I’m sure I’ve shared plenty online. I do like to share my experiences with others and see others do the same. I don’t mind seeing people in my spots, I’ve had spots overran with people over the years and they still hold elk and we still kill elk there. If people aren’t willing to put in the effort to effort to figure things out there theirselves they most likely aren’t willing to put into effort to put in the work once they get there.
Eastmans has been posting pictures in there magazines for years, it honestly doesn’t take a lot of effort to figure out exactly where some of those pictures are taken if your handy with a computer.
I see way more vehicles in the woods while elk hunting and still see way less out in the woods burning boot leather. I want to see higher hunter numbers and if me sharing some info motivates more people to get out and hunt because they think they may have found a secret spot than that is awesome in my mind.
The real secret is elk numbers are higher than they have ever been in most states and there are way more big bulls as well due to better management practices. Some areas were hit hard by wolves but there are still elk there, ID and OR are both having to kill elk because there numbers are getting out of control in a lot of ag areas. I’ve been hunting public ground in Oregon for elk since the late 80’s and it gets better every year.
People who use others being in there area as an excuse that they didn’t fill a tag are being crybaby’s and looking for an excuse in the first place. I run into people almost daily where we hunt, I also run into a lot of elk there too, I’ll get done blowing an opportunity on a bull and hit the road to walk to my rig and bump into someone on a quad telling me he’s been there all season and has yet to see an elk. Little does he know I was just chasing a bull 50 yards from there that morning.
The way I see it is I’ll post whatever I want online, if it can help 20 guys kill there first elk or get motivated to get out that is awesome, if maybe a few more guys show up to mess with my elk that’s ok with me too. Hunting changes constantly, just because one spot is awesome one year and crappy the next doesn’t have much to do with humans. Part of the fun to me is the hunt, attitude and effort have way more to do with being successful than wether or not some dudes parked next to you in the woods. For me hunting being around when my two boys grow up is much more important to me than being alone in the woods. If I want some alone time I’ll just go deeper into the woods
By the way, I hunt in the Starkey Unit, Sumpter Unit, Imnaha Unit, Keating Unit, Catherine Creek unit, Beulah Unit and the desolation unit. I’ve killed animals in each one and all of them can be great if you put yourself in the right spot at the right time. Being in the best spot in the world doesn’t mean jack if your there at the wrong time.
