Elk Map Analysis Proposition

[DMiller6868]

Folks- I'm really struggling to dissect an area to hunt and have been told it holds a lot of elk, but I'm trying to figure out where they might feed. The bedding seems pretty obvious, but I don't want to blow all the elk out the first day by hiking through their beds.

If you feel like you're good at looking at google earth and pointing out feeding, bedding and locating great ambush or hunting spots let me know. I'm desperate for some good advice as I'm only used to finding a north facing slope for bedding with an easy access point to south facing food, and ambushing them as they head between the two. This area looks a bit different and I would appreciate the advice. I'd prefer not to post the spot up on the forum, so I'd ask you to PM me and we can arrange to send you a screenshot of the map and location.

I will pay you $1 per every minute we spend on the phone or you spend dissecting the map and will paypal you the funds immediately afterwards. If we spend an hour dissecting the map and spots to hunt I'll send you $60. It's that simple. I just want a separate set of eyes on this to make sure I'm not thinking about this incorrectly and ruining my hunt.

[WapitiTalk1]

Dave, why not open the your area/spot in Caltopo, save it as a file (PDF if I remember correctly), open it up in MS Paint and scribble out all the tell-tale markings (road #s, trail #s, landmarks, etc.) and start a "here's an area I may hunt, thoughts on target spots to check out". I betcha you'd get a lot of good feedback

Edit: Here's what I'm talking about. I grabbed a chunk of map from Caltopo in a random WA area, copied it to PDF, took a snapshot of it while in PDF, pasted it into MS Paint and scribbled out the trail #, quad marker numbers, etc. Now I can safely post this map up and discuss where I'm thinking the points of interest are, and, ask others for their input

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[Huntrgathr]

What's your budget ? What state ? I can scout it and give you elk counts, feeding, bedding and watering schedules, movement patterns and herd quality stats. For only 50 cents a minute ! Only partly joking...

[DMiller6868]

Dave, why not open the your area/spot in Caltopo, save it as a file (PDF if I remember correctly), open it up in MS Paint and scribble out all the tell-tale markings (road #s, trail #s, landmarks, etc.) and start a "here's an area I may hunt, thoughts on target spots to check out". I betcha you'd get a lot of good feedback

Edit: Here's what I'm talking about. I grabbed a chunk of map from Caltopo in a random WA area, copied it to PDF, took a snapshot of it while in PDF, pasted it into MS Paint and scribbled out the trail #, quad marker numbers, etc. Now I can safely post this map up and discuss where I'm thinking the points of interest are, and, ask others for their input

Test.png

I appreciate the advice. The reason I wanted to opt against it was because the last person who did that exact thing, it only took me 3 minutes on google earth with a topo overlay to find the exact spot they were referring to. Granted they mentioned a few other comments that whittled it down, but this spot is a pretty common area of public land known to quite a few. I'm always hesitant to share spots and things that I've found as I feel like it allows other to shortcut the scouting efforts, even if it is via google earth. I also think a topo and an aerial is critical for this as the feeding areas are harder to identify with just a topo I think.

[BrentLaBere]

Folks- I'm really struggling to dissect an area to hunt and have been told it holds a lot of elk, but I'm trying to figure out where they might feed. The bedding seems pretty obvious, but I don't want to blow all the elk out the first day by hiking through their beds.

If you feel like you're good at looking at google earth and pointing out feeding, bedding and locating great ambush or hunting spots let me know. I'm desperate for some good advice as I'm only used to finding a north facing slope for bedding with an easy access point to south facing food, and ambushing them as they head between the two. This area looks a bit different and I would appreciate the advice. I'd prefer not to post the spot up on the forum, so I'd ask you to PM me and we can arrange to send you a screenshot of the map and location.

I will pay you $1 per every minute we spend on the phone or you spend dissecting the map and will paypal you the funds immediately afterwards. If we spend an hour dissecting the map and spots to hunt I'll send you $60. It's that simple. I just want a separate set of eyes on this to make sure I'm not thinking about this incorrectly and ruining my hunt.

PM Sent

[Z Barebow]

As far as analysis, I am sure you can find someone to help you out.

As far as protecting your spots, I get that and I do the same. Public land and public spots don't need to equal public knowledge!

There are several ways to approach this.

In Google Earth, I have downloaded "Earth Point Topo Map". You can toggle the topo on/off. When you have an image you want to save/distribute, you can save image via GE. When you do this, it does not have the coordinates, elevation or image date (IE The GE info window) to your file.

If this image still has placemarks which might give spot away, open image in MS Paint. Use the eraser button to remove place names and resave the file.

[StartMyHunt]

Dave,

If you are hunting in CO, I have already done this for most of the state. You should check out my maps.

Mike

[Indian Summer]

I might take you up on that. As long as it's NOT Colorado. I have never hunted there so I don't feel that I am qualified to give an opinion on it. For two reasons mainly: The number of hunters is such a big factor that you can't make a call without actually going there to see what other hunters do and how to plan around it. And the other is that the elevations are so high I'm not as experienced with their choice of habitat... food and cover, up there. I've killed most of my bulls from 6000 to 8000 feet.

I will say that I believe that there are always two sets of elk in an area. The ones that live lower and a few bands that prefer to roam the high country. Keep that in mind as you are staring at topos and Google Earth.