2023 Muzzy Recap

[HappyCamper]

Hey HT, here is the recap of my solo six day muzzy elk hunt I just returned from in the high desert. It was my first muzzy hunt, first time hunting out of my state, and first multiday/camp-out hunt I’ve done so lots was learned!

I purchased the tag off of a returned/unclaimed list 3 weeks prior to the season opening after deciding it was time to act upon my desire to hunt more states. My goal was to find a legal bull and learn how to hunt elk during the rut. Though success rates were extremely low in the unit, I knew the permit offered lots of opportunity (all public and limited hunters) and would give me a unique opportunity to hunt September with something other than a bow. One of the biggest struggles I faced was formulating a hunt plan given the vast amount of area and never having set foot in the state before. I contacted the resources I could and received a little guidance but I knew I was largely going in blind. I was told the elk population was only about 1-2 elk per 1,000 acres in the unit, all of which I could hunt. Additionally, I had a lot to figure out logistically and thankfully got the job and family responsibilities covered to allow for my getaway. I ultimately made the 1,100 mile trek and arrived at the only permitted camping area around 11pm the night before season after encountering many hurdles along the way. I got a whole 3 hours of sleep once I got my tent and camp situated.

 

[HappyCamper]

Day 1: (Sept. 9)

The day started way too early given the long haul down the day before but I was excited to get things started. A freeze-dried breakfast was remarkably unappetizing but I felt very optimistic on my drive from camp to the area I wanted to hunt after seeing a cow elk run across the road at 4:30 and finding no hunters parked in the area.

I hiked into a glassing knob I had e-scouted overlooking several potential water sources and located a cow and calf right as it became light.



This was reaffirming and evidence that switching from the cheapest optics available will pay off. The two elk quickly fed into a small patch of timber and the temperature quickly rose over 90 degrees. I glassed most of the morning with no results before I decided to explore the area a bit more to confirm water sources and locate sign. I located many mule deer, including a very quality buck (I know, no photo so it didn’t happen…) but had no other success locating elk. My day ended a bit early due to my inexperience knowing how much water I was going to need on me while hunting this climate. I used the opportunity to organize camp and break in my small blackstone with antelope brats and asparagus. I was severely beat from the heat and already questioning if I had made the right choice coming on the trip.

 

[HappyCamper]

Day 2

The day started very poorly as I had a headache from the heat the day before, was physically fatigued, and somewhat discouraged. I managed to eat another unappetizing breakfast and drove to a very remote area where research told me elk should be. When it became light enough to glass I was dumbstruck by how unprepared I had been for what the terrain actually was. What were described to me as canyons were actually an abyss that I would have to jump off a cliff to enter. Glassing only produced deer and I was now beginning to feel that finding the few numbers of elk on this unit would be impossible.



I left the area before deciding that I needed to commit to learning and hunting one area or else I would just be chasing my tail all week. I did a lot of driving day 2 which help me locate where there was and was not water (and elk sign), saw lots of antelope, and found a way to make the sheer amount of area condensed and manageable. I ended the day sitting over a water source with no action. Zero elk spotted on day 2 and the temperature again exceeded 90 degrees. I made it in my tent just as a 16+ hour rainstorm hit, totaling over an inch… The rainstorm would prevent me from preparing good meals on my grill for the next few meals, making me even more sick of the freeze-dried packages.

 

[HappyCamper]

Day 3:

The impact of a heavy rain in the desert was shocking to me and limited what I was able to do for the full morning. With the temps now in the 60s and the rain ceasing around 11:30 I decided to spend the midday glassing a basin I scouted the day before from a point about 500 yards from a road. I noticed a single, fresh bull track during the short walk to the knob and decided to follow it. Unfortunately, after I had tracked him for about 20 minutes he jumped out of his bed at about 50 yards in thick timber and I only got a brief glimpse of him (guessing he was a small raghorn). The fresh rain made tracking him easy so I followed him for approximately an hour before the rain resumed and I was forced to take cover.

As I waited out the rain I realized the wet ground would make tracking elk much more possible in this environment and that this bull wasn’t going to hold up anytime soon. I elected to trek across the basin to a timbered ridge I had located water sources near the day prior. I directed my attention to the timber directly above a drainage with a wallow that I had located a substantially large bull track in.

At 3:30, and only about 2.5 miles from the truck, I located a large, lone bull track right above the wallow drainage.



(taken several days later)

The track appeared very fresh based on the recent rainfall so I began tracking him very methodically. The track led me on an unusual, winding 1.5 miles before I located his bed, which happened to be about 1,000 feet from a different road and water source in a very well thought out location. I concluded this bull was notably cagey and obviously not rutting yet given he was alone and I had yet to hear any elk talk thus far on the trip. I continued to track the bull and located where he had dismantled a small tree and the surrounding shrubs.



His track then became frustrating difficult to follow and I learned just how mentally fatiguing tracking is without snow. I followed his track for another 2.5 miles in an almost figure 8 pattern at which time he appeared to join three other elk (tracks suggest 2 cows and a calf). I smelled elk on several occasions and the group was leaving fresh scat but I never heard any chatter and failed to catch up with them before dark. After easily putting in 5-6 miles of tracking on the bull, he never once went to water, stopped, or crossed clearings where a person could glass him.
I had to make a long, dark walk back to my truck where I discovered my need for a high-quality headlamp… between dodging cactus and having pounds of mud stick to my boots, the hike out was taxing. I made it to my vehicle shortly before 9pm and again had to go to bed without a good meal from the grill. A highlight from the evening was seeing these two bucks on the drive out.

