Lots of chances, no Bingo!

[Bullnuts]

Spent the last week in elk country with the kids. In all, we saw close to 50 elk, each of the boys had an opportunity but just couldn't seal the deal, and I had a 5 pt at 37 yards two days ago, but had a limb covering his chest. All good chances, but none of us was comfortable with the shot angle or had an obstruction, so no freezer fodder yet! Thinking about heading back up for the final weekend.

[shooter21]

Nice sounds like it was a great time so far !Hope to see some pics soon

[Bullnuts]

Hoping so too! Not a lot of elk in my area this year for some reason and the ones that were there were already herded up on opening day making it tough for a group of 4 people to travel and stalk up on them undetected. I'm hoping a couple weeks break will help them to forget about our blunders and one will make a mistake. I'd sure hate to leave the freezer in its current state for the rest of the year.

[>>>---WW---->]

Hang in there Bill. You'll tag out soon. Aren't you and Lew doing the week long camp thingy this year?

[NH Hunter]

Best of luck Bill. Hopefully you'll get another chance to connect. Do you think the weather has something to do with the lack of elk in your area or are they just playing hard to get? We've been hearing about the drought that the west (and a lot of the rest of the country) has been going through. My partner says that the mountain have been getting some rain and aren't too burned out once you get west of the front range.

[Bullnuts]

Hang in there Bill. You'll tag out soon. Aren't you and Lew doing the week long camp thingy this year?

Thanks Bill. Lew and I just finished our week in camp. Lew has the pager this week and then again during the last week of the season so he's done. If I can scrape a few bucks together for fuel I'll be heading out again.

[Bullnuts]

Best of luck Bill. Hopefully you'll get another chance to connect. Do you think the weather has something to do with the lack of elk in your area or are they just playing hard to get? We've been hearing about the drought that the west (and a lot of the rest of the country) has been going through. My partner says that the mountain have been getting some rain and aren't too burned out once you get west of the front range.

Our area was bone dry during the calving season so a lot of the elk moved on. There has been a lot of rain since July, but too little too late - most of the elk already moved out of our area and into another drainage where the rain has been more consistent. The elk that we did see were already herded up and the big bulls weren't inclined to leave their cows. All the bulls we called in were singles and were looking for cows, so they came in to a cow call pretty good.

Last year the season began a couple days later in August and opened on the new moon, which is something that I think is very important for rutting activity. We hunted with a full moon and it seemed that if we didn't get a bull to come in before 8 in the morning, we weren't going to see one. Next year the season starts on Aug 31, I'm going to plan on taking the first 2 weeks of the season off because that should be prime for bugling bulls looking for cows.

[NH Hunter]

Thanks for the information on the early season weather. It sounds like the best plan for us is to be flexible and if we don't see any sign or hear any activity, we should probably pick up and move. Our tags are good in 35, 36 and 361 so there's plenty of areas to hunt that are open to the public. I don't know how much difference in rainfall there was from basin to basin but it doesn't hurt to look around. Of course, it would've been better to do it before the season but we didn't really have that option this year.

[Bullnuts]

Yea, early season rain really dictates what happens in our area. All the moisture is dependent on a lot of snow over the winter and early rain to get the springs going. If the water isn't there then the elk will move to the places where the grass is good and the water is flowing. In our case, we have a couple perpetual springs that are always moving water, but they weren't moving enough to make a difference with the grass in the fields so most of our elk moved out. There were some remaining, and we found them, but it was nothing like it traditionally is when we'll typically see 30-50 legal bulls in a season and our camp will go 75%.

[ElkNut1]

Good stuff there bud!! I'll bet the boys had a blast too!!! Still lots of season left to fill a couple! (grin)

ElkNut1

[Bullnuts]

Good stuff there bud!! I'll bet the boys had a blast too!!! Still lots of season left to fill a couple! (grin)

ElkNut1

Thanks Paul. Still hoping to get 3-4 more days in before it's over. Bulls were just starting to bugle when I had to leave but there will be a few left, I'm sure, when I head back. I have a resident herd located in my honey hole and it's just a matter of being in the right part of it at the right time. I figure I'll hunt the timber closest to the water and I should be ok.

On another note, the kiddos are still talking about the hunt. It was a great time for them and I'll never forget hearing one of my twins breathing when I called a nice 5 in for him. Sounded like he had a bad case of the flu or something as ragged as it was, and he shook for five minutes after the bull busted us. Good stuff!