to move to safer areas within their range when they are aware of pressure.