 

[HappyCamper]

Day 4:

This morning I couldn’t bring myself to eat any of the food I had available but made it to a good glassing point by first light to overlook where I thought the bull from the night before may have ended up. I had zero luck finding any elk with my optics so I again crossed the basin to resume tracking the bull. The tracks led me to a large meadow that was impossible to track them through, leading me to wandering the timbered ridge looking for fresh tracks to follow. The drying ground proved challenging to distinguish between older and newer tracks but a bonus of all my wandering was finding this awesome set of antlers, located about 15 yards apart:



At about 2:30, I was tired from all the walking I had been doing with the added antler weight. I began working my way back to the truck to change plans for the night when I cut another large, solo bull track about a mile from a truck. I followed the track a short distance but spooked him before I was close enough to see him. Since my wind was good I gave a few cow calls which had no effect. I tracked him until making a pit stop to drop off the antlers and refill water before relocating his track. I tracked him for over two miles and through 5 major drainages which he showed zero sign of slowing. Based on finding other elk sign in the area and knowing of a nearby water source I decided to end the track and save the area for when I had more light the following day. I was surprised how the bulls I had jumped had fled so far, I had assumed they would rebed… The day was otherwise uneventful besides locating a small spike shed (a great gift for my two year old) and my first tarantula.

 

[HappyCamper]

Day 5:

After four days of hunting and only laying eyes on four elk I was optimistic that I was beginning to figure out how to hunt the area. I needed to glass more during the day when they appeared to me moving instead of chasing them. My morning glassing session again only located deer so I moved to a basin with many timbered ridges filtering into it. Though it was only a short distance from a main road, it was in the general direction the bull from yesterday had run. I found a good glassing spot around 10, settled into the shade to escape the heat, and soon heard my first distant bugle of the trip. I returned a few cow calls but am now convinced it may have been a hunter because between 1130 and noon I saw several elk flee out of a drainage I think it came from. First, I briefly saw a cow being followed by a small raghorn running almost full clip north across a drainage 1,000 yards away. They were almost exactly where I had jumped the first bull on day three. About 15 minutes later, I had two spikes run out of the same drainage west toward me. They first appeared about 250 yards away and were running at a decent clip before disappearing to my south at 140 yards. They likely ran several more drainages to the west. I heard a slightly closer bugle approximately 15 minutes later but had no other activity occur in the area over the next several hours. Thinking a hunter may have blown out the area I was glassing, I climbed to the opposite side of the ridge I was on to watch a water hole until dark.



The set up was perfect but there was no activity. I was very puzzled by the elk’s utter lack of movement during first and last light each day and was unsure how to proceed. I was all the more shocked when I heard a large animal jump out of its bed on my hike out in the dark. If someone can explain why an elk could potentially still be in his bed a half hour after dark that would be helpful!

Day 5 ended with a short conversation with locals in camp who had hunted the area for a decade. They reaffirmed the areas I had been hunting but shed some light on how elk numbers and sign was significantly down this year. They put the low success rate into perspective, having each killed one elk in ten years of hunting the unit.

 

[HappyCamper]

Day 6:

For my last day of the hunt I decided to try a ridge adjacent to the one I had located so much sign on. At first light I positioned myself over some water sources and open drainages but saw no critters. I heard two distant bugles around daybreak, at least one of which I know was a hunter. I would spend the rest of my day still hunting one small patch of timber I hadn’t touched yet and then driving to a different part of the unit I had never traveled to to decide whether this was an area I could try and hunt in the future. I located a lot more deer but but had no other luck.
This hunt had its ups and downs. Each day I felt I was finally figuring it out for a half day before being totally dumbfounded and unsure what to do. The elk behavior was wildly unusual in my opinion and the utter lack of rut activity was unfortunate. I never saw an elk go to water or being active during what I would consider prime time other than the cow and calf on opening morning. All of my cow calling throughout the trip elicited zero reaction despite knowing there were elk around.
I bit off a lot when buying this tag but learned a lot and enjoyed my experience. I am grateful for the elk success I have had in the past and definitely will be booking some out of state hunts again. If anyone can explain the struggles I encountered, please do!

 

[Dsnow9]

Day 4:

This morning I couldn’t bring myself to eat any of the food I had available but made it to a good glassing point by first light to overlook where I thought the bull from the night before may have ended up. I had zero luck finding any elk with my optics so I again crossed the basin to resume tracking the bull. The tracks led me to a large meadow that was impossible to track them through, leading me to wandering the timbered ridge looking for fresh tracks to follow. The drying ground proved challenging to distinguish between older and newer tracks but a bonus of all my wandering was finding this awesome set of antlers, located about 15 yards apart:

View attachment 292666

At about 2:30, I was tired from all the walking I had been doing with the added antler weight. I began working my way back to the truck to change plans for the night when I cut another large, solo bull track about a mile from a truck. I followed the track a short distance but spooked him before I was close enough to see him. Since my wind was good I gave a few cow calls which had no effect. I tracked him until making a pit stop to drop off the antlers and refill water before relocating his track. I tracked him for over two miles and through 5 major drainages which he showed zero sign of slowing. Based on finding other elk sign in the area and knowing of a nearby water source I decided to end the track and save the area for when I had more light the following day. I was surprised how the bulls I had jumped had fled so far, I had assumed they would rebed… The day was otherwise uneventful besides locating a small spike shed (a great gift for my two year old) and my first tarantula.

View attachment 292667

Looking good so far! Way to keep after it

 

[Caseknife]

Excellent write up of a great experience. Kind of thought it would with a bull, but that is how things go sometimes. I haven't hunted elk in the desert so can't give any insight as to why they were acting the way they did. You learned a lot, elk are good teachers even if you didn't understand the lecture

 

[Sask hunter]

Sounds like fun and the bulls were starting to cruise. Patience and cow calling might be the ticket