QELKhunter
Well-known member
Pre-Hunt scouting:
Welcome fellow hunt talk members! This thread will be my wife and I's elk hunt day by day Recap. It may include semi live recaps depending on the availability of cell service in our area. This year my wife and I were each lucky enough to end up with a cow tag, my wife also has a 1st rifle season bull tag and I may pickup a second or third season bull tag. At a minimum we have 3 elk tags to try and fill this year. We have private land we can access as well as significant public land.
Throughout the summer we placed trail cams across the public lands we hunt as well as the private land we have access too. The two units we can hunt experienced significant rain fall this summer, with afternoon rain showers happening most days from June through mid August. With that we saw significant forage available across all of the two units. We have also seen a significant amount of water sources still supporting wildlife. Generally this time of year most of the watering holes have dried up and restricted the elk to drainages or private property that hold water year round. With all the extra water we have seen a much greater distribution of the elk herds over the landscape.
The rather wet summer has produced some very healthy elk herds and has allowed for, in my opinion, substantial antler growth on mature bulls. One of the things I have noticed though, is that with more range able to sustain elk into the fall, the herds are dispersed into smaller herds than in years past. In past years it was common to see a herd bull pushing 30+ cows in each of the drainages we focus on. This year however, we are seeing bulls with only 10-15 cows or less, but a lot more groups of then. Again I believe this to be due to a larger supporting range than normal for this time of year.
Late August was the last scouting trip we made before the chaos of school and youth events for our kids kicked in. On that trip we saw a bachelor group of about 15 bulls, nothing impressive but the majority of them legal for Colorado point restricted units. We also saw several herds of cows with 20-30 animals. Cow to calf ratio looked to be 5 to 1, not a very impressive calving season. We also pulled SD cards and replaced them with new ones.
After reviewing the cards we noticed that the elk frequenting our locations were significantly less in volume and frequency. In the 75 day stretch we only had maybe 20 days that resulted in an elk on camera. In years past we might have 20 days without an elk on camera. Very strange change indeed!
Welcome fellow hunt talk members! This thread will be my wife and I's elk hunt day by day Recap. It may include semi live recaps depending on the availability of cell service in our area. This year my wife and I were each lucky enough to end up with a cow tag, my wife also has a 1st rifle season bull tag and I may pickup a second or third season bull tag. At a minimum we have 3 elk tags to try and fill this year. We have private land we can access as well as significant public land.
Throughout the summer we placed trail cams across the public lands we hunt as well as the private land we have access too. The two units we can hunt experienced significant rain fall this summer, with afternoon rain showers happening most days from June through mid August. With that we saw significant forage available across all of the two units. We have also seen a significant amount of water sources still supporting wildlife. Generally this time of year most of the watering holes have dried up and restricted the elk to drainages or private property that hold water year round. With all the extra water we have seen a much greater distribution of the elk herds over the landscape.
The rather wet summer has produced some very healthy elk herds and has allowed for, in my opinion, substantial antler growth on mature bulls. One of the things I have noticed though, is that with more range able to sustain elk into the fall, the herds are dispersed into smaller herds than in years past. In past years it was common to see a herd bull pushing 30+ cows in each of the drainages we focus on. This year however, we are seeing bulls with only 10-15 cows or less, but a lot more groups of then. Again I believe this to be due to a larger supporting range than normal for this time of year.
Late August was the last scouting trip we made before the chaos of school and youth events for our kids kicked in. On that trip we saw a bachelor group of about 15 bulls, nothing impressive but the majority of them legal for Colorado point restricted units. We also saw several herds of cows with 20-30 animals. Cow to calf ratio looked to be 5 to 1, not a very impressive calving season. We also pulled SD cards and replaced them with new ones.
After reviewing the cards we noticed that the elk frequenting our locations were significantly less in volume and frequency. In the 75 day stretch we only had maybe 20 days that resulted in an elk on camera. In years past we might have 20 days without an elk on camera. Very strange change indeed!
