First let me say thanks for all of the information I have gathered from all of your posts.
Set out for my 2nd ever cow elk hunt in Nevada last week. It was a new unit for me and I put in a lot of time on Google Earth as well as this site and You Tube videos in preparation for the hunt. I made 1 scouting trip that was more of a windshield tour of the area to familiarize myself with the lay of the land. Learned a lot in the process and I had what I thought was a solid plan. The one thing I did not take into consideration was all of the information I had that said "if you want to get away from other hunters, this is not the zone for you".
My plan came unraveled the first morning when as I got to the road that would take me to my first area there were 4 sets of tail lights going up in the direction I had planned to go. No worries as I quickly adjusted and went another way. Drove to another area parked and waited for daylight. Ended up overlooking a beautiful valley with stands of trees and water however, a road that had an atv pass through about every 1/2 hour. No worries, climb the ridge and see what is on the other side. Another road.
Spent the next couple of days moving between glassing points and putting miles on boots away from roads. Saw some absolutely beautiful country that none of the road hunters would ever see and tons of wildlife. Saw over 30 Antelope 5 of which were bucks with one wall hanger in the group. Saw 20 mule deer. Watched a group of 4 bucks eating breakfast as they were moving towards their bed for the day. (a group of antelope snuck up on me while I was watching the bucks). One of the Mule deer bucks was an OLD guy and was grey as granite with a roman nose and at least a 4x4 and wider than his ears. Would have been a great deer had I been deer hunting.
In all I saw 30 Antelope, 20 Mule deer, 4 chipmunks, 2 garter snakes and 1 coyote but no elk. Only heard of one elk taken and one guy said he saw a bull elk.
I have to defer to a guy I saw on You Tube who said that the experience of the hunt is the reward and that filling a tag is only a bonus. I will eat tag soup on this one but am confident that I put in the hours before the hunt as well as hunted as hard as I could. I saw places that most of the other hunters there never saw or will see. I went places my coworkers will never go. I spent the evenings with my wife playing "Old Maid" and "Go Fish" and taking the dogs for walks. I slept in a warm camper and had hot meals. To me the experience and knowledge gained are worth the cost.
Set out for my 2nd ever cow elk hunt in Nevada last week. It was a new unit for me and I put in a lot of time on Google Earth as well as this site and You Tube videos in preparation for the hunt. I made 1 scouting trip that was more of a windshield tour of the area to familiarize myself with the lay of the land. Learned a lot in the process and I had what I thought was a solid plan. The one thing I did not take into consideration was all of the information I had that said "if you want to get away from other hunters, this is not the zone for you".
My plan came unraveled the first morning when as I got to the road that would take me to my first area there were 4 sets of tail lights going up in the direction I had planned to go. No worries as I quickly adjusted and went another way. Drove to another area parked and waited for daylight. Ended up overlooking a beautiful valley with stands of trees and water however, a road that had an atv pass through about every 1/2 hour. No worries, climb the ridge and see what is on the other side. Another road.
Spent the next couple of days moving between glassing points and putting miles on boots away from roads. Saw some absolutely beautiful country that none of the road hunters would ever see and tons of wildlife. Saw over 30 Antelope 5 of which were bucks with one wall hanger in the group. Saw 20 mule deer. Watched a group of 4 bucks eating breakfast as they were moving towards their bed for the day. (a group of antelope snuck up on me while I was watching the bucks). One of the Mule deer bucks was an OLD guy and was grey as granite with a roman nose and at least a 4x4 and wider than his ears. Would have been a great deer had I been deer hunting.
In all I saw 30 Antelope, 20 Mule deer, 4 chipmunks, 2 garter snakes and 1 coyote but no elk. Only heard of one elk taken and one guy said he saw a bull elk.
I have to defer to a guy I saw on You Tube who said that the experience of the hunt is the reward and that filling a tag is only a bonus. I will eat tag soup on this one but am confident that I put in the hours before the hunt as well as hunted as hard as I could. I saw places that most of the other hunters there never saw or will see. I went places my coworkers will never go. I spent the evenings with my wife playing "Old Maid" and "Go Fish" and taking the dogs for walks. I slept in a warm camper and had hot meals. To me the experience and knowledge gained are worth the cost.